Soul Bound

Chapter 16

The days flew passed in a blur. I could barely keep up with the ruthless routine Annalyse held me to. I slept the entirety of my rest days and trained from dawn until dusk, sometimes later, on training days. Most of the time, we were in the gym, working on my strength or on the mats honing my combat skills. On the days in between, we practiced aerial drills, continued with my readings, or focused on my Bond with Arkon and the magic we shared, which mostly consisted of us communicating telepathically. Not the real magic I was eager to get started on. Once Annalyse was satisfied I would be competent in the field, we would go look for Sasha Remoar, who was the only other person Bound to a storm dragon and she would teach me how to use lightning magic.

Today, Anna had me running laps around the base, grabbing several items from different wings as proof that I had been there. So far I'd collected a salt shaker from the mess hall, a pot from the kitchen, and a roll of twine from Taylor's Closet. I still had a whole list to go through and if I didn't complete it in time, I'd have to do it all over again.

I was already working up a sweat from carrying everything and I really didn't want to have to repeat, so I ran like a banshee through the halls. People moved aside when I called out to them, chuckling as I went. Something told me this was a typical Anna thing to do to her trainees-

My laps were immediately forgotten when I caught sight of Grayson's tall, lean form down the hallway. I hadn't seen him in weeks! "Grayson! Hey!"

Caught by surprise, he spun on his heel to face me, a hand on the hilt of his shortsword. All the tension in his body evaporated when he realised it was only me. I stumbled to a stop in front of him and dropped all my items. 

He took one look at the pot and grinned. "Anna's got you doing her little scavenger hunt, I see. Your training must be going well if she's giving you a break."

"A break??" I balked at him. "I'm sweating in places I've never sweated before!" Then I realised how disgusting that sounded and definitely didn't want him envisioning me in such a filthy state. A deep red hue take over my face. Clearing my throat, I batted loose strands out of my face and tried to appear a little more put together. "How are things going for you and Jacob? I haven't seen you since we went to Kain Castle." Since that night on the balcony. When I was actually given a moment to think about other things that weren't training related, I often thought about our talk on the balcony, how he had looked at me so openly and tenderly. A warm fuzzy feeling spread to my toes at the mere mention of it.

His expression darkened, but there was still some warmth in his gaze when he looked at me. "I'm doing better now than I have all month. It's good to see you, Eva. I've been hearing a lot of good things about you."

"You have?" I was surprised. "I kinda got the impression nobody wanted me around. Until I killed an Ogre, now everyone seems happy to have me aboard. Who knew all it took was killing a monster?

His mouth fell open, torn between shock and horror. "You did what?"

Oh. Guess he hadn't heard that part.

I waved off his concern. He was a little too late to be worried about my well being. "Oh, some Knights were picking on me, so Anna had me kill an Ogre to prove to them that I had what it took to be a Knight. It was super fun."

His face twisted into fury. "Fun? Eva, you could have been killed!"

I didn't get what the big deal was. Sure, I'd even been apprehensive when Anna first brought it up, but nobody else seemed to mind what I had done. In fact, people were rather impressed by it. I still got fist bumps from people in the hallways. "But I wasn't. The Ogre needed to be dealt with, so I dealt with it."