Page 60 of Shadow Caster
Yeah, he wasn’t messing about, and now he was studying me with his head canted to the side.
“You fight with passion,” he said. “But you’re rash in your moves. You’ve been lucky with your opponents thus far.”
“Thus far? Who says thus far?”
He shrugged while I reveled in the sting of his words.
“I’ve fought some hardcore fighters.”
“A-huh.” He smirked. “In the pits?”
“Yes, in the pits. It’s brutal in there.” I sniffed. “Not like you’d know,Hyde. Legacy feybloods have it easy.”
The smirk vanished. “You think so? You think being a Hyde means I had it easy?” His eyes were chips of flint in his face. “Being a Hyde comes with expectations, and we’re trained hard from infancy to ensure we meet those expectations.”
“Aw, did you have a tutor come to your house?” I fluttered my lashes, mouth turned down. “Must have been sooo hard for you.”
“And yet you haven’t been able to knock me down once.”
I threw up my hands. “I’m not an arrogant idiot. You’re a fucking shadow knight. I mean, how long have you been doing this? Nine, ten years?”
“Six,” he said. “And three of them have been as a tutor.”
What? “Wait … How old are you?”
“Twenty-five.” He looked away. “I graduated at nineteen and served for three years before …. Before taking the tutor role.”
“Nineteen? Wait, you were Trial Master. How can a nineteen-year-old be Trial Master?”
His eyes narrowed. “You want to know my story? I’ll make you a deal. Knock me down, and I’ll answer your questions.”
Adrenaline rushed through my limbs. Now that was motivation. “Deal.”
He fell into a defensive stance. “This is the trial, and I’m a hound. Take me out, Justice.”
He charged.
I spun and dodged his attack. He was a tank, but he was also light on his feet. A lethal combination. It didn’t take him long to be on my tail again, and fuck, I was running from him in blur speed. I doubled back to get behind him and deliver a kick to his back that should have sent him sprawling but simply knocked him forward several paces. And then he was spinning to face me, arm shooting out to snag me out of the air as I attempted to blur past him. I went down but rolled away before he could pin me. His hand almost snagged my ankle, and there was only one thought in my mind as I ran for the shadows. I needed to get away, to put some distance between us.
A tingle ran through my body, and then the world went black. Moonlight bloomed, and I was back. But not in the training arena. I was standing outside the hothouse under a rapidly rising moon.
What the fuck had just happened?
* * *
Master Hyde was standing,arms loose at his sides, staring at the spot I’d run at with a dazed expression when I got back to the training arena.
He turned to face me. “Where did you go?” His tone was wary.
“I … I came out at the hothouse. I mean … everything went black, and then I was just … there.”
He walked slowly toward me as if approaching a skittish animal. My pulse sped up as he got closer. His sweat mingled with the citrus scent to create an aroma that was pure sex. It washed over me, soothing the panic at what had just happened and replacing it with the distracting heat of desire.
I took a step back and clenched my fists. Fuck, I did not trust myself to jump him right now.
He came to a halt a few feet away. “Have you been able to dothatbefore?”
“What? No.” My voice came out thicker. Shit, Justice. Focus on the weird teleport thing. God. “I don’t even know whatthatwas.”
