Page 97 of A Touch of Stars and Stones
“Maybe,” I breathe heavily. “But so do you.”
And as if he wanted to make a point, his left hook slams into my cheek, pain exploding around the impact.Shit.
But I grin. My mind draws on the contact, storing it in the very fibres of my body, and I unleash it with a combination of punches, lunges, and swipes that would have a devastating effect on anyone else but Calix.
We’re both caught up in the dance, back and forth, trading blow after blow. And it feels fucking great.
Until my legs are taken out from under me, and I hit the dirt on my left side.
“Now, now, boys. It’s rude to leave a girl on the sidelines.” Crimson stands over me, her hands on her hips, staring down at me.
Calix laughs, his deep voice booming, but it’s gone a second later when he advances on her, striking, at least trying to hit her. She’s quick, sliding out of his reach like liquid. I stand, and we all fall into the familiar pattern of fighting together, practising together, like we’ve done for hundreds of hours over the years.
Clouds of dust shoot up around our feet as we move forward and back, sliding to swipe, standing to jab and punch. It’s cathartic, the sweat forming and running over my skin, soaking into my training top. But we don’t stop.
We keep going, drawing on each other, Calix getting faster, Crimson getting stronger, and I can feel both their gifts under my skin.
My head’s been so consumed with wanting answers and hitting a brick wall against my father that I’ve kept a lock on my own skills. Reading their moves and calculating how to bring each of them down isn’t needed here.
And with each hit to my muscles and body, I feel the anger ebb away, like it’s being punched out of me, tempering my rage and quelling the fight with my father.
Calix knew. He knew this was what I needed when I didn’t. Crimson, too. It’s the first time in weeks we’ve even smiled at each other, but I only see my friend as she strikes out with herarm, aiming for my already bruised cheek. Her knuckles skim, and I grab her wrist, yanking her forward and sending her off balance, but she spins and uses her momentum and another swipe to my legs to send me to the ground first.
“I think I win,” she declares.
I grab her ankle and pull her so she falls, and she manages to land sprawled over my chest.
“If you two want to take this back to the residence, be my guest,” Calix hollers.
“What do you say, Ten?” she whispers. “It’s been months. The new moon isn’t far away.” Her eyes lower a fraction, and even through the split lip and bruises, she gives me a deadly smile, reeking of everything I know she wants. Not just me, but us—the three of us—the possibility of a Triune. Something that I used to think I wanted.
But not now.
Now everything has changed. Even before Ever arrived.
And now she’s here, and I can’t think straight for thoughts of her. Maybe it was the way she didn’t cower before my father or the way she stood up to Aslendrix herself at her Transference, but she is now who I consider when thinking about a future. She is the one who invades my mind at night, the one I want to fight for, the one I will suffer for just to hold her hand a little longer.
“Sorry, Crim. I don’t think so. I need to speak to your brother. See you at dinner?”
The sting of my words ripples over her face, and I know I’ve hurt her.
And I hope Calix will see this my way. “Cal, let’s head back. We need to talk.”
twenty-five
. . .
Ever
It wasn’t far enough away.
I needed to be miles from Azur, from Ascella, but I had to settle for my room. There was someone else I wanted to see, but I couldn’t ask that of him. Not when I now feared the outcome.Did that happen every time for him?Pain. The same pain I saw scorched on his face.
My hands clutch the ceramic mug, re-filled twice now, with a warm tea, which Micah retrieved for me. It’s meant to calm me, but it hadn’t worked because my nerves were still humming under my skin, and my stomach felt hollow, as though I hadn’t eaten in days, and whatever was left was now rotting and festering.
My anger still simmers, but the stress of what happened with Azur has subdued it. With every blink of my eyes, I was back there, following him along that narrow path that I know now was in my mind, until the path morphed, and I was trapped in miles of pathways, around every corner, surrounded by trees and mountains of rock.
It all happened so quickly.
