Page 50 of House of Ashes
“Again,” I gasped, when Kirana stepped back, the cool determination on her face giving way to concern.
She scowled, and attacked without giving me time to settle into my guard stance.
I managed a single thrust that nearly disarmed her, but she easily parried the blow, ripping the sword out of my hands.
Her mouth still firmly set, she picked it up, handed it back to me, and attacked again.
And again. And again.
Sparring with Kirana had made one thing very clear to me: I was leagues and bounds out of practice, practically a child in comparison to her. My muscles remembered the forms, but were still too wasted to keep up.
She was trying to force me into quitting, but all I could think of was the fact that failure meant we’d all end up executed.
If I couldn’t fight, I was dead weight.
Kirana delivered one ‘death’ blow after another, disarming me more than once, and my body screamed for mercy.
But the world did not have mercy to give, nor time.
The final time she disarmed me, I let out a cry against my will as my shoulder knotted, my fingers spasming around the sword’s grip.
“That’s enough,” Kirana said harshly. “I’m calling it now. We’re done.”
The last thing I wanted to do was stop, but my body physically couldn’t take anymore. It had been an hour straight from the Nine Hells.
I stumbled to the wall, barely managing to lower my sword before I dropped it.
If I’d thought my exercises before the practice were hard, I’d been sadly mistaken. This was a thousand times worse, every muscle screaming, legs trembling and cramping.
Gods, maybe this would actually be the last thing I’d do before I died.
In contrast, Kirana’s clothes were soaked with sweat, her face red as she puffed for breath, but she wasn’t knocking on Nakasha’s Gates. She drank from a glass bottle and handed one to me.
I took the proffered water and drank greedily, rivulets escaping the corners of my mouth to run down my chin. “This time tomorrow?” I rasped out, coughing a little when I’d finished drinking.
Kirana wiped her face, exhaling slowly. Her eyes were bright against her flushed face.
“This time tomorrow,” she agreed, but she scowled while she said it, the line between her brows a deep groove. “But you need to think about what I said.”
“I already did.” I lifted my chin, daring her to argue.
“What are you supposed to be thinking about?” a husky, all-too-familiar voice asked.
Rhylan leaned against the doorway, wearing pants, thank the gods, but his chest was still covered in sweat from his own outdoor training.
It was only because I was exhausted enough to collapse that I couldn’t pull my gaze away from the dense muscles of his shoulders and chest, or the long, smooth V of muscle dipping into his pants. He was simply…something to focus my eyes on while the room spun around me.
“You talk sense into her,” Kirana snapped, pushing past her brother and leaving me alone with the half-naked, sweaty dragon.
I didn’t have the energy to be embarrassed about my current state as he looked me up and down. Rhylan slowly raised an eyebrow.
I raised my own. “You might as well tell me to stop doing what I’m doing, so I can tell you no, and we can end this argument before it starts.”
Rhylan’s look of bemusement became a slow, syrupy smile.
“And what are you doing that you’re not supposed to be doing?” he asked. His already deep voice had a hint of a purr in it, sending a shiver up my spine.
He hadn’t given me that slow grin since the day we’d flown out over the tarn.