30
Kora
You want me to do what?”
Skylar flicked her long braid over her shoulder as she levelled her thin estoc sword in the air. After Kora’s chat with Raiden, she clambered into her fighting leathers and walked around the castle until she ended up outside those thick, towering doors Cassidy had disappeared through yesterday.
A Galenite mercenary attacked and Skylar fended him off, her sword parrying through the air effortlessly. Clashes of metal vibrated around Kora as she stood in the centre of a towering room, ending in a spiralled ceiling.
“I want you to train me,” Kora repeated, her hands clammy at the threat of muscle around her. The Galenites were fierce, their movements so refined and poised they made the Talmon soldiers look like toddlers.
Thick, white mats lining multiple fighting rings covered the sleek, mahogany hardwood floor.
Floor-to-ceiling windows dominated the far wall, basking the arena in warm, hazy light.
Stacks of intricate, unfamiliar weapons covered the right wall, and above in the spiral was a viewing platform, leading to an obstacle course that hung mid-air.
“Why would I . . .” Skylar lunged, pinning her opponent to the floor, “do that?”
Kora pointedly glanced at the pinned mercenary, twice Skylar’s size and strength, wheezing on the floor.
“You said my moves were predictable,” she added.
The mercenary got up and limped back to a group lingering at the edge of the ring, their eyes wide at Kora’s presence, their lips sneering at her scar.
Raiden was right, she needed to get stronger before she completed Zephyr’s deal.
She had less than six weeks now, nearly two days wasted in the infirmary.
Erick’s life depended on it.
The healers had advised Erick didn’t have long. He should’ve been dead already, but something was keeping him alive, keeping his heart beating, his lungs breathing. Kora’s own heart panged. The moment she was stronger and her magic was replenished, she’d heal him first, before seeking out Barron.
“They are predictable.” Skylar rolled her eyes. “It’s like you’ve learned nothing new.”
Footsteps approached, and Kora scowled as Raiden, Aerion, and Aryn came to a halt outside of their training ring. Aryn’s shoulder bumped Aerion’s, and his smile crinkled his eyes.
“Then teach me.” Kora’s hands squeezed her hips, giving them something to do other than throttle Skylar. “If I want any chance of defeating Barron, I need an edge.”
Skylar barked a laugh, her head tipping back. “A single mage is not the answer to this war. My father is toying with you, K.J.”
Kora winced as Skylar inhaled sharply, her cheeks blushing at the slip of the nickname. That sickening darkness taunted the back of her mind, wrapping down her spine like a vice. For a moment, she almost leant into it, using it as a blanket to cover her pain.
“Skylar,” Aerion stepped into the ring. “We’ve discussed this.”
Kora observed the weirdly similar siblings. The longer she stared, she thought tears welled in Skylar’s eyes, but within a blink her steely gaze returned.
“I don’t care what we discussed. That is Kordelia’s body, her soul.
Stuck behind a demon’s magic. We don’t know what she’s experiencing, trapped in some kind of cage.
You don’t really know that it’s not her.
This all could be an illusion to stop us.
” Skylar jerked her chin at Kora, gesturing to her entire body as the illusion.
Her skin prickled, as though she could feel this cage. Made of flesh and bone that once belonged to someone else. This body had experienced a life, experienced rage and joy before being ripped away and filled with a new being.
Kora’s head spun as the ever-present water beast growled at the darkness within, at the red haze patiently waiting to coax her into a frenzy of violence.
“She’s gone,” Raiden said, his thick arms folded, fingers gripping his arms. “His magic has destroyed her. We need to accept it and focus on what’s important, Skylar. The islands are at stake, everything we know will end in darkness.
They will return, for he is coming. And he will bring darkness so deep, no life will walk again.
Kora squirmed as Agatha’s voice recited through her mind. Had she meant Barron? Was his power this darkness? Was that what that shadow was, lined with eyes and claws, in Mistros City?
“I get it!” Skylar snapped. “Kordelia is . . . she lost her life that day he took her. Even though you somehow made your way back to us, you’re not the same. Can you forgive a girl for wanting her best friend back? For wanting everything to be how it was before the empire fucked it all up?”
Kora flinched as Skylar swiped her sword through the air, her eyes ablaze with grief. Realisation flooded Kora at what she’d been missing.
“Do you wish to mourn?” She approached Skylar cautiously. “We can . . . say goodbye, properly.” Kora also needed this. She needed to part from this life she’d so desperately sought, only for her hopes to be crushed by Barron, again.
Raiden’s eyes flared as Skylar wobbled before snapping her spine straight. “We mourned for ten years. All that’s lost now is hope.” She sheathed her sword before shouldering past Kora, purposely bumping into her as she fled the arena with as much grace as Samuel after drinking three kegs.
Aryn’s jaw clenched as he lingered behind Aerion. Raiden grunted something to his brother, before spearing Kora with his breathtaking eyes.
“We’ll train you, starting now.”
“There’s something else I want,” she countered.
Raiden raised a single brow. “Oh? Do tell us.”
“I want to know more about my past. If I’m not going to be able to remember the normal way, then at least tell me.” Kora raised her chin as all three males stared at her.
“K, I’m worried it could be used against you.
She could use the information against you.
The healers told me she’s capable of warping your reality.
That you told them you sometimes . . . see things.
” Aerion’s admission hung in the air, and Aryn’s neck cracked from shock.
Kora bristled, regretting revealing the murky memories to Sirona, and Altha, the head healer.
At the time, everything had been so confusing, so painful. The healer’s daily visits were the only constant, and in a moment of panic, she’d revealed that she wasn’t sure if they, too, were real. Not when her nightmares bled into reality.
Even now, Kordelia’s presence lurked. Little pockets of shadows coalesced in the ceiling, dripping down the walls as Kora’s hand twitched, her mind yelling at her to eliminate any threat.
That these males knowing her slowly evaporating control would result in her locked up in a dungeon like Hector wanted.
“Breathe, Huntress.” Raiden’s stare flickered to her tremoring hands as he breathed slowly.
Kora mimicked his breathing, only just noticing dark circles around his eyes.
Had he not been sleeping? His brown skin glowed, glistening with a light sheen of sweat, and his stance waned slightly, like standing upright was effort.
“I’m fine,” Kora responded blandly, ignoring the darkness dancing in the background. That’s not real. “I’m in control.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Aryn pouted. “We can help you.”
“There’s nothing to tell. I’m in control. Like Raiden said, Kordelia will eventually disappear in my mind. All I need is time.” Kora sighed. “Please. I need to know. I’m tired of not knowing.”
“I have an idea,” Raiden’s smile seized her, the darkness fading completely, and Kora nibbled her lip. “Every time you beat us in training, we’ll tell you something about your past.”
Kora waited for Aerion to object, but he simply smiled in return. “You have to be able to pin us for three seconds.”
“I’m sensing a disadvantage here,” Kora narrowed her eyes at them. Aryn chuckled and rotated his shoulders.
“Scared, Huntress?” Raiden taunted.
Kora took in the three males, and gulped as they advanced at the same time.
The first week of training had been gruelling.
Long hours spent sparring until Kora dragged herself to the infirmary to check on Erick.
She’d fallen asleep down there multiple times, waking the following morning with a blanket draped over her, assumably from Sirona as Erick’s main healer.
Whilst their conversations had been brief, Kora had been warming slowly—extremely slowly—to the wild healer, grateful for Sirona’s care of Erick.
Aryn had been her main opponent during their sessions, whilst Aerion and Raiden observed, making note of the empire’s core tactical techniques.
The longbow discarded, Aryn had been a fury of blades, surprising Kora when she instinctively knew how to react, her core thrumming with a strange warmness.
He was still her firefly in the darkness, a small golden spark that lit her way. Even when his strength superseded hers, when she was flat on her back from exhaustion, Aryn always picked her back up.
She hadn’t pinned him once. Not a single fucking time. Frustration continuously boiled beneath her skin that they were lording her past over her. Aerion had made it clear he thought it was a risk, and this way, he could manage the information she could glean.
Every time Aryn’s eyes had glowed golden, her stepping would falter, and her defences weakened as she struggled to comprehend his abilities.
He still hadn’t revealed them, and she noticed Raiden even seemed nervous when his eyes started to glow.
But Aerion . . . something within him lit up whenever Aryn was in motion.
Kora leapt as Aryn once again dove for her right side, his sharp dagger narrowly missing her flank. She panted as she ran around the ring, desperate to create space between them. Sweat soaked her leathers, and she’d already discarded her jacket as the sunset bathed the room in a hazy golden glow.
This was nothing like sparring with Blake.
These males knew she would never be able to pin them.