Synnr's Hope - Kate Rudolph Page 0,19

a minute to figure it out since she didn’t know how to read the directions, but there was a helpful picture next to it, and after a minute she was in workout clothes and ready to kick some ass.

Solan wasn’t there when she arrived at the main gym. It was pretty empty, with only a few Synnrs working out at various machines or running laps on the track that circled them on the second floor. She watched for a few minutes as Synnrs climbed a high rope, then let go and let their wings catch them as they floated down.

Her shoulders twitched. She wouldn’t mind a set of her own.

“You ready to get started?” Solan’s breath tickled her ear he was so close.

Lena almost jumped. She’d been too caught up in what she was looking at and hadn’t paid attention to her surroundings. She had to be more careful. A mistake like that in the field could get her killed. “More than ready,” she said, rubbing her hands together.

Solan led her away from the main gym, but Lena stole one more glance at those electric wings cutting through the room.

“How’s this?” He opened the door to a small training room taken up mostly by a sparring mat on the floor, windows along one wall with mirrors down two others, and a rack of weights in the corner.

“Looks good. What were you thinking?” He’d invited her to train and Lena had jumped at the chance to see a state of the art gym. But Solan hadn’t been specific.

“I’ve seen you disarm an unsuspecting soldier. I thought it would be good to see what you can do when it’s a fair fight.” He shrugged off his jacket to reveal a workout outfit similar to her own, with pants tight enough that she didn’t need to imagine anything.

But she wasn’t going to look. They weren’t going to do that.

“No such thing as a fair fight.” Lena had learned that young. Fighting fair meant losing too often for her tastes.

Her partner grinned. “Fairer, then. No wings. No weapons. I’ll set the timer and we go until it runs out or one of us yields. How does that sound?”

“If we end on time, how do we know who won?” Lena’s competitive instincts were kicking in. “And what does the winner get? Traditional prize back home is a beer.”

“Beer it is,” he agreed. He looked around the room and Lena followed his gaze to the weights. He walked over and scooped a smaller one up, putting it in the middle of the mat. It couldn’t have weighed more than five pounds and it was covered in a rubber-like material. “Winner is whoever has control of the weight when time’s up.”

“That I can work with.” They took their time to warm up, stretching and doing exercises in place for several minutes. Lena’s blood was humming by the time they were ready to start. She surreptitiously eyed Solan, looking for weaknesses. Nothing was obvious. He stood a few inches taller than her and had plenty of muscle. If their skills were even, he’d destroy her.

She’d have to act fast and ruthlessly to gain the upper-hand. A gun would be nice, or a club. Something to use against him. But she wasn’t going to waste time wishing for things she couldn’t have.

Solan stood and it was time to brawl. They met in the middle, the weight in between them, and the timer beeped, announcing the start.

With another partner, Lena might have circled around, waiting for an opening. Right now she moved. She swept the weight from between them and launched herself at Solan, wrapping herself around his body and using her legs to take them down to the floor.

He was one big motherfucker and he didn’t go down easy, bucking against her and flipping her off of him. She scrambled back, not letting him get on top of her. If that happened it was game over; she’d wear herself out fighting him and he could isolate any one of her limbs to cause massive pain and make her tap out.

He was slower getting to his feet and Lena took advantage, kicking him when he was down. In a real fight, not some exhibition or competition, there were no rules, no honor. She had to keep the enemy down, keep him from taking her out. She could feel herself slipping into that killer space in her mind and she didn’t fight it.

Solan struck, she countered. He fell, she took advantage.