Page 30 of Illusory

“Great,” I said, fake smiling. “Ready when you are.”

She quickly tossed her own phony smile right back at me. “I was fucking born ready.”

Less than thirty seconds later, I had her hurdling through the air again, bellowing out in pain as her body hit the floor in an awkward heap of scrambled limbs and matted hair. If I wasn’t so ticked off with her, I might have felt bad about it.

“You sure you don’t need a break, Tess? You’re looking a little turned around today,” I informed, trying to get under her skin and not even bothering to hide it. Apart from the fact that it felt good to knock her down a peg, it also made her angry and when Tessa was angry, she fought better.

She pushed up from the ground again, this time faster as though trying to prove me wrong. “I’m fan-fucking-tastic,” she sneered, her jaw tight as she schooled her expression into one devoid of any emotion.

But I could still read her like an open diary.

“Does your body know that?” I asked, gesturing to the slight but noticeable limp in her left leg.

Her eyes stayed fixed on mine when she replied, “Eat shit.”

“Oh, that’s okay. I think you’re eating enough of it for theboth of us.”

Tessa’s fragile composure cracked like a cheap mirror as she charged toward me, her eyes blazing with rage. A dark thrill nestled under my skin as the drumbeat of war pounded in my head. With my jaw clenched tight and my fist even tighter, I lunged right back at her, eager to wipe her face with my fist again. For every time she stuck her nose into my business and made everything worse. For every time she let my calls go to voicemail. For every time she kept the truth hidden from me. This was personal in so many ways.

My knuckle slammed into her cheek, bone crunching against bone as Tessa’s head swung back before throwing her own hit at me and missing. Her other hand came out just as quickly, open palm with her nails carving into my cheek as I kicked at her injured leg and then went for a fistful of her hair. Neither of us were using any combat techniques at that point and were just angrily swinging at each other, trying to see who could inflict the most amount of damage with the least amount of grace.

“That’s enough,” snapped my mother from the doorway, halting the two of us in our tracks and nearly startling the Holy Spirit right out of my body.

I had no idea how long she’d been standing there watching us or just how much of the shit show she had witnessed, but her icy tone let me know exactly what she thought of our outburst.

“Leave us,” she ordered, speaking to Tessa then. “You’re done for the day.”

“Like hell I am. I said I’m perfectly fine. I can do this all night,” she insisted and then tried to retake her combat position while attempting to hide the limp in her leg from our mother.

Jaqueline’s steely eyes zeroed right in on it. “Wash up andget that ankle wrapped up before you give yourself permanent damage. You can resume training tomorrow once its healed.”

Tessa dropped her fists and fired a glare at our mother. “This is such bullshit. It’s a fuckingbruise, Jackie. I’ve worked through much worse than this.”

“I’m sure you have,” said Jaqueline, the picture of absolute calmness. “But you’re still done here.”

Tessa’s gaze shot to mine as though she were expecting me to step in and back her up.

“You heardMother. Run along now,” I said instead, smiling as I gave her an obnoxious wave goodbye.

“Whatever. Fuck you both,” she bit out as she grabbed her personal effects from the corner of the room and then stomped out of the dining room,limpingand muttering curse words like a salty-ass sailor caught in a squall.

I’d be a liar if I said the whole thing hadn’t been completely satisfying to watch.

“Thanks for that,” I said when I was sure that Tessa was out of earshot before making my way over to the windowsill to retrieve my phone and water bottle. “She would’ve dragged that pissing match on all night if you hadn’t stepped in. Not that I minded,” I added as I turned on my phone and quickly thumbed through the notifications, “but it was starting to feel a little like cheating if you know what I mean.”

Jaqueline didn’t answer, and frankly, I could care less.

“Anyway, see you in the morning,” I said with my face still buried in my phone as I turned on my heel to leave.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

I paused to peer over my shoulder at her, my brows furrowed in confusion. “Huh?”

“We’re not done here.”

“But you just…and she…” I pointed at the hallway that Tessa had disappeared through just moments ago. “You saidwe were done.”

“No. I saidshewas done.”

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