Page 42 of An Empress of Air & Chaos

Maybe someone could inspect the stone and let her know what it was. Maybe there was a reason why it had been tucked away in a box of her mother’s. Maybe it was special? And maybe they could let her know why it burned her skin like a branding iron.

“I will go with you,” the words spilled from her mouth quicker than she could think them over.

Gideon shot her a smile that lit up his eyes before he moved closer and paused just in front of her.

She took a deep breath.

He was much taller than her and she had to look up at him to see his face. She could feel the heat from his body radiating towards her, gravitating. His pine green irises glided over her face and he lifted his hand to cup her jaw. She took in that now-familiar scent of lemon and musk, breathing it into her lungs as he turned her face from side to side. His thumb brushed over the mark on her cheek and then lip as rage returned to his eyes, his shoulders tensing.

“Don’t look at it,” she asked of him. Emara didn’t want him studying the result of what she had just endured. She didn’t want him to feel sorry for her, nor did she want to remember it. Not when she felt the way she did around him. She wanted to forget it happened altogether.

He didn’t move his gaze. “It’s starting to bruise.” His eyes narrowed.

“I told you not to look at it.” She removed his hand from her cheek and took a step back.

“Even with a purple bruise forming,” he said lightly, “you’re still beautiful, you know.”

His words swirled around in her head and her heart glitched. She had been called beautiful before, but she hadn’t felt the depth in someone’s voice like when Gideon had said it. A small laugh broke from her throat and she was glad of it. She needed to inhale air as she quite frequently forgot to breathe when she was around him.

“Maybe we should get Rhea to look at it,” he said, still studying her face from cheekbone to lip.

“It will heal on its own.” She rejected the idea of Rhea working on her again. The poor healer needed a break; she knew she hadn’t had any time off since the attack.

“Okay, you’re the boss.” He shot her a surrendered look. “No healer.”

A shooting pain entered her cheek as she smiled, but she tried her best to hide it from Gideon.

Something within her shifted and changed, the pain reminding her of her weakness. It was a shooting pain that she never wanted to have to hide again. Emara knew, in that moment, she had to find a way to protect herself. She couldn’t let herself be a victim again…

“Train me,” she said, meeting his gaze. “Fully. Not just the basics like everyone else. If I am going to be here indefinitely, I should train.” She placed the glass down on the unit next to her bed. “I want to learn it all. I don’t want to just learn defence; I don’t want to feel fear every time I see a man or a shadow in the dark. Never again do I want to be”—she paused, swallowing the frog in her throat—“helpless.” She looked up. “Show me how to wield a weapon properly. Train me how to throw an axe or a knife or something.” Her eyes explored his face.

He crossed his arms over his chest. “Emara, you are not ready to throw an axe before you can throw a punch. I don’t want you to run before you can walk with this stuff.”

“I don’t care how I learn, I just want to learn it.” She paused. “I will put in more training sessions to learn. Someone can train me.”

“You don’t have to. We can protect you here. Girls don’t usually ask for much more.”

“Gideon, please do not insult me because I am a woman.” Not a girl. She made that clear in her tone. “I don’t care if the girls before me didn’t want to learn. I do.”

He ran a hand through his hair, shaking it a little. “I understand where you are coming from; it’s natural when someone has gone through what you have to want to learn how to fight. But there is more to it than just a few training sessions.”

“I know that, Gideon. I know you weren’t born looking like that.” She went silent, feeling the embarrassment of her words crawl into her cheeks. “I just don’t want to be weak anymore.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure you want to do this? You will be putting yourself at risk, pushing your body and mind to its limits. Not to mention, I shouldn’t really be doing it.”

“I am positive.” As she stepped closer to him, her eyes dazzled with the hunger to learn. “Learning defence isn’t enough. I can handle it.”

He lifted his hand and ran a thumb over her plump lip and she closed her eyes, exhaling. “You could get hurt. Really hurt,” he said, the stubbornness of his tone beginning to deplete.

“That’s a risk I am willing to take.”

A long moment passed between them as he looked down at her. His hand fell from her face. “Okay. I will train you,” he agreed.

Emara felt an overwhelming rush sweep over her heart and a tightness in her chest lifted. “Thank you,” she whispered.

He nodded. “It won’t be easy.”

“It might be easier than how I am feeling right now.”

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