Chapter 50 The Silver Captain pt1
My knees hit the ground hard, the silver armor doing little to cushion the fall. I brace my hands on the ground, staring in denial at the cobblestones. The courtyard around me seems completely different from when we arrived. There are stakes of wood sticking out in random places, ready to impale me against them. The ground has been disturbed, the cobblestones jutting out here and there so it would be easy to trip and die a horribly painful death.
Zaries has always been quick to learn, always first to master any skill he set his mind to, but this is different. I can feel him move around me. I can see the wind shift in his wake, but I can’t see him at all. He’s moving too fast.
“Zaries is the best student I’ve ever had,” Steel brags.
My eyes dart to him for a moment, hatred hissing through my bared teeth. He’s laughing, calm like this is all nothing to him. As if I’m not fighting for my life like he couldn’t be bothered. Like he doesn’t want to be here at all. Beside him, his stallion and his second flank him. Bastian, an enormous black alicorn with white hooves, seems to enjoy watching me get my ass kicked as much as his master. Breaker, an unremarkable-looking man, blows shaggy brown hair out of his eyes as he keeps score of every hit I take.
For the first time since arriving here, training is happening in the sparring courtyard, and everyone who lives in Hellbane seems to be in attendance. Some hold their breath in shock, some are grinning and clapping. Malachi is collecting bets on how long it takes me to die. They form a circle around the makeshift sparring area, watching us fight as if they need to see the blood to live.
The never-ending storm hovering over Hellbane seems to be holding its breath, refusing to crack thunder or flash lightning while it too watches. The rain, however, never lets up. A drop slips down my brow, almost in slow motion. I keep track of its pace as it slides down, down…
There!
A puddle to my right trembles ever so slightly and in the nick of time, I roll out of the way. I push to one knee, my right foot braced to launch me in the air, and I roar at where I assume Zaries is standing.
“Are you going to kill me or what?” I scream, launching myself into the air with both daggers raised above my head.
A thick arm collides with my stomach, folding my body over it as the inertia of my jump keeps flinging me forward. Zaries wraps his arm around me and pins me to his chest, and though I can't see him, I can smell the steel and leather that barely covers the smell of his sweat on his skin.
He chuckles lightly, running the backside of his sword against my neck. “I will,” he brags, “I’m having too much fun as it is. I never knew you to be so…weak.”
Anger rips through me and I thrash in his arms. I’m trying to stab him anywhere I can, flailing wildly and screaming while the crowd cheers.
Zaries laughs and spins me away from him as if we’re dancing. He keeps a hold on my wrist as he does so, his roguish smile splitting his face nearly in half.
Using his inertia, I spin myself back toward him, bringing one of my ruby daggers to the edge of his jaw with a flourish. “I am not weak,” I whisper, nicking the edge of his jawbone with a flick of my wrist.
“Sneaky little—” Zaries growls, but his voice cuts off when I deliver a sharp elbow to his gut.
I slide away from him on my knees, splashing the torrential rain puddles as I go. Silver sprays of water dance between us, glittering in the lightning flashes. Zaries is smiling at me, smiling in a way I haven’t seen him smile in years.
He bends and picks up his twin swords, swishing them between us with mesmerizing expertise.
I stand slowly and cock a brow at him while I spin my daggers between my fingers. “Come and kill me then, if you can,” I taunt him.