Hidden Magic

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Time seemed to fly by, my classes remained relatively easy, apart from the more physical ones of course, my private sessions with Kaiden did not get any better, he taught me some moves with whatever weapon we were practicing with that month, and then he left me alone, seeming to not want to be anywhere near me if he could help it. Before I knew it two months had flown by and while my relationships had certainly progressed quite far, we had yet to cross the line of simply touching into full on sex, maybe I was considered a prude by Sira standards, but given what it would mean to completely commit to this relationship, to them being with me, I didn't feel comfortable taking that final step until they knew everything, all the risks, I had no excuse about Seth, given he already knew everything.

But I think with Seth it was about more than the prophecy foretelling my death if I didn't get six consorts, I knew how other Sira branch members behaved, how they acted with members of our branch and others, sex meant nothing to them, just a means to power their magic, and to me, I could never see it as that. Sex wasn't some meaningless thing you could have and forget about, there was always a connection, whether it was only in the moment or after, it meant more than just a way to generate magic, at least to me it did. Which was why I was so hesitant to take that step with Seth, afraid it wouldn't mean as much to him as it did to me.

Of course those same thoughts and worries were causing me to get my ass kicked in the hand to hand combat Kaiden had decided to spring on me today. The breath gets knocked out of me as I land hard on the mats, having just been thrown to the ground, well to be fair he hadn't thrown me, not completely at least, just knocked me off balance and than added speed and force to my fall. "Karinna! Where is your head at? You've been excelling at weapons training for the past two months, picked up skills with weapons in hours or days that would take others years to accomplish, I thought you might actually be worthy of me training you in hand to hand, but now all of sudden I am here and you can't seem to focus at all, that was an easy hold to break out of, you broke out of it two turns ago, but all of sudden you can't? Is it because it's Friday? Do I need to make you train with me on the weekend as well?" I huff and puff on the ground, my muscles burning, and my everything is covered in sweat, these private sessions with Kaiden were more exhilarating than any of my other classes.

As much as he hated me, when he was close, showing me a move, or how to maneuver a weapon, I could feel a deep attraction to him, yet all his words and actions seemed to show that it was only one sided, he was only helping me to get extra credits after all. I stop feeling sorry for myself and my one-sided crush, after remembering I have four men quite literally waiting to go out with me later today, with it being Friday, we were planning to head into the village, of course snapping out of my pity party helps me immensely because it also allows me to dodge the foot that was stomping down right towards my face.

Kaiden of course doesn't offer any apology at all, merely smirks down at me, as I glare up at him, looking pleased to have my focus on him again instead of the mess of thoughts rushing through my head. "Do I have your attention now? Good, because I don't care what kind of plans you have for today, you aren't leaving this room until you can take me down at least once, I may not enjoy being your trainer, but like hell will I allow you to be incompetent when I am taking time out of my day to train you." I sigh, trying to clear my mind, knowing that I was being rude when he was taking the time to train me, I shouldn't be focusing on anything else but training when I was here.

I give him my full focus and nod, agreeing to keep going, and as soon as I do, he doesn't give me anytime to stand up, merely continuing our fight, knocking me down, stopping just short of giving fatal wounds. "Dead. You're dead. Dead. Knocked out and then dead! DEAD! Dead! And your dead again!" Over and over he knocks me down again, I give a scream of frustration and just straight out tackle him, while I try to, it doesn't work out that way, cause he simply using my movement against me, catching my and flinging me into the wall.