Refuge(70)

He nodded in approval. “Tired yet?”

“A little,” I lied.

He got up and walked over to me, then bent and lifted a larger kettlebell as if it weighed nothing. “This one is sixty pounds. Think you can lift it?”

I chewed on my lip. “I don’t know.”

He laid the weight on the floor again. “If you need more strength, you just need to ask your Mori to give you more.”

“More?” My body hummed with the strange power filling it. I didn’t know if I could handle more than that.

“If you’re not up to it, it’s okay.”

I knew what he was doing, and still I let myself be goaded. “No, I can do it,” I said to him as I told the demon what I needed. Within seconds, I felt more power flowing into my body. I bent and gripped the handle of the heavier weight and tried to lift it off the ground. It might as well have been welded to the floor. I huffed and tried two more times, barely moving it each time. “I can’t,” I finally admitted, straightening to look at him.

“Lesson number one, demon strength is expendable. You use it up and you will need to let it replenish, just like your own energy.”

“But you never get tired.”

One corner of his mouth lifted. “I do, but it takes a lot more than lifting weights, and I have been doing this a long time.” He went to the largest weight, which judging by its size was at least one hundred and fifty pounds, and hefted it in one hand. “Lesson number two, using your demon strength takes practice. Don’t expect to lift cars any time soon.”

“Show off,” I muttered, and he chuckled.

“You’ll get there. It just takes time.” He laid the weight on the floor again. “You’ve already come a long way for your second lesson.”

“Really?”

His eyes were sincere. “Yes.”

I looked at the sixty-pound weight. “I want to try it again.”

“You’ve done enough for now.”

“You don’t think I can do it.”

“I know you can’t.” He let out a small laugh. I opened my mouth to argue, but he shook his head. “You might not realize it yet, but this is more strenuous than it seems and you’ll feel it later. You don’t want to overdo it.”

“So, are we done training for now?”

He sat and pointed at the seats next to him. “We’ll take a short break, and then I want to try something new.”

I joined him, not sure if I wanted to know what he had in store for me. So far he had been careful not to push me too hard, but we had definitely moved out of my comfort zone. Still, I’d had more progress with my Mori after two days training with Nikolas than weeks with Callum. Despite Nikolas’s mood changes, I was more comfortable talking to him, and it felt like I’d known him a lot longer than three months.

“Can I ask you something?” I said after several minutes of quiet. “You know all about my life, but you never talk about yours. What was it like where you grew up? Where is your family now?”

He leaned back and rested his arms on the backs of the seats on either side of him. “I grew up in a military stronghold just outside Saint Petersburg. Miroslav Fortress is nothing like Westhorne. It’s surrounded by high stone walls and run more like a military base, although there were a number of families like mine there. My parents were advisors to the Council and very involved in planning military operations, so it was necessary for us to live there instead of in one of the family compounds.”

“It doesn’t sound like a fun place to live.” I couldn’t imagine spending my life confined by walls that blocked everything but the sky. The picture in my mind matched the one I had of the Mohiri when I first heard about them, of living in barracks focused on nothing but hunting.

“It was actually a very good life, and we had a lot more luxuries and conveniences than most people had at the time. Back then, even the wealthy didn’t have running water, indoor plumbing, or indoor gas lighting, just to name a few.” His eyes took on a faraway look as he recalled the details of his childhood. “My parents were busy and travelled a lot, but they were very loving, and one of them always stayed home while the other travelled. They pushed me hard in my training and schoolwork, but I knew they were preparing me for the dangers I would face when I became a warrior.”

“So, you’re an only child?”

“Yes.”

“Well, that explains a lot.” I smirked, earning a playful scowl. “Did you have many friends? What did you do for fun?”

“I had a few good friends over the years. Most families moved when the parents were transferred to other strongholds and others moved in. I don’t think I was ever lonely. I liked to watch the warriors train, and I spent a lot of time hanging around the training grounds. They all taught me how to fight and use weapons. By the time I started formal training, I was so advanced they had to place me with the senior trainees.”