After the scouts were gone, I searched the map for a while but didn’t find anything. When Ceris noticed nothing was happening, she let me go, and Alice and I resumed our fighting practice.

We were at each other for over five minutes, matching punch by punch, kick by kick, and always dodging, always parrying. Neither of us could get a good hit.

I was about to duck and swipe my feet under her, which was sure to give me an advantage, when she lowered her guard and pivoted to the door.

“My lord,” Alice and Keisha said in unison. They bowed low as Micah strolled into our improvised gym.

With a bored look, he waved his hand at them. “Girls, could you please step out and give Nadine and me a minute?”

My eyes widened as the girls hurried out of the room, and Micah finally looked at me.

I folded my arms. “What do you want?”

For a moment, he didn’t speak. He just stared at me, his black eyes wreaking havoc in my soul. It was hard not to notice how beautiful he was, especially when I was mad at him.

His long and broad figure looked too damn hot in black pants and a thermal tee and boots.

I sighed.

“Always on the defensive, darling.” His serious expression broke into his trademark naughty grin, and I fought the urge to roll my eyes at him.

“What do you want?” I repeated.

He lost the grin and those black eyes turned too serious again. “To train with you.”

“I have Keisha, and now Alice, to train with me. I’m good.”

He shook his head. “They are a good pair for physical fight training. But what about magic?”

“What about magic?”

“We’ll be dealing with deities who will first use magic as their main weapon. You gotta learn how to fight them.”

I swallowed. “You know I only used magic once, and I have no idea how to replicate that.”

He took a step closer. I wanted to retreat, but I held my ground, unwilling to show him how much his presence, his closeness impacted me. “I’m not asking you to use magic. You’ll fight with what you have.” He gestured to the weapons lining the wall.

“I don’t get it.”

“I’ll fight with magic, and you’ll use a sword.”

“How fair is that?”

One corner of his lips tugged up. “Exactly. That’s what you’ll encounter on the battlefield, and it’s not fair. You should be prepared for it.”

It made sense, of course, but I wasn’t about to tell him that. I preferred being on the defensive.

“And why aren’t you offering to train Keisha and Alice too?”

The smirk on his lips spread a little more. “Because you’re special, darling, and you deserve special treatment.”

What the hell? That angered me, but instead of confronting him, I decided to be the bigger person and walk away before things got out of hand. I took three steps toward the door and froze before the fourth step when a black bolt zoomed past me, missing me by a few inches, and hit the wall behind me.

I gaped at Micah. “Are you crazy?”

He produced black flames over his open palm. “You have no idea.”

I stared at him, shocked by his behavior. Knowing he wouldn’t really hurt me—I hoped—I walked on. Until two bolts crossed my paths, one right after another.

“What …?” I shut my mouth. I wouldn’t dignify this by actually talking to him.

“Fight!” he urged, his black eyes shining. He conjured another bolt of black flames. “Come on, darling. I know you want to get a hit or two on me. Fight!” He threw the bolt, and this time if I hadn’t jumped back, it would have hit me.

I was past words. Rage tore through me and I rushed him. His wicked smile widened as he shifted his weight, ready to attack. Two bolts appeared in his hands. But a couple of feet from him, I detoured to the side, crouched down, rolled on my back, and shot up by the weapons wall. I grabbed a wooden training sword as a black bolt flew at me. I sidestepped, and it exploded on the wall, rattling the weapons.

I took a short dagger from the wall and threw it at him just as he was conjuring another bolt. That made him stop and move, letting go of the bolt.

“Nice,” he said, his tone amused.

In the meantime, I took other daggers from the wall, hoping to use them soon.

Then Micah was on me again, throwing black balls of energy, one after another. I was able to run from a couple, and I parried a few with my sword. When they touched the metal of the blade, they exploded, rattling the sword and my arms. The first time I did that, I almost fell on my butt, but as I parried bolt after bolt, I grew used to their strength and matched it with mine.

It was hard to get to him when he was throwing his magic at me nonstop. And that was what the daggers were for. I threw one at him, forcing him to twist his shoulders to avoid being hit, which gave me enough time to race three steps to him before he could throw another bolt.

I lifted the sword over my head and yelled as I was about to strike. Micah cast a shield in the middle of the ten inches that separated us. My sword slammed into the shield and bounced back, rattling my arms and shoulders, and sending me sprawling on my back.

“Ow,” I muttered.

Before I could recover, Micah stood over me, one foot on each side of my hips, a wicked grin on his lips, and a black bolt in his hands.

He winked. “I win, darling.”

Renewed rage ripped through me. I pushed my knees to my chest and curled my hips up, freeing my legs from his. I opened my legs and swiped at him, but Micah was ready. He jumped up, and then fell on me, his knees stranding my hips and his feet on my knees.

I scanned the room and saw my sword on the floor by my side. I reached out, but it was still a few inches away from me. With his powers, Micah flicked the sword and it skittered away.

“What the hell?” I screamed.

He leaned over me, aligning his face with mine. He stared at me, the intensity of his gaze too much for words. My breath caught. For a moment, I lost myself in the depths of his black eyes, dreaming of other moments we shared like this. Moments that had given me hope that … that he liked me more than he let on. That he liked me almost as much as I loved him.

His hand shot up and his fingertips grazed my skin as he brushed a strand of hair that had come loose from my ponytail. His touch sent rivulets of want, of need into me, and I shivered.

Then his lips were mere inches from mine, and I found myself arching my back, reaching up to him.

“Like I said, darling. I win,” he said.

The spell shattered.

With a scream, I threw my hands up, intent on pushing against his chest and getting him off me. Instead, white light shone from my palms and white bolts flew up, hitting Micah’s chest and flinging him five feet in the air and all the way across the room. He hit the wall with a loud grunt. The bolts faded and he fell on his knees. I sat up, gaping at my hands. What had happened?

A cough broke my shock and I shot up, rushing to Micah as he struggled to stand. Dread and panic rose in my chest. Had I hurt him?

“Micah! Are you okay?” I went to grab his shoulders, but he started laughing. Really laughing. I froze and stared.

“That was … incredible,” he said, his voice a little hoarse.

I flinched, taking a step back. He kept laughing and I slapped his shoulder. “You scared me! I thought I had really hurt you!”

With a loud sigh, Micah’s laughter died and he looked at me, a smile on his lips. “I’m okay, darling.”

I slapped his shoulder again. “Stop calling me that.”

“Stop hitting me,” he said, but his tone was still light and teasing. “Good practice, don’t you think?”

I frowned at him. “Did you do this on purpose? To get me to use magic again?”

He shook his head. “Not really. My intention was to prepare you for what’s to come. And to spend some time alone with you. But I’m glad it happened. Now we know it’s not a fluke.”

“How do you know? I could still have channeled it from you.”

“I was paying attention, darling. I didn’t feel anything. You didn’t use my powers. You used yours.”

I raised my arm to slap him again, because I was still mad at him—for pushing me to do this and for letting me think I had hurt him—but then he closed his hand around my wrist and pivoted, pressing me against the wall with his body.

“I’m proud of you, darling,” he whispered in a husky voice.

His hard body against mine, his gruff voice, his sandalwood scent … it was too much for me. I couldn’t think straight. I knew I should be mad at him, that I should push away from him, but I didn’t have the strength to do it. I didn’t have the will. I wanted him right where he was.

Micah shifted, aligning his hips with mine, and I felt how aroused he was. I gasped.

“I’m always proud of you.” His breath danced over my lips and I leaned into him, needing to have more.

Voices and footsteps boomed from the apartment.

Micah jumped three feet away from me, and with my weak knees, I had to lean against the wall not to fall on my face.

Victor and Ceris burst into the gym first.

“What happened?” Ceris asked, looking from Micah to me. “We heard crashes and screams.”

With a serious, somber expression, Micah turned to them. “We were training.” He glanced at me and his eyes were already different. The intense and amused shine was gone, replaced by something I couldn’t quite grasp. Was it pain? Frustration? Sadness? It didn’t make sense. “Nadine was able to use her magic again.”

“What?” Victor said. He smiled at me. “That’s great.”

“No,” I said, finally pushing through all the emotions causing turmoil inside me. “It’s not great, because I didn’t do it on purpose. I still don’t know how to control it, how to call it.”

“But you did it,” Ceris said. “That must mean you weren’t channeling our magic.”

“I was paying attention,” Micah said. “She didn’t draw it from me, and I’m guessing you all were too far for her to draw from you.”

“That’s … good news,” Victor said. “I think. If you keep practicing, you’ll be able to do it again.”

I picked up the wooden sword from the floor. “Perhaps we should research more before actually letting me use it. We don’t know what kind of magic it is, or what I can do with it.”

I thought about the panic I felt when I saw Micah flying across the room. I would have killed myself if I had hurt him. I didn’t want to feel that despair ever again.

“I understand your apprehension, but we’ve been researching for days now and have found nothing. We shouldn’t let this momentum get away,” Ceris said. “We can start with small spells, things that are sure not to hurt anyone. Meanwhile, we keep researching.”

Looking at Ceris, Micah said, “I’ll leave you to it, then.”

Once more, Micah simply left. No second glances, no explanation, nothing. He just upped and left.

And I berated my stupid self for deep down hoping that one of these days he would actually stay.