Page 35 of Bound to Three Fae Beasts

I was already in Lotmas’s pavilion, setting up for the mentorship session, when she arrived. Her knapsack hung heavily down her back. Based on how stuffed full it was and how it hung on her shoulders, I guessed she’d been at the library again. Every time she came to our mentorship sessions, she had a new bunch of books with her.

“I’m not late,” she said instantly, even though I hadn’t accused her.

“We’re going to work on disarming an armed opponent today,” I said, ignoring her hostility.

Her brown eyes narrowed. I stared back at her coldly as she slung her knapsack off. Her suspicion boded well for her. If there was one universal truth in the fae, it was that everyone was out for themselves, and you should trust nobody.

She broke eye contact with a scoff. “Right. I guess you don’t want to be embarrassed again at the next practice duel.”

“It sounds more like you’re embarrassed by your poor fighting skills,” I drawled sarcastically. The truth was, I was embarrassed. Lotmas seemed to have deliberately chosen her to humiliate me.

Azriel Jones had clearly received no training in martial arts. She was a scrapper, but she didn’t know proper form to attack or defend. She’d gotten a few blows in, sure, but she had damaged herself in the process. That was not going to serve her in the future.

She pulled off her tunic and tossed it onto her knapsack. Beneath, she wore a sleeveless undershirt. The muscles of her arms bunched as she tied her hair up. The sight of her skin’s pale gleam under the magic lights of evening made heat stir in my belly. As she exposed the length of her neck, I wondered how she’d taste if I licked up her throat. How would she react? Would she respond to me, or would she be disgusted by my touch?

I quickly turned away before she could catch me staring. Flora’s continued efforts to seduce me had left me sexually-minded, it seemed. Azriel had a plain body in comparison to the beauties that were shoved at me. The school uniform hid her curves, and in the undershirt they were subtle. But they were still there.

“Right. So, disarming. Does that mean we’re going to be cutting each other up without a teacher to stop you from taking it too far?” Azriel asked from behind me.

I turned, a wooden training knife in my hand, to find that she already had a knife pointed at me. Her grip on it was good, for the most part. She could use a slight adjustment of her pinky and ring fingers, but at least she didn’t hold it in a fist that was easily broken.

“We’ll be using this for that reason,” I said, holding up the training knife.

Azriel frowned. “Huh. I didn’t think that anything other than going all out was allowed in this place.”

I fought a smile at her words. It was true, the Academy went hard on these things. Though not hard enough for some. “There’s no point in cutting you up constantly, is there? You can hardly learn if you never attend your classes. And I went easy on you during that practice duel.”

“Easy?” she repeated with clear scorn.

I stepped closer, twirling the wooden knife in my hand. She lifted her weapon higher as she tensed, her jaw tightening. Something flashed in her eyes. Not fear, exactly, but expectation. I’d seen it before when she looked at me. It was an unfortunate tell, but one I wasn’t sure I wanted to share. I had no reason to want her to hide all her weaknesses.

As her peer-mentor, there was only so much that could be expected of me. Telling her that I could see how much of a beating she was willing to take wasn’t part of it.

“Don’t pretend that you don’t know it,” I told her as I got close enough to grab her wrist if I wanted to. “I didn’t damage any internal organs. No broken bones. You know that I could have done far worse and still have been within the rules of engagement.”

Azriel’s jaw tightened further, but she didn’t argue with me. Because she knew I was telling the truth.

“That duel also showed my mistake,” I continued.

“You’re admitting you made a mistake?” Her eyes widened in false surprise.

Irritation simmered under my skin, making me roll my eyes. But at the same time, amusement tugged at my lips. How could she be so annoying and alluring at the same time? I shouldn’t have felt drawn to her. I shouldn’t have gotten an uncomfortable knot in the pit of my stomach when I thought about her going into the binding trials. But I did.

“We haven’t practiced enough formal dueling,” I said, reaching out to push her hand down.

She resisted just enough to let me know she wasn’t just going to do what I said, but then sheathed her knife back at her waist. That was a good instinct, too, keeping herself armed. She wanted to live, which was useful.

“Now. I’m going to teach you how to properly disarm an opponent,” I told her, flipping the practice knife around to give the handle to her. She took it, and I adjusted her hold on it.

Then I stepped back and had her hold her arm out as though she was lunging to cut me. I explained each step as I demonstrated, ending with the knife in my hand. Azriel’s brow furrowed in concentration as she followed along. When I was done, I took up the offensive stance and nodded at her.

“You do it now.”

Azriel reached out and grabbed my arm, sliding her foot in closer to mine as she did so. She shifted her weight in, turning so her back was pressed into my chest. The warmth of her body distracted me, so when she flowed through the final steps, I was unprepared when she took the knife from me.

With a snort, she stepped away from me. Was it just my imagination that she looked flushed?

“Right. So what about when the person knows what I’m going to do? They’re not going to just stand there and let me take their weapon,” she said, tossing her head.