Page 77 of Soul Forge

He slipped off his gloves, then reached out and took her hand. A tingle shot up her arm at the contact, his hand warm in hers. She felt the calluses on his palm, put there by years spent grasping the hilt of a sword. He turned her hand to expose the oath rune branded into the inside of her wrist.

“I’m telling you that I’m not just protecting you because you’re my wielder. You’ve done more for me than any other wielder, and you barely know me. I’m yours because you deserve it. Those words mean more than love, or friendship, or a falsemarriage cooked up to save you from an asshole. To me, those words are the most important ones I’ll ever say.”

All the colour had returned to his eyes, and he watched her intently. Her heart beat like a drum, almost drowning out his soft promise. Her eyes tracked the sweep of his lashes, the curve of his lips, and she wondered how anyone could believe such a creature could be a monster. Even with the demon in his soul, he was good. Selfless.

Elda didn’t know when her world had shifted for him, but it had. The crown she used to orbit around gathered dust in a corner, nothing more than a distant memory of a subservient role she would never subject herself to again. In its place, in the centre of everything she held dear, the Soul Forge stood with his hand outstretched.

Her lifeline.

“The only way I can convey my gratitude to you is by giving you the one thing the others tried to force out of me,” he almost whispered, his voice low and smooth. “My loyalty.”

“Sypher, I...”

Elda trailed off, the words dying on her lips. How should anyone respond to such a declaration? Tears pricked at the backs of her eyes, catching her off guard. She’d barely known him a week, and he’d made her cry more than any man she’d ever met. It felt like so much more time had passed. So much was different.Shewas different.

“You don’t have to say anything,” he chuckled, withdrawing his hand from hers. “Thank you for coming to speak to me. It helped.”

“I’m glad.”

He smiled; the expression was filled with warmth.

Two weeks had passed since Sypher’s altercation with Lillian. The fae kept herself out of everyone’s way, but she refused to return to the valleys, insisting the soldiers dispatched by the human king would be more than enough to protect the villages.

Nox hadn’t returned from her errand, and Julian was growing restless. He spent most of his days watching the skies for her arrival. He’d even taken to grooming Atlas whenever Reiner paused to tend to her Pegasus, somehow coaxing the mane brush from the angry valkyrie without a fight.

“Still no sign of her?” Sypher asked, easily dodging Elda’s kick.

“No. It’s weird for her to be gone this long,” the vampire fretted. “A week, maybe, but not two.”

“Perhaps Clover wasn’t where she expected.” Elda twisted and threw a punch, making a perfect fist that he caught and stepped around. He’d spent every day pushing her to train her body, not letting up until she was sweating and sore. “Good,” he remarked. “I’m glad you’re watching that thumb.” He slapped away the elbow coming for his face and flattened her, twisting her over his hip and kneeling on her back.

“Could you at leastpretendit’s hard to beat me?” she groaned when he released her, accepting the hand up and coughing against the tightness in her chest.

“No.” He raised his fists. “Keep going.” He didn’t flinch when he touched her anymore, and his gloves spent their time in his pocket whenever she was around.

She sighed and went after him again, working through the aches in her shoulder blades and circling him slowly.

He’d spent the last two weeks doing exactly what she’d asked, putting his all into training her. Now, when he winded her, it eased more quickly. Her stamina was better, her muscles beginning to slip into each move instead of being forced. She could feel herself improving day by day, but she still picked up new bruises with startling regularity, and she spent more time on the ground than on her feet.

“I’m never going to beat you,” she grumbled. “It’s unfair of you to expect me to.”

“You won’t with that attitude.”

He surprised her by making the first move, immediately putting her on the defensive. She blocked his fist with her forearm before it could strike her cheek.

“Block with your hands when you can. Forearms are a last resort. If you try to block an arachna with your forearm, it’ll cleave the bone in two,” he instructed. “Again.”

They repeated the movements, and Elda shifted to close her fingers around his forearm when it came for her face, yanking it to the side to try and throw him off balance. His teachings were painful but effective, and they encouraged her to work out the next moves for herself. She saw how every choice he made was purposeful and calculated, designed to push her just enough.

Reacting reflexively, she hooked her leg around his and twisted, turning her body into a roll that knocked him onto his back. He grunted when he hit the dirt, and she wasted no time inpinning him, bringing her dagger to his throat. His dark brows raised, extraordinary eyes blinking up at her.

“How did I do that?” she gasped, eyes wide. Her body had moved faster than her mind could follow, combining one of Reiner’s drills with a counterattack she’d seen Sypher use a hundred times. She moved the knife away from his neck, watching a grin spread across his face.

“Muscle memory. Why do you think I make you practise the same thing a hundred times?” Reiner piped up from where she and Julian tended to Atlas.

“Well done,” Sypher remarked.

Elda narrowed her eyes at him. “You went easy on me.”

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