I wave the thing above my head.
“Lucky ...” He crouches, watching me with a bemused expression. “But really, I should make you swim to the edge for leaving yourself so open.”
Something brushes against my foot.
“Hand!” I squeal, and he finally reaches out. I lunge forward, grasp his palm in mine, and curl my legs as he hauls me free of the frightening water and plonks me on the log.
I gulp air, sodden hair an anchor down my back.
Baze kneels, features hard, eyes frosty like the ground on a stark winter’s morning. “That was sloppy, Orlaith.”
“You almost left me for selkie bait,” I sputter.
He frowns. “You do that in a real battle and you’re dead. It won’t be a wooden sword smacking you in the ribs. It will be a very real, very metal one sliding through yourheart.”
“I know that.”
“Do you? Because this”—he gestures to me with a bat of his free hand—”is not the girl I’ve been training for the past five years. I know you’re still getting used to the new sword, but that was anovicemistake I haven’t seen you make since you were seventeen.”
I hate every word coming out of his mouth right now, mainly because they’re so painfully accurate.
Rolling my eyes, I pluck a piece of weed from my hair and lob it at the pond that’s now deadly still.
Toostill. I swear I can feel countless pairs of eyes assessing me as the wounded prey I certainly smell like.
“You’re awfully haughty for a man with a black eye,” I mutter, glancing toward my freshly planted willow, hunting for happiness in its shooting branches.
Nothing.
Baze pushes to a stand, casting me in the long line of his shadow. “This isn’t about me, Laith.”
“And my care factor is at an all-time low.”
“I can tell. Is it because you kissed the Ocean Drake?”
I turn so fast I almost lose my balance. “How do you kno—”
“Is that why you’re out of sorts?” he continues, brow so arched it’s almost hidden behind the mess of hazel hair hanging over his forehead. “It’s the tail, isn’t it? Or maybe his pretty scales? Some girls like shiny things.”
“You’re an ass,” I spit, cheeks burning.
“That’s not very nice,” he drones, wearing a frown that does nothing to hide the glimmer in his eyes. “I just saved your life.”
If looks could kill, he’d be selkie chow, and I’d be free to go check the nabber and gift Shay his first mousy meal in days.
“You’re the one who told Rhordyn, then?”
He shrugs. “Rhordyn doesn’t really need me to tell him anything.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Exactly that.” He gestures for me to stand, and I groan, pushing up, a little light-headed from blood loss and certain I’m about to slip straight back into the pond without the slightest bit of coercion. “Now,lefthand.”
My shoulders and heart drop in unison. “But you know that’s my weak one. And I’mbleeding.”
“Correct.” He jerks his chin, and I reluctantly trade hands. “Let’s pretend it’s from your arm and not your”—his gaze darts down, then up again as he clears his throat—”nether regions.”
I nearly drop my weapon and cost myself another chilly dip in the pond of death to retrieve it. “How about I stab you in the crotch so we’re equally disadvantaged—”
