The Silvia Saga: Boxset

Chapter 26

Chapter Twenty-Six

Dara

I awaken with a start from another dream of finding the stone. The dream was exactly the same as the other night. Will I have this dream every night until it happens in real life? I am not sure that I am ready yet. Something tells me that I need to be prepared sooner than I would like. My thoughts are interrupted by a knock on my door. Blair pokes his head in, asking if he can come in. I nod. I don’t get out of bed as I honestly can’t be bothered right now.

Blair comes over and sits on my bed. He fiddles with his hands and finally looks up at me. “I am sorry about my actions last night, Dara. It was out of character.”

“Sorry? Why would you be sorry? I’m sure you enjoyed it as much as I did. Correct me if I am wrong?” I ask, hoping that I am right. If not, ouch, that’s going to hurt.

He pauses for several long seconds. “Of course I enjoyed it, Dara. Jesus. I wouldn’t be straight if I hadn’t enjoyed it. I want to make sure you have no regrets. I wouldn’t want you to think that I took advantage of you because I really like you. Much more than a warrior-and-his-Princess love.”

Oh my, could my heart melt even more? “Oh, Blair, no, I didn’t think you were taking advantage of me. I loved every minute of it and hope that it doesn’t ruin our relationship. I would like to continue getting to know you more and build on what we started yesterday. What do you think? Will that be okay with you?” I ask, biting my lower lip. He leaves me sweating for a few seconds.

Finally, he breaks into a huge smile and speaks into my mind. I would love that, my princess.

My cheeks instantly heat from his approval. I so look forward to having some more one-on-one time with my sweet Blair.

He leans over and gently kisses my lips but quickly pulls away and walks to the door. Before he leaves, he turns to me. “By the way, Harlan is about to send out a search party for you. You will be training with him today,” he says as he shuts the door behind him.

Ah, fuck! The day I have been dreading is finally here. Training time with Harlan. This is going to be torture. The torture chamber is definitely getting its name back today. No way I’m going to enjoy any training with Harlan, well apart from watching him.

I lie in bed for another five minutes, not rushing to get up, loving the idea of Harlan sweating a little while longer. I finally move stretching out my body. It feels a lot better than it did last night. All of my energy is back. After taking my time in the shower, I finally make my way downstairs.

I am greeted by Harlan as soon as I step foot in the living room. His arms are crossed and he’s wearing a frown. Oh, great, here we go. I try to walk past him to the kitchen, but he blocks my path. I motion for him to start talking to get this over with already. This bitch is hungry and hasn’t had her coffee yet. He better be quick, and it better be worth it.

“You will be training with me today. Since you are already late, we need to start now. Let’s go,” he commands and starts walking toward the training room.

Is he for fucking real? Does he expect me to run after him like an obedient puppy dog?

He has another thing coming. Surely, he knows I don’t follow orders by now. I turn and move in the opposite direction toward the kitchen. There is no way I will be beginning the day without my breakfast and, of course, my coffee.

Jolie is still in the kitchen eating at the table. She looks up at me when I enter. She wears a shit-eating grin. I can’t hold in the smirk that forms on my lips. God, it feels good to disobey Harlan. It makes me feel all giddy inside, like a bad girl getting into trouble. It does turn me on just a little bit, but Harlan sure as hell doesn’t need to know that little piece of information. That is for my mind only.

I busy myself by making a coffee and grab an egg and bacon roll that’s sitting on the table. It appears Anna has been up cooking again this morning. Just as I sit at the table, someone comes storming into the kitchen. I don’t even have to look up to know who it is.

He clears his throat, begging me to look up at him. I don’t. I simply sit and continue enjoying my breakfast. He moves closer, getting right in my face. His hand comes out, taking hold of my jaw. He lifts my head to face his. I keep my eyes cast downwards, ignoring him.

He growls, “I gave you an order, Dara. You disobeyed me. Please just finish your breakfast and meet me in the training room. I will deal with your rule-breaking there.” He walks off without looking back to see if the message got through to me.

I won. He will think twice before messing with my morning fuel. I glance up, and Jolie stares me dead in the eye.

A cheeky grin is plastered over her face. “You, my girl, have a death wish. I think Harlan has met his match. Good luck to the both of you. May the best person win.”

“Oh, I will,” I respond.

I take my time cleaning up the kitchen, and after wasting as much time as I can, I head toward the training room. Here goes nothing. I lift my head high and enter.

Harlan is on the mat doing all kinds of kicks and punches, looking hot as fuck. Sweat rolls over his abs, and my thighs clench. I walk over toward him and stand on the edge of the mat, waiting for my instructions. Harlan ignores me, finishing off his routine.

Finally, he looks my way and purses his lips together. He walks over and stands in front of me. “Nice of you to join me, Dara.” He folds his arms across his sweaty chest, and I have to hold back the desire to reach out and run my hand over … stop it.

“All right, let’s not waste any more time, shall we?” He motions for me to join him on the mat. “First off, we need to warm up. I want you to run around the perimeter of the whole training room. Not just once, but five times,” Harlan orders.

I stand there, giving him the biggest death stare I can muster. I do not run. Ever.

Harlan puts his head in his hands in frustration. “Dara, I will not ask you again. If you want to save Silvia, you will do as you are told. Am I clear?” he snaps.

I don’t bother answering him. I just keep my head held high and start running. After two rounds, I am dying. My breathing comes in and out sounding like someone in heavy labour. My boobs are hurting as I don’t have a sports bra to wear, and the girls are bouncing around, going crazy, which is killing me.

Oliver walks in and he laughs at my expense. I stick my tongue out at him, and he blows me a kiss. Having Oliver here watching me gives me the motivation I need to finish the final three laps. As soon as I’m done, I collapse onto the mat, exhaustion coming over me.

All too quickly, Harlan’s body hovers over me, and I groan, covering my eyes with my arm.

“Get up, Dara. As I said, that was just the warm up. Now we are going to get into some routines. I want to teach you how to defend yourself.”

I curse under my breath.

Lifting myself up, I repeat in my head, “You’re doing this for Silvia. For Silvia, for Silvia, for Silvia. The future of Silvia lies on your shoulders. Don’t disappoint Silvia.”

Harlan spends the next several hours teaching me how to kick, punch, and defend myself. By the end of the session, I am pretty confident. I believe that I will be able to fight off anyone who tries to fuck with me. Well, at least I think I will. Harlan doesn’t even give me a ‘job well done’ or anything. He just says, “We are done for the day,” and storms off.

“What the fuck is your problem?” I yell out in frustration. He is such a jerk sometimes. No, not just sometimes, all the fucking time.

I take my time stretching out my muscles. They will be tender tomorrow. I glance up to find Jolie walking toward me.

“How did you go with Harlan? I bet you had a lot of fun,” she jokes.

I shake my head. “You have no idea. He’s such a jerk.”

She laughs. “Oh, Dara, you make me laugh. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you’re not done for the day—yet. We need to have a session to continue your teachings from yesterday. It’s important to do it all again to keep it fresh in your head.”

I really don’t mind training with Jolie. It’s fun. I love embracing and learning magic. I have only scratched the surface. I can’t wait to see what other cool shit I can do with my powers.

Jolie breaks into a huge smile, hearing my thoughts, and we head into the dome.

“We are going to do what you did yesterday and bring your power forward. But today, I want you to try and do something else. Rather than lifting the couch and throwing it, focus all of your powers onto this dummy figure here,” she says, pointing to the mannequin to the side of the dome. “Basically, I want you to destroy this dummy with your powers. Reckon you can handle that?”

This gets me all giddy and excited. “Yes, let’s nail this bitch,” I say, glaring at the poor thing that won’t look so crash hot once I am finished with her.

I position myself in front of the dummy. I start by relaxing my body and going to my happy place. My beautiful forest, Silvia, with unique, lilac-leafed trees and vibrant green grass. Once I am in my relaxed zone, I head deep within and find my purple sphere. This time it is even easier to gain access to the sphere. It’s becoming easier and easier to enter. My breathing evens out as I go into a meditative state. The room around us blurs and all that I can see is the dummy in front of me.

The barrier is not putting up as much fight as it did the first time. I am greeted with the beautiful blue smoke, which I mentally grab hold of and start to pull out of the sphere. I am met with a force once again, and it takes concentration and energy to bring the smoke forth. Finally, I manage to break it free, and it appears in my palms. I turn my attention to the dummy once more. I repeat what I did yesterday, releasing my power to the dummy.

The energy blasts past the dummy and heads straight toward Jolie, who is standing to the left. It all happens in slow motion. She screams, stepping out of the way. The force misses her by an inch, slamming into the wall behind her and leaving a huge hole in its wake. My magic drops instantly as I rush to Jolie who is on the ground.

My heart pounds against my chest. “Oh my god! Fuck! Jolie, I am so sorry. I have no idea why I missed and it went for you. Are you okay?” I ask, all in a blabby rush.

She puts her hand up, stopping me from talking any further. Taking a few deep breaths, she finally says, “Jesus, Dara, if you wanted to take me out, you could have stabbed me over breakfast. Luckily, I was paying attention and it didn’t hit me. Otherwise, there would have been hell to pay right now. You need to focus more on your target—don’t get distracted or this could happen again. The magic will go for something other than the real target,” she explains.

I am just relieved she is okay. This magic can do some serious damage if I’m not careful. Pull your shit together, Dara. I almost hurt my friend. You need to try harder.

I spend the rest of the day and far into the night practising the same thing over and over again until I think I have mastered it. There is no way I am going to bed until I get this right. I nearly hurt Jolie, and I can’t get the vision of her falling to the ground out of my head.