Page 99 of This Blood That Breaks Us
“Sure.”
I was relieved. The only thing fun to do was fight.
Thirty
Luke
Zach and I entered the sparring room. Fighting didn’t interest me much, but my brother enjoyed it. With the remnants of whatever pain he felt earlier circulating in my body, it only gave me more reason to make him feel better.
We shed our shirts and bit into our wrists. It didn’t hurt. My venom control was perfect, and leaving a clean, quick bite was becoming muscle memory.
“May fate guide you,” Zach said. His lips twisted into a wicked, sarcastic grin.
Akira’s words to me under the bleachers in Blackheart rang in my ears. I pushed out the memory and squared my shoulders.
“May fate guide you,” I repeated.
Then he lunged. Zach was great at offense, and though he couldn’t immediately knock me to my knees, he was getting better at shifting my balance early in the fight. He wanted to get me on the ground. I dodged him, but he grabbed me from behind and flung me to the ground.
“Ow,” we said at the same time.
Our gazes shot to each other in an instant.
“What the fuck was that?”
I popped up to my feet. “Wait. Hit me right here as hard as you can.”
When he punched me, we both winced.
“This isn’t happening. Are we physically linked now too?”
I punched him in the shoulder, and another wave of pain ran through me. It wasn’t exactly like being hit myself, but it was similar and almost as painful. Just slightly less.
“That’s—”
“Complete bullshit,” he said.
I was confused but not surprised. Anything was possible, but we already shared enough. Physical pain added on top was a nightmare situation.
“Oh good. You’re both here. I wanted to get some training time with you both.” Sirius came strolling in.
“We can’t . . . ”
“Why would that be?”
“We think the bond linked us, like physically.”
“That’s absurd.”
“That’s what we said, but we came to spar, and when I knocked Luke to the ground, we felt it at the same time.”
He looked between us, not saying a word. Then swatted Zach on the back of the head.
“Ow,” we said again.
“What’s that for?”
“I take it you guys were never linked like this. Not even you and your brother?” I asked.
