My fractured brain coughed up the fact that the Guild bought younglings and trained them to kill for hire. Most didn’t survive the experience. I hadn’t known that about the blue Dragon. It painted him in an entirely new light.
And yet again, I remembered useless details, but nothing about my former life. Tyrez’s gaze fastened on me for just an instant as the students assembled in a loose group in front of theinstructors. I noticed a pile of wooden practice swords off to one side. Maybe they’d be more my speed. Cara had said the sword had chosen me—but it remained to be seen if I was truly worthy of such a weapon. For all I knew, pulling it out of the scabbard was all I could do.
That, and using its magic to suspend water.
“We have a couple of new students that we will be testing today, but the remainder can select your weapons and pair up for practice.” Tyrez’s deep voice easily carried over those assembled.
Students formed up in pairs and moved to the pile of wooden swords. Nar slapped his across Leah’s butt, and she giggled, before poking the tip of hers into a delicate place. Sid lined up with Adilyn, but the practice weapon looked ridiculously tiny in his massive fist.
While Tyrez, Talakai, and Cody moved through the pairs, correcting stance and technique, the red Dragona approached Breana and me. Her every movement spoke to the steel running beneath the near-perfect proportions and beautiful features. She had a sword slung over her back, but held two wooden ones.
“Hello.” Her assessing gaze ran over us. “You two must be Bree and Riggs. I am going to run you guys through a few exercises, just to see where you are at.” She handed Bree a wooden sword, and asked, “Have either of you had weapons training?”
Breana rescued me by saying, “Centaurs are trained from a young age. I’m better with a short sword. Never quite mastered the backswing on the axe. And I’ve had minimal experience doing it with only two legs. I’m still clumsy.”
To my relief, Aria didn’t extend the question to me, which told me that she was in on my secret. Instead, she squared up with Bree. “Centaurs use their power and weight behind their weapons, and that will be different now. You’ll need morefinesse. So show me what you’ve got, and we’ll work on it. Go slow, this isn’t a race.”
The two of them began trading blows. Although she handled her practice weapon well, Breana had problems with footwork, which Aria patiently helped her with. I could well imagine that going from four legs to two would throw one’s aim.
Meanwhile, I discovered that two gorgeous women fighting, even with just wooden swords, was arousing as heck. Even though adjusting to being on two legs slowed her down, Breana moved like a trained warrior, graceful and potentially lethal.
Or maybe I just liked watching Breana.
Either way, I ended up wrenching my gaze off her because facing Aria with a raging boner was an extra dynamic I didn’t need. Instead, I surveyed the students, judging who moved with fluidity, and who would be better off taking up swimming as a hobby.
Which included Nar, definitely.
Long before I was ready, Aria stepped back from Breana. “Excellent, Bree. Once you’ve adjusted to the two-leg thing, you’ll be graduating to a real weapon. It won’t take long, either.”
She turned to me and tossed the wooden sword aside. “Let’s see what you can do, Riggs.”
I looked down at the practice weapon. “Shouldn’t we use those?”
“I’ve heard a lot about that sword.” Aria looked at my blade. “So I have to see it in action.”
Whoa, she was one up on me. I still hadn’t completed thewhat in the heck is this swordconversation with Cara. I swallowed as the Dragona drew her own—it gleamed in the sunlight. I wanted to protest that I didn’t know if I could wield the sword at all, but it would completely blow my cover.
She seemed to sense my dilemma. “You need to know this, too, Riggs. And there’s only one way to do it. You won’t befighting a battle with wood.” Her amber gaze met mine. “And I can take whatever you thrust at me.”
I swallowed. Wood? Thrust? Were we still talking about fighting with swords? I certainly hoped so. Because as beautiful as she was, she was mated—and she wasn’t Breana. Not that it was much better if she was talking about fighting—when it came to this sword, there was nothing but questions.
I settled for pulling it free, and Aria’s eyes widened as the runes danced along the blade.
“That’s some sword,” she breathed.
“Yeah.” Insecurity flooded through me. Now that it was out, I had no idea what to do with it.
She seemed to sense my problem. But instead of coaching me into a preparatory stance, she came at me like a red-scaled whirlwind, her blade scything through the air.
And, somehow, mine met it. The clash of metal rang across the field as she just kept coming, never giving me a moment to think.
My body knew what to do. I fell into almost a trance, the sword so perfectly balanced it was like an extension of my arm. I was aware of students stopping to watch as we moved through them, a spinning vortex of flashing blades.
At one point, as I twisted away from a strike that came closer to nailing me than I’d like to admit, I realized I was grinning. My entire body was consumed by a fierce kind of joy, as though I’d been born to this.
Maybe I had been. I couldn’t remember.
But little by little, my blows were getting closer to nailing her. When Aria pulled back, she was breathing hard, but her entire face was alight.
