Fire And Ice (The Elemental Order - Book 1)

Chapter One.

Present Day...

I hate training with Perry. He may be my best friend, but he always knocks me on my ass. I guess that's the whole point though. He's not supposed to take it easy on me, otherwise I'd never learn to get better.

I hissed in pain as Perry flipped me over his shoulder once again, planting me on my back on the wooden floor. It was the fifth time he'd done that in the past hour and even though I was meant to be learning ways to counter it, I was getting increasingly pissed off.

I lay there on the floor for a moment, catching my breath and waiting for the pain to recede before I got up and grabbed my towel off a bench at the side of the room, wiping the sweat from my face and grimacing at Perry.

He stood a few feet away from me, looking as cute as ever, as if he hadn't been fighting at all.

"I need a break, Perry. Can we finish later?" I asked, praying to god that he'd say yes. I really could not handle another shoulder throw. My muscles ached and my stomach growled, reminding me that I hadn't had breakfast before I'd left the apartment this morning.

He strode over to me, grabbing his own towel from the bench beside us and wiping his forehead before placing it over his shoulder.

"I can tell you're hurting, Frosty. Just this once, you can have your time out. I'm not going to let up until you've learned to counter these moves though. You need to be as safe as possible." He said before taking a swig of water from his water bottle.

Perry was the only person in the world I let call me Frosty. We understood each other like no one else, because we were the same. We shared the same element, which meant that we knew each other inside out.

"Thank you, Pez. You are my hero." I said, throwing my arms around his neck in a grateful hug. He didn't seem at all surprised by my impromptu show of affection as he wrapped his arms around my waist, chuckling under his breath.

"Aren't you two supposed to be training?"

I pulled away from Perry, twisting around to face Rowan, surprised to see him as he'd said that he had a meeting this morning so wouldn't make it in until this afternoon.

"We're having a break. What happened to your meeting?" I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.

Rowan smiled a small smile, as if he found my curiosity amusing, then he shrugged his shoulders, shoving his hands into the pockets of his dark blue jeans.

"Rescheduled. Have you got the hang of the counter attack for the shoulder throw yet?" He asked, his eyebrows raising inquisitively.

I sighed as I ran a hand through my dishevelled hair.

"Cut me some slack, Row. Perry has planted me on the floor five times in a row. Five freaking times! I need a break or I'm never going to be able to move again." I said, exasperation in every word.

An amused smile crept across Rowan's face, which irked me. I was in pain and he thought it was funny.

"Continue this evening. I want you to have mastered it by your next assignment." He said, before striding away from us, in the direction of his office, which was situated at the far end of the training gym.

I watched him walk away, my eyes unconsciously taking a mental snapshot of him. When he disappeared through the door leading to his office, I turned back to Perry to see that he was staring at me with a teasing smile, his eyes alight with mischief.

"You broadcast your fascination with him so loud that I'm surprised he hasn't picked up on it already." He said, his smile widening.

I groaned as I scraped a hand across my eyes, a frown marring my face.