And fly to the skies from your land
My eyes spark when the bartender calls him out. I’m already planning on pestering it out of him—chipping at the edges with questions, teasing details loose like threads from a cloak like I always used to—but then he speaks again. And something about the way he says it makes me stop.
“It’s unfair, how you had to grow up so fast.”
My smile falters. Just a little. My brow pulls in, faint and thoughtful, like the words take a second to land properly.
“I never thought of it as unfair,” I murmur, mostly to myself.
I asked for it. That’s the thing. I wanted this—wanted to be old enough to go, to be taken seriously, to live a real life on my own terms. I’d been ready. Or I thought I was. So I stare at the ground as we walk, boots crunching through snow, and try to figure out what exactly he sees as unfair about it.
But then we reach the lot, and the mood shifts again.
Damien shrugs off his coat, and I catch the full weight of him in the cold light—broad shoulders, strong arms, the hard-earned muscle of someone who’s carved a life out of the wild with nothing but grit and a good blade. My grin returns like a reflex.
He’s got fitness and experience on me—me’s going to be a challenge.
I tip my head, lifting one shoulder with a lazy shrug as he squares up. “That’s alright. I’ve had a few scrapes of my own,” I say, voice lilting with amusement. “I’ll try not to bruise your ego too much.” Shut your mouth, Theea. With that kind of talk, it’s my ego that’s gonna get bruised.
When he moves, I’m already reading the tension in his legs, the way his weight shifts.
He strikes, a quick jab—but it’s cautious. Measured. Testing.
I slip to the side, letting the blow graze air where my cheek used to be. I see the flicker in his eyes, that raised-brow curiosity, and I can’t help but smirk at him from behind my fists.
“Tell me about the bar fight,” I say.
Then I lunge—feinting high with a right hook, fast enough to draw the eye, but I swing my leg low instead. A sharp, precise kick aimed for his side, not hard enough to bruise, but enough to make a point.
Let’s see how quick he really is.
The land that you love and all that you are
