Of Life and Death: [A Dark Academia Paranormal Romance]

Chapter 31

RYLAN

She takes wild jabs at me, stabbing the air each time I leapaway. Now I land behind her and she spins around, face red from exertion andjust the littlest bit of irritation. Falling into stance again, we start a slowdance around each other. My lips twitch.

"You won't be laughing for much longer," she says.She lunges, focused ruthlessly on my shoulder. Last minute, I block, knockingher wrist with the heel of my palm. The dagger falls to the ground and when shemakes a dash for it, I grab her, pinning her to me with just the slightestpressure on her neck.

I lean down. "Always," I say against her ear,breathing hard, "have your full attention on your opponent, not on onlywhere you aim to attack."

Her elbows come down on my arms and she wrenches out of mygrasp. I grin. "Impressive."

She picks her blade off the ground, coming at me again. Thistime I attack, feinting a right just to place the tip of my dagger against thesmooth line of her throat.

Time suspends.

When my eyes start to fall to her lips, she uses thedistraction, swiping at my weapon with hers. A dangerous clash echoes. When shemakes to strike again, I parry swiftly, backing her into the forest.

Her eyes snap down and I have only a moment to clock hernext plan before she kicks out a leg. I intercept her instantly. Done withthis farce, I make quick work of the blade in her hand, knocking it out of herhand, and then I pin her to me once again.

Her chest heaves rapidly, breaths tearing out of her. For asplit second, my eyes focus on the rise and fall of her chest and when I feelmy muscles tighten, I let her wrench out of my grip.

She saunters over to the fallen blade, scooping it upquickly. "I guess knives aren't just for me then."

"Just because you weren't good at it the first timedoesn't mean you won't do better at it next time," I say. "You're goingto need a lot of practice."

"Nice," she says absently, already picking up abow. She pulls on the string as if to test its strength, her arm lifting up bydegrees. She releases it suddenly and a thwack sounds. She swervesaround, excited. "Cool."

"Yeah, well, we need to get back to learning firemaneuvers. The night is not getting any younger."

Her eyes suddenly dim. "Yeah. Right."

We start to head down to the thatch of grass next to astream. Voice tight and anxious, she suddenly says, "Hey, what if... Whatif I don't summon dark matter?"

I look down at her briefly. "It's an inherent power youhave-- there's no option of not being 'able' to summon it."

Those crystal blue eyes soften with relief, and a fleetingemotion that I can't decode. They come up to hold mine with a warmth thatsuddenly makes me feel uncomfortable. "But if your knife fighting skillsare any indication of your wielding, then we might as well serve you up to theTelks on a silver platter," I add.