Page 21 of Supernova

“Kit, swap with me. I want to see what she’s got.” His raspy voice was calm. Of course he would want to test me straight away, I would never be so lucky as to just get through my first day without making a total fool of myself. But I was here now, here to train and learn, so I would just have to put on a brave face and give him all I had.

Kit laughed. “Alright, Griff.” She handed him the pads, swapping over to gloves for herself.

Carter butted in. “What the fuck, Gray? Ditching me for the girl already? That’s twice now.” Downton Abbey didn’t seem too happy about this—join the club. Apparently, Griffin was his usual sparring partner.

“You’ll live,” he replied dryly, his lips pulling up ever so slightly in amusement as he got into position across from me. Carter smirked at him.

“It’s alright, Car. I’ll bless you with my presence today,” Kit confidently proclaimed. He looked pleased as he threw his arm over her shoulder and they walked over to the ring together. Once they got over the ropes, I caught a glimpse of Kit lunging towards him before I returned my attention to the devastatingly handsome guy in front of me.

I got into position. “Gray?” I questioned as I threw the first punch. He blocked it effortlessly and jabbed back at me with the pad. He smiled as I weaved under his arm and went in with another punch. The realisation hit me. “Wait, you’re Griffin Gray, as in the Gray Knights?” I was shocked. He really didn’t seem to care much about anything and yet here he was, literally the descendant of the founders of this whole operation.

“Don’t act so surprised, Stone.” He held the syllable of my last name to prove a point: that I was also a legacy or whatever. “Thea is my mother. Theodore Gray is my grandfather. Your mum was trained by him, alongside my mum.” I hit him with another combo. “Me and you are not so different after all, are we, Apollo?” He jabbed across at me again. Keeping my gloves in front of me, I tilted my shoulder back to block it and then punched forward with my right arm. “They’d love for us to one day be running this place side by side, you and me.” He bounced back, giving me one of his signature winks and I had to admit my heart skipped a beat. Stupid backstabbing heart. Whose side was it on? And what was he suggesting? Was he implying being more than just comrades or was I reading into it too much? Mr Big Shot Player over here wanted to what? Settle down and lead the Knights together? Please, that would be the day.

Although deep down I didn’t think I’d mind if that day did ever come.

Get your shit together, Venus. You don’t know the guy and you literally just broke up with your boyfriend.

I felt like such a traitor, even though River clearly betrayed me first. Not to mention killed someone! If it wasn’t for me walking in on it all, I would have continued my life there like an ignorant little lovesick girl. I wouldn’t make that mistake again, from now on my shields had to stay up. No boys.

God, my life was messy.

I let what Griffin said sink in as we continued to spar. I was pretty happy with how well I was keeping up with him, although he was probably taking it super easy on me.

I just couldn’t fathom that Thea was his mother. I couldn’t fathom that she was anyone’s mother. She didn’t seem like she would have a maternal bone in her body and I could only wonder what type of childhood he must have had. Now that I thought about it though, they did have the same grey eyes. But Griffin’s hair was so dark compared to her almost-silver locks. He must have got the darker looks from his father.

“What about your dad?” I asked. “Is he one of the other officers?”

“My dad bailed when I was a kid. He couldn’t handle the Knights. He couldn’t handle my mum.” He didn’t seem to have any emotion in his voice as he admitted that to me but I still couldn’t help but feel for him.

“Oh.” I sighed, wishing I hadn’t pried. “I also grew up without a dad,” I offered—as if that made it any better.

“We’re like two peas in a pod.”

I gave him a small, sad smile.

“You’re quite good, you know.” He broke the silence first.

“Well thank God for that. I’m going to have no hope with anything else, so that’s a relief at least. My aunt trained us when I was younger. I kept up boxing as an outlet and form of exercise but didn’t really train in anything else after we moved to Saint Claire,” I explained.

“I could get used to watching you box.” He looked amused as I hit him with some faster one-twos in response, ignoring that flirty declaration. No boys.

“Who’s 'us'?” He enquired in between blocking. He moved so effortlessly—he definitely had to be taking it easy on me.

I tried not to focus on how good he looked, hair slightly falling into his eyes and sweat beading on his neck.

“My younger sister, Celeste.” My breath was getting heavier now as he upped the intensity at which he jabbed, keeping me on my toes.

“And she also didn’t know?” He was referring to us being hunters.

“She found out when I did.”

He nodded. “Let’s do some split jabs.”

We reset our position to start the drill. I could feel eyes watching us and when I took a quick second to look, Sienna’s eyes were boring into me. I didn’t have much time to react as Griffin threw his jab. I quickly slipped it and threw mine back at his opposite target pad.

“Good,” he replied as we continued like that, moving around the space. He set the rhythm, going faster and faster until we were both panting for air. We were so engrossed that all the people around us seemed to disappear and it was just him and I and our jagged breath.

We went through a few more drills until the hour was up. I managed to not land on my ass which felt like a major achievement considering my partner was Griffin fucking Gray.

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