Page 49 of Tailwind

The second Omar was out of sight and earshot I punched Theo in the arm. Mostly for his attempt to embarrass me, but I also needed somewhere to direct my anxiety over people missing Thorne.

‘Ah! What was that for?’ He rubbed his bicep, his face more wounded than his arm.

‘What do you think, asshole?’ I hissed through my teeth at him. ‘Go get a weapon to defend yourself, because that’s not the last of it either. If you’re going to piss me off like this then let’s at least make the most of it.’

The faux pouting evaporated, replaced instead by a spark in Theo’s eyes. ‘Time to spar?’

‘Yes.’ I was going to make him suffer.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

‘I’m going to enjoy this,’ I said as I twirled the haft of the axe in my hand.

It wasn’t a true Volitant weapon – the handle was still bronze, but it had its own arcanite for power. More importantly, the axehead wouldn’t burn through its victim, but simply leave a light tingle on the skin.

Still, if I swung it hard enough it would hurt.

Theo walked around me in a lazy circle. His own weapon of choice, a longsword, shone loose in his hand. Both of the weapons lit up in the opaline pink of a neutral piece of arcanite. No team colours here except for our gym clothes.

‘It’s nice to know you’re back to treasuring our time together, Paldon.’ His voice dripped with sarcasm, practically drooling to start the fight. ‘You know you didn’t have to queue with my fans to speak to me again, right?’

My jaw clenched. I kept his eye contact, content to watch his feet in my peripheral vision. He was trying to rile me up because he knew I had the upper hand. I smiled, not letting him win the fight before it had begun.

‘It’s hard to be around someone when they take up all the air in the room with their oversized ego. I give it about ten minutes before I start to suffocate in this carriage.’

‘I’ll crack a window for you.’ He winked.

‘I’ll crack your skull for you.’ I gave him my most unhinged smile and looked at the small scar above his right eye. It wouldn’t be an accident this time either.

He moved. In the split second my eyes had looked at his forehead he’d closed the gap between us and brought up his sword. No longer was he relaxed and lazy. His grip on the sword was near perfect.

A shame for him that my instincts had always been better.

I brought my axe up to knock the sword away and kicked out, hooking my foot behind his knee. He stumbled, catching himself before hitting the floor and spun around to face me again.

He blew upwards, sending a couple of curls dancing away from his face. ‘I was just making sure you were paying attention.’

‘Yeah, sure.’ I stood side on and gripped my axe. ‘Let’s see how distracted you are.’

I ran forwards and swung wide, using my body as leverage. His sword blade met my axehead, but power won over dexterity in an attack like this. He did enough to throw me off my target though. Instead of his ribs, I hit his shoulder.

Still, I’d won the first mark of the day, even with the after-effects of the shockstick still slowing me down.

I kept it up. Over and over I swung at him, a barrage of moves that didn’t give him time to adjust his position or counter with any finesse. Theo was a thinker. He liked to spend time to plan his moves both in and out of racing. It’s why he was faster in tricky corners, but slow against unpredictable arcans.

I was the opposite. No thoughts, only axe.

Then I felt a dull tingle against my thigh. Frozen, I looked down. Theo’s blade rested against my leg. I thought he’d twisted away from my attacks to recover, but instead he’d gone for a move outside my eyeline.

‘You bastard.’ I could only stare at it.

He’d improved.

‘You’re surprised?’ he asked, incredulous. ‘Did you really think I’d make the same mistakes I did as a teenager?’

I tore my eyes away from where I’d been hit and looked up at him, scowling.

‘You did.’ He laughed, relaxing back into a starting stance. ‘Nice to know your expectations for me are on the floor.’