Even now, the sway of her hips and the close-lipped smile tipping her mouth as she approached had Cedric adjusting his stance, all too aware of the effect that her very presence had on his...baser self.
He was suddenly also quite aware of the position he’d chosen and how very muchon displayhe was.
He cleared his throat. “How long were you watching me train?”
Elyria began walking in a slow circle around him, a predator circling prey. Cedric suppressed a shiver when she stopped behind him.
“Why? Looking for a proper tutor?” she said with a low laugh, her breath whispering against the back of his neck. She walked two fingers along the length of the staff, and though she wasn’t touching himdirectly, Cedric felt eachtap, tap, taplike she was prodding his very soul.
Felt it elsewhere too.
“I thought you might be working on a different kind of training anyway,” she said, finally circling to Cedric’s front. Her eyes darted over his shoulder to the practice dummy still blackened and broken on the ground. “Or perhaps I already missed it?”
Cedric ground his jaw. “I’m trying.”
“I see you didn’t bother taking me up on my suggestion to seek outside help.” She clucked her tongue. “Granted, Nox is hardly my favorite teacher, but the bastard does seem to know their stuff. I would bet good gold they’d be more than happy to provide you the same tutelage they’ve been giving me.”
Finally swinging the staff down from his shoulders, Cedric plunked one end into the dirt. “You’ve been taking nocterrian magic lessons?”
“They have significantly more experience wielding shadows than I do,” she replied with a shrug.
Cedric’s brow creased. “Is that true? I recall them declaring how powerful your magic is. How much can they really be teaching you?”
She stiffened. “When you spend all your time trying to bury your power instead of learning how to use it, there is abitof a steep curve to catch up.” She inclined her head at his token, her jeweled gaze raking over the rectangular stone hanging against his bare chest. “I would think you understood that now.”
The words might as well have been a slap across Cedric’s cheek, and he found himself leaning into the staff still gripped in his hand, like it might support the weight of his own magical failures.
Elyria must have seen the defeat in his eyes because she was quick to barrel on. “Perhaps you’re better off not looping Nox in on your mystical training,” she said breezily. “They can be rather tyrannical. They’ve been on my ass like a rabid volacarnii.”
If her plan was to distract Cedric from his doldrum-dwelling, it was working. “Volacarnii?”
“You didn’t come across one during the first trial?”
Cedric shook his head.
“Ah, well, Kit and I managed to miss them somehow too, thank the stars.” She plucked a practice sword from the nearby weapons rack andspun it in her hand. “Wicked, ferocious things.”
Cedric thought back to the myriad of vicious creatures that had nearly been his end during the Trial of Strength—the dragon, the grotesque pack of gnarlings, the first savage beast for which he had no name.
White-streaked black hide and a scythe-tipped tail filled Cedric’s mind, and he found himself wondering if that creature, the same one Zephyr had secretly taken the form of, had actually been a volacarnii.
He shuddered. “What do they look like?”
“It’s been decades since I’ve encountered one,” Elyria said casually. “They are quite rare, actually.” She swung the blade through the air, as if beginning a dance with an invisible enemy. “But imagine a mountain lion”—slash—“size it up to a smallish horse”—thrust—“give it wings and an extra set of razor-sharp teeth”—jab—“and that should give you a loose idea.”
Cedric blinked, unsure whether the way his mouth hung slightly open was due to watching Elyria’s gracefully lethal movements or from the horrifying description. “A horse-sized lion that canfly?”
She spun to face him once more. “I said asmallishhorse.”
“Well, consider me grateful to have avoided that particular horror in the Sanctum then. I think I’ll stick to dragons and fyre wyrms.”
Her cheeks flexed, and a swell of pride stirred inside Cedric. He really loved seeing her fight a smile. He especially loved it when he was the one making her do it. “So, what exactly has Nox so, er, demanding that you’d make that particular comparison?”
She hesitated. “They are determined I figure out how to shadowstep.”
“You can’t?”
“It’s a lot harder than it looks,” she said, raising the sword, its dulled point aimed at Cedric’s chest.
