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“I’m not important. I’m not a Weaver. My main task is to get the Heart to the Weavers. That’s done! From there, my only goal is to keep all of you alive and safe for as long as I possibly can.”
Hale shook his head and turned away from him, pacing a few steps in the opposite direction before turning back again. “You make it sound like you’re expendable.”
“I am.”
“You’re not. No one in this world is expendable. Every life is important.” Hale took a step closer to Harrison. “There are billions and billions of stars in the sky, but that doesn’t mean that each one isn’t important. When a star dies, the night sky changes around where it had been, feeling its loss. It’s not just the absence of light. The gravity changes, affecting the light of other stars and the path of other celestial bodies. The heavens themselves change when a star dies.”
Harrison’s lips parted, but no sound came out. He didn’t know what to say to Hale. No one had ever made him feel so significant. Yes, he’d always known that he played a key role in the saving of the world, but to him, that role had always been to die protecting the Weavers and the Heart. The idea of living being important in the grand scheme of things had never entered his brain.
He closed his mouth and cleared his throat. He needed to get them back on track and to ignore this ridiculous warmth that was trying to crawl up from the pit of his stomach. “Yes, well…the point is that your life is important. You need to learn to better protect yourself against the pestilents. At least, learn some more traditional fighting techniques until you’re better at using your powers.”
The young man’s expression crumpled a little and his shoulders slumped. “Yeah, I’ve never been much of a fighter. More of a lover than a fighter.”
A sigh escaped Harrison, and some of his irritation returned. That definitely sounded like Hale, but it was at least something he could help with.
The same thought must have crossed Hale’s mind because his face suddenly brightened into a wide grin. “But you know your way around a fight. You can give me some pointers, right? Turn me into a Bruce Lee badass in six easy lessons.”
Oh, good Lord. Badass was not in Hale’s future in six lessons or in six hundred. But if he could keep him alive until Sedona, that would just have to be enough.
“You’re going to need more than six lessons, but I can show you a few things. Tomorrow.”
“Ah, come on. Just a couple of things tonight. What if the pestilents attack again? I have to be able to protect you.”
It was on the tip of Harrison’s tongue to point out that Hale needed to figure out how to protect himself first before he went about protecting anyone else, but he let it go.
“Fine. Show me your fighting stance.”
With an enormous grin that ruined any attempts on Hale’s part to look frightening, he spread his legs slightly apart and lifted his fists in front of his chest. Harrison loudly sighed again. Good grief. Had this man never been in a fight in his life? Under normal circumstances, that would be a good thing, but it was not helping Hale right now.
“I thought you said you had older brothers. Didn’t you fight with your brothers?”
Hale shook his head. “Nope. I’m the baby. All my brothers are quite a bit older. They wrestled and fought with each other, but not with me.”
Harrison stood still, assessing the mess before he finally took a step toward Hale. “What hand are you dominant?”
“Right.”
“Okay, then right foot back, left foot forward. You want your body angled toward your opponent to make yourself a smaller target.” Harrison used his foot to lightly kick at Hale’s right shin. The man moved, but not nearly enough. Frowning, he placed his hands on Hale’s hips and physically shifted the man’s stance. A frisson of unexpected awareness rippled through him as the side of his hands caressed bare skin above the waistband of Hale’s gray sweat pants. He was so very warm despite the lingering chill in the air. Must be from the shower.
He released him and moved his eyes to Hale’s fists rather than meeting the man’s gaze. That was nothing. He didn’t feel anything. “Stand like this,” Harrison started, but he had to stop to clear the huskiness from his voice. “You need to make yourself hard to hit. Rest on the balls of your feet. Don’t plant. You need to be able to move quickly. Dodge the strike. Don’t stand and take it.”
“Got it. Stick and move,” Hale said cheerfully.
Harrison focused on Hale’s fists and nearly groaned again. Capturing one hand in both of his, he forced the fingers open and pulled Hale’s thumb outside. His fingers were beautifully long and slender. They were the kind of fingers that he expected to see on someone who played the piano. He could easily imagine them being incredibly nimble, dancing across the skin of his lover.
