Book 4: Trading Blows

Finn

“Duck!” I snarl at Ingrid through the mind-link as my blunted practice sword, courtesy of Lightning Cape, slams into her shoulder again.

“That’s a little high for ducking.” She flips a thick braid over her shoulder and huffs out a breath. “Shouldn’t I parry?”

“Someone as strong as me would smash through any defense you managed to pull up, and then it would just be your own sword in your neck.” I shove sweat-soaked hair out of my face. “I thought you said you’d been training.”

“I’ve been training for one year.” She lowers the tip of her sword to the grass. “That does not exactly replace a lifetime.”

Irritation surges through me once again that Candace and Ingrid were only given the bare essentials. She knows where to put a dagger to disable someone in close quarters, knows how to run and howl for help… the rest, she’s scraped out for herself over the past year.

“And I’m not much of a trainer.” But I’m not exactly going to turn