Cain. Except now, he had a shaved head, and looked much meaner and larger than she had remembered.
If he remembered Caitlin at al , it clearly was not with joy.
He had a meanness, a coldness in his eyes, that she hadn’t remembered. He wore a cut-off version of their uniform, and his muscles were bulging through skin. He looked like a hardened warrior.
He held in his hands two bamboo swords—one long, one short. He also had several other sparring weapons on his belt. Clearly, this was unfair. She was outmatched. She should have been given the opportunity to have equal weapons.
She glanced over at Aiden, indignant, but he looked in the other direction, indifferent. He knew she was mismatched with the weaponry. Apparently, he wanted her to be.
Caitlin didn’t have much time to reflect, because Cain burst into action. He grabbed something from his belt and in a flash of an eye, pul ed it back and swung it at her.
Caitlin was startled by it, but even more startled by her own reaction. Somehow, using some sense she didn’t even know she had, she managed to bring up her sword and swing it down, and strike away with the object in mid-air, before it hit her in the head. She looked down, and realized he had slung an object at her with his slingshot, a material that looked something like hardened rubber.
She was shocked not only at his speed, but his treachery. It was a cheap way to open a fight.
Cain charged right at her, a scowl on his face, leapt into the air, and aimed his two feet right for her chest. At the last second, Caitlin managed to dodge his kick—but she didn’t dodge the strike.
His feet, she realized too late, had been a distraction. At the same time, he had swung with his long sword, and hit her hard, right on her hip. The pain of the bamboo stung, reverberating right through her.
She spun to face him again, and now she was mad.
Al of his moves had been cheap, she thought. He didn’t have the courage to stand and fight her, head-on. She felt the indignity of it al coursing through her, and before she knew it, her veins ran with fire. She wouldn’t wait for him to charge again.
Caitlin charged, and leapt into the air for her own kick. As she predicted, he dodged himself, but she spun in the air at the same time, and backhanded him hard across the face.
The crowd oohed as the smack reverberated.
He looked at her with eyes meant to kil .
He charged head-on, swinging both swords wildly. This was just what she’d wanted. She got him off balance. Now he was out-of-control.
With her single sword, Caitlin managed to parry every single blow of his, click for clack, back and forth. He was fast, but, she was happy to realize, she was faster. She realized that she was, in fact, so fast, it was like she was in another dimension, almost like he was moving in slow motion.
She began to enjoy it. Every time she blocked one of his blows, she spun around, and cracked him in the side of the shoulder. She fol owed blow for blow, and cracked him on the shoulder, then the hip, then the stomach. She was toying with him.
Soon, she could see how confused he was, that he could not understand what was happening. As he spun another time, she grabbed one of his wrists, then grabbed the other, and kicked him hard the chest, stripping him of both of his weapons. He went flying back, onto the ground.
The crowd roared in approval. Clearly, Caitlin was the victor.
But Cain was furious. Apparently, he was not used to losing. Instead of graceful y admitting defeat, he got up and charged her again.
Caitlin hadn’t expected that. It happened so fast, before she knew it, he had his arms wrapped around her waist, tackling her, driving her hard to the ground. It knocked the wind out of her, and momentarily stunned her. He got on top of her, pinning her down.
Aiden stepped forward. “CAIN!” he yel ed out.
But Cain didn’t care. He’d pinned her down, and used his knees to dig into her arms, holding her in place so she couldn’t move. Then he reached up as if to choke her.
Caitlin felt an unearthly rage come over her. As she watched Cain’s hands go for her throat, she let her power overcome her for real this time. She broke free of his grasp, grabbed his wrist at the last second, and spun it around. She rol ed on top of him, twisting it back.
Caitlin then kicked him hard, right in the groin.
He slumped over, on the ground beside her, finished.
But she wasn’t done. He had summoned her rage, and that was not something she could easily suppress. She jumped to her feet, stil indignant, and kicked him again, hard in the stomach.
“Caitlin!” yel ed Aiden.
But she could barely hear him. She walked over slowly and placed her foot on Cain’s throat, and kept it firmly planted there. He couldn’t breathe. But she didn’t care. She felt the rage overcome her in waves, and wanted to stop, but knew that she could not.
Caitlin suddenly felt herself shoved hard, from the side, and felt herself stumble.
She looked over and saw Aiden, alone, walking towards her. She was confused: he was at least ten feet away from her. Then she saw his hand sticking out, and realized that he had managed to shove her without even touching her.
He scowled down at her, and she knew that she was in for a rebuke.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
Caitlin found herself walking with Aiden through a path in the woods. She could tel that he was silently fuming, as he hadn’t spoken a word since he’d summoned her to fol ow him.
After the fight, he’d led her outside the circle, away from the others, and had lifted off in flight with her. She had fol owed, feeling like a chastised schoolboy. She didn’t like the feeling. She felt that she was old enough now to be able to learn her own lessons from the fight. Besides, Cain had had it coming.
Now they tramped endlessly through forest, until final y, they came to a large clearing in the woods. The sunlight broke through the trees, lighting it up.
Aiden final y stopped and turned to her.
“I’m disappointed in you,” he said.
“It wasn’t my fault!” Caitlin snapped back, preparing her defense. “You saw the fight. He fought dirty, from the beginning.”
“It doesn’t matter. You should have transcended that.”
“He was trying to hurt me. To really hurt me. Even when the fight was over.”
“You let down your guard too quickly,” he answered. “A battle is never over.”
“Wel , it’s your job to mediate these fights. If you’re mad at anyone, you should be mad at him,”