Page 100 of Blade of the Nightking

Resentfully, I nodded. I understood exactly what she meant. But actually doing it? That was something else entirely.

“Get up.”

I groaned dramatically instead, milking my windedness for all it was worth.

Segolayne let out an impatient breath through her nose and thrust a hand down toward me. “Gods above, Eidra.”

I grabbed her wrist. The moment she hauled me upward, I surged forward suddenly, throwing my full weight and momentum into her. It didn’t send her sprawling the way I’d hoped, but her footing faltered enough that she had to catch herself with a quick step backward.

Surprise flashed briefly across her face before it vanished. “Interesting,” she murmured, beginning to circle the mat again.

Trying not to look too pleased with myself, I reset my stance and followed her movements carefully. “What is?” I dared a taunt. “That I knocked you off balance?”

She scoffed. “No. That there appears to be a functioning mind hidden somewhere in that doe-eyed head of yours.” Her grin turned wolfish. “I was beginning to suspect otherwise.”

I lunged for her immediately out of sheer irritation. A mistake. Segolayne sidestepped effortlessly, caught my arm as I stumbled past her, and twisted. I crashed onto my hands and knees hard enough to rattle my teeth.

“Satisfied?” I wheezed up at her.

“Very,” Segolayne said, smirking down at me. “Enough playing. Time to work.”

Slowly, the sun rose, turning the chamber molten with light. The quartz veins glowing through the walls dimmed beneath the growing dawn while the Virellan Sea shifted from black to slate gray far below the cliffs.

Under different circumstances, it might have been beautiful.

I was far too miserable to appreciate any of it.

“Higher,” Segolayne barked.

I bit back a groan and forced my knees upward again as I ran another lap around the enormous chamber, my bare feet slapping against the polished stone. Sweat clung damply to the back of my neck and slid in slow trails down my spine, the thin shirt plastered to my skin.

“Stop dragging your feet.”

“I’m not⁠—”

“I said higher!”

I scowled at her as I passed. She only smirked and pointed down toward the floor. “Pushes.”

Not again. Every muscle in my body protested as I dropped onto my hands.

“What are you waiting for?”

I bent my elbows slowly, managing only the slightest dip before my arms began to shake. I straightened them with a strained grunt.

Again.

And again.

By the fifth, I could barely lower myself an inch, my arms feeling as though they might tear clean from my shoulders.

Segolayne remained entirely unsympathetic. “If you collapse after five again, I’ll be embarrassed for you.”

“I hate you,” I muttered through my teeth.

Segolayne laughed without a trace of remorse. “Good,” she said. “Again.”

The drills blurred together after that.