Page 106 of An Empress of Air & Chaos

“You’ll see when we get there,” he said. “Stop being so demanding. I am not Gideon, nor am I Marcus. You will train my way today.”

Emara trekked behind Torin in silence.

Great! Now she was going to spend half of her day being trained and coached by Torin Blacksteel. Which really meant they would be spending all day taking verbal swipes at each other.

She cursed under her breath.

She couldn’t explain the vibrations she felt when she was with Torin, but she knew it was different to anything she had ever felt before. He was so frustratingly handsome and absurdly crude. She would be lying to herself if she said she didn’t get a thrill when she purposely defied his orders to see the look on his face. He pushed her buttons, and she his.

But that isn’tnormal, is it?

But maybe normal didn’t really appeal to her.

She cursed again.

“Keep up,” Torin called out from in front, using his big, solid legs to march up the hills of the forest.

Roots lined the forest floor, making natural steps to help her climb. However, they were hard to see with all the fallen leaves from the trees sweeping a burnt orange blanket over the ground. Emara’s lungs felt like they were eating themselves alive as she struggled with the incline. Nevertheless, she promised herself that she wouldn’t let Torin see her struggle. He wanted to push her physically today. That’s why she was out in the middle of nowhere, trying to keep pace with a man who was basically twice her size as they climbed terrain, she had never trained in.

Torin shouted again, “Are you asleep back there? Or are you going to get those leg muscles working?”

Ignore the burn in your legs.

Ignore the burn in your lungs.

Ignore Torin Blacksteel.

She chanted repeatedly.

Ignore the burn in your legs.

Ignore the burn in your lungs.

Ignore Torin Blacksteel.

“You are really slow,” he yelled, half turning back to see her. “Kinda like one of those small creatures from your world.”

Emara gritted her teeth and remembered the old saying her grandmother used to recite to her. Bite your tongue if whatever you are going to say will make you look foolish. So, she decided against the un-lady-like comment and pushed her lips into her mouth and bit down with her teeth.

“What do you call them again?” he asked. “Oh, yeah, a snail. Or is it a slug? I can never quite remember which is which,”

Emara imagined all the rude gestures she wished she could give him behind his back.

Maybe she could just do one.

“What’s the matter, Clearwater? Demon got your tongue?”

Although he was looking ahead, she didn’t need to see his face to know that he was smiling.

Smug ass!

“I didn’t realise you could be so mute, or I would have taken this job from Marcus days ago.”

The thin line of her patience snapped.

“Will you just shut up already?” she bellowed. “Why are we walking so much? Why are you talking so much? What are we actually doing?” She panted.

“Ahh, there she is…”

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