Page 161 of Gift from the Stone

It looks as though they were making their way over to us before she and Ry had to stop and go head-to-head. The five of us silently laugh—well, I do it silently; the guys don’t attempt to hide their amusement at her fussing at him.

“Was that your plan for this morning? Make us work out?” I ask Tillman, cocking my hip to the side and crossing my arms.

“Um…no, not at all,” he answers unconvincingly.

“Lies.” I laugh as I pry my way into his mind before he can get his block up.

“Fine. Yes, that was the plan, but obviously a bad plan,” he admits.

“See, it wasn’t even my plan. It was Tillman’s and I was just relaying the message,” Ry says, throwing his hands up as they finally reach us.

“Well, I’m not spending the day working out. What do you want to do, Willow?” Oakly asks me.

“Not spend the whole day working out, but it wouldn’t kill us to get some sparring in. We can drink some coffee first, then hit the mats with whichever of these men are going to try their luck with us today.” I compromise.

I really don’t want to do that either, but it’s what Corentin asked me to focus on, and Tillman’s purposely been letting me slack off all week from his guilt over Terravile, so I might as well suck it up a little.

Rolling her eyes, she links her arm with mine and drags us into the command room where we drink our coffees and snack while Tillman and the guys give the newly arrived members a brief. After our second cup, we finally move our asses and hit the mats.

“Are you actually going to spar with her, Draken, or are you going to fuck off and feel her up?” Tillman asks him as he steps up in front of me.

“Just because you and Corentin have no problem slinging her around doesn’t mean I’m going to.” He huffs back.

No, he doesn’t sling me around on the mats. He slings me around in the—

“Will,” Tillman barks.

“Sorry.” I snort.

“Let Nikoli spar with her and Draken can spar with Oakly. His dragon doesn’t freak out when I spar with her in class,” Ry comments.

“Yeah, because you don’t ever actually hit her. You just deflect and maneuver around her. I’d bite your fucking head off if you did,” Draken growls, then shakes his head out, but he doesn’t apologize, which lets me know his dragon may have pushed that little outburst, but he doesn’t disagree.

“How about this? Nikoli can spar with me, but no face shots and he can pull his punches,” I say as a way to ease the fear Draken just put in everyone but our Nexus.

“Yeah, that’ll work. I’ll do the same for Oakly,” Draken agrees after a moment of thinking it over. More like gauging his bond’s and dragon’s feelings toward that.

I can’t help the smirk on my lips when I glance over at Nikoli, who looks like he’d rather do anything else than spar with me. But as Oakly steps up onto the mat confidently with Draken, he sucks it up and follows suit.

“Don’t get me eaten, Willow,” he whispers.

“He’s not going to eat you. I’m a little offended you’re not worried about my dragon eating you,” I tease.

“Oh fuck, I forgot you have one too. Damn it.” He huffs.

“Positions,” Tillman hollers, cutting off any more chitchat.

Getting into my stance, as soon as his whistle blows, we begin circling one another. I know he isn’t going to make the first move, so I initiate, jabbing out quickly to test his defense. He easily deflects and counters with a leg kick that I could have seen coming a mile away.

“Don’t baby her, Nikoli. She’s fine,” Tillman yells.

Nikoli’s shoulders deflate like he’s truly dreading doing this, and I can hear Ry yelling pretty much the same thing at Draken.

“Come on, Nikoli. We’ll never get better if you all keep treating us like this. How are we supposed to actually protect ourselves if a situation were to arise and none of you are around?” I question.

“Fine. You’re right.” He caves, shaking his hands out and actually getting into a proper stance.

At Tillman’s second whistle, Nikoli strikes.

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