Fate

2

Chapter 2

Kellan held his hand out for me to take. "Let's go again."

I groaned and took his hand. "Again? We've already done this a hundred times."

"And look where you end up each time? You need to work on this until you get it right."

"Were you a drill sergeant at some point in your life?"

"You can't distract me, Julia. We're going again."

I rolled my eyes.

Kellan came at me and just as he went to grab my arm and pin it behind me, I ducked around him and kicked his leg out from under him. He fell onto his back and stared up at me. "Better."

"Better? That's all I get?"

"Keep doing it and maybe you will."

"I will totally kick."

"Do it. But don't expect me to lay here and do nothing."

I sighed.

He got to his feet and got back into a fighting stance. "Again."

I groaned. "Come on. I'm exhausted. And wasn't it you who said I needed to rest?"

He ran towards me without a word. Luckily, I was paying attention and ran out of the way, screaming as I did so. I ran behind a tree and brushed the hair from my face. Kellan kept coming for me, his body moving effortlessly like he'd been doing that dozens of times.

As he got closer, I kept my eyes on his hands, watching to see when he would strike. His foot inched toward me and I ran back into yard. Once I heard he was close enough, I whipped around and connected my foot to his ribs. I knocked him to the ground with a smile on my face.

"I forgot how much this hurts." He said, slowly sitting up.

"This is fun."

"I leave the two of you alone for a few hours and she's already beating you up?"

I looked up and Lucy was in the air, heading for us.

"I'm training her." Kellan said, getting to his feet. He had a hand on his side.

"You let him train you and not me? I'm offended." Lucy said, landing just a few feet away from us.

"He wouldn't take no for an answer."

Kellan rolled his eyes.

"I'm going to say something stupid and assume you didn't find him." I said.

Lucy sighed. "No. But I'm not giving up. Did you find anything on his phone?"

I glanced at Kellan. "Nothing that made sense to us. We don't know how to use phones."

Lucy laughed. "Let me take a look."

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"I don't recognize these numbers at all. I don't even have them in my phone. But they're dated for two years ago. This can't be related." Lucy said, holding both phones in her hands.

"How can he just leave with no warning? This isn't like him." I said, pacing the length of the living room.

For the few weeks I knew Aryan, he seemed unlikely to disappear without a trace. He was loyal to Lucy, to me. He wouldn't have left without a good reason. This didn't seem like one.

Why would he have left while he was still recovering? He cried over broken phones and mourned the loss like it was a friend. I assumed he was the same with an injury of any kind.