Page 44 of The Shadowed Oracle
Raidinn failed to hide his pout. “Oh, yeah, right. You feel the same then, sis?”
“I do.”
“Great,” Raidinn still wore the disappointment on his face like a black-eye. “No problem. That’s fine. We’re fine.”
Tyla frowned and put on an affected, infantile voice, “Oh, you sweet boy, I promise, you’ll have your shot.” She cupped a hand over her mouth, whispering to Ingrid, “He gets grumpy if he doesn’t kill anything for too long.”
Ingrid wished she could laugh, wished she could even give a polite smile, but couldn’t. “So where do we begin?" she asked.
“Viseer stones.” She would need to learn the basics of the defensive gems, Dean explained, then an all-too-short combat lesson followed by a brief summary of what to expect from Sylan. “Before then, I don’t feel comfortable bringing you out there with us.”
“Fun stuff!” Tyla tried to compensate for the severity in Dean’s voice. “Personally, I’m chomping at the bit.” She looked to her brother for support, but found him still sulking and staring off into the distance.
She quickly jabbed him with her elbow.
“Fuckin’ hell!”
“It’ll be fun, right Rai?”
“Uhh, yes, very fun.”
Ingrid smirked at the twins, then made a sweeping gesture of her hands over all three of her new companions. “So, which one of you will get the honor of training me?”
“Me,” Raidinn and Tyla said simultaneously.
They gave each other a courteous, but awkward glance, stumbling into another half-hearted argument.
“Come on,” Raidinn scoffed. “You really think the newbie can cram your fancy-shmancy dancing style in one night? No way. You’re better off with me, Ingrid. My style may be simple, but it’s deadly.” He sighed, as if recalling a beautiful song or piece of art. “I’ll turn you into a machine in just a few hours. But the choiceis yours. Electric power and force.” Again, he looked to his sister. “Or dancing around like a ballerina.”
“Shut up,” Tyla spat.
“What was that?” Raidinn tugged at his earlobe.
“I saidshut up!”
The venom in the words instantly halted Raidinn. “Alright, alright. Understood. Let’s give her the choice,” he said flatly.
They both flashed hopeful grins at her, swaying with anticipation. She was flattered, eager to start the process as soon as possible. Yet, every few seconds a voice in the back of her head called out to her in warning.
This is crazy. These people are crazy. They are trained killers. The big one actually likes killing. Leave. Leave!
“We started this together,” another voice sliced through. It was calm, reassuring. Raidinn and Tyla no longer made those puppy dog eyes at Ingrid and instead were focused on the other side of the room. On Dean.
“I think I’ve done alright so far.” He locked eyes with Ingrid in a youthful, waggish way. “Not to mention, we’ve already fought together. So why shouldn’t we train together?”
Just as Ingrid was about to open her mouth to agree, Tyla interjected. “I think you’ve hounded her enough, hotshot.”
“Hounded?”
“Yes,” Tyla said nonchalantly.
“How do you figure that?”
“By taking one look at you two.” She flitted her eyes back and forth between the embarrassed newcomer and her old friend. “Don’t pretend you’re not enamored with the girl. It’ll soften you. Which means she’ll be getting less than the full treatment she needs.”
It was as if the air had been sucked out of the entire bunker. Every small movement seemed deafening as it echoed off the concrete and metal fortress.
“Fine,” Ingrid broke the tension, averting her eyes from a suddenly very shy Dean and met Tyla’s obstinate gaze instead. As much as she’d wanted to squirm out of the uncomfortable implication of Dean’s infatuation with her, or simply scream at Tyla for embarrassing her, Ingrid let it go. “You should train me. I pick you.”
