“Years of doing gymnastics, then everyone taught me once they started visiting,” she answered, taking another sip. I assumed byeveryone, she meant Tezya and his friends. I knew she was close with them.
“I don’t know what gymnastics means, but can you teach someone who has no experience?”
“I could,” she said. Her gray, opal eyes met mine. I honestly couldn’t decide what color they were as so many different shades swirled inside her irises and it seemed to change based off the lighting. It was unsettling for a human and so at odds with her brother’s solid brown coloring. I also hated that I was fascinated by them. That I kept staring at them whenever we talked. I didn’t gawk at Luxian eye coloring, but for some reason hers kept drawing my attention.
I shook my head. Who cares what color they were or the fact that when the sun was high in the sky I swore there were specks of lavender in them that seemed to reflect off her hair.
As much as I didn’t like her cockiness, she would be great for Vallie and Lilia. She was a human, a far cry from the Advenians that haunted Vallie, and if Lilia could learn her footwork, she could work on agility next, which was probably her only saving grace at this point. “Great—”
“I said Icould, not Iwould.” My smile faltered at her words. “Who do you want me to train?” she asked, draining the last drop of her coffee. I regretted not grabbing a cup myself because I desperately needed the fuel to get through this conversation.
“Vallie and Lilia.”
“Vallie,” she repeated the name. “The redhead your friend rescued that day?”
I nodded.
“Why are you helping her? You didn’t even want to rescue her.”
I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration. Why I thought she would help was beyond me. “I never said I didn’t want her rescued. I just didn’t want it to be at the expense of my friend’s life.”
“Uh-huh, and who else?”
“Lilia. Peter’s sister.”
“Hmm,” she huffed. “So you want me, ahuman, to help train twoAdvenians?”
I ground my teeth together at her mocking smirk. I didn’t say anything, my jaw kept working as she stared up at me triumphantly.
“Why do you needme?” she added into the silence.
“We need a girl to help,” I said because it was the obvious truth. Lilia technically was learning from Peter, just at a regressed rate, but Vallie was the real reason I was standing here right now. She was ready to start sparring, but would flinch anytime either of us got too close.
But her story wasn’t mine to tell so I wasn’t going to elaborate further, even though everyone in the camp knew what happened anyway. She was naked when Peter carried her through the portal. Bruises marred her throat, her arms, her wrists… And before Peter ripped off his own shirt to try to cover her body, everyone saw the bruises that marred her hips, inner thighs and everywhere in between. Everyone saw the way she flinched from every male in the camp. Everyone fucking knew.
“Okay, so why do you needme?” she asked again. I didn’t miss the glint in her eyes. Why was I asking a human over an Advenian for help? A human who was supposed to be so weak they died as fast as the leaves changed colors.
I honestly had no idea. I didn’t have an answer for her. I couldn’t comprehend why she was the first person I thought of.I knew Scotlind was out of the question, but I could have gone to Kallon. She would have agreed to help in an instant, saving me the headache.
“Because we need someone weak, someone Vallie won’t perceive as a threat.” It was a lie.
“No.” The glare she held was murderous as she stepped into my line of view. She crept into my space, her nose just barely brushing against mine. She was a fucking human. I could break her so easily, but the way she wasn’t scared of me, the way she didn’t run in the opposite direction, ignited me. Advenians fifty times stronger than her shook in my presence. Ever since the broadcast everyone was terrified of me. Everyonebuther. The girl was anything but weak, and I fucking hated her for it.
She started walking away. Her hair whipped me across the face and a scent of lavender and citrus invaded my senses. Why did she have to smell like the color of her hair? Why did it bother me? Why the fuck did I even notice?
“Wait,” I ground out, sucking in my pride for Peter. “Please help train her.”
“Okay.” She shrugged nonchalantly, taking a bite from an apple she must have kept hidden in her sweatshirt. “Since you asked so nicely.” She was always consuming some sort of food or drink and it irritated the hell out of me. I kept staring at her mouth as she twisted the apple in her hand, inspecting it, before biting down again. A splash of juice ran down her lips before her tongue darted out to catch it. “Say I help you, what’s in it for me?”
I groaned. “What do you want?”
She took her time swallowing the bite of apple as she slowly started walking toward me again. She was an inch from my face, pouting her lips and bringing a finger to the corner of her mouth before tapping it. It was like she knew I’d been staring at them this whole conversation… “Hmmm. What do I want?” she paused, taking her damn, sweet time. “I don’t know yet.”
“You don’t know yet?” I growled. “You made a fuss about wanting something and you don’t even know what you want?”
“It can be an ‘I owe you’ kind of thing,” she suggested. “Since I don’t know what I want from you, I’ll be allowed to think of it at any point, and you’ll have to agree.”
“You want me to say yes to something without having any idea what it is yet?” I narrowed my eyes at her. Humans were more conniving than I thought. I was half tempted to tell her to forget it. I didn’t think Vallie’s training was worth the trouble. I highly doubted she’d want to fight when the time came, but I knew I had to. Peter wouldn’t have hesitated to make the bargain for anyone if it meant he was helping Scottie or someone I cared about.
