Reclaimed and Restored

Training

The man who had introduced himself as Silas gestured for Ava to go ahead of them, and, after a pause, she did just that. She’d never seen Marcus angry or upset before, yet he was clearly frustrated about something.

His unusual display of emotion made her feel uneasy, but she had little choice but to enter the training room Silas had pointed out to her. Besides, a hopelessly naïve part of her was excited about the opportunity to spend time with Marcus.

Ava looked over her shoulder and was surprised to see him whisper-yelling and pointing an accusing finger at the other Council member. Silas simply grinned, and his bizarre response to the seething man had Ava shaking her head in confusion as she continued forward.

She approached the open training room door and let out a relieved sigh after spotting Molly through the glass walls. At least Ava would be helping out in her friend’s low-level class and not being made a fool of in front of a class of well-trained Council members.

“Ava? What the hell are you doing in here?” Molly asked when her friend walked into the mirror-clad and glass-walled space.

Unfortunately, the loud words drew the attention of the dozen or so other occupants of the room, meaning they all heard Ava’s mumbled response.

“I got into a fight in the dining hall, so Master Kennedy sent me up here. It’s only for one day, though, so I got off easy,” she explained, her voice taking on its usual fast pace. Her mother regularly complained, mostly jokingly, that she spoke too quickly for anyone to keep up, but Ava couldn’t exactly change it―it was a part of who she was.

“You got into a fight?” Molly asked doubtfully. “Like a physical fight? With who?”

“Ben,” Ava replied, and Molly nodded in sudden understanding―she knew all too well how effective Ben was at pushing Ava’s buttons.

“No way,” one of the female students said with raised brows.

“Yes, way,” Silas said as he and Marcus walked in. “Ava here kneed him between the legs and smashed a food tray into his face.” His words were met with wide eyes, one or two startled laughs, and plenty of slack-jawed expressions. “So, as punishment, she’ll be helping us out with your class today.”

Marcus sighed before adding. “I’m Marcus, and this is Silas. We’re filling in for Medial Stewart today. What were you busy learning in your last class?”

While one of the young men in the class answered his question, Ava looked at Molly and blushed when her friend shot a meaningful look at Ava’s crush and waggled her eyebrows. Ava rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to Marcus.

“Great. Since you’re all confident with what you learned yesterday, Silas wanted to go over some techniques for when your opponent is bigger than you.” He shot the other member a look that said he wasn’t exactly happy with Silas’s suggestion.

Ava frowned, unsure what to make of the two men’s strange behavior.

“Once we demonstrate each technique, we’ll help you pair off,” Silas explained. “If you’re the bigger of the two, when your partner has successfully taken you down three times, you can come to the front of the room and face off against Marcus or me.”

Considering how much more muscular and broader the two Council members were compared to the newbies, Ava understood Silas’s instructions but felt bad for those who would need to prove themselves against them.

“You’re a much better fighter and teacher, so I’ll let you demonstrate the techniques, Marcus,” Silas said to the apparent irritation of Marcus. “Ava, you’re up,” he added before gently placing a hand on her back and nudging her toward the other man.

Ava swallowed and wiped her suddenly sweaty palms on her dark gray yoga pants before looking up. After Marcus’s dark brown eyes met her gaze all too briefly, he turned his focus to the class.

“If your attacker is bigger or much stronger than you, the best advice I can give you is to try dodge and parry their hits rather than try to block them, to keep moving as much as possible, and to do your best not to let them take you to the ground where they’ll have all the advantage. I’d also suggest relying more on kicks than punches because you have more reach with your legs, and you want to keep as much distance between you and your opponent as possible.”

Ava, like the rest of the class, was already riveted. There was something about Marcus that demanded immediate respect.

“Ava is obviously a lot smaller than me,” he continued. “But in most cases, that also means that she would be a lot quicker than me too.” Marcus turned to her then, and Ava stiffened. “Put your guard up,” he ordered.

Ava lifted her fisted hands, bent her knees, and put her weight onto her toes as her brothers had taught her. Marcus nodded, and the small gesture may as well have been the most eloquent and exaggerated compliment she’d ever received based on the way it sent blood rushing to her face and her heart racing excitedly. Yep, it was official: she was absolutely, undeniably pathetic.

“I’ll move slower than I usually would, but I want you to dodge and parry my punches, and when you feel confident and find an opening, you can wait until my right arm is stretched out.” He did a slow punch to demonstrate, leaving his right arm straight out instead of pulling it back. “If you dodge to your left, so you’re on the outside, you can grab my wrist with your right hand and then grab my arm just above the elbow with your left.”

Ava must have let her nerves show because he took her right hand in his and placed it over his wrist, showing her where to grab him, repeating the same with her left hand. The heat of his skin warmed her palms, but Ava ignored the thrill the contact sent through her. Well, she tried to, at least.

“Exactly. If you keep moving forward when you grab my arm, you can use that momentum to twist my arm behind my back. But I’d recommend that if your opponent is larger, you stay off to my side and land a knee to my stomach or groin as you grab my arm, making it easier to get it behind my back.”

He nodded at Ava, and she demonstrated kneeing his stomach without putting any force behind it and then twisting his arm behind him. She released his arm after a second, and he nodded in approval.

“Again,” he said.

They repeated the move another three times, increasing the speed slightly with every repetition.

“Okay. Now this time, I want you to simultaneously grab my arm and kick out at the knee of my front leg. I’d recommend this move over the other, but only if you’re in a serious fight because it can do a lot of damage.”

Ava did what he’d asked, lightly tapping her foot to the side of his knee while grabbing his arm.

“Good. With that kind of a kick, you’d be able to easily pull me or shove me off balance with the grip on my arm, and I’d be incapacitated for a while if you hit hard enough. Okay, let’s do it again but faster.”

“Any questions before they continue?” Silas asked the class. His tone had changed from the confusingly smug and amused one he’d used with Marcus to the more serious one he’d used with her when he’d asked for her help with the class.

When everybody shook their heads, Ava got into position in front of Marcus and lifted her fists so that they were protecting her face.

“Ready?” Marcus asked her.

She hummed in agreement, and barely a second later, his fist flew toward her. Ava was forced to react more quickly to his punches, but she managed to move her head and upper body from side to side to dodge the hits, occasionally slapping his fists aside in a parry. The third time she had dodged to the side, she attempted the move he had shown her.

She did it perfectly, feeling a rush of adrenalin as she used all of her speed to grab his arm and kick out at his knee without her foot making more than a light tap of contact. She knew he was going easy on her and allowing her to show the move without resistance, but it still felt amazing when she succeeded.

With those two variations of the move successfully demonstrated, Marcus ordered the class to split into pairs.

“I’m sorry Silas pushed you into helping us,” he said once the trainees were all practicing. His eyes were on the students, but Ava could nonetheless feel his attention on her.

“Oh, I don’t mind. I would rather be in here than out there wiping down equipment,” she replied truthfully.

His lip twitched. “Still not the best way to spend your birthday.”

Ava’s brows rose. “How did you know it’s my birthday?” she asked.

Marcus shrugged. “I overheard one of your brothers speaking about it.”

“Right,” she murmured.

She was still reeling over the fact that he was talking to her when he excused himself and went to help Molly and her partner. Apparently unable to help herself, Ava kept her eyes on him, taking in the confident way he moved and the seemingly indifferent manner in which he helped the two students.

Sometimes she honestly didn’t know what to make of him, and when she spotted the glare he directed across the room at Silas, Ava could easily understand why Molly thought he was a bit menacing. Still, there was something there beneath his cold and stoic shell; she was sure of it, had always been sure of it.

“You like him, don’t you?”

The voice pulled Ava from her minutes-long staring session, and she whipped her head to the side to find Silas looking at her curiously.

“What?”

“Marcus. You like him.”

Ava tried to form a response, but nothing came out for several long and awful seconds. “That’s not… I don’t…” ended up being her eloquent and articulate reply.

“Mhm,” he hummed with a smirk. “Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me,” he told her before sauntering off toward a pair of students who looked like they were messing around more than practicing.

Ava gaped at his back, her cheeks flaming hot and probably as pink as the neon leggings her parents had gifted her that morning. Could she trust him to do as he’d said? What if he told Marcus about her little crush? Surely he wouldn’t be that cruel, right?

She was seriously contemplating the possibility of fleeing Boston altogether, perhaps even changing her name, and never showing her face in the Council building again when Silas returned to her side and put her out of her misery.

“Like I said, Ava, your secret is safe with me,” he whispered. “I promise. You can stop panicking now.”

“You won’t tell him?”

“I won’t,” he assured her, and for some reason, Ava believed him.

The rest of the class went more smoothly after that. Marcus kept demonstrating the techniques with Ava before the class paired off to practice, and Ava found herself disappointed when their time was up. She was even more disappointed when Marcus dismissed the class and left without sparing a single glance in her direction. His touch had done funny things to her insides, but he clearly hadn’t had the same reaction to her.

“I wish we could have him as our trainer all the time,” Molly whined as she and Ava left the training room together.

“I thought you liked Medial Stewart.”

It so happened that Medial Stewart taught the twins as well, and they never had anything bad to say about him.

“I do, and he’s a great teacher. But Marcus is…”

“Cooler,” Ava supplied.

“Cooler, hotter, better,” Molly added with a devilish grin. “I still think he’s kind of scary, but he’s one hell of a teacher.”

“Yeah, I would take him over Tom and Dan any day.” Her brothers were great, but training with Marcus sounded a hell of a lot more enjoyable.

“Okay, more on Marcus later, but now I need to know if you really hit Ben with a tray.”

Ava groaned and explained what had led to her burst of violence. Unsurprisingly, Molly reacted with grinning pride rather than judgment.

“I wish I could have seen it.”

“It was pretty epic,” Ava admitted, unable to contain her smile.

“You’re my hero, Ava Clark,” Molly chuckled. “I guess this is where I leave you,” she said with a sympathetic smile when they were nearing the stairs that led down to the Council building apartments.

Ava sighed and nodded. “I guess our coffee plans will have to wait until tonight.”

“No worries,” Molly replied. “Just call me when you’re done here, and we’ll meet up. Hopefully, your shift won’t start until long after the sun has set.”

Ava hoped so. Not just because she wanted to spend time with Molly and her brothers before her birthday ended, but because she had a brand new camera waiting for her downstairs on her bedside table, and she desperately wanted to use it.