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Almost smiling, she pointed at the weapon. “That was fucking easy.”
I folded my arms, feeling a little smug. “See. Use your legs more. Don’t rely on just your arms.”
“I understand.” She nodded, her smile vanished, and she collected the sword from the ground. “But I don’t think lifting a sword like that will help me chop off Oberon’s head.”
“One step at a time,” I told her. “Now do it again.”
I spent the rest of the morning taking Tessa through drills. She did everything I asked without complaint, even when it was clear her arms and legs began to ache. Most of the movements were focused on building her strength and showing her how to move in the most efficient way. After we’d been at it for several hours, her legs wobbled when I asked her to run from one end of the courtyard to the next with the sword strapped to her side.
She crashed to the ground on her way back to my side, her chest heaving and palms flat on the sand. “Stupid mortal body.”
I knelt beside her. “You pushed hard today, and you’ve done incredibly well. You need to eat and rest, and then we’ll do this again.”
She brushed her hair away from her pale, sweat-soaked face and nodded. “Tomorrow?”
I smiled. “I was going to suggest we wait a few days, but yes. If you want to do this again tomorrow, we will.”
“Tomorrow,” she insisted.
When we went back inside the castle, Tessa went straight for the Great Hall, where she piled her plate with eggs and bacon and bread and dug in without a word. She spent the rest of the afternoon with her sister and Val, wandering through the dusty library, looking for answers I didn’t think she would find, especially not in any of the books here. I’d read through the one she’d found on the gods, and there was nothing but basic information between the covers.
The next few days passed, each one the same as the one before. Tessa would knock on my door as soon as she woke, and we would spend hours training. She caught on quickly, growing stronger by the day. But that haunted look did not begin to fade.
The night before the funeral, I sat in my room alone, staring into the flames. Another round of scouts had returned with no word on Oberon’s location. It was starting to feel as if he’d escaped Aesir, though how I did not know. He would have needed a ship to survive the stormy seas, and we no longer had any of those here. Not since the war. The only way off this continent was through Sunport or…the Kingdom of Storms.
But someone would have seen him cross the border. I’d had warriors patrolling it for weeks.
A light knock sounded on my door. Frowning, I stood, muscles tensing. I didn’t expect anyone tonight. That could only mean one thing: bad news.
“Come in,” I said.
The door creaked open, and Tessa stuck her head inside. Instantly, I relaxed.
“I didn’t want to bother you, but I can’t sleep.”
“I’ll make good company then. I can’t sleep, either.” I tried to hide my relief at seeing her here. We’d spent every night alone since the attack. My bed felt cold and far too large, which was utterly ridiculous. I’d slept without company for well over three hundred years. Just one night with Tessa shouldn’t have changed everything. And yet…
With a timid nod, she came into the room and closed the door behind her. I tried not to stare, but her thin sleeping garment made that next to impossible. The light, see-through slip cut off at the middle of her thighs, and the little straps on her shoulders exposed the strength of her arms.
She noted the chair beside the hearth and the open book on the table near it. “How long have you been up?”
“I haven’t even been to bed yet.”
“It’s the middle of the night.” She started to move toward me, but then stopped, frowning. “Or is it? I find it hard to keep track here.”
“It’s late. One in the morning. I know it seems like it shouldn’t matter, but we try to keep a normal sleep schedule, just like I’m sure you did in Teine.” I stuffed my hands into my trouser pockets. “Why are you here, Tessa?”
She sighed. “The funeral is in the morning. I don’t want to be alone.”
Before I could offer her a seat beside the fire, she toed off her shoes and padded over to my bed. Silently, she slid beneath the covers and curled up on the left-hand side. Something in me softened at that. I pulled off my tunic and climbed in beside her.
Her soft hand slid around my waist. “Could you just hold me?”
I nodded and wrapped my arms around her. She gripped me tighter, burying her face in my chest, a sob choking from her throat. As the fire dimmed and the hours ticked by, I held her until, at long last, she finally found sleep.
Thirty-Eight
Tessa
