Page 25 of Living Legend

“Are you sure you have no intention of a piece of that?” Elise asked from behind me, her voice low enough for only me to hear.

I glanced over my shoulder. “No, just to tease. Passes the time.” I admired the way he looked in his sweatpants. No one should look that good in loungewear.

She whispered, “you’re boring.”

Reese stalked over to us, two swords in hand. “Here.” He motioned for us to take them.

Elise looked down at the weapons but made no move to touch them. “You don’t really mean for us to use those, right? Like actually fight with them?”

Reese’s nostrils flared in annoyance, his jaw tensing. “No, I just brought them for you tolookat.”

I grabbed one of the swords and twisted it slightly in my hand. The hilt was wrapped in leather, shining from base to tip. It wasn’t anything special, but I assumed training swords weremeant to be simple. “We understand, Reese, but that’s not where our value lies.”

“I didn’t ask about your values, did I?” His voice was deep but monotone.

Elise pushed his hand away, clapping her hands together. “I’m going to have to happily decline your ridiculous offer. Thanks, but no thanks.”

He shoved the sword towards her again, his bicep flexing. “It wasn’t a suggestion.”

Nicholas put his hand over the hilt and forced Reese to lower it, pushing him back behind him. “It's just simple sparring -- that’s all, Elise. Nothing more.”

“I understand that, but I’m pretty sure I can handle myself without lugging around one of those gnarly things.” She made a disgusted face at the sword.

Nicholas stuck out his tongue and licked his lower lip. “You can’t always rely on magic to solve your problems.”

Elise smirked. “I don’t; I just highly prefer it.”

“Magic seems to be solving our problems just fine, like I’m sure your good looks and charm solve yours,” I said, coming to Elise’s defense. “Magic is what saved that one’s ass in Oculus.” I cocked my head towards Reese, who lifted his eyes to the ceiling.

Nicholas ran a hand through his hair, pieces of it still standing after he was done. “Regardless, we’ll be sparring today and you’ll both be active participants.” His voice wasn’t harsh, but there was a slight command in it that made my stomach flip.

Elise let out a loud, harsh laugh. “We can spar just fine. I’ll show you.” She flicked her fingers, dark smoke shooting out to smack Reese in the chest, flinging him into the wall. The sword he held flew towards the window, landing on the ground. I glared over at Elise, who looked pleased with herself. Nicholas bolted over to his friend, who pushed himself off the wall, rubbing the back of his head.

“What in the fuck?” Reese shouted, pulling out of Nicholas’s grasp and stalking towards Elise. She stood her ground, tapping her foot on the floor patiently.

“I thought we were sparring?” she said innocently.

“Withweapons, youfuckingdemon!”

She shrugged. “Well, magic is my weapon, so technically the same thing, right?”

“I could send your ass back to Purgatory so fucking fast..” Reese started, trying to break through Nicholas, who was holding his arm in front of his chest, pushing him back.

“Please do, Blondie!” Elise snapped, lifting her hand as red tendrils sparked from her fingertips. I grabbed her, silencing the magic, squeezing so hard, she flinched.

I could see the way Reese's tan face flushed red with pure rage. His hands shook and his breathing became ragged and rough. Nicholas grabbed his shoulders and stood beside him. “First rule for everyone is that you don’t use magic on anyone on your team.”

“Yeah, I’m not much of a team player.” Elise countered.

“Nicholas, you forget we don’t live in the world of holding hands and working together. Purgatory was survival of the fittest, so the all for one and one for all bullshit really isn’t going to work,” I said, hoping to be the reasonable voice in the chaos.

He looked down, and I followed his gaze to my hand. My fingers were still wrapped around the hilt of the sword. He leaned in towards me. “I know you know how to handle some type of weapon, or did I not pull a dagger out of your pocket?”

“Ah yes, I’ve been wondering where you’ve been hiding it. I’ll be wanting that back.”

Nicholas stepped back, taking a still-seething Reese with him, pushing his friend to the side. “How about you fight me for it?” He looked at his sword and back over to mine. The sly smile that crossed his facealmostmade me clench my thighs together.He was attractive, I’ll give him that.

Reese’s face started to slowly retreat from its bright shade of red, his breathing starting to return to a normal pace. “No magic. Just weapons.” He shot a look over at Elise, who blew him a kiss. “Keep that one on a leash.”

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