Page 157 of The Forsaken Heir
“Sure you can, otherwise you couldn’t say that. How would you get out of this? Try to remember some of the things I showed you earlier.”
Even though I knew I was in no danger, her arm across my throat made it hard to think. My brain flipped through all the moves she’d drilled into me, but it was all a blur.
Delphine squeezed harder, making stars flash across my vision. “Hurry. Your life might depend on it one day.”
Finally, like a drowning woman grasping at a life preserver, I remembered a move that might actually work. Before she could adjust, I bent forward and planted my left leg beside hers. Using my core to flex back and twist, I managed to free my chin from her grip and pull her arm behind her, twisting until she let out a little hiss of pain.
“Very well done,” she said as I released her. “Now let me show you how to finish that.”
We traded places, and she got me into the same position I’d had her in at the end.
“Watch,” Delphine said, moving slowly and deliberately.
She grabbed my shirt collar with her free hand, released my wrist, and yanked my chest up. When I was upright, she took her other hand and shoved it toward my face, the heel of her palm stopping an inch in front of my nose.
“Boom,” she said, and then tapped the bridge of my nose with a finger. “If a human hit you like this, all it would do is break your nose. A good way to incapacitate someone, but not enough to finish them. Even though you don’t have full shifter strength, you’re still much stronger than the average human. You hit them here? Like this? You break that bone above the nose and send it crashing back into their brain. Good night and goodbye.”
“Holyshit, Delphine.” I touched my nose and imagined that happening to me. “That’s a little, uh, morbid.”
She shrugged, and dusted off her pants. “Morbid, but it works.”
I cleared my throat. “Have you, umm, everdonethat to someone?”
The thought of sweet, good-natured Delphine actually killing someone felt strangely disjointed. Like I’d found myself in some weird alternate universe.
“Not that I know of,” she said, somewhat offhandedly.
“That youknowof?” I gaped at her.
She waved me off. “Stuff happens fast. Most of my fighting days were a long time ago. What’s in the past is in the past.”
“I think that’s enough for today,” I said. “Let’s head back. See what new horrors await us.”
“You have a lovely way with words, my dear,” Delphine said and joined me.
“How was all that?” Sahalie asked as Delphine, and I stepped into the kitchens. We’d built up a raging appetite.
“How was what?” I asked.
She nudged a plate of cookies across the table toward Rasp and Vince. “They said you were training.”
“Great,” I said. “Does everyone know?”
I didn’t know why I was embarrassed. There was nothing wrong with trying to better myself, but the thought of the whole castle knowing I was learning how to fight made me feel strangely uncomfortable.
“Most everyone,” Vince said, taking a bite of his cookie.
Rasp rolled his eyes at Vince. “Word gets around,” he said.
“Are you upset that we know?” Sahalie asked, frowning at me.
“I’m… I don’t know. It was supposed to be sort of private, I suppose.”
The fae girl nodded sagely. “That makes sense. Combat training can be very intimate. Much like sex.”
Rasp coughed, spraying a mouthful of soda across the table. Vince froze in place, his hand hovering above another cookie, eyes going wide. The two men couldn’t have looked more uncomfortable if they tried.
“Bodies thrashing against one another, hands grasping and clutching, sweat-slicked skin grinding against each other.” Sahalie nodded to herself. “It makes sense that you’d want that to be private.”
