Chapter 15 #2
Bleeding moons. Not even the sight of the Demon King, shirtless and swaggering beside him, was enough to distract her.
They took the field, Lyriat shouting something she didn’t quite catch.
Everyone fell into lines and groupings, facing one another, their bodies poised.
With a word, chaos broke. It was much the same as Hedda and Faldir had grappled, but louder.
Wilder. Moving with rhythmic precision that complemented the actions of the warriors beside them and boggled her mind.
Brand commanded the space around him, dodging attacks, delivering hammering blows of his own. At one point, he locked horns with another and roared so loudly, so fiercely, that it carried above the din of mock battle like it was meant for her ears alone. Stars above, his face. The power. He was—
“Care to join in?”
Lunara yelped, her face crashing into the tree trunk. She choked back the beating of her heart as it spiked up into her throat, but there was no hope for the flush she knew was staining her cheeks.
Wonderful. Only thing worse than sneaking around is being caught doing it.
Hedda chuckled and stepped around to face her. “Why hide over here when you could be over there?”
How in the arsing stars… She was just with the rest of them!
It was too difficult to look directly at Hedda. It would make the embarrassment real. Instead, Lunara darted another glance over to the practice field as she collected herself, the blur of Demons moving with such fluidity that it made her dizzy. “No. I could assuredly not be over there.”
“Why not? All Sorcerit learn to fight. How else could they add it to the list of things to charge for?”
Lunara ignored the pang in her chest. “Not all of them,” she murmured.
You’re begging for it. You’re literally begging to be outed. For shite’s sake.
What were the odds that she would just be having the thought and then Hedda would come over to make her voice it?
She shook herself. “Anyway, I wouldn’t have what it takes to spar with the likes of them. I’d be trampled in a second.”
Hedda considered her for a moment before leaning against the tree and crossing her arms. “You know, you’re peculiar. Even for a Nachthellian.”
That got her attention.
She snapped her eyes to Hedda’s. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Hedda shrugged. “I’ve always thought Sorcerit were all a little off. Creepy.”
“Creepy!”
“You, more than most.”
Lunara recoiled. This was a dream, or a nightmare. Surely. Any minute she would wake up and not be having this nonsensical conversation.
“You Sorcerit with your glowy skin and shiny eyes. Fangs that don’t put themselves away when you’re not feeding.”
Still not waking up.
Was she actually trying to be rude?
“Don’t even get me started on the feeding thing, actually.” Hedda shuddered. “You drink blood for fun? Disgusting.”
For fun! What in the—
“Not to mention that you’re all attached to your spooky-arsed realm like a babe to its mother’s teat. Are you even allowed to be out under the sunstar this long?”
Lunara gritted her teeth as she dug her fingernails into her palms. “Why are you saying this?”
The vitriol stung. Hedda had been kind to her, grateful for Baldrir.
And she was probably thinking every one of these things while you were over here admiring her like an eejit.
“Because I can,” Hedda answered. “What are you going to do about it?”
You should smack her. Or un-heal her. Is that a thing?
Lunara drew in a ragged breath. “I’m not quite sure what you’re doing, but please stop.”
“‘Please stop?’” Hedda laughed. “Sisters, your parents taught you such good manners. Oh, wait.” She leaned in closer. “I forgot. Thad told us you don’t have any parents. My mistake.”
Something unhinged swept over Lunara. Fuming. Burning. Shattering. It clawed at her skin and screamed to be set free.
“What did you just say to me?” Her voice was hardly her own. A crackling rasp that held the fury flooding her body.
“Poor little orphan Lunara can’t even seem to use her ears correctly.”
Lunara couldn’t control herself. She lunged, her lips peeling back as she hissed, her fangs an inch from Hedda’s face.
The Demon grinned, a savage look of approval that stretched across her features as she gripped Lunara’s arms and gave her a good shake. “There it is. That is all you need, Sorcerit. The rest is just practice.”
The adrenaline pumping through her veins fizzled with Hedda’s flip in mood, turning her stomach. “What just happened.”
Hedda straightened and gave her a once-over. “Shite talking, to get your blood pumping. I wanted to see if you had it in you. You do.”
“Had what in me?”
“Rage.”
That one word lit a fire somewhere within her. A spark that had merely been waiting for kindling.
“We Demons use it to feed our power, to give it direction, but it can be a tool for anyone.” Hedda nodded, her eyes narrowing. “You have it in droves. I’m sorry for what I said. Truly. And for dragging it out of you so harshly, but I had to know for sure.”
Lunara was buzzing, her head too light. “Why?”
“Because I can’t train you without it.”
“Train me?”
“I know a look of longing when I see one.” She threw her hand up when Lunara opened her mouth to argue.
“I don’t need to know why you are probably the only Nachthellian I’ve ever heard of above the age of twenty who doesn’t already know how.
Though I am intrigued…” She raised a brow.
“No? Not yet? Ah, well. Fine. Someday. Besides, I have selfish motives for wanting it done.”
Maybe this is a dream. It’s the only explanation for how bizarre this is.
“Selfish motives?”
Hedda reached her arms up to re-knot her hair around her horns, eyes on the battlefield.
“Lyriat’s told me what he asked you to do.
The thing with my cousin, though, is that one idea tends to give him another.
Then another.” She loosed a heavy sigh. “Assumption, on my part, but it probably means you’ll be around for a while, whether you intend it or not. ”
Um. No. Absolutely, definitely, assuredly not. Montrealm, Westrealm, home. Within a week.
But… Hedda was promising her something she’d wanted for most of her life.
“What does that have to do with me fighting?”
“If your job is to help keep everyone safe, then you need to be able to do it in more ways than one. A healer is useless if she’s lying dead in the grass when the fighting is over.”
An excellent point.
No. Not an excellent point! Have you lost your mind? Besides, there isn’t time.
That did seem to be one glaring problem.
“How will I possibly learn anything of use in two days?”
Hedda smirked at her. Wily. “I’ve already aired my grievances with our king. He should’ve asked you from the start whether you had any capabilities in battle. Without them, you’re nothing more than a pretty liability.”
“How could you air grievances you didn’t know to have?” Lunara threw her hands up. “You had no idea whether I could fight or not.”
Hedda squared her body to Lunara’s and dropped into a ready stance. “Exhale forcefully and tighten your core.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m going to hit you.”
“You’re what!” she shrieked.
Hedda’s mumbled, “Good enough,” was the only warning before she slammed her fist into Lunara’s stomach.
The one that pummeled into her jaw next was just insult to injury.
Lunara’s feet left the ground as the force of it sent her backwards, the breath exploding from her lungs as she hit the needle-laden dirt.
Bleeding fucking moons! She’s insane!
She tried to suck air in, but her spasming body refused it. Not until she coughed enough to make her throat bleed. Her wheezing gasp only served to highlight the pits of agony that had opened up in her abdomen, her face.
Hedda straddled her writhing form and bent over her.
“People who know how to fight don’t walk with fear in every footstep.
” She gripped both of Lunara’s forearms and yanked her upright.
“They don’t announce their ineptitude with scrunched shoulders and wide-eyed looks of awe when someone else is doing it.
” Her hands were surprisingly gentle as they brushed Lunara down and steadied her.
“They don’t miss someone walking up behind them, or slam their faces into tree trunks because they were startled.
And they definitely don’t let someone get a second hit in, even when they are surprised by the first attack. ”
She has a point.
Oh, sure. Now she agreed with herself.
Apparently convinced that Lunara would not, in fact, be collapsing straight back down to the earth, Hedda released her. “We leave in a week. Caius already sent word to Glynmor that we’d be delayed, as of this morning.”
It was too soon for speaking. She might never be able to form words again.
All she could do was blink uselessly at Hedda, her arms curling around herself, convinced her guts would be spilling out any minute.
“And now,” Hedda said with a pat to her back, “you’ll be less scared when we get started this evening.
If you already know to your bones what it feels like to be punched in two of the worst places, that it isn’t so bad in the end, then you won’t concentrate so hard on avoiding it.
That only leads to other mistakes while you’re learning. ”
She walked away backwards. “Meet me here just after sundown. The others will be feasting down in the city, so there’ll be no one around to see me kick your arse.”
With a wink, Hedda spun and rejoined the fray on the practice field.
This is a mistake, halfwit. A gigantic, arse-brained mistake.
And yet, as air began to fill her lungs more smoothly and the pain dissipated—pain that wasn’t really all that different from what she endured repeatedly through her power—Lunara couldn’t bring herself to believe that.
How could it be a mistake when she was grinning from ear-to-ear?
Lunara still had the overwhelming urge to sneak. To jump from shadow to shadow to make sure no one saw her heading for the practice field.
She’d spent the rest of the day in her room. Pacing. Eating. Not eating. Trying to decide what in the shite one was meant to wear while learning the art of hand-to-hand combat. Arguing with herself over the wisdom of her recent choices.
Or lack thereof.
The fading pinks and fathomless purples of the gloaming were battling with the light of the twin moons. Their celestial bodies had just cleared the peaks of the Sacred Sisters—a natural wonder she’d never once thought to actually see with her own eyes—as if to bless her presence here.
Lunara cast a glance around, checking that there was no one nearby, and opened herself up to them.
With a sharp inhale, she closed her eyes and reached inside, her mind following the path to the well at her center. Its yawning void cried out when it sensed her there, dry, begging for a single sip of the power that would give it new life.
Fool! Why? Why risk it?
Because Lunara was tired of sitting at rock-bottom, the ground doing nothing at all to cushion her arse. Yes, she had to keep her secrets, but with a gut-punch and upper-cut, Hedda had opened a door.
Just a crack. Just enough to let a little light shine through. To tempt her to steal a peek through the gap and see what was behind it.
What she’d realized earlier, plodding back and forth and wearing a hole in the rug, was that she yearned. Longed to be more than she was, even within her self-imposed exile.
Doing this would give Lunara armor. She couldn’t show it to the world, but it would let her feel like there was something formidable about her.
Even while Hedda undoubtedly mopped the floor with her.
It would also combat the pain, to a degree. Give her something to fall back on. With more fuel for her spells, should she choose it, she’d be free to take the beatings and drills without having to worry that she had nothing left if something unexpected happened. If someone needed her.
Ironically, the thing she’d been running from was the one thing that could give her peace of mind.
At least, for now. For this.
The moonlight was a whisper. A caress. A wave that danced on her skin and invaded every inhale. She let herself swim in it, hoarding every word and touch and movement.
As she emptied her lungs on a slow exhale, it made room for the power to seep through. A trickle at first, like it was shy. Unsure whether she’d meant to let it in.
Another inhale. Out…
A deluge, sweeping in with staggering force to fill her empty places. Lunara planted her feet more firmly to the ground, clamping her lips against the whimper that tried to claw its way free. The well was greedy, taking and taking, gorging itself on the power she’d denied it.
Too much. It’s too much!
But she hadn’t felt this good in ages, this free. So close to satiated. So close…
No!
Lunara’s eyes snapped open on a gasp, like it was the first real breath of her life. Deep. Cleansing. New.
Power was a song in her veins. Pulsing, thrumming, throbbing power. The things she could do with it. Create. Stars above, it was as if she’d never seen color before. Had never smelled or tasted properly.
Eejit. It hasn’t been that long. Quit being dramatic. And stop glowing!
Lunara crossed her arms to hide glimmering hands, swallowing back the rest of the moons’ light until she was no longer illuminating the grass in a perfect circle around her.
Then, she laughed.