Kaji Warriors: Shifting Strength

by Kelly A Nix

  Chapter 40

  Sloan and Atae’s sparring is brutal and very telling of their relationship. Neither submits to the other, so the battle continues for what seems like forever as they pummel each other. Beast is confident she could dominate Sloan, if only for his skills with the sword. As hard as she and Atae try, they cannot garner enough momentum past his defenses to cripple him. It isn’t until Jeqi grows bored that she declares the fight a tie and forbids Sloan and Atae from sparring anymore. She claims Sloan would be of more help to them as a spectator that critiques Atae’s technique while she fights with Jeqi or Marqee. As always, Jeqi is right.

  Atae spends the next few days training with her small pack, and she learns to combine Beast’s instinctual movements with the correct blade techniques. Atae learns a lot from Sloan when he isn’t taunting her in battle, and Beast enjoys the touch of his rough hands on her skin when he repositions an arm or leg. At one point, he stands behind her and grasps both arms to teach Atae the movement of one difficult technique, and Beast revels in the feel of his broad chest against her back and the warmth of his breath on her neck.

  Overwhelmed, Atae pushes Sloan away and picks a fight about personal space that ends with several curse words from the purebred and him storming out with Marqee in tow. They return the next day, of course, and Sloan is in rare sarcastic form. Halfway through the day, Atae grows annoyed enough with Beast and angry enough with the pompous heir that she throws her energy blade at him. Thus, Jeqi and Marqee must play referees for their respective packmates to prevent another unending brawl. And so both hybrids are glad to have a day to themselves.

  Although she will never admit it, Sloan’s recommendation to use the small energy blade is instrumental in Atae’s success. Correctly positioned, the short, curved knife mimics her forearm blades as they glide along her arms. Defensive and offensive techniques with the dagger are almost identical to her movements with Beast’s blades. Both Atae and Beast enjoy the thrill of working together, and aiming to dominate, rather than kill their opponents, calms the tension between the two.

  Even now, amid a long-winded sparring session with Jeqi, Atae rides the elation of making progress with her swordplay and Beast’s temperament. The weight and pressure of her life feel much lighter today, and she’s looking forward to the final round of the tournament. Not even the annoying buzz at the back of her mind can bring her down. She ignores it along with every other aspect of her life. All Atae feels is the strength in her arms and legs when she slams them against her opponent. The only pain she suffers is from cuts and bruises left by Jeqi’s blows. The only mental battle Atae faces is the mind games Jeqi inflicts upon her adversary. Beast is excellent at anticipating the blonde’s next strike, but Jeqi is top-of-her-class for a reason. Atae enjoys the distraction of this sparring session until her blue-eyed assailant starts to fight dirty.

  “Why do you think he lied to you?” Jeqi asks. She swings her lightweight sword against Atae’s defenses, and Atae stumbles.

  “What? Who?”

  The buzzing at the back of Atae’s brain thunders to the forefront as Schinn comes to mind. Beast rages against the memory of the silver heir, and Atae cringes against the mental barrage.

  “Schinn lied to you. I know you haven’t forgotten,” Jeqi says. Then she takes advantage of an opening by slamming the hilt of her sword into Atae’s side. Groaning, the blue hybrid retreats and fortifies her defenses while Jeqi shifts forward in pursuit.

  “Are you still angry about it?”

  Atae growls in answer and lunges toward her opponent then feints away in time to avoid Jeqi’s parry. Spinning away, Atae tries to slam her elbow into the blonde’s chin, but Jeqi is quick. Beast growls when her counterpart’s elbow strikes a shoulder instead of the intended target. Jeqi grimaces from the painful blow but knows it could’ve been worse.

  “What’s wrong, Atae? Don’t you want to talk about it?”

  “Shut up. I know what you’re doing.”

  “Make me.”

  Atae watches her packmate smirk and shift from foot-to-foot just out of arm’s reach. Beast growls at Jeqi’s taunting antics from within an orange cloud, and Atae agrees. The fuchsia-eyed hybrid shifts back into a defensive stance and waits for Jeqi’s next move. The blonde huffs and pretends to be disappointed, then she launches into a rapid-fire assault. She slams her sword against Atae’s defending blade over and over again, pushing her opponent backward one step at a time.

  “I thought you cared for him,” Jeqi says. “Of course, I thought he cared for you, too. Obviously, I was wrong.”

  “You don’t know that,” Atae says. She kicks at Jeqi’s knee to stop the goading, but the blonde grins and avoids Atae’s foot without pausing in her assault.

  “He wouldn’t have lied to you if he cared for you.”

  “Maybe. Maybe, not.”

  Liar. Beast boils red with anger at Atae’s excuses for Schinn.

  “Don’t you feel stupid for believing him? How about defending him?” Jeqi says. She scowls with honest annoyance at her packmate.

  Atae’s defense of the silver heir aggravates Jeqi, and her tail puffs up around her waist. She doesn’t understand why Atae can’t see his real character. Schinn is a liar and born of the Fu-Kai crest, so Jeqi doesn’t trust him. She doesn’t trust many heirs to the Crests of Kaji. Their family dynamics are too complicated and politicized. Crests pressure their heirs to perform for the sake of appearance and sometimes force them into dangerous situations; such is the case with Sloan. While Sloan suffers the disadvantages of being born into a crest, Schinn enjoys all the benefits, like acquiring a highly coveted position in the royal guard and working alongside royalty. Jeqi believes Schinn lacks the loyalty and willpower necessary to serve the prince. He certainly isn’t strong enough to stand at Atae’s side for long.

  “He’s weak, and he doesn’t deserve you,” Jeqi says. She frowns between powerful blows that force Atae to stumble backward and into the wall.

  Agreed. Schinn is weak, Beast says.

  With her back against the training room wall, Atae realizes that she’s outnumbered, and a spear of vulnerability lances her heart. Her insecurity morphs into anger, and Atae lashes out. Pressing her back into the wall with her sword guarding against Jeqi’s advances, Atae shoves her weight against the stone. The friction holds her in place for an instant before she slides down the wall. During that airborne moment, Atae slams both feet under her opponent’s raised blade and into Jeqi’s stomach. With a surprised expression, the blonde tumbles backward. Jeqi struggles to remind her lungs how to function after having the wind knocked out of them, while Atae climbs to her feet and scowls.

  “I know what Schinn did. You don’t have to rub it in. I already know you don’t like him. You’ve made that perfectly clear from the beginning. And I haven’t forgiven him.” Atae sighs in lost confusion. “Not yet.”

  “You’ve been ignoring the problem, Atae,” Jeqi says between forced gasps. “Deal with it so that you can focus on the tournament.”

  “I am dealing with it. I’m angry,” Atae says. Beast rallies around her in a red burst of mist. “I know it’s stupid to be angry about it since he didn’t know us at first. It was a lie to gain our trust. And it worked.”

  Jeqi tries to argue against that claim since she never trusted the silver heir. But Atae continues without noticing her packmate.

  “I trusted him, only to find out that he was spying on us for Prince Truin. Ugh. And to find out from Sloan. Why wouldn’t he tell us afterward? After we…grew closer? Do you really think he doesn’t care?”

  Jeqi stares at her friend and doesn’t recognize the insecure youngling. She knows that this is the first time Atae has experienced this type of infatuation. It’s also clear that the blue-haired hybrid has no idea how to handle it. Atae learns best from trial and error, but Jeqi has to advise her against giving her heart away. She has to try to make her listen.

  Why Schinn? And why now? Jeqi closes her eyes and takes a deep breat
h before opening them again.

  “Atae, he might. He might actually care for you, but it doesn’t mean much because of his family. The crests won’t accept you, and he-”

  “I don’t care what his family thinks!”

  “Atae…”

  Listen, Beast says.

  “No. You both hate him. You always have. Neither of you gave him a chance. No wonder he lied to us.”

  Jeqi reaches for Atae, but the blue hybrid jerks away. She can see the blonde trying to calm her by channeling Deh’s soothing tone and soft touch, but Atae won’t stand for it. Instead, she pulls away and storms from the training room while Jeqi calls after her.

  Atae is glad that her packmate doesn’t follow her. She needs time to figure out what to do. She spent the last few days ignoring her emotions about Schinn, opting to bury them under Beast’s rage. Walking along the decorated halls of the palace, Atae pushes past Beast’s anger in search of her own emotions, and she finds the pain of Schinn’s betrayal dulling into a fear. Surrounded by depictions of her ancestors’ bravery, Atae finds it challenging to accept that she’s afraid to trust. It’s such a simple thing, something that’s always come easily in the past. Now, Atae crosses her arms over her chest for protection, and trusting Schinn again would mean that she’d have to open her arms. She’d be defenseless, and she doesn’t like it.

  Don’t do it, Beast says. She churns within a pale orange cloud, and Atae sighs. Of course, Beast doesn’t want her to give Schinn another chance.

  Big surprise. Atae muses as she wanders through the halls of the palace. Both Jeqi and Beast agree that Schinn cannot be trusted, and that should be enough for Atae. Regarding anything or anyone else, it would be enough. Atae learned several times over the last twelve seasons that Jeqi is always right. Yet, Atae can’t bring herself to agree with her packmate on this. Nor does she disagree.

  I care for Schinn, and I want to forgive him. I want to trust him again, but I don’t think I should. Atae stops in the center of the hallway, biting her lip. She’s stuck and doesn’t know what to do next.

  A door to her left slides open, and a burly fighter steps out. He cradles his bleeding arm and hustles past Atae in the direction of the medical wing. Grunts and groans echo from the room, drawing Atae’s attention. She peeks inside to find Prince Truin brawling with several fighters at the same time. Sloan and Marqee sit on the sidelines with bored expressions while Solum studies the match. Atae’s mood brightens as she recognizes the exercise and remembers the difficulty of meeting Solum’s expectations. It took her longer than she’d like to admit to pass this challenge, and Atae wonders how long it will take Truin. Given his ego, it’ll probably take a while. Atae smiles at the thought of besting Prince High-and-Mighty.

  Atae slips into the training room with hopes of watching the match, but her eyes dart to Schinn, sparring against Truin. At the sight of him, the hybrid freezes several steps from the ring with a pit dropping in her stomach. Beast huffs red, angry bursts within a pale orange cloud of annoyance. Solum notices the quiet youngling standing back from the ring and calls out to her. Solum’s voice tugs his daughter from her confusion, and she glances at him.

  “Care to join us?” he asks.

  When Solum motions toward Sloan and Marqee, Atae shrugs. “Sure.”

  “Welcome,” Marqee says. He moves over to make room between him and Sloan for Atae, and she plops down next to them.

  “To death by boredom,” Sloan says.

  Atae offers a small smile at the joke and ignores the match between Prince Truin and Schinn, along with three other fighters. She understands the premise of this exercise, and she has no desire to watch Schinn fight. Instead, she watches Solum.

  Her father stands at the edge of the imaginary ring with a stern expression. He watches each strike and block with intense interest, just like he did when watching Atae. She smiles at the thought of training with Solum again. He was tough but effective. She learned a lot from him and not just during sessions; Atae would often seek guidance from him as well. Whether it was a disagreement with Jeqi, frustrations with Elder Warrior Feku, or another shouting match with Sloan at Sula Academy, Solum had the unique ability to lay everything out into a simplified pattern. No matter how multifaceted and impossible to navigate the situation seemed, Atae’s father could break it down into straightforward decisions. The youngling didn’t always like the choices before her nor the consequences, but she couldn’t refute his logic.

  When did I stop going to Father for advice?

  When Beast churns with purple betrayal, she realizes the when and why of it. It was when she decided to lie to him about her shifting ability. Atae yearns to blame Beast, but she nips that in the bud. Atae chose to lie to her father.

  Just like Schinn chose to lie to me.

  No, Beast says. Schinn is a liar.

  That’s what I said. He lied, and so did I. It’s the same thing. Why should I punish him for doing the same thing that I’m doing to Father?

  No, Beast says louder. Atae grumbles at her with a sneer. How can they share a brain and not understand each other? It’s exhausting.

  For the first time, Atae considers confessing to her father about Beast, if only to clear her conscience. Then Sloan nudges her, and she remembers why she can’t tell him. Her pack needs her in the Gridiron, so she has to hold out until then.

  “What’s the point of this?” Sloan asks. He motions to the five-against-one match that Truin is losing.

  “Yeah, you should know how Solum’s mind works by now,” Marqee says.

  “I don’t know about that. But the point of this exercise is to figure out the point of the exercise,” Atae says. She flashes a superior smirk and wonders if this is how Jeqi feels when others look to the blonde for answers.

  “Well, Truin is failing,” Sloan says.

  “You’re all failing,” Atae says.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “We’re not allowed to interfere,” Marqee says. “Solum told us we couldn’t do anything until he gave the signal. But he never gives the signal.”

  “He always starts with one-on-one, then two against one, then three against one, and so on and so on until Truin is overrun,” Sloan says. He waves his hand around in aggravation.

  “How far does he usually get?” Atae asks.

  “Usually five, sometimes six.” Sloan jerks his head in a respectful nod to his friend, who finally kneels under the force of his attackers.

  Solum calls off the five warriors, and they scatter from the ring to assess their wounds and prepare for the next round. Atae recognizes Truin’s second guard but can’t remember his name. She’s surprised to see Debil and Seva, and they don’t notice Atae until Schinn waves at her. The two females glare at Atae, but she doesn’t notice. When Schinn waves at her, Atae meets his gaze, and his apologetic expression tugs at her heartstrings. She can also see the hope in his eyes that she’s there to forgive him, but she drops her gaze. She can’t give him what he wants right now. Beast dusts her mind with a blue, calming haze to help soothe her counterpart’s pain, but Sloan’s deep voice brushing against Atae’s ear sends Beast into a crimson tizzy.

  “How far did you get?” Sloan asks. Atae narrows her eyes as she twists her face to the dark purebred, finding him too close for comfort. Only a few fingers’ widths apart, Atae meets Sloan’s dark gaze with an overly annoyed expression, while she ignores the crimson tingles that Beast sends down her spine.

  “What are you doing?” she asks him.

  Atae meant to sound annoyed, or perhaps impatient with Sloan’s flirtations. She didn’t anticipate an involuntary shiver as she spoke, giving her a breathy voice. Sloan flashes a virile smile, and Atae rolls her eyes.

  “Your beast likes me,” he whispers. It’s not a question, so Atae doesn’t answer. Instead, she tilts her head and refuses to move away. That would be admitting he’s right, and Atae refuses to let Sloan win. Of course, he’s already won. A point that he proves when he licks his full
lips, and Atae’s eyes dart down to watch. Beast simmers crimson under the hybrid’s skin, and the hair on her arms and neck stand on end.

  “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” she says. Sloan snorts before something savage flashes across his eyes, and Atae recognizes it. Beast bristles with a steadfast warning, but Atae remembers seeing the same thing in Sloan’s eyes before he lost control in the throne room. She smirks at him as realization dawns on her.

  “Or is it that your beast enjoys it?”

  Sloan blinks in surprise before lifting a shoulder. “I enjoy a lot of things.”

  He shines a pointed glance at Schinn, who glares at Sloan.

  “You’re making him jealous. Why? You don’t like Schinn?”

  “You just now picked up on that?” Marqee asks. Sloan leans back out of Atae’s personal space, and she takes satisfaction in that tiny win.

  “I’m not a very observant person.”

  Sloan chuckles at the understatement and rests back on his elbows, while Atae ignores him. She finally notices the death glares from Seva and Debil and wonders what problem they have with her. Sloan seems to have relationships with the two purebreds, so Atae decides to ask him about it. Before she can do that, Marqee interrupts.

  “You didn’t answer the question.”

  “What question?” Atae asks.

  “How far did you get in the ring?”

  “Oh.” Atae shrugs. “It doesn’t really matter.”

  “Uh, yes, it does,” Sloan says. Her reluctance to answer the question intrigues the purebred, and he smells an opportunity to razz her. Sighing, Atae relents.

  “Four fighters is my limit.”

  “That’s respectable,” Marqee says. Sloan says nothing, opting for a silent but smug smile. Atae considers smacking the smile off Sloan’s face but thinks better of it. She’d have to face Jeqi’s wrath for participating in another brawl with Sloan, and Solum wouldn’t be too happy about them interrupting his exercise. She expects Truin to try again and start a new match at any point. Right now, the young prince rests on a nearby bench while Dr. Pwen fusses over a clotted cut on his bicep. While several bruises litter his face and shoulders, none of his injuries are crippling, so Solum will expect Truin to attempt the challenge again. She wonders how many times he’s done this.