Page 63 of Kissed By the Gods
I flick a side glance at Kiernan, and finally ask the question I’ve been wondering since Ryot captured me in the forest. “How do we block our emotions? How do we shield?”
Thalric wings an eyebrow up like he’s surprised by the question and then looks at Ryot questioningly. “You haven’t taught her already? She does it so well.”
Ryot stares at me, quiet and enigmatic. “I haven’t.”
Thalric hums low in his throat, a sound that’s both amused and impressed. “Then she’s either lucky … or dangerous.”
Nyrica grins, his dimple winking out. “Or both. I do love a dangerous lucky charm.”
I glance between the three of them, not sure what to say, until Kiernan shoots me a look that’s filled with both awe and panic. “How do you do it?” he whispers. “It’s so hard.”
“I just …” I think back to that moment in the sand with Maxim, when I desperately wanted him out of my head, when Iwanted to die alone, in peace, and I felt something snap in place. “I just … I closed the curtain.”
Kiernan looks at me helplessly, eyes wide and confused.
It’s Faelon who laughs, breaking the tension. “That’s all there is to it, Kiernan. Just close the curtain.”
I don’t have to taste the panic on the air—coming from Kiernan—to know that my advice was unilaterally unhelpful. “It wasn’t—” I shake my head. “I don’t know how to explain it. I didn’t even know I was doing anything.”
Ryot curls his lips at the corners, in the faintest hint of amusement. “Most wards train for months before they manage to shield.”
“If she’s doing that untrained …” Thalric mutters.
“But she’s not untrained,” Ryot says, shocking all of us—me most of all.
I shoot him a glare sharp enough to slice wheat. “Oh, please, Ryot.You’re the one who keeps reminding everyone I’m untrained. Isn’t that why we spent all night sparring? Because I’m the weak one?”
Ryot takes a threatening step toward me, but I don’t back down.
Why do I think he likes that?
“You think training starts with a blade in your hand?” His voice is low. Lethal. “Tell them, Leina. Go ahead. Tell them what it’s like to wake before the sun just to survive. To bury people you loved and keep moving because no one else was coming to save you. To give your food to your baby brother, to go hungry day after day so he could eat. Tell them how you learned to bite down on grief, to swallow rage, to choke on endurance.”
The words punch through me. I hate how accurate they are. How much they ring true.
I hate that he knows.
“I never said you were weak,” he continues, low and steady now, as if he can sense the turmoil in my soul. “We didn’t stay up all night sparring because you’re fragile. We stayed up because you’rebehind. But you’re behind in mechanics—technique, footwork, weapons, timing. And that?” He takes another step closer, until our breaths mingle in the frosted air. “Thatwe can teach. We can stay up all night, every night, until you’re caught up.”
There’s a danger that tinges his words. He stays close to me like that, our chests almost touching when we take deep breaths. He leans down, his words barely a whisper, meant for my ears alone. “And that’sMasterRyot to you, now, rebel girl.”
My breath stutters and my heart accelerates, until Thalric speaks. I jerk back.
“Alright, let’s move. The sooner we get there, the less chance we have of being caught in an outraged squall after dark.”
Faelon smirks. “First faravars trip! I hope you packed extra trousers.”
Ryot stays in front of me, his gaze locked on mine, even as the others walk away, toward an iron gate at the back of the fortress.
“Let’s go, rebel girl.”
I tilt my head back, so I can look directly in his eyes. “Yes.MasterRyot.”
I mean to say it sarcastically, but it comes out something else altogether. There’s a flash in his eyes—it’s primal and it burns, and it starts a fire that stirs something in my own soul.
Helikedthat.
And gods help me, so did I.
