“Want to spar?”
And so they ended up down in the Moon Garden once again. It was a little unsettling to be back there, where they had once arrived with Jerah’s body—Florian kept his gaze away from the spot where they had knelt with him, and Kade seemed to want to avoid that part of the courtyard as well. They stayed near its perimeter, where it met the stone path that led out and into the rest of the gardens.
The practice sword in Florian’s hands was familiar—it had really only been a few weeks since they’d last been here sparring, barely over a month. It felt like much longer.
“Ready?” Kade asked, stretching his arms in front of his chest. Florian held his practice sword in front of him in a defensive stance and nodded. When Kade swung at him, it was with far less force than he expected. They exchanged blows almost idly at first, each swinging slow enough that the other could easily knock the strike away, pacing around the courtyard as they did.
“This is hardly practice,” Florian teased. Something glinted in Kade’s eyes at the goading remark, a slight hint of the competitive spirit that he had only occasionally seen from Kade.
“I’m going easy on you,” Kade answered, and his next swing had more force behind it.
Their practice slowly escalated until Florian realized how hard and fast they were swinging at each other, and now he was barely managing to keep Kade from hitting him—an accomplishment that made him grin when it registered, but was distracting enough that his next upswing was too slow. Finally, Kade’s practice sword smacked into his bicep.
“Gotcha,” he teased, and Florian laughed, idly rubbing the spot where the sword had hit. It stung a little, but he was getting more and more used to it now.
They sparred for a little longer, finally stopping to take a break when they were both sweaty and breathing hard.
“You know,” Florian panted, sitting cross-legged on the stone floor. “I had hoped to spend most of this timerelaxing.”
“This is relaxing,” Kade shrugged. Florian laughed, shaking his head, but not bothering to respond. They both sat there catching their breath for a long while, until finally Kade said, “I was thinking about those panther creatures from before.”
Florian’s heart all but plummeted; he had been able to mostly stop thinking about the Blighted shifters, but the mention of them brought up all the guilt and discomfort that he had regarding their whole terrible trip all over again.
“What about them?” he asked, trying to keep his tone as light and casual as possible.
“Well,” Kade said, and he scrubbed a hand through his hair. “I was thinking about how when you shifted into your wolf form, you had to touch me first. And you touched those panther shifters, so... I wonder if you could shift into a panther now, too.”
Florian bit his lip, considering. The thought had crossed his mind before: both with the panther shifter and the strange mountain lion-like beasts that they had encountered on their first trip into the Blight. He had thought it might be possible, but hadn’t tried.
“Maybe,” he said, shrugging. “But does it matter? I’ll just use my wolf form if I need to.”
“Sure,” Kade replied. “I just thought it might be good to know if you could do it at all.”
“You think I should try it?”
“I just think it would be good to know for sure.”
“Hmm,” Florian let the noncommittal sound escape him. Maybe it would be good to know, but... “I think I’d... rather not know.”
Kade blinked, looking at him with an uncertain expression. For a moment they were both silent, then slowly Kade nodded. “Okay. I understand.”
“Maybe some other time,” Florian added quickly, looking away. “Just... not yet. I don’t know. I’m still trying not to... not to think about all that.”
“Sorry I brought it up, then,” Kade answered softly.
“It’s okay,” Florian said. “Really. It’s fine.”
They were both quiet for a moment longer, and Florian wondered what had brought on the conversation. He glanced at Kade, but the other man was looking up toward the sky, clearly thinking it over as well.
“Sometimes I think it would be nice to be able to shift to something else,” Kade said abruptly, still looking up at the sky. “To be able to fly like the dragon shifters do, or breathe underwater like the krakens... Being a wolf seems boring in comparison sometimes, you know?”
Florian blinked, surprised at the admission. It wasn’t so strange, he thought, but the idea hadn’t occurred to him that shifters might be jealous of each other.
“I mean, I could probably make us fly or breathe water,” Florian blurted, and Kade let out a breathy huff of a laugh. “I’m serious! I think I could. It’s all fae magic, right? Why wouldn’t it work?”
“You could,” Kade agreed, his thoughtful expression now replaced with an indulgent smile. “But it would be like holding the shroud. The more people you’re keeping with you, the harder it would be. And it wouldn’t be a constant thing. But it’s fine. That’s not what I was trying to say.”
“I know.”
