Page 19 of These Wicked Desires

I groan, but push to my feet. In my mind, the imaginary blanket slides off my wings, and I know they’ve reappeared as the breeze slides through my feathers, tickling and teasing. “Okay. Let’s do this,” I say, mentally prepping myself for another brutal session.

“I want to keep working on magic,” Cade says, stepping up to me. “But this time, I want you to dodge my attacks instead of blocking them. I think we can assume Sam won’t do anything to harm you too much because he wants you alive.”

I swallow as nerves flutter in my belly. “Okay,” I say slowly. “You’re not really going to throw your magic at me in an attempt to hit me, though, are you?”

Cade grimaces. “I mean, it’s the best way to train you to block and dodge attacks.”

“Great,” I mutter. With a deep breath, I call Cade’s magic to me, and let it gather in my palms. Widening my stance, I get a feel for my balance with the wings, and nod my head.

“I’ll take it easy on you at first.” His magic flares to life, purple light wreathing his arms. It’s really beautiful, especially as his violet eyes swirl and sparkle with his magic.

He’s true to his word. The first few attacks are aimed wide and are easy to dodge by jumping out of the way. It takes some time to get used to my wings slowing me down, and I eventually learn to tuck them closer to my body to reduce the amount of wind resistance. The quicker I become at dodging, the quicker and closer to me Cade’s attacks get.

I’m so focused on Cade and his magic, when a sudden weight appears in my hand, it throws me off balance. I fall to the side, stumbling and just barely catching myself. Confused, I glance at my hand and gasp.

“What the hell?” I shriek.

In my hand is a sword. An actual freaking sword. The handle thing—or whatever it’s called—is wrapped in aged black leather. A bright purple stone is perched on the top and shines in the moonlight. There are golden wing-like things sprouting just below the handle. And the blade. Holy shit the blade is gold and silver and sharp as hell. It’s heavy, but at the same time, not heavy at all.

I open my fingers to let the sword drop to the ground, but it stays in my hand like it’s glued there. My eyes widen and look to Cade for help. “Cade?” My voice has raised a few octaves and my breath comes in quick bursts. “Help!”

All three of the guys approach with varying expressions of confusion, thought, and awe. Kai kneels in front of me and studies the sword, whistling as his fingers trail over the blade. Sterling comes to my side and wraps a supportive arm around my waist below the wings. And Cade turns my hand palm up, supporting the weight of the sword.

“It’s … stuck,” he says, looking closely at my palm. He tries to grab the handle but it doesn’t budge.

“Make it go away,” I plead, voice cracking with emotion. “I don’t want it!”

“Take a deep breath, Ellis,” Cade says. “We’ll figure this out.”

“Figure it out now, then! I can’t walk around with a freaking sword stuck to my hand! I’ll stab myself!”

Kai chuckles. “She’s right. That thing is dangerous in her hand.”

I glare at him, contemplating using it to stab him. “Watch it, Kai.”

“Close your eyes,” Sterling says calmly. “Just like with the wings, imagine it going away.”

I do as he says, forcing my heart to slow and my breathing to even out. I imagine the weight in my hand disappearing, the ancient weapon becoming nothing more than a memory. When I open my eyes, it’s gone. I sink to the ground, wrapping my arms around my legs.

“What the hell?” I whisper.

Kai, still kneeling, pulls out his phone and scrolls through the random pictures I’ve taken of the three of us. When he gets to what he wants, he shows me. “I don’t think we should be surprised. The image in the book showed a harpy with wings and a sword. You got the wings. Now you have the sword.”

The picture is from the book where we learned what Shields were. The drawing of the harpy indeed is holding a sword that looked just like the one in my hand.

“I don’t know how to use a sword,” I breathe.

“We can teach you, love,” Cade says soothingly. “At least, we can help you learn the basics. We don’t have enough time to show you everything. But every little advantage we can give you in this battle could be the difference between winning and losing.”

I sigh as the weight on my shoulders only seems to get heavier. A sword is not something I want to learn how to use. It was heavy and weird in my hand, and I didn’t like it. But Cade does have a point. “Fine.”

Cade nods and releases a breath. “Let’s start sword training tomorrow. Right now, let’s keep working on dodging.”

I shove the thought of the sword away and stand. Practice will take my mind off of what just happened, so I’m all for it. “Yeah. Let’s keep going.”

Before long, Cade and I are back in rhythm. His magic flies past me, and I dodge. Faster and faster until I’m breathing heavily and my eyes are constantly scanning for his magic. Purple sparks sizzle past my left shoulder as I jump to the side, a few brushing against my wings and making me wince, but I keep going. This time, I jump to the right, his magic coming at me almost continuously now. My legs are getting more shaky the longer we do this, and my reaction time is starting to slow. Cade must not realize that, because the next thing I know, a stream of magic is heading straight for my chest.

My eyes widen and I gasp. I won’t be able to dodge that quick enough, but I try. I duck to the right and drop as fast as I can, but I’m not fast enough. The blast hits me in my left shoulder, knocking me backward and sending burning pain ricocheting through my upper body. My heart stutters as electricity pumps through the organ and my vision blackens.

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