Forever Fae (Forever Fae #1)(35)
I throw more fireballs at him and he dodges and hides while throwing some back at me. With an affinity to fire, the wielder of it can determine how lethal they want their fire to be. Merrick and I just use a slight amount of heat with ours so nothing in our fire balls can hurt the other.
Merrick puts his hands up in defeat and yells, “I forfeit!”
I meet him back in the middle of the field and say, “I knew you would give up, but you started it in the first place.”
“I know, I know, and it was my mistake. I can’t believe you made me land on my face like that. It almost broke my nose.”
I narrow my eyes and make a point to stare at his nose.
“Breaking it probably would have helped it. It looks kind of crooked,” I tease and laugh so hard I can’t see straight.
He shifts his feet quickly and gets into his fighting stance.
There’s a gleam in his eye when he says, “Very funny, princess, let’s see how you do with hand-to-hand combat today. I am not holding anything back on you, either.”
Before I can catch my breath from laughing so hard, he comes after me. Before he gets to me, I crouch and swing my leg out to trip him. He jumps over my leg and rolls across the ground. He’s up in second and comes back at me. I land a hard punch to his jaw and he reciprocates with a kick to my side. The air is knocked out of me and I bend over to get a breath. He was right about not taking it easy on me. Well, let’s see what else he can do. I stand up, smile at him and then motion my hands for him to bring more.
We go back and forth dodging each other’s blows when finally Merrick takes me down to the ground with a lightning fast move. The air is knocked out of me again by one of his blows. When I regain my breath, we are both breathing hard. Training is always strenuous and tiring. He lands on top of me with one hand on my waist and the other one holding my hands above my head. I am in a vulnerable position and I don’t like the way he is looking at me now. I look at him questioningly, hoping he will understand that I am waiting for him to get up, but he makes no effort to move.
“You can get up now, Merrick,” I say.
“I know, but have you given any thought to what we talked about last night? You know I love you, Calista, and all I want is for you to please give me a chance.”
He hasn’t had a chance to notice my skin temperature until now. He looks at my hands and narrows his eyes like he’s trying to figure out why I feel the way I do. He uses his hand to pull down the part of my shirt at my wrist to feel more of my skin. That’s when he notices how pale my skin has gotten. I look him in the eyes. The hurt and confusion is written all over his face.
“A lot happened last night after you left and some things have changed. You may not understand just yet, but please don’t be mad when you see. I’ll explain everything. I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
His eyes are searching my face for any kind of answer until all of a sudden the air changes and snow begins to fall. The power circling around us is strong and suffocating. This is Ryder’s doing, but where is he? That’s when I hear his voice. The bitterness and the icy tone send a chill through my body. The thought of him seeing me in this position with Merrick on top of me makes my heart ache. I know the way it’s going to look to him and if the snow falling isn’t a clear indicator then I don’t know what is.
“Well, well, what do we have here?”
Merrick turns his head to look at Ryder and then down at me. His confusion slowly dissipates and turns into anger. He gets up and holds a hand out to me to help me get to my feet.
“I could ask you the same question, *,” Merrick says with venom in his voice looking at Ryder.
I cut in quickly and say, “Ryder, this isn’t what it looks like. We were just training and he took me down. You have to trust me.”
He shakes his head and looks at the ground. When he lifts his eyes I see the hurt he must be feeling at my supposed betrayal. The look vanishes and quickly turns to one of betrayal.
“See, that’s the thing. I’ve watched you both train for the past hour and that is not how I see things at all. Then I find you both on the ground with him between your legs.” He pauses to take a breath and lets it out.
“Did last night not mean anything to you?” he asks.
I start to speak but Merrick cuts in.
“Last night? What happened between you two last night that was supposed to mean something?” He looks back and forth from me to Ryder and then keeps his eyes on me. “Why is he talking about you as if you’re more than a friend, like you two are together or something?” He stops to look at Ryder more closely and I believe it’s the first time he notices that Ryder has changed as well.
“I want to know why you look different but both look the same? I want answers, NOW!” Merrick yells.
“Yes, Calista, why don’t you tell Merrick what is going on,” Ryder spits.
Merrick yells, “Don’t you dare talk to her like that. She doesn’t deserve to be treated that way, especially not from an ice-cold dick like you.”
This is not good. Ryder’s spine stiffens and he looks Merrick straight in the eyes.
“Like she deserved the way you treated her last night,” Ryder roars back. The anger in his voice makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. He actually sounds very scary and I’m starting to worry how far things will escalate.