Page 23 of Night Fall
In an effort to be open and vulnerable with him, she told him she would be training with Erik from now on. Her brother believed it was a good idea, even though he made her promise to alert him if she ever believed she was in danger, instead of trying to handle the situation on her own.
Her training lessons with Erik started later that day. Even though she had watched Erik train her brother and cousin for years, it had not prepared her in any way for her own training. He did not take pity on her just because she was a woman, nor because he loved her, something that made her respect and admiration for him grow that much stronger. Over time he taught her how to breathe to execute certain attacks, and how to block incoming ones. Mya was a little over thirty centimeters shorter than Erik, so he taught her how to use her size and lithe form to her advantage. He explained how to take attacks and what they felt like to make sure she would not be surprised, and then he taught her weaponry.
Months of training turned into years. True to his word, after they had cleaned and changed, Erik courted her. He took her on picnics and long walks through the forest. He brought her to a waterfall and taught her how to hunt animals and fish. For the first time in a long time, Mya was happy. Their relationship might have been a secret she kept from her family, but Erik was her joy. She swore to herself that she would always make the most of her moments with him, especially once everything began to change.
Their time of living in England had come to an end. Immortals needed to move often to avoid questions as to why they never seemed to age once they reached adulthood, and if they stayed much longer people would begin to grow suspicious. As such, Erik contacted his friend Miriam who was only too happy to assist them in relocating to France and become their host for a few years.
Mya should have been overjoyed at the chance to leave England, but the thought barely crossed her mind. Instead, she spent far too long being jealous of Erik’s friend. Miriam was someone who had been in Erik’s life longer than Mya had, someone who had been able to help him, who knew him in a way Mya did not.
And she hated it.
She knew it was foolish. Mya wanted Erik to have support from another immortal, someone he could lean on and share his responsibilities with, but she did not want it to be with another woman, someone he had known for hundreds of years longer than he had known her.
Mya tried to ignore her feelings. When that did not work, she tried to talk herself through them. When that proved fruitless too, she hid them all together. She believed she had been doing an excellent job in that regard, until Erik cornered her by her bedroom door to ask her why she was sulking.
She narrowed her eyes. “I am not sulking.”
He turned her to face him and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Ah, we are still playing this game. Pouting then? Do you even have a word for the look on your face?”
Mya rolled her eyes and tried to ignore the thrill of excitement that coursed through her body at his nearness.
“Careful, fagr skjaldmær min. The last time you rolled your eyes at me, you were screaming my name.”
She gasped and her eyes nearly bulged out of her skull. “Erik! Hush!”
He grinned. “I am simply trying to be helpful. Are you pouting because you would like a repeat performance? I would be happy to give it to you right now.”
Mya put her finger to his lips and angrily whispered to him, “Someone will hear you!”
His eyes twinkled with mischief. “No, someone will hear you. I have often wondered how loud I could make you scream. I guess now is the time to find out.” He bent his head near hers. At the rush of her breath, his grin turned into a full smirk.
“Erik!” she whisper-shouted, but he kept coming closer and closer until his lips brushed hers.
“Tell me,” he said, the low timber of his voice making her sigh. Her body heated and she relaxed into him. Mya tilted her head up to meet his lips, but he still would not kiss her, only brush his lips against her own teasingly, seductively.
“Erik,” she pleaded.
“Tell me,” he said again as his hands followed the curves of her body.
He won what was left of her common sense. The spell was cast, and she abandoned everything to him, including the truth. “I am jealous of Miriam.”
Erik pulled back at her words. “Why would you be jealous of her?”
Possibly because I am jealous of everyone who entered your life before me.
She sighed and dropped her chin to avoid his eyes. “She has been with you for a long time. I do not know your relationship—”
“There is not one.”
She opened her mouth to interject, but he grabbed her chin and tilted her head up to his, making her meet his eyes. “There is nothing more than friendship between us.”
“But—”
“Mya, I had not touched a woman willingly until you. Miriam and I are only friends. In truth, she would be more interested in you than me, or any man for that matter.”
Mya raised her eyebrow and cocked her head to the side. “I do not understand.”
Erik chuckled and ran his thumb across her cheek before tucking her hair behind her ear. “She is only interested in bedding women, my love. Men do nothing for her, and if she is ever linked to a man then she is using them for her own gain.”
