Before I Let Go (Skyland #1)(40)

“I don't really think you should be doing any training.” I pressed my hands into my hips as I try to swallow down a breath. “Weren't you the one crumpled on the floor last night?”

Evren smirked as he circled around me and stepped in front of Thalia. “I did a lot of things last night, but miraculously, I've got my energy back.”

I tried not to react to his words, but all I could think about was what he looked like at the end of my bed. All I could remember was the feel of his magic against my skin.

“I don't want to train with you.”

Evren smirked harder and cocked his head as he looked at me. “It would seem you’re all out of choices, considering you've worn Thalia out.”

“Where's Sorin?” I looked around the courtyard, but it was only the three of us there. “I would rather finish my training with him.”

Evren bared his teeth, and he took a moment before he spoke again.

“I thought we made it clear last night that you are mine. You will train with me.”

I heard Thalia let out a snicker under her breath, but she turned her back to us as if she was giving us privacy.

“I'm not staying here.” I didn’t mean it, but I was desperate to make him as off-kilter as I felt.

Evren moved slowly around me, and I shifted my body to mirror his. Something Thalia had taught me.

“And where will you go, Adara?” His power shot out and hit my left hand. I hissed and lifted it against my side. He used enough power to make it sting.

I shook out my hand and watched him. “I don't know.”

“That's because there is nowhere for you to go.” Evren sent out another shot of power, and this time, it hit my other hand.

“Stop it,” I demanded of him, but he didn’t listen.

“Make me, princess.” He cocked his head and studied me. “Show me what Thalia has been training you to do.”

I shook my head softly, but he wasn't having it.

“Make me stop.” His words were controlled and did nothing but fuel my anger.

I could feel it rising. Irritation over what he was doing, rage over the life we had been dealt.

I was angry, and he was only making it worse. He pushed and pushed and pushed until he gave me no other choice.

I could feel my magic rising inside of me like my anger was a living, palpable thing. I tried to push it down, to control it like Thalia had taught me to, but he was making it impossible.

Another stream of his power shot out, and I slammed my own magic into it before he could hit me. Evren grinned.

“Stop.”

But he wasn't listening to me. His black smoke left his fingers once more and his magic came at me so quickly that I wasn't prepared. But I still managed to block it with my own within the last second.

“Good,” he encouraged me, and I gritted my teeth as sweat rolled down my back. “Stop trying to see where my power is coming from with your eyes. Feel it in your gut. Trust it.”

Anger rose inside of me, and in that moment, I could feel it, his power rising to the left and before I could think better of it, I let my own power slam into the left side of him. It hardly made an impact, his body barely budging, but it was the surprise in his eyes that made me smile.

“Feel it in your gut, Evren. You should have seen that coming.”

He smiled then, the look predatory, and part of me wanted to just run inside and hide. I wanted to lock myself in the room and not have to deal with this, but another part of me, a much bigger part, wanted to fight. I wanted to show him what I was capable of.

I wanted to prove to them all that they were underestimating me.

“You’re right.” He grinned harder. “I should have.”

Another stream of his power shot toward me, but I was too busy staring at his handsome face to notice. It hit my right hip, barely knocking into me, and I felt like he was toying with me.

“Is that all you’ve got?”

“For someone like you, yes?”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I balled my hands into fists as I stared at him and noticed that Thalia had left us completely alone. The traitor.

“You’re weak.” He nodded toward me, and I bared my teeth. “If you were to leave like you say you want to, you wouldn’t survive a day.”

“You don’t know anything about me,” I growled out, and that only made him smile harder.

“Yes. I do.” He nodded and moved to his left.

I countered his movements step for step and kept him squarely in front of me.

“I know that you want me even though you don’t want to admit it.”

I scoffed, but he continued.

“I know that you are capable of so much more than you are allowing yourself.” He nodded toward my hands, where my magic was still swirling from my fingertips. “And I know that the sound you make when you come against your own fingers is so much quieter than when you come against mine.”

My magic shot out of me before I could control myself, and it slammed directly into Evren’s stomach. His breath fell from his lips in a rush just before his ass hit the ground.

I should have felt remorse as I watched him wince, but I couldn’t bring myself to do so.

I heard the door open behind me, but Evren simply waved away whoever it was.