Chapter 35 #4
Her knee pinned my thigh. I rolled and she came with me.
Somebody outside the ward shouted Dax’s name, though I had no idea why.
Neseryn got her forearm across my throat.
I shoved against it. Her face hovered above mine, blood dripping from her mouth onto my cheek.
For one terrible second, our eyes locked.
That strange pull tightened beneath my ribs again.
Neseryn felt it. Recognition flashed across her face before she could hide it.
Then the ward detonated. A wall of force tore us apart.
I hit the stone flat on my back and slid several feet.
Neseryn struck the opposite side hard enough that the breath left her.
The instructor entered the court before either of us could recover. “That’s finished.” I pushed onto one elbow. Neseryn was already trying to stand. “Stay down,” he snapped.
Naturally, she did not. She got one boot beneath herself before another instructor caught her by the arm.
Neseryn jerked free. “I can walk.”
“Then walk to the healer.”
“I don’t need one.” Blood ran off her chin. The instructor stared at her.
Neseryn glanced down at herself. “Fine.”
I sat up slowly. Bad idea. The court tilted. Emrin was at the ward opening the moment the instructor released it. She crossed straight to me. “Don’t stand yet.”
“I wasn’t planning to.” That was a lie. She crouched and put two fingers carefully beneath my chin, turning my face toward the light. Her mouth tightened at the cut on my cheek. “It looks worse than it is,” I said.
“You can’t see it.”
“I can feel it.”
“That doesn’t help your argument.” I let her inspect me. Across the court, Neseryn had refused a cloth from one of the healers and was wiping blood off her mouth with the inside of her wrist. Dax stood several feet from her. I hadn’t noticed him come closer. His face was unusually hard.
Neseryn noticed him staring. “What?”
Dax’s eyes moved over her split lip, then toward me. “You always have to take it that far?”
Neseryn’s hand paused against her mouth. For the first time since the match ended, her attention shifted completely away from me. Neseryn looked him over, slow enough to be insulting. “I was under the impression that Lyra could speak for herself.”
“She can.”
“Then why are you still standing here?”
“Because I’m tired of watching you treat her like she personally ruined your life.”
Neseryn’s features tightened briefly. It was gone quickly. “She keeps getting back up.”
“That isn’t an invitation to keep putting her down.” I stared at him. That was more than I had expected from Dax, and apparently more than Neseryn had too.
Her gaze sharpened. “You seemed less concerned when she was hitting me.”
“You were enjoying that part.” A muscle moved in Neseryn’s jaw.
Dax glanced at the blood drying across her chin.
His attraction to Neseryn had never exactly been a secret, but neither was his irritation with her now.
He had spent weeks wanting a woman who seemed equally determined to be a complete pain in the ass.
Neseryn noticed everything. There was no world where she would not have seen that.
She stepped closer to him. Not enough to touch, but just enough to make it deliberate. “Careful, Balethorn.”
Dax’s eyes dropped briefly to her mouth before returning to her eyes. “I am.”
“No, you aren’t.” There was almost satisfaction in her voice.
He exhaled through his nose. “And there it is.” Her brows drew together. “The reason I keep wondering what the hell is wrong with me.”
A faint laugh escaped her. It had none of the breathless edge from the ring this time. This one was colder. “Whatever problem you’ve invented for yourself, leave me out of it.”
“Believe me, I’ve been trying.”
“Well try harder.”
Dax looked at her for a long second. Then he stopped trying.
“Gladly.” For the first time, the dismissal seemed to reach her.
Her eyes hardened before she turned away.
The healer who had been waiting with a folded cloth tried to hand it to her again.
This time Neseryn snatched it without comment and pressed it to her mouth.
Dax watched her walk toward the far side of the court. Then he muttered, “Unbelievable.”
I shifted on the stone. Pain caught beneath my ribs. “I thought you liked her.”
Dax looked at me. “I do.” The answer came without embarrassment.
He glanced toward the path Neseryn had taken.
“Doesn’t mean I enjoy watching her act like a vicious asshole every time she gets near you.
” Emrin’s brows lifted slightly. Dax ignored her.
“I can want her and still think she’s being a bitch. ”
I almost smiled. “That sounds exhausting.”
“You have no idea.” He looked back toward where Neseryn had disappeared, irritation settling over whatever else was there. “She won’t give me the time of day anyway, so apparently I’m suffering for nothing.”
Another healer reached me before I could say anything else. She was older than most of the instructors around the training courts, with iron-grey threaded through her hair and the look of someone who had seen too many overconfident candidates bleed on perfectly good stone. “Sit still.”
“I am sitting.”
“You’re talking. That usually means moving follows.
” I decided not to argue. Emrin shifted closer while the healer cleaned the cut on my cheek.
It stung sharply enough to make my eyes water, and when she pressed a cloth to my shoulder I hissed through my teeth.
“It is shallow,” she said. “Messy, but shallow.” The healer wrapped my shoulder tightly enough that I could feel my pulse under the bandage.
My cheek didn’t need stitching, though she warned me it would split again if I took another hit to the face.
I promised I had no immediate plans to do that.
She looked toward the blood streaked across Court Three.
“I’m sure.” When she finally let me stand, the dizziness came back for a second.
I waited it out without announcing it. Emrin noticed anyway.
Her hand hovered near my elbow until I steadied. “I’m okay.”
“You went pale.” Across the court, Neseryn was still standing near the healer, holding the cloth to her own mouth while the woman tried to inspect the damage.
Then she looked at me. The noise around us seemed to fall away again. Her eyes dropped to my hand. Mine did the same. The pull didn’t return, though I could still remember exactly how it had felt beneath my ribs. I closed my fingers.
Neseryn saw. Her mouth tightened. Then she looked away first. That bothered me more than if she had sneered.
The instructor called another pair into the court, and the benches shifted as people made room.
The spell of attention around our match broke quickly.
Candidates started talking again. Someone complained about missing lunch.
Another two were arguing over whose turn it was next.
Apparently two women trying to tear each other apart only held interest for so long. Emrin waited until we were out of the immediate crowd before she spoke. “What happened when she grabbed your hand?”
I glanced at her. Dax was a few steps ahead, distracted by someone calling his name from the next court. “You saw that?”
“Not the magic.” Relief moved through me so fast it almost made me lightheaded again.
“There wasn’t any.”
“I know.” Emrin’s voice stayed quiet. “That’s why I’m asking.”
I looked down at my palm. Dried blood filled the creases, mine tangled with Neseryn’s. “She touched me and this pull went through me.”
Emrin’s brow furrowed. “What does that mean?”
“I wish I knew.” I rubbed my thumb over the heel of my hand, even though I could still feel the sensation beneath the skin. “It wasn’t like my Shadow trying to get out. It was deeper than that. And she felt it too.”
That made Emrin stop walking. “You’re sure?”
“Yes.” I didn’t have to think about it. “I saw her face.” Emrin was quiet for a moment. “This time it wasn’t just my Shadow reacting to her. It happened to both of us.”
Emrin’s gaze moved back toward Court Three. Neseryn was gone now. “I don’t like that.”
“Neither do I.”
Dax rejoined us before she could say more. He looked between us. “What is going on with you two?”
Emrin stayed conspicuously silent. Dax narrowed his eyes. That was the problem with Emrin not lying. Her silence had become suspicious all on its own.
“Nothing.” I said.
“I’m going to pretend I believe that.”
“How generous of you.”
“You look like hell, so I’m feeling charitable.”
“Thank you, Dax.”
His attention dropped to my shoulder. “Seriously though, are you all right?”
“I’m not dying, so I guess that counts.”
“That wasn’t what I asked.”
I sighed. “My shoulder hurts. My face hurts. My ribs definitely hurt. I’m tired. That’s the complete medical report.”
He nodded as if filing it away. Then, after a pause, “And Lidia? Are things between you two okay?”
I looked at him. “Lidia is angry with me.”
“For what?”
“For keeping something from her.” He waited. I didn’t continue.
Dax glanced at Emrin for support. She offered none. Eventually he nodded. “Fine. I get it. Girl code.”
“It isn’t girl code,” I said.
Dax glanced between us again, saw that neither of us intended to explain, and apparently decided he had already spent enough of his afternoon arguing with difficult women. “Whatever it is, I’m staying out of it.”
“For once,” Emrin said.
He looked offended, but before he could answer, someone from the Verdant court called his name again. Dax pointed at me as he backed away. “Go rest. Preferably somewhere no one is trying to break your face.”