Page 89 of A Crown of Tears and Treason
I tilted my head to the side, assessing him like I would an opponent. This much I had learned from Adara, to look for weaknesses.
Zandyr had none. No weird angle to his knees, no exhausted redness in his eyes, or a contorted slope to his shoulders. He was a warrior with a body that had been trained to kill and defend.
If I wanted to learn how to defend myself, I might as well try it with a prime fighter that wouldn’t actually hurt me, right? And I didn’t want him to leave just yet, especially since he’d be gone for gods-knew how long, bleeding on some ancient rocks.
“It can’t hurt,” I said, even as my heart began to patter. “How do we start?”
His smile turned feral. “Hide.”
Chapter
Twenty-Six
EVIE
This was ridiculous, but there was no stopping my smile as I climbed all the way up to the web of beams keeping my roof upright.
Was my heart beating a little too fast?
Yes.
Did I care?
Not really.
After the last few hectic days, immersed in gloom and doom, I wasn’t exactly in the best shape to be hiding in shadowy corners, but Goose’s cooking had plumped my limbs and Adara’s lessons had made them stronger. She always got me as close to exhaustion as she could without me fainting, which left little energy and speed to tackle her.
I needed this reprieve about as much as Zandyr seemed to.
I couldn’t think about all the awful things from my past when my body was focused on survival, now could I? Even if we were pretending.
“I can hear you.” Zandyr’s deep voice creeped through every crack, straight into my veins.
I grinned, grasping the beam underneath me tighter. Adara was right. My grip was better.
Zandyr prowled underneath, dark hair catching the moonlight daring to intrude in the darkness. We’d snuffed out the candles, one by one, leaving us alone in the shadows. Apart from the light of the moon and stars blinking inside, we couldn’t see anything. Or I couldn’t, who knew what skills Zandyr hid behind those ice eyes.
And he was huntingme.
My house had turned into one big pretend trap, where I was supposed to pose as prey.
All my years of trying to make myself small and scarce in the mountains helped. I couldn’t get chided or criticized if my parents couldn’t hear me.
Easier to ignore.
Harder to catch.
I crawled toward a corner where the beams intersected underneath the cornice, leaving a small groove. I stuck my chin in the wood.
“Can you, now?” my voice vibrated through the wood, dissipating through the house.
Zandyr’s dark chuckle followed, the rich sound blending in with mine. “You’re full of surprises, menace.”
I barely managed a small smile when a blur leaped up behind me.
My heart jumped in sync with my body, as I sprung toward the next beam and spidered my feet across it soundlessly, Zandyr hot on my trail.
He was faster.
