by D. N. Hoxa
“Listen, Nash, I know this isn’t fair to you to have to train up here with me when everybody else is down there.” He should have been training with them, because Lucian was right: they were a team. They needed to train together because they were going to fight together. “I can’t thank you enough for doing this.”
“It’s okay. I’m glad I got to take a break up here with you,” Nash said. “Being around the team isn’t as much fun as one might think.”
“It isn’t?” I was definitely surprised. Those people had seemed pretty decent—up until they saw me kill those devamp servants.
“The impari have a thing for people born this way, and for people made—like me. They call themselves high bloods,” Nash said, flinching. “Nobody has ever said it to my face because they do value the skin on their bodies, but that doesn’t mean I don’t feel it.”
“High bloods,” I said with a sigh. Such an asshole thing to think, don’t you agree?
“And I’m low blood, and whether they want to or not, they still treat me differently sometimes. I never let it get to me because they are not what I’m here for, but it’s nice to catch a break.” The smile on his face said so, too. And it made me want to blush, which didn’t exactly happen very often.
It also made me look away to the food in front of me, and stretched my lips into a smile, too. I didn’t think I’d ever say it, but being with Nash was comfortable. It was a breath of fresh air, not to mention how much I liked the autumn leaves that filled his eyes, or the way his upper lip looked when he smiled like that.
When did it become so hot in here?
“If you’re feeling bad about it, I know a way you can make it up to me,” Nash whispered, and I could have sworn his voiced touched my skin physically.
“You do?” I breathed, and watched him leave the fork he’d used to play with his food on the plate, then turn his body toward me. With his hands on the wooden floor, he slid and slid until his knees touched my thigh. Part of me wanted to turn to him, too, just to see what would happen, but I was stuck that way and couldn’t move.
“I need to meet with someone tomorrow. Not very far from here. You can come with me to keep me company,” he whispered. his breath blew on my cheek and made my toes curl inside my sneakers. What the hell was it with this goofy grin I couldn’t seem to get rid of?
Before I realized it, I found myself nodding. “Sure.”
“Then we can stop to grab a bite to eat on the way back.”
“Okay.”
“And then maybe you can even look at me. Who knows?” he teased—and to his credit, it worked. Suddenly, I was no longer frozen in place and my head turned toward him like…well, like I was spelled.
“There she is,” he said with a grin. He was so close to me, I could practically smell the scent of his skin—which was kind of citrusy, but with a hint of jasmine, sweet and sour at the same time, but damn delicious.
“We should get back to work,” I mumbled, because though I wanted to sit there and stare at him, smell him all day long, we really had training to get back to.
Nash’s hand caught a string of hair that had escaped from my hair tie during training, and he put it behind my ear, slightly touching my cheek as he did so. Goosebumps covered my arms. He was still as warm as I remembered him. Holding my breath to keep from sighing, I stayed put and waited for him to touch me again.
My heart beat like crazy and blood rushed to my cheeks when he put his fingers under my chin.
“We definitely should get back to work,” he whispered, but instead, his eyes, burning orange, fell on my lips and he slowly began to get closer and closer. I wanted to wrap my arms around his neck already, but I stayed put because I didn’t want to miss a second of how he looked before he sealed his lips with mine. It was a moment I wanted to remember forever.
And then…Nash started to laugh.
What?
His head fell back as he laughed with all his heart, his whole body shaking. I narrowed my brows, confused as fuck, because this was not funny to me. Not at all. Damn it, I’d wanted that freaking kiss!
Until I remembered. Until I saw his arm still outstretched, his fingers still under my chin.
Ah, shit. I’d frozen him again.
Closing my eyes, I slowly reached for my chin and his fingers, and the ice that attached them together. Way to ruin the moment, Nova.
“My God, this is amazing,” Nash said when he was done laughing. I envied him. I didn’t want to laugh. Far from it. Angrily, I grabbed his fingers and pulled down his hand. Thin pieces of ice fell on my lap.
“This has got to stop,” I hissed. What the fuck was I going to do if I kept on freezing people every time they touched me?
“I can’t help myself,” Nash said as he watched me jump up to my feet, appetite gone. “I can’t really control my magic around you.”
It was probably supposed to be a compliment, but I was too pissed off to think of it that way. “There has to be a way to stop it. It’s freaking me out.” Didn’t it know how new all of this was to me? I was barely able to keep my sanity from walking out the door as it was.
“It’s okay, Nova,” Nash said. “We’ll figure it out.”
With my hands on my hips, I sighed and closed my eyes because I didn’t want to look at him when I said what I wanted to say next: “I want to try it. I want to train the magic.” Saying my magic was too much, so I didn’t.
I heard Nash stand up. “That’s great news.”
“But outside,” I said when I could look at him again. “I don’t want to endanger anyone. And we’ll do it tomorrow, if by the end of today, I don’t manage to throw a decent fucking punch at you. Deal?”
Nash didn’t hesitate. His grin was bigger than ever before. “Deal.”
I thought this would be for the best, I guess, but I had no idea just what I was getting myself into when I said those words.
But that day, my mind full of blissful ignorance, I tried to fight with my heart and my soul, until my own legs refused to hold me any longer.
Chapter Twenty
The next morning, I waited for Nash in front of Ross’s office as he asked, hoping I wouldn’t run into anyone, not even Terrin, because I didn’t want to keep lying. I’d already lied enough.
The day before, after I hit the ground so many times I lost count, I decided that this could no longer go on. If Nash thought my magic could be trained and through it, I could convince Ross to include me in his team, I’d take it. What the hell did I have to lose, anyway? I couldn’t learn how to fight properly, not in so little time. My body, full of bruises and cuts, and maybe even some cracked bones here and there, was proof of that.
So now, after we got back from wherever Nash was taking us, we were going to start training my magic.
Fuck, it felt so weird to even think that.
Four guys with white overalls were in the training room across from me again, and having nothing better to do, I watched them with their devices in hand as they scanned the walls. Nash had brought a lot of weapons up to the old training room for me to use, but I couldn’t help but think that maybe I’d have had a better chance if I could have trained in there.
Especially when one of the people in there did something to the last wall panel to the left of the training room, and suddenly six robots jumped around him.
My jaw nearly touched the ground. What the hell were those things?
They were holograms, completely made of light that seemed to come off the wall. They were huge and white, scary to even look at.
“See something you like?” Nash said from behind me. When I jumped back, I realized I’d walked all the way to the window.
“What are they” I asked, still unable to take my eyes off the robots.
“Training gear,” Nash said. “Virtual soldiers. They can simulate battle scenes and attack you all at once.”
“How can they do that?”
“Technology. You choose a scene and fight them off, but it’s not as efficient a
s you think. They can hit you through waves of energy, but you can’t hit them,” Nash said. “No wonder nobody uses them here.”
“I would.” It sounded pretty efficient to me.
“Good thing you don’t need to. C’mon, let’s get out of here,” Nash said, and pulled me by the arm. This time, though, I didn’t freeze him, probably because he wasn’t leaking magic. He dragged me all the way to the elevator but I couldn’t look away from the virtual soldiers until the man with the scanning device pressed something on the wall and they disappeared just as fast as they’d appeared. That was definitely something I’d never forget.
“Where exactly are we headed?” I asked Nash when we got in the elevator. “And Ross knows about this, doesn’t he?”
Nash flinched. “He knows. He even gave me a car to use, but should he ask you in the future, you need to tell him that you needed a break and a ride around town to clear your head.”
“You lied!” I said, but I wasn’t as pissed off as I thought I would be. Sure, Nash used me as an excuse, but it was a reasonable excuse because I did need a break and I did need to clear my head.
“I had to. It was the only way he’d let us out of his sight,” Nash said. “Besides, a ride around town is really going to do wonders to relieve some of the tension in your body.”
“I have no tension,” I mumbled but we both knew that was a lie.
“Anyway, we’re a bit early, so we have an hour to start your training.”
My breath caught in my throat. “We said we’d do that after we got back,” I said, suddenly terrified.
“I know, but it doesn’t hurt to start now. We have time, and after the incident with the devamp servants, the Order has tripled the guards in our station. We’re going to take advantage of the tired people that served the night shift, which will end in one hour,” Nash said as we walked down the bridge Terrin had taken me through five days ago. My heart beat like crazy at just the thought of finally stepping out into the world again. It felt like such a long time…
“We’re going to just sneak out?” I’d done that—when I was a teenager. Proud to say I hadn’t missed it one bit.
“Yep. Hide in the woods across the street. It’s the perfect spot,” Nash said.
“But what if they catch us?”
He grinned. “Then we’ll pretend we were making out.” His wink brought a rush of heat to my cheeks and effectively clamped my mouth shut.
The outside air was so much better than what I remembered. I couldn’t get enough of it as Nash took us to one of the cars parked in the front. I thought we’d cross the road by foot, but then he nodded at the top of the building, and through the windshield, I began to notice the guards.
I hadn’t seen a thing the first time I came here with Terrin, but it had been dark, and I’d been more than out of it that night. Now, at least fifteen people that I could see, with big guns in their hands and dark sunglasses stood around the towers, and on the roof where Nash and I had been three days ago. It was actually nice to know that we were being guarded, because just the thought of those devamp servants returning made the blood freeze in my veins.
Nash didn’t drive far. He stopped the car in the middle of the street and waved for me to follow him outside. He took us into the dense woods on the other side of the road. It was considerably colder in there because the branches wouldn’t let the sun’s rays get through, but I welcomed the cold after days of feeling like I was being bathed in lava while Nash kicked my ass repeatedly.
“They’re going to see us,” I hissed at Nash while he led the way deeper into the woods, where the trees only grew denser. If I wasn’t mistaken, at least one of the guards had had binoculars in his hands.
“No, they won’t,” Nash said, and abruptly stopped walking. I smashed my face against his shoulder blades. Embarrassed, I jumped back and cursed my body for being so clumsy, but good thing Nash didn’t laugh to make me feel even worse.
“I really don’t think we should do this.” I was the one who said we would do this, but now that I was actually there, it didn’t sound like such a good idea anymore. In fact, it sounded like the worst idea I’d ever had. I wondered what Luke would think if he knew about this…
“We’re already here. Stop being a chicken. Just stay here,” Nash said and grabbed me by my shoulders to put me right where he wanted me—in front of a large tree trunk.
“Where do you think you’re going?” I asked when he walked backward and away from me. There were too many trees and when he was ten feet away, he barely found a spot from which he could see me, and I him. The smell of leaves and wood would have been nice had I not felt like I was about to have a nervous breakdown. As it was, I couldn’t even enjoy the feeling of freedom the woods always gave me.
“We’re going to start small,” Nash said. His voice echoed and it chased some birds away. The sound of their wings flapping and the leaves falling down was strangely pleasant.
“Nash, this isn’t going to work.” My heart beat all over my body. I could hardly fill my lungs with enough air. Hands down, this was more terrifying that facing the devamp servants.
“Sure, it is. Have some faith,” he said, still smiling like this was all just a joke. But it wasn’t. If he’d been in my skin, he would have been running for the hills by now. “I’m going to throw fire at you—just a little bit,” he added when I opened my mouth to object.”
“I’m going to freeze you,” I warned, and if I somehow managed to avoid that, I was going to freeze a fucking tree trunk. It was going to make me feel like shit.
“Oh, Nova, I love it when you tell me how weak you think I am,” Nash said, rolling his eyes. It made me want to smile, even in that situation. “Just breathe deeply. Focus on my movements. Can you do that?”
I was going to say no, but then again, he hadn’t really asked me, because before I could answer, he closed his eyes and brought his palms together in front of his face.
“Nash?” I called, just to make sure that he was still there, because it looked to me like he wasn’t even breathing.
But he was there. In the blink of an eye, bright orange flames began to burn on the tips of his fingers that were turned upward. It was still as amazing as the first time I’d seen him do this, but the fire burning all over his hands now looked more beautiful and wild with every passing second.
“Ready?” he said, and for a second, his words made no sense to me. I was so consumed by the fire that burned on his hands without burning him that I’d completely forgotten where we even were.
I was reminded soon enough, though.
I was reminded by the angry flames that were coming right at my face.
My heart stopped beating and instinct took over. My arms flew in front of my face and I refused to even breathe as I waited for the pain to hit me.
It never did.
When Nash began to laugh, what felt like years later, I risked opening my eyes.
There was nothing in front of me. No mad flames coming for me, and no fire burning on his hands. The only thing that was left of it was a perfectly round ice ball the size of a large fist, on top of the fallen leaves and broken pieces of wood right in front of my feet.
Of course, I said to myself. I do that now.
“Not funny,” I mumbled when I looked at Nash, arms crossed in front of my chest.
“On the contrary,” he said, and before I realized it, he swung his arm forward as if he were throwing something at me. He did.
It was another angry fire ball.
My back hit the tree truck but this time, I couldn’t move fast enough to hide my face behind my arms, so I saw the second the fire was about three inches away from my face, and I saw how it stopped and froze right there in the air, then fell on the ground with a loud thump.
“Stop it!” I said to Nash but instead, he swung his arms with every step he took toward me, and every time I breathed, there was another fire ball in front of my face, turning to ice and hitting the ground. And when he was done with t
he fire balls, he opened his palms toward me like two freaking flamethrowers.
Stunned from the fear of being burned, I held onto the tree behind me until Nash stopped trying to kill me, but his fire never reached me. Instead, ice covered it so fast that, if he hadn’t stopped and stepped back at the last second, his hands would have frozen together with the fire, too.
“How I wish I’d had magic,” he whispered, looking at the ground full of ice balls in all sizes, and two large shapeless pieces.
“So, this is your brilliant idea of how to train me?” I asked, incredulous. This was bullshit, and he knew it.
“No, no, this was just a test to further prove my theory,” Nash said, grinning proudly. “You, Nova Vaughn, are officially the most interesting impari I’ve ever seen or heard of in my entire life.”
“Don’t call me that,” I said instead. Impari sounded like a name for others—definitely not me.
“Don’t you see what this could mean? Nova, with your kind of magic, you could become an attack mage faster than anyone, ever!”
“No!” I hissed. Just thinking about it made me want to bury myself alive. “I’m here because of Luke, remember? I only agreed to this because there’s no other way I can convince Ross to accept me on his team. After this, I’m done.”
The smile dropped from Nash’s face. “Okay.”
“Okay?” I asked, half fearing he was kidding, but he took a step back and nodded. Relieved, I rested against the tree trunk again. “So how are you planning on training me?” Because attacking me all day long didn’t sound like a good way to go about it.
“All magic can be worked on,” Nash said. “If you can already do this,” he leaned down to grab one of the ice balls on the ground, “it means you have enough energy to work with. All we need to figure out is how to get this magic to react based on your will, not on instinct.”