Page 18 of Shattered Darkness

Cain sighs, “I’m really sorry. I’d tell you everything if I could, but the Fates don’t work that way.”

I sigh and scrub a hand over my face, “Right, okay then, can you tell us what exactly you’re here helping us with?”

“Yes, that I can tell you. For now, I’m here to help train you since the teachers here have lost their damn minds, although I am aware that it’s not entirely their fault. If they were more careful, then it wouldn’t have happened in the first place, but then again, the Fates deemed it, so it had to happen one way or another,” the rant seems to catch not only us but him off guard too, because he takes a deep breath, pinches his nose and says, “anyway, I digress. I am also here to help you keep an eye on the teachers and headmaster here so that you have forewarning before anything happens and also hopefully so we can find the object that’s being used to control them.”

Jett speaks up, “So there is definitely something that is controlling them? It isn’t someone doing it?”

“Well, it is kind of. Kronos is doing it through the object,” Cain confirms, his top lip curling with distaste as shadows cross his eyes and his power level rises sharply before dipping again so quickly that I’m not sure I imagined it.

I glance at the others, but no one else seems to have noticed the substantial spike, so I don’t bring it up now, but I am definitely going to be keeping a close eye on him. I have no idea what kind of supe he is, I don’t even have a vague clue, and that power spike was crazy strong.

“Well, I guess the only thing left to do is get back to training?” Erin questions when everything stays quiet.

“How do you want to go forward with the training?” Levi asks Cain.

“You seemed to have a pretty good setup. I’d like to see where you all are since I haven’t taught you all yet, so I need to get an idea of where you all are and how I can help you improve,” Cain suggests.

My head is still reeling, I’m not going to deny it, but really, there’s very little that I can do. He’s here, and it is great to see him, but so soon after learning that my parents weren’t actually my parents, it is a little bit too much. For now, I just want to spar, and I’m sure that I’ll come back to it and ask all the questions that I can later.

“That sounds good,” Levi agrees and then turns to look at all of us, “is everyone okay with that?” Everyone nods their agreement, and Levi adds, “Good, as you were then.”

“Actually, I’d like to see where Sage’s sword skills are now if that’s okay?” Cain says, and when he turns to look at me, there’s a hint of challenge in them.

That look throws me right back to the days before all this when he’d show up randomly to train me for a couple of weeks and then disappear again.

I smirk, “Bring it, old man.”

Everyone has already gone back to their original places to begin sparring again, but I am aware that my guys are keeping a close eye on me.

“You need us at any point, Sage, then you yell, got it?” Maverick demands through the Bond Lines.

“Got it. Just a heads up though, Cain taught me everything that I know, and we’ve fought many times. He won’t kill me, no matter how hard it looks like he’s pushing me,” I reply, remembering how hard we used to fight.

“It concerns me that you said kill and not harm?” Levi questions, a growl evident in his voice.

“You can’t train properly if you don’t get a little bit hurt,” I reply and then give them a big grin; fighting against Cain is exactly what I need right now. He never went easy on me, and I’m hoping that’s not going to have changed.

“Have you finished talking with your Bonded?” Cain asks me, raising his eyebrow and looking amused.

“How did you know I was talking to them?”

“Your face gave it away. You might want to work on that,” Cain smiles as he spins one of Nyx’s blades in his hands. Strangely enough, I don’t mind him using it, which is curious.

“Are you going to talk or test me like I know you’re dying to?” I question.

All joking and teasing stops as he comes at me using supernatural speed, and I barely manage to get out of the way using my own speed.

Damn, he’s fast.

Our swords clang as we jump and spin, fighting as sweat beads on my brow and my one Nyx blade sings and buzzes as I push magic into it. I’m relatively relieved as well as surprised to see that I’m not the only one who’s out of breath. It always used to irritate me how I would be sweating and huffing and puffing, but he would be absolutely fine. Of course, I now know that he is a supe, so fighting against human me would’ve been like fighting an ant.

I make the mistake of letting my thoughts distract and move out of the way of his blade a fraction of a second too late, and it nicks my side, only a small cut and not anything that I need to worry about. It does make me double my efforts though, and I fight even harder. I use my magic to propel myself up, and I’m shocked when he does the same. I quickly get my wits about me when he somehow manages to still charge and swing his sword at me just as well as he did on the floor.

“All you need to do is stop thinking about it so much and use your intuition. Your magic will naturally do what you want it to do so long as you don’t overthink it,” Cain says as he stops his attack in order to help me.

I nod, “Okay, while I know that makes sense, it’s pretty hard for me to forget I’m floating eight feet off the damn ground.”

He chuckles, “Come on now, think of all the advantages you’ll have in battle if you can master this.”

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