This Dark Wolf (Soul Bitten Shifter #1) - Everly Frost Page 0,41
that she finds chinks in my combat skills—I’ll never be invincible, but I can’t let any man beat me again. I have to be stronger and faster than anyone else.
Iyana hands me a towel and a bottle of water when we’re finished. “Tomorrow, I’ll start you on some different styles of martial arts. We’ll see what you take to.”
Turning to leave the gym, I find two women standing in the doorway whom I haven’t met before. They’re nearly identical—both have tawny brown hair with golden highlights and sage green eyes, and their cheeks blush peach. They stand shorter than Iyana and I both, petite, wearing flowing skirts and loose sweaters—but I spy the shape of gym shorts and straps of gym tops under their clothing. One of the women clutches a pack of cards in her hand, while the other leans against the door.
They’re blocking the exit but don’t appear to have any intention of getting out of the way anytime soon.
Iyana doesn’t seem fazed by their behavior. “Morning, Lydia.” She greets the one leaning against the doorway first, then inclines her head at the one holding the pack of cards. “Luna.”
“It’s afternoon,” Lydia says, rising from her lean.
Iyana grins at her, still appearing unconcerned by the fact that the women continue to block the exit. “It is. But in an hour, will it still be the afternoon?” she asks.
Lydia grins back. “Yes.” She folds her hands in front of herself, but a flash of uncertainty fills her face, her grin fading before it reasserts. She nods firmly. “It will still be the afternoon.”
Iyana smiles in a way that makes me think this is some kind of game they play—or maybe therapy. “That’s great, Lydia.”
The other woman—Luna—interrupts the conversation by flicking a card off the top of the pack. The square of paper flies up into the air until it stops and floats above our heads. I make out the image of a human heart speared with a dagger as the card spins slowly around and around.
A trail of white light curls across the air between the card and Luna’s upheld hand. She doesn’t speak, turning to Lydia instead.
Lydia focuses on me, her sage eyes gleaming for a moment, revealing a small flash of power. “My sister says that your true enemy is the one whose face you can’t see.”
“O-kay.” Iyana jumps in between me and the twins with unexpected speed. “Enough future gazing for now, my dears. Tessa and I need to get cleaned up and have some lunch.”
The twins shrug and step around us as they head for the wrestling area we just vacated. I sense Luna’s gaze burning my back as she turns in my direction while I stride away down the corridor.
Iyana urges me toward the stairs. “So the official spiel about the twins is this: Luna and Lydia. Card mages. Twins, obviously. Twenty-one years old. But you also need to know that they struggle with space and time. They won’t understand that they’re in your way, and they sometimes wander down the hallway eating breakfast in the middle of the night. Luna can access her sister’s power as well as her own, so she’s twice as powerful as an ordinary card mage, but she can’t communicate on her own. Lydia needs to speak for both of them.”
I study the walls as we walk. The surface ripples through a rainbow of colors before settling on pale blue, a calming color. It seems to know what I need right now.
We climb the stairs to the library at the beginning of the sleeping quarters.
“Meet me back here after a shower,” Iyana says. “We’ll head down to the garden for lunch.”
“I thought we were supposed to eat in our rooms,” I say.
Iyana’s eyebrows rise. “You can eat wherever you want, but the garden is where we mostly gather for meals.”
“Okay, sure. See you soon.”
Returning to my room, I find Ella fast asleep, curled up on the end of her bed, her feet toward her pillow. Her blonde hair falls over the edge. Her locks are so long that the white-gold strands touch the floor.
I tiptoe past her to the bathroom, where I wash off my sweat and check my bruises before donning a fresh pair of jeans and a flannel shirt and then braiding my hair.
I find Iyana sitting at one of the plush couches in the entrance room, flipping through a book. She’s dressed in black pants and a lilac T-shirt. Several books are scattered on the coffee