Empyrean: Return of the Fire Faery Page 17

  They both lowered their arms and disengaged each other. I looked over at where the three other faeries had been watching. I gestured to Rae to come over.

  “Is there any way that you could heal these two morons?” I asked her.

  “Sure,” she said softly.

  Rae held out her hands, her imprints turned lavender as the pulses radiated from her. The air rippled around the two battered guys. Their swollen eyes became normal once more, and their noses stopped gushing. Their other bruises disappeared as well. Rafe nodded a silent ‘thank you’ to Rae and Valen smiled warmly at her.

  “You sure are handy. I wouldn’t mind keeping you around for emergencies.” He said with a calculating look in his eyes.

  “That won’t be necessary. She’s with us, and it’s staying that way.” Wakeley quickly chimed in as he stepped up next to her.

  Valen held up his hand palms out, in surrender. “It was just a thought.” He paused to look around at each of us and his gold eyes fell on me and stayed. “Are you ready?”

  “As I’ll ever be.”

  Rafe passed me his sword as the others grabbed theirs. Sabir stepped out in front of us, almost like a dance class. He stood with his back to us, showing us the basic moves of sword fighting like a choreographer would teach a dance. We worked up a pretty good sweat practicing parries, lunges, and thrusts.

  We repeated each move over and over again for hours until they were nearly second nature. Rafe and Valen stood off to the side since they already knew the basics of swordplay. Sabir eventually had us pair off to practice sparring. We put on safety pads before beginning, to prevent any injuries. Of course, Rae and Wakeley paired off together. Saffi and I smiled at each other as we faced off.

  “Some of the best sword fighters are the ones that can anticipate their opponent’s next move. That’s a God-given talent that can’t be taught.” Sabir announced to the group. “For those who don’t have that talent, you must learn to have quick reflexes instead. You’ve gotta be fast on your feet. So with that, let’s begin.”

  Saffi and I went easy on each other as we got used to using our new moves on an actual opponent. I found that I was actually enjoying myself and was good at it. Apparently, fencing could’ve been my thing if it was still taught at school.

  I struck Saffi’s pads more than she was able to strike mine. Finally, she conceded defeat, ready to take a break. I felt energized, ready to go some more. I looked over at Rafe, and he grinned at me before he grabbed one of the swords leaning against the wall. He strode confidently to the middle of the training field. He stopped a few feet in front of me and swiped the sword a couple of times, challenging me.

  “You ready for this?” He asked, his eyes sparkling with mischief.

  “Definitely,” I grinned and hopped from foot to foot.

  Everyone around us quieted down and stepped back to watch. I ignored them and focused on my gorgeous adversary. An adversary that had a very cocky smirk on his face. As hard as I was crushing on the blue faery, I was so ready to wipe that look off of his face and replace it with a look of shock as I beat him.

  “No padding?” I asked him as we slowly circled each other.

  “Nope. I’m good.”

  “Suit yourself.”

  He came at me then. He liked being the aggressor and lunged for my shoulder. I parried the attack, knocking his sword out of harm’s way. He gave me a look that said ‘lucky block’ and advanced on me again. This time, he aimed for my chest. Again, I blocked the thrust and then spun out of the way. I came back on the attack and went for his groin area. Rafe parried the shot at the very last second and hopped back. His eyes widened at how close I’d come to maiming him. I returned the look with a super sweet smile.

  “Oh! I see. You like to fight dirty. We’ll see about that.” He said and crouched low, ready to get down to serious business.

  We both advanced at the same time, and our swords clashed, locking together. I tried to use all of my strength to push him back to retreat, but it was pointless. When it came to strength, there was no way I was going to win. Rafe pressed down and swiped his sword down in a circular motion against mine. The force ripped my sword right out of my hand, and it went flying across the yard.

  I ran to retrieve it but was caught up around my waist. Rafe had wrapped his free arm around me tightly from behind and placed the sword harmlessly against my neck.

  “Do you surrender?” He whispered in my ear.

  “Not on your life.”

  I stamped down on his foot. A yelp burst from his lips. I grasped his arm, like when we first met, pushed back and with all my strength came forward, using the momentum to throw him over my body and to the ground. Rafe grunted as he hit the dirt floor. Again, I grabbed his sword and straddled his chest, placing the sword against his neck.

  I smiled brightly. “Déjà vu?”

  Before I could become too smug, Rafe reached up and grabbed my waist and lifted his legs. He pushed me up and back over his head like I was a ragdoll. It happened so fast that I was completely disoriented as I flipped and thudded to the ground, flat on my back. Now, he was on top of me, holding my hands above my head, before I could even catch my breath. I looked up at him in shock.

  “Yeah. I could’ve disarmed you the night we met, but…I chose to let you think you had one-upped me.” His eyes sparkled, and his imprints waved. “Besides, I was too mesmerized by how beautiful you were to fight back.” He grinned before leaning down and giving my nose a quick peck.

  Rafe jumped up and held a hand out to help me off the ground. I reluctantly took the offered hand and thought seriously about throwing him to the ground again, but that would’ve made me a sore loser, so I let it slide. For now.

  As he pulled me up, he continued to pull until I was in the circle of his arms, soothing my wounded pride. He held me that way for a few moments and then pulled back to look down at me. He unwrapped me and raised his hands to my face, brushing his thumbs across my freckled cheeks, which seemed to have become his new favorite thing to do.

  “You were incredible, Immy. A natural.” He smiled down at me.

  I shook my head, and he immediately put a stop to it.

  “No, don’t do that. Don’t make less of your accomplishments. Don’t hide behind the clouds to diminish your shine. Be proud of it. Radiate it,” he said seriously.

  “Thanks, Rafe,” I said bashfully.

  I looked away from the intense gaze he was giving me and saw that we were still the center of attention. I quickly pulled away from him and walked over to pick up my sword. I felt Valen’s eyes on me the whole time. I was still unsure of his intentions, but his penetrating stares were definitely putting me on edge.

  Valen called for a break from training to eat a late breakfast. Everyone filed into the great hall, and we sat in the same seats we had the night before. We all chatted amicably during the meal, though the conversation did become strained at times when Valen focused his attention on me. Rafe would tense and get grumpy.

  It wasn’t long before we were back out to continue our training. Valen wanted us to train as much as possible in the short time we had, before moving on to the next gauntlet. So next, we started on hand to hand combat, in case we lost our sword during battle. This, I was more familiar with, since it’s what my dad had pretty much taught me.

  Valen walked up to me with a confident smirk. “Now it’s my turn.”

  “Alright.” I glanced over at Rafe. He didn’t look exactly pleased, but it wasn’t like he had much say.

  “Don’t go easy on me, because I won’t on you.” Valen raised a dark brow.

  “Okay, though you might end up wishing you never said that,” I said confidently, trying to remember Rafe’s words earlier about not diminishing my shine.

  “We’ll see.”

  We both crouched low and circled each other, sizing the other up and trying to anticipate the other’s moves. Valen sprang at me, deciding to attack me straight on. With all the strength I had, I raised my ha
nds and used the heels of my palms to smack him in the face. Right above the cheek bones, in the eyes. The muscular elf stumbled and hissed at the sting I left behind. I grinned sassily.

  Next, he tried to attack my right side. I anticipated it and was ready. I used the side of my opened hand and karate chopped him in the neck, hitting his carotid artery with blunt force. The hit brought him to his knees, and he cringed as he rubbed the tender spot.

  The crowd that had gathered to watch clapped enthusiastically at my quick moves. I smiled brightly and took a bow, which was when I made the fatal mistake of turning my back on my opponent.

  I felt arms wrap around my chest and waist, at the same time that they held my arms down at my sides. I didn’t have the mobility to elbow him. He lifted me off of my feet, and he was so tall that I couldn’t stomp my foot down on his. I kicked back at his shins, but that didn’t seem to affect him in the least. I even tried a backward head butt. He just moved his face out of the way of my blows. I only had one other option, and I was hesitant to do it, but he’d told me not to hold back. So…

  With my arms pressed firmly to my sides, I could only reach forward and grab his forearm, which did nothing. Or I could reach backward. My hand reached down and back to what my dad said was the most sensitive part of a man, and I squeezed. I was released immediately, and Valen yelped in pain. His face screwed up, and I let go. He doubled over and breathed heavily. Our audience, who had thought I was done for, all burst out in cheers.

  Rafe and the other faeries came forward. Rae held a hand over Valen and healed his swollen privates as Rafe and Wakeley high-fived me.

  “Nice.” Saffi nodded.

  “Thanks,” I grinned.

  Once Rae was done healing Valen, he stood. Surprisingly, he was grinning.

  “Nice work, Immy.” He complimented and then gave me a sportsman-like smack on the butt.

  My first instinct was to smack him, but a fist with blue imprints beat me to it. Rafe’s fist connected with Valen’s jaw. Valen fell to the ground once more. Rafe’s face was furious, and Valen’s actually looked smug. The rest of us had our mouths hanging open in shock.

  “Keep your hands off of her!” Rafe growled, pointing a finger at the downed elf.

  Rafe turned away and stormed off of the training grounds and into the castle. I followed close behind. When we were out of earshot, I ran up to him and grasped his elbow to spin him to face me.

  “What in the hell was all that about, Rafe? And why in the world were you trying to kill each other earlier today?” I asked.

  “Because he keeps trying to flirt with you and you’re mine,” Rafe said practically beating his chest like a caveman.

  “I’m yours?” I scoffed.

  “Yes.” He stepped closer to me.

  “Hold up there, McFly.” I pressed my hands to his chest to push him back, though the muscles there felt amazing and I was reluctant to pull my hands away.

  “‘McFly?’”

  “Never mind.” I shook my head. “First of all, I can take care of myself. I was getting ready to hit him when you jumped in like a crazy person. And second, that’s really sweet and all, but you don’t own me like a piece of property. And by the way, all we did was kiss last night, that doesn’t make us husband and wife or whatever you guys call it here. Hell, we haven’t even discussed what we are to each other.” Rafe scowled at me, but I pressed on. “I’m mine, and if I want to, I will be the one to decide whether you can share the best parts of me…and maybe the worst parts too, but that’s beside the point. I mean, we don’t even know how all this is going to turn out or if I’ll have to go back when it’s all over. So could you cool it with the macho caveman crap?” I finished my rant.

  The muscles in his jaw flexed several times like he wanted to disagree. In the end, he nodded his head once. Then he turned on his heel and stormed off, more than likely to go pout somewhere.

  “Uh…that doesn’t mean I wasn’t hoping for another kiss at some point,” I said to his back. I held up my hands and stretched my neck out in question, as I watched him walked away. “Guess not,” I grumbled and turned to go back outside.

  Chapter 25

  Rafe

  Our training continued for the next several days. We practiced and sparred until our muscles ached, our hands bleed, and our bodies were ready to pass out from exhaustion. Then Rae would heal us for the night, and we’d be back at it in the morning.

  I now understood why the elfin army was so fierce and had been used in battles centuries before. There had been peace for hundreds of years, but they always made sure that their army was ready at a moment’s notice.

  Through it all, Immy was a champ. She was a natural born warrior. She had already been skilled at hand-to-hand combat and grappling. But her skill with a sword as a beginner was becoming legendary. By the end of the week, she had nearly bested every soldier in Valen’s army, including myself, Wakeley, and Sabir.

  As Sabir had put it the first day of training. Some had a natural born talent to anticipate their opponent’s next move. Imogen was that person. We even tried to come at her two, three, or four at a time, just to test her. It was like she had eyes in the back and sides of her head. She just had this innate ability to know where her adversaries were at all times. It was something to behold.

  I wanted to compliment and praise her, but I was still being stubborn. I still nursed my wounded pride from what she had said that first day of training. It was hard to get past.

  I saw how my imprints reacted when I touched her now. I felt the soul surge. I knew she was my lifemate. Every faery knew how it worked. It wasn’t a question of ‘will this work out’, ‘will we or should we be together’. It just was. You had the soul surge, and that was it. You were together for life.

  No faery had ever soul surged with a human before. So I didn’t know how to move forward with someone that was so unsure of how it was supposed to go. The kiss. The soul surge. That was enough for me. Enough to tell me that I was hers, and she was mine. But her strong-willed personality wasn’t having any of it.

  She did try to sweeten me up with kind words, soft touches, and puppy dog amber eyes. She almost weakened my resolve a couple times. But thoughts of her leaving and going back to Earth, even when she knew we were lifemates, scared me to death. I didn’t want to get any closer to her, only to be devastated when she left. If she wanted more, she was going to have to be the one to make the next move.

  Chapter 26

  Imogen

  Rafe was once again giving me that pensive, dark look across the training field. He was still pouting, and nothing I did seemed to change his attitude towards me. He was being a big ol’ baby in my opinion. I was still new to this world and all its rules and customs. I’m an outsider, so how am I to know if I’d be allowed to stay when this is all said and done?

  Did you ever consider that the choice is actually yours? Daegan weaseled his way into my thoughts.

  What?! I gave him a skeptical look.

  No one has said that you have to go back. No one but you. If he soul surged with you, did you ever stop to think that it means you were meant to stay? He thought logically.

  I…well…I don’t know. I stammered, truly stumped.

  Well, just take a moment and let that sink in.

  He left me with that little bit of food for thought and sauntered off like he often does when he’s made a great point and wants you to stew about it.

  Evil one-horned devil. I snickered.

  I heard that!

  Smooches!

  I turned back to watch Saffi and Rae spar with each other as Sabir watched and critiqued them. It was our last day of training. Tonight we would celebrate. Again. Then in the morning, we’d set off towards Myrkur once more. Towards the next gauntlet. Whatever it may be. I prayed it wasn’t worse than rock giants or massive trolls, though I highly doubted it.

  At least this time around, though, I’ll be going into battle with added skill and more confidence. This week alone opene
d up things about myself that I hadn’t known. It felt good to feel kickass. Everyone had remarked and praised my natural skill. I even embarrassed Sabir when we went head to head. I could’ve burst out of my skin over it, but I remained humble and subdued as I shook his hand after I’d helped him up from off the ground.

  “Alright, Imogen,” Sabir said, pulling me out of my musings. “Let’s go one more round before our training comes to an end. I’d at the very least like to redeem myself.” He grinned at me.

  “You’re on!”

  I grabbed the sword I’d been using and stepped out into the field.

  ~~~

  Bang! Bang! Bang!

  Valen smacked his mug against the long dinner table, grabbing everyone’s attention. We were all dressed up like the first night we came to Älva Mountain, finishing up a celebratory dinner. As usual, I sat next to Rafe, but he’d been quiet through most of the meal as he had been most of the week. Even the celebration of finishing our training couldn’t bring him out of his morose mood. And I knew I had some apologizing to do before we left in the morning. The last thing we needed was to deal with a rift between the two of us when we needed to be working together.

  I reached over and clasped his hand, in a silent ‘I’m sorry’. His imprints rippled and changed colors. Inwardly, I breathed a sigh of relief that that hadn’t changed. But he quickly pulled his hand away from mine, and I sighed audibly.

  “Attention! Attention everyone!” Valen bellowed across the big room, pulling my attention back to him. “I’d like to say a few words to Imogen and her band of warriors.” He smiled down at me and then made eye contact with the others. “Thank you for going into battle for us. For this realm. We couldn’t be more grateful. And thank you to my army for being willing to go to battle with them.”

  The elf soldiers banged their mugs on the tables throughout the room. Valen looked at Sabir and nodded his head. The captain of the elfin army stepped forward with a dark red velvet sack with a gold braided cord wrapped around the top. I noticed something long was inside of it as he passed it to Valen. The elf king took the bag and untied the golden cord. The velvet sack fell away, and he pulled out the sword that had been in his treasure room. A hush fell over the entire room as they saw the beautifully crafted weapon.