The Shadow's Star

Chapter 9

*THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS A SCENE OF A SEXUAL NATURE*

The next morning I made my way to the training room to meet with Callahan. I took my sweet time walking there, delaying the inevitable. I prayed Callahan had forgotten about our sparing session but I know him, he would have turned up half an hour early. Our relationship has been strained since our fight a year ago; we have barely shared a few words of forced conversation. It's probably for the best considering Xander would kill him if he ever found out that we slept together. I received word this morning from Yetta that Nuri was already making preparations for the party in a few days. The first event the Dark royals were going to attend, or at least I hoped they would. I put that to the back of my mind, I still had no idea how I was going to convince them to work with my father and brother instead of against them, and failing was not an option.

I entered the training room and was faced with a shirtless and sweaty Callahan who was throwing punches at a punching bag suspended from the ceiling. I couldn't stop my eyes from gazing down his ripped torso and over his muscled arms.

"Hey" I made him aware of my presence as I set my water bottle down on the nearest table.

"Hey" he echoed locking eyes with me.

"You don't have to be here you know. I can train by myself if you have somewhere else you need to be" I said.

"I don't...have somewhere else to be" Callahan stilled the punching bag that was still swaying from his last jab.

"Okay...so what do you want to do first?" I asked looking towards the weapons wall.

"Whatever you want to do" I knew by the way he spoke those words that he had something else in mind that didn't involve us training but I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction. I reached for two swords and practically threw one at him. I was relieved when he caught it instead of hitting him in the head. We both unsheathed our swords and took our positions on the training mat in the center of the room.

"So you're working with the crown now?" Callahan asked as he swung his swords around and started to circle me.

"What's it to you?" I stood still, letting him circle me, keeping my eyes concentrated on his every move.

"You shouldn't be going against the dark fae" Callahan said right before he lunged towards me. I saw the attack coming before he even moved by the way he put more pressure on his front foot. I stepped out of the way as his blade came swopping down past my head and lifted my sword to attack back but he spun around and caught it with his.

"I'm not going against them; I'm trying to get them to work with us." I corrected him. He drew back and lowered his sword, loosening his grip on the hilt before charging once again. Our blades clashed once, twice, three times, sending vibrations down my arm and into my core. I became breathless and beads of sweat started to form on my brow. My arms grew tired as they usually did when wielding the heavy swords all the soldiers used. I should have used the new sword Xander gave me but it didn't feel right to use it while training.

"Do you even have a plan?" he asked stepping back for a moment's break.

"Yes," I lied.

"Xander never should have agreed to this" Callahan shook his head as he lowered his sword.

"Why?" I frowned at him as I too lowered my sword. "You think I can't do it?" Callahan went silent.

"You do, don't you" I let out a humorless laugh and turned my back on him, making my way over to the weapons wall to return my sword to its original place.

"It's not that Aurora" I heard him closing in behind me. "Of course I think you can do it. I think you can do anything. But the dark fae are calculating and manipulative—."