Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Stupid, he berated himself.
Why hadn’t he thought of that before?
And their differences in battle tactics? Simple: Jessie didn’t know what the hell she was doing. He’d trained all his guardians, even ones who’d come to him with impeccable previous instruction. They’d had to learn how to work with his setup. He hadn’t trained her, though. Instead, he’d followed her lead, not sure how the magical aspect of things worked.
Now that he did know, he saw the truth: she had virtually no experience in aerial combat. She was the newest among them, lacking the basics and relying solely on survival instincts. She couldn’t tell when to maneuver or hold her ground, struggled to maintain the guardians’ formation while dodging and diving, and had no idea how to build a unified defense. She needed structure.
It hadn’t been lost on Tristan that Nathanial had gotten to see her in her flying infancy. He’d helped shape her reactions. And Sebastian had trained her how to counter mage attacks. They’d worked together seamlessly, having forged that connection in the same way.
Hopefully, as Tristan refined Jessie’s training, he could gain the insight that had made Nathanial so effective. Maybe down the road, Tristan could honor Nathanial’s memory by continuing his outstanding teamwork.
Dare to dream.
He’d give himself one more month. One month to do things his way. He’d confront problems with her and Ivy House in the same way he’d confronted problems in his former cairn. At the end of that month, if he wasn’t a helluva lot closer to being what she needed, he’d start trying out other guardians.
He had to figure this out, not just for her, but also because he really didn’t need Niamh heckling him with an I told you so.
SEVEN
Jessie
The crowd for Aurora’s challenge consisted of about two dozen people in a field, all standing around chatting. They weren’t in a line or a circle, and there didn’t seem to be much expectation or heightened energy surrounding the event. In fact, it wasn’t an event at all, not like the time I’d been challenged.
Aurora stood within one of the clusters of people like this was no big deal. I couldn’t tell from those gathered whom she’d challenged.
Austin stood with Broken Sue off to one side, removed from the others. Neither of them seemed tense.
Tristan pulled my door open, then stepped back so as not to hurry me.
“Thanks,” I murmured, pushing myself out of the car. “Have you seen one of these before?”
“Many, yes. I try to see all the major challenges in the pack. They’re people I need to work with.”
“Right, right.” I shut the door. “And this one? Would you have come out for this one?”
“Yes, but only because I’m curious about Aurora. People are in awe about how quickly she’s rising in this pack. She still has a ways to go.”
I nodded as I walked on the brittle grasses of the field, the vegetation broken and dead from winter. “This setup isn’t anything like when I was challenged.”
“Oh yeah?” He checked his watch.
“On time?”
“Ten minutes early. You can continue to drag your feet if you want.”
I huffed. “Is it that obvious I don’t want to be here?”
“Yes. Why is that? You’re worried about Aurora getting hurt?”
“Yeah, and fear of what I’ll do if that happens. Sometimes, my gargoyle sweeps me away, and I get really violent without meaning to. That happened during my challenge, but it was okay because it was my challenge. I can’t mess this up for her or Austin.”
“She’ll probably get hurt, and I’m sure she’ll get bloody, but Alpha Steele or Brochan will step in if it gets dangerous. They’re very experienced,” Tristan assured me. “They’ve had to step in multiple times during challenges. She’ll be okay.”
I took a deep breath, held it, and let it go slowly. I knew that—it had been explained to me—but knowing didn’t negate the fact that I would have to witness family get ripped up.
“How the hell am I going to handle this when Austin fights?” I murmured.
“How’d you handle him fighting the phoenix?”
I thought back as I neared the others. Aurora leaned around someone, catching sight of me. Her mouth moved, but I was too far away to hear her. The people she stood with looked around and spied me approaching.
“Watch your body language,” Tristan murmured. “You’re advertising how nervous and uncomfortable you are.”
I tried to rein in my emotions. “The phoenix thing was different. It was attacking, and Ivy House was after a blood oath, and Kingsley was in my way, and Sebastian was freaking out… It wasn’t like standing on the sideline and watching two people tear into each other.”
“Have you watched boxing? UFC?”
It was annoying how much sense he was making, and far more annoying when he laughed at me. Clearly, I’d relayed that in my body language, too.