Page 110 of Bound to the Dreadlord

I watch her from the shadows. She is getting stronger. Her steps are more assured. Her strikes, sharper. But not sharp enough.

She still hesitates. She still fights like she expects mercy. There is no mercy in war.

I step forward, the crunch of frost beneath my boots the only sound in the silence. Sera stiffens at the noise but does not turn around. Good. At least she is learning not to react so easily.

"Again," I order.

She exhales sharply, but she does as I command.

The dagger flashes in her hand as she moves through the motions I drilled into her—twist, lunge, feint, strike. It is fluid, it is practiced, but it is still too controlled. Too human.

She is not supposed to be human anymore.

I move. Faster than she expects.

She does not see me coming until my blade is at her throat.

The shock in her eyes is a mistake. One I will carve out of her if I have to.

"You hesitate," I murmur.

Her fingers tighten around the dagger, but she does not strike. Another mistake.

I slam her backward into the stone wall. Not hard enough to break—just enough to make her remember.

"You hesitate, and you die."

Her breathing is uneven, the cold making her lips a shade too blue. Her pulse flutters against my blade. But it is not fear I see in her now.

It is anger.

She hates this. Hates me. Hates that I am right.

Good. Let her hate me.

Loathing is sharper than hesitation.

I step back and she lunges.

This time, she does not hesitate.

The dagger in her hand slashes toward my arm. I parry, sidestepping, but she is faster than before. She forces me back, her strikes wilder, untamed. There is no grace in her attack now, only survival.

The way she moves—reckless, desperate—it is almost beautiful.

Almost.

Her foot slips on the frost-slick stone. The moment is hers to take, but she loses it.

I punish her for it.

I grip her wrist, twist, and force the dagger from her grasp. A single breath, and she is pinned beneath me again.

"Dead," I growl.

She shudders, frustration seething beneath her skin.

"Again."

---