Page 58 of Enchanted Shadows
And then it happened.
I moved to block her kick while Jessina turned around and elbowed me directly in the chest forcing me to stumble back.
The yelling of the women was enough to shatter my ears, but I quickly moved, snagged that elbow before it could go far, and then made quick work of pinning down both of her arms behind her.
“But I win, right?” she asked as she stopped fighting me.
I rolled my eyes. “You do. But let this be a lesson to everyone. Don’t get so excited about landing a good blow that you forget to guard yourself for a return one.”
“I need to hear you say it,” Jessina beamed.
“But did you hear a thing I just said?” I asked her. And all of them, really.
“Don’t get too excited that I don’t see a return attack coming,” Jessina recited.
I gave my head a shake but let go of her. At least it had been a hit to the chest. I would hate to bear witness to the amount of celebrating that would have occurred if the shot had been to other more important parts of me. “Jessina wins as the first person to deliver a blow to me.”
They were jumping and crowding around, but my eyes went to Zara. What exactly had she whispered to her before?
I letthe shower water drip down over my head and run down my back. It had been a long day. A damn long day. I had a long strategy session with the women, then had to check in with both Miles and Krew about all things from the attack the night before.
The Stirlings were raging that their son was imprisoned. They felt the punishment was too severe. So Krew had to leak to the public the part about the back door being locked, proving how wrong it could have all gone.
And I couldn’t get past those few moments between when I had heard the barracks were on fire and when I arrived on scene. The sheer terror that coursed through my veins.
I stayed in the shower longer than necessary and let the steam and sound of the water invade my senses while I regulated my breathing. Despite my best efforts to treat this team like any other, I was coming to care for these women and felt a bit protective over them.
I reminded myself for the hundredth time that I didn’t want this group torn apart and tossed among the already made units. I wanted them to stay together. They were gold together. Now I saw what a disservice it was to the team to treat them like any other training group. They weren’t. Pretending otherwise didn’t do them or me any favors.
I had to head to the castle the following day to brief with Jorahabout the celebration event for the team, so I added another discussion on the future of the team to the never-ending to-do list. Krew and I seemed on the same page the last time we discussed it, but I wanted to make sure.
I shut the water off and dripped a few moments before grabbing my towel.
A knock sounded on my door. Twice. Three times.
“Hang on, Em,” I called. He’d been begging me to play cards recently.
I threw on sweatpants and didn’t bother with a shirt as I threw open the door. But it wasn’t Emric at all. It was Zara. Her blonde hair was down around her shoulders, her necklace she loved tucked low enough between her breasts that I wouldn’t follow the cord to see where it stopped, even if it was tempting. But it was the haunted and misted look in her brown eyes that had me tensing.
“What’s wrong?” I asked immediately. “Has there been another attack?”
“Not yet,” she croaked, glancing to my still somewhat damp chest.
“Zara,” I said more gently. “Do you want to come in and sit down?”
Her answer was quick. Like she didn’t even think about it. “No. You don’t have a shirt on.”
I dipped my chin. “Didn’t realize a man without a shirt on was such the scandal.”
“It is when it’s you.” She moved to sit on the two steps leading to my small cabin, her arms going around her legs.
Did she mean because I was the general in charge of training her? I sat as far away from her as possible, but the steps weren’t that wide, so we were almost touching. “Tell me something, Zara. Anything to help you. Give me somethingreal. Please. I want to help you, but I don’t know how.”
“Something real?”
“Yeah.”
She took a shaky breath. “I am scared, Owen. So damn scared. All the time.”
