Page 188 of Rain of Shadows and Endings

“No, but you need to train in combat, Tessa. We already told you that. Then you would have at least been able to defend yourself last night until Theon could find you.”

Axel’s tone was sharp and accusing, and it made Tessa wince. He never spoke to her this way.

“I didn’t run from him,” she answered defensively.

“I should fucking hope not, but I’ll let you work that out with Theon.”

“Should I be worried?”

“Do you care?” he countered.

Fair point.

They didn’t speak the rest of the way to the training arenas. Axel led her through the building and down hallways until they came to one of the private training rooms, and he pushed open a door, standing aside to let her enter first.

And her jaw dropped.

Luka was here. Shirtless. And by the gods. She’d known he was fit, but she’d had no idea that was beneath the suits he always wore. Those were defined muscles that disappeared into the waistband of loose linen pants. He had clearly been here a while. His brown hair was tied back in a barely there ponytail, and a fine sheen of sweat covered his body.

Axel chuckled beside her, reaching over and touching her chin with his forefinger, closing her mouth. “Careful, baby doll,” he said with a wink. “Don’t let Theon see you looking at him like that.”

She tried to swallow, but her mouth was too dry as Luka finished up…whatever it was he was doing, and turned to face them. He jerked his chin towards the wall and said, “Eat that.”

Tessa turned to find a table with various things atop it, including a small bowl of yogurt with berries. She snatched it up, partly because she was starving, but more so because she knew a consequence was coming. It was instinct to eat as much as possible right now, even if she knew Theon wouldn’t do that to her.

Probably wouldn’t do that to her anyway.

“You have this handled?” Axel asked Luka, watching her inhale the yogurt. His brow furrowed. “It’s not your last meal, Tessa.”

She felt her cheeks flush, but she didn’t care as she looked between him and Luka.

“I have her. Theon will be here in a bit.”

Tessa paused with the spoon halfway to her mouth.

“Do I need to be here for that?” Axel asked, raking a hand through his hair.

“No. Not until you track down what we need.”

Axel nodded, suddenly avoiding eye contact with Tessa. She had lowered her spoon back to her yogurt, and Luka said, “Finish that, Tessa.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Your days are going to be long. You need to be fueling your body, especially once your element emerges. Training with me and training with your magic is going to deplete your energy stores quickly. You need to eat multiple times a day.”

“You’re acting like I’m going to be fighting for my life.”

“That’s exactly what you would have been doing last night. Finish that,” he ordered again, jerking his chin at the forgotten yogurt. She huffed, but brought another bite to her mouth. She turned to say something to Axel, but he was already gone.

Luka was grabbing some more mats and making the training area bigger. Tessa didn’t know what was happening here, but she got an uneasy feeling in her gut.

“Luka?”

“What?”

“Where has Theon been?”

He paused for the briefest of moments. “We’ve been trying to figure out who the Night Children were working for.”

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