Page 35 of A Simple Truth

“You are ‘the greatest’Destroyer General, who is now training aslave, so perhaps you should be the one delivering the speech,” I replied sharply. He turned tersely at my words, and even from afar, pierced me with his gaze.

“You are no slave, Finn, you know that.” The taunting smirk and the teasing note immediately turned into a somber, cold cut voice.

“And you are no child defiler,General…So perhaps, we should skip the speeches and actually train,” I said dryly. My mind hastily scrambled for any silver linings in these next few unfortunate hours that I’d be spending with him.

Yet, my thoughts abruptly stopped when the General, with one swift motion, took off his shirt, exposing his strong, muscled back.

You have terrible tan lines,I wanted to say, but didn’t, because then I’d have to admit that my eyes still lingered on his perfect outlines, trailing from his neck to his wide, defined shoulders, then slipping down his muscled arms and to the narrow of his waist.

“Do you always train shirtless,General?” I narrowed my eyes on him.Self-absorbed jerk.

But I wouldn’t let myself be frazzled, even as he came closer, facing me. His muscled chest was right at my eye level. I bit the inside of my cheek, holding in a scowl as he lowered his head until our eyes met. I returned his intimidating stare, not backing down.

“Only when I know certain people will be watching,” he purred.

“It is rather pathetic that your fighting skills are so terribly poor that you resort to such cheap, distracting tricks,” I asserted, raising my chin up, my lips turning into a thin line, ignoring the pleasant, smoky smell lingering in the air from his closeness.

“Do you find me distracting, Finn?” His lips tugged upwards as he cooed. “Because if you do, I could, of course, put my shirt back on for you. Just say the word.”

I scoffed. “You think too much of yourself, General,” I threw back, failing to find sharper words in my head; as if all my thoughts vanished, rushing to stare at his pristinely sculpted physique instead of coming to my aid.

“Andwhoshould I be thinking of instead?” he whispered only a breath away from my ear, sending shivers down my spine. I released a jagged gulp, ignoring the loaded remark altogether.

“I shall only hope your training will be better than your average,mediocre at bestbuild. But considering you prefer chit-chatting instead of actually practicing, I should probably lower my expectations,” I spat out, forcing my eyes back up as they treacherously slid down the exposed, well defined ‘V’ leading down the low of his stomach.

Perhaps, I can get him a belt next time.

“So, all bark, no bite?” He provoked, motioning me to come forward.

I was suddenly aware that I was about to summon fire. I opened my hand, failing to hide a bit of tremor in it. He seemed to notice it too, which made it so much worse.

I closed my eyes, dipping into the ocean-like inferno within. My mind sounded blaring alarms as the red fire danced at my fingertips, feeling a bit ticklish, like a simple touch of soft feathers. Panic rose up my stomach, making me regret eating breakfast, but I fought off the terror-filled cries, forcing myself to watch my fingers move, shaping a small fiery ball. With a single move, I threw it straight at the half-dressed General, hoping it would burn him. But he stifled it in midair with just a single look, well before it could possibly reach him; as if it was nothing.

“Again,” he let out a sigh, looking already bored.

I quickly summoned another sphere, repeating the motion. Then again and again, I threw more fire at him.

But the General stood still, his hands clasped tightly behind his back as he just stared with a smug look, watching me throw fireballs, as if it wasn’t fire being chucked at his face but merely cotton balls; a miniscule, unexciting event. I clenched my jaw tighter, this time daring to summon two, one from each hand. The gesture earned a small quirk of his brow. Yet still he didn’t move. Not even a tiny step back. Not a shield. Just stupid, bored blinks as I channeled fire, and he extinguished it again.

We must have been at this for hours, but my mind still panicked each time, craving the comfort of the dark oblivion of unconsciousness, constantly running away to hide, wincing, as my powers came to fruition.

“You’ve been avoiding me,” said the General, finally breaking the long lingering silence.

“Clearly not very successfully,” I mumbled with irony in my voice. Little beads of sweat rolled down my temple as I dipped deeper within, still attempting to burn that uninterested look off his face.

“May I ask why?” he continued, disregarding the constant flames thrown at him.

“I’ve hit my quota for hidden marriage obligations. So, I’ve chosen to stay away, just in case,” I gave him a snarky reply, pausing only for a moment to catch my breath, blinking as my hand moved and fire, that now ran through my veins, appeared at my fingertips.

“Are you always this bitter? Or is it just a character flaw?” Gideon drawled, narrowing his eyes on me.

“I just have a low tolerance for liars and manipulators.”No matter how attractive they are,my mind quietly added, and I threw that thought away as fast as it appeared. I rotated my sore wrists, adjusting my stance a bit to relieve the ache in my lower back. The gnawing stiffness in my body matched the dense air around us.

“You do know that you’ll have to get morecreativewith those names of yours, because truthfully, ‘liar and manipulator’ seem so underwhelming compared to ‘a monster and child murderer’, especially coming from someone who claimed to be aCreator...” His tongue lingered on that last word.

The anger within me rose to new levels at the accusation.

“I did what I had to do to survive,” I scorned, opening my mouth but closing it a second later. I didn’t need to justify my actions to this man, much less engage in this type of conversation.

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