{Reipon}

Tameka stood in the center of their training ground, an outdoor tiled space furnished by obstacles and decorated with cool weapons. Off in the tiered stands, Pax played with his toy train, Iron Hope. Andrew “rested” beside him. Pablo set down his emergency supplies and helped the toddler build a track.

Sagan stood at Tameka’s side, grinning at Korac, who fought for the opposition alongside Bones, Twenty-One, Xelan, and Caedes. All of them smirking at their Progeny opponents.

Oh, yeah. Kyle was on Tameka’s team.

“Are you ready to have your asses handed to you?” Tameka resented the enemy didn’t shit talk in real life because she enjoyed the banter in training.

Xelan ducked his eyes for a second before returning with that fantastic grin. “Go easy on us, eh, Fury?”

Bones and Twenty-One opened their wings and flanked him. Caedes took the high ground to start. He looked ready to fight and not at all entertained by Xelan and Tameka’s flirting. Was he still into her? She thought he was moving on with Miy or Pehton—

Not important.

Kyle and Sagan pressed their backs to hers.

Korac blew Sagan a kiss, and the girl practically melted.

“Ahem.” Tameka jabbed her.

The Seamswalker promised, with an abuse of the catch phrase, “I got this.”

Xelan barked out a laugh.

Tameka felt Kyle’s eyes roll before griping, “Can we get to this?”

“Kick butt, mommy!” Pax shouted from the stands.

Okay, now everyone melted.

Voices muttered near the entrance before Tumu, Lamassau, Jack, Ross, and Iuo emerged. The Lamian Prince mused, “Good. We haven’t missed a thing.”

Lamassau bitched, “How dare you have a sparring session without inviting us?!”

Jack and Ross led the group to the stands, shaking their heads. The King Regent called, “Sorry. Sorry. I’ll get them seated and shut up.”

Ross vibrated with excitement. Once they sat down, she reached for Jack’s hand and bounced with it. Tumu gave the moment a look and glanced over at Xelan, who nodded. Tameka assumed it had to do with the teenage boy’s obvious crush on the teenage girl, but none of that mattered. All that mattered was—

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“Fight!”

Thanks, Andrew.

Sagan opened a conduit. Tameka and Kyle fell back into it. They descended from the ceiling behind enemy lines. Meanwhile, Sagan squared off with Bones in hand-to-hand combat. At a shared nod, Kyle went right, and Tameka went left.

Twenty-One turned around right as Tameka emerged from the obstacle between them. He let out a war cry and brought both fists down to crush her skull.

She punched his side, her small fist fitting under his ribs.

He gasped for air, and she used the advantage to roll his hefty ass over her back. Once she laid him out, Tameka opened the well in her and took a sip.

Control.

Practice and control.

She only wanted to take enough to leave him unconscious—

Another heavy body tackled her and pinned her to the ground. Blows threw at Tameka so fast, she almost couldn’t block them.

Who the fuck was fighting her so ferociously—

“I expected more of a fight from you, Sovereign Ambassador.”

Korac’s elegant cadence was enough to test Tameka’s self-control, but the fucker swarmed her with his fists so she couldn’t concentrate on her ability, leaving her with only one option.

Tameka took a blow to the face. Light exploded behind her eyes, and she bit the inside of her cheek. But this small sacrifice granted her a window to catch his next swing. She offered not one second of hesitation. Tameka took the light from Korac’s impressed eyes until he lay out beside her. She fed his nacre energy to the audience, who gasped and sighed from the refresher.

Next up—

Kyle shouted and jumped from an obstacle to land on Caedes’ back in the air and ride him down. Still no wings on Story Taker, but the boy managed without them—

Kyle barreled over Tameka’s head, yelling the whole while.

Maybe “managed” was too generous.

He crumpled against the far wall and performed a stellar imitation of a puddle. Andrew and Pablo already made their way over to him while Tameka turned to face Caedes.

He was a fearsome sight in battle that made a black turtleneck and tactical pants intimidating without the distraction of hair in his eyes like the other Icari. This was their first fight, although Tameka often wondered about his style as an opponent—

Caedes twirled with spinning wings and opened with a roundhouse kick.

When Tameka narrowly avoided it, she took a spinning kick to the head. She rolled away in time to evade Caedes stomping the floor beside her head hard enough to crack the tile.

“Shit!” Tameka let out an unattractive grunt to roll onto her feet and catch another downward kick to her skull. This allowed her the leverage to push Caedes up and off balance.

Well, in theory.

With a flourish, Caedes let his wings steady him and went into another stance that left him loose and ready.

Leg work. The man was all long legs and powerful landings. In hand-to-hand, he was superior to her. Tameka missed her chain dart.

She took a deep breath and reached inside for that space in her nacre. Caedes noticed and ran to her with a spinning aerial kick. But she couldn’t afford the distraction.

Open. Consume. Decide.

When she took from his nacre, her ability gave her a choice. Burn or dispense. Tameka knew if she let it, it would burn the brightest, hottest flash. This frightened her and made her hesitate to access it. Instead, she took a drink from Caedes and shared it with those in the stands until they filled.

Caedes fell to the ground, centimeters from kicking her cranium.

Only Bones and Xelan remained of the opposition. Tameka searched the training grounds for Team Progeny.

Sagan… where was she—Oh.

That was new.