Page 102 of Phoenix Fall

He obviously wasn’t about to make the first move. So I paced one way and then the other, trying to draw him out. But the bloody Dragon just stood there.

Finally, I’d had enough. I feinted one way and came at him from the other.

The guy was a blur. The world spun as I flew through the air and hit the ground hard enough to see stars.

So much for being a noob. The scaly ripper knew his stuff.

I picked myself up and reassessed the situation. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Cody glancing our way before he engaged Darius.

“Hope he knocks him down a peg,” Talakai said.

It confirmed my partner didn’t miss much, and I reorganized a few misconceptions in my brain. When I closed in on him this time, I brought my A game.

I needed it. Talakai pushed me to my limits, and beyond. Someone that big had no right being able to move like that. It spoke to years of training combined with actual hands-on experience.

But as I picked myself off the turf for the third time, I had to wonder. Where did an underworld weapons dealer get that kind of fighting mileage?

When I finally did take the big guy down, I was no longer certain whether I’d really done it. Or if he’d let me do it.

Two very different things—that only led to more questions...

29

Anna

For my first real fighting class, I found myself teamed up with a hulking Sabre. It was Neil, whom I hadn’t had a chance to meet at the assessment.

My group stayed in the coliseum’s arena, while a bunch of the students, including Matt and Talakai, headed outside.

I hoped this guy was a good instructor, because after my short bout with Matt, and my assessment, I’d more or less decided I was all thumbs when it came to hand-to-hand combat.

Neil seemed like a very nice guy for someone who spent part of his time sporting six-inch fangs. His muscular body was covered in scars. I ogled the bits I saw until he moved like lightning and put me in the sand.

He helped me up. “If someone comes at you, you can use their momentum against them.” Then he frowned a little, and his nostrils flared wide, before he let me go and moved a bit away from me to resume circling.

I remembered the move I used on the feral Dire that attacked me. I tried to recreate it when Neil came at me again. My mind told me to duck under his outstretched arms, but my feet froze.

I’d ducked one arm, but the other shot out to sling around my body and bring me down.

I landed with an audible “oof.” I didn’t think sand was much squishier than grass, to be honest.

Neil helped me back up. “For a second there, I thought you were going to duck me,” he said, his voice curiously hoarse. He released me and backed away, before adding, “You sure you haven’t had any training? Alex said he saw signs that made him wonder.”

It shocked me. “What kind of signs?”

“The way you move when you are concentrating is different from how you do so if surprised. Ordinarily, there is not such a discrepancy, but with your amnesia, it is possible you know more than you think you do.”

We resumed circling. “I—I did kinda throw a guy, once. Was trying to remember how I did it.”

His brows raised over eyes flaring with gold. It was enough to make me wonder if shifters really did spend every minute wrestling with their inner beasts—so many of them had the mood-eye thing going on.

“Maybe you’re thinking too hard,” he suggested. “In class, we will be practicing how to move your feet. It has to become so automatic that you don’t engage your brain. Muscle memory is the trick. Repetition will get you there.” He tilted his head at me. “I can show you the steps now, if you like. Or—”

Focused on what he was saying, when he came at me again, I didn’t process it. And that was when the miracle happened. My feet moved my body, and only the length of his arm enabled him to snag me. But he didn’t get me on the ground. Instead, I spun away and regained my balance.

“Sweet,” he said.

He came at me like a blur. And I managed to duck away, spin, and almost evade him, before he grabbed me and had me denting the sand, again.

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