Page 105 of Heir of Broken Souls

“I have a strong core!”

“Want to shout that any louder?” Harlow quips from her perch across the deck.

Elysia, who is working alongside her, chuckles behind her hand.

I wave her off and keep my gaze on Lenox. “It’s not my core.”

“It is.”

“Is not.”

“Is too.”

I’m half tempted to stomp my foot.

“Lenox,” I growl.

“Delilah.”

“It’s not my core.”

“You’re using the wrong core muscles.”

“There’s only one core!”

He barks out a laugh and the sound… The tension in my chest uncoils. Even the hammering and groans of hard labor behind me freeze entirely.

I don’t dare say anything, afraid of breaking the spell. I couldn’t even if I wanted to.

All I want to do is bask in the sound I never thought I’d hear again.

Tears burn the back of my eyes.

But the moment doesn’t last long. As if feeling the eyes on him, Lenox’s cheeks flush a deep crimson before that wall he built around his heart rises once more and he clears his throat.

“It’s a new way of using them that your muscles aren’t used to. You need to build the base of the movement.”

Clearing the emotion lodged in my throat, I dip my chin and allow him to move on, no matter how desperately I want to cling to it.

Lenox spreads his feet shoulder width apart. “You need to balance not only the weight of your wings, but the momentum of them in the direction you want to go. Your problem right now is turning.”

Following his movement, I unfurl my wings, basking in the glorious feel of the now calm ocean breeze dancing across them. The sensation sends a chill down my spine.

I can feel the heat of Knox’s gaze on my wings so in return, I give them a little flutter, something worthy of looking at.

“Engage your core, and start flapping your wings without pushing off.”

Doing as he says is no small feat. My body screams to fly, my wings wanting to take off, but I force my feet to stay rooted to the wooden deck.

“Now pretend you want to go left. What do you do in the sky?”

My body naturally tilts in the opposite direction. Lenox stops me immediately. “There’s the problem. You’re too used to flying with Aurora.”

Her loud huff draws my attention to where she remains hovering in the sky. Her eyes are narrowed at Lenox.

“Shh, he didn’t mean that,” I chastise.

“I did.”