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Forever.
I pushed the thought away. All it did was stoke the storm already rumbling in my belly.
“Your tomorrows are not assured either.” I turned to Nikolai. “I see the way you look at Vrail. And the way you oftendon’tlook at her. Why not tell her?”
Nikolai let out a deep breath and rested his neck on the back of his chair. His fingers found the stretched strand of hair over his brow and he tugged on it.
His brown eyes swirled with worry, trying to find the right words to answer my question. My shoulders fell, realizing his worry wasn’t for him but for Vrail.
“Because she’s your compass?” I answered for him.
A mix of joy and fear crept over Nikolai’s face. He reminded me of one of the baby birds perched outside my burl preparing himself to jump off and trust his wings. A cautious smile tugged at his lips.
“I hope so.” His eyes glazed over and I knew he was remembering the way Vrail had carried the pile of books out of the room. He shook himself free of the memory and stood. “But she deserves thetime to draw her own map.” He held out his own hand for me to grab. “And I will wait for however long that takes.”
“Straighten your stance, Fyrel!” Gerarda shouted from the sideline of the training grounds. A crowd of Elverin, mostly Shades, stood around the perimeter of the field five bodies deep. Everyone wanted to see the spectacle Feron and Syrra had devised to help me train my magic. It would be vital to tear through Damien’s soldiers at the next seal.
Fyrel swung again with her long, curved blade. I jumped over it easily but when I landed, the ground started to shake. I only had a moment to roll along the grass before Feron shot a pillar of earth forty feet into the sky.
That only brought me closer to Vrail who had a large mallet in each hand. She swung and I dodged. She swung the other and I bent my body backward, watching the hammer graze the air just over my nose. A spout of hot flame exploded beside my ear. My skin bubbled as I waved my hand and doused the fire with my magic.
I glared at Lash’s smug face beside Feron’s. “Just because I can heal doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt!”
He crossed his gigantic arms. “If you were more instinctual with your magic the flames wouldn’t have lived long enough to burn you.”
Vrail slammed the mallet down between my legs and I twisted my calf around her shoulder, throwing her to the ground. “Instinctual,” I muttered under my breath. “You’ve had three thousand years of practice and I’ve had three weeks.”
I tried to put some distance between Vrail and I, ducking Fyrel’s swing that narrowly missed my head. I sent a gust of wind into her chest and she fell to the ground.
I caught my breath and readied my sword but Feron lifted a single hand and eight pillars of earth penned me in on all sides. In the gaps between them, Lash ignited fires that raged over my head, making my brow sweat. I closed my eyes and focused on the scorching power that flickered under my skin. I smoothed it out in my mind, like taking a pot from a boil to a manageable simmer. The flames turned to red embers on the ground and I stepped through the pillars.
But Riven was there to meet me with his shadows. He blanketed the entire field in his darkness as the crowd gasped.
I couldn’t see anything. I reached out, trying to grasp a tendril of shadow, but nothing slipped through my fingers.
Something knocked into me and I fell to my knees. I focused on the beat of Riven’s heart and heard him circling around me in slow, silent steps. I matched the rhythm of his breaths to mine and used that as my anchor. I imagined each of his steps, mapping out our distance as his heartbeat thumped beside me.
I felt the softest breath of movement to my left and pounced.
The whirlwind that had been building inside my chest roared. Sweat pooled along my brow as I fought to keep control, pulling the air from Riven’s lungs. Slow and careful, not pulling so hard to hurt him, but enough that his power faded.
The shadows around me turned to gray fog. Riven’s black figure was kneeling on the ground across the field.
I pounced, pinning him to the grass.
“Got you,” I whispered, unable to hold back my smug grin.
But Riven only grinned back as a sharp jab pressed between my shoulder blades.
“And I got you.” Vrail pulled back on her short sword and smiled triumphantly at Syrra and Gerarda. They both nodded with approval, which only sent Vrail into a frenzied dance across the grass.
I sighed and rolled off Riven in defeat. Fyrel brought me a waterskin and helped me off the ground. “I should have had you,” she said. “Twice.”
I patted Fyrel’s shoulder. “You will in time. I reckon you’re good enough to best Gerarda.”
Gerarda rolled her eyes. “We will work on some more advanced footwork tomorrow. Then you’ll run circles around Keera.”
Fyrel beamed and ran back to her friends in the parting crowd.
