“I think you do not give yourself enough credit,” Sloane said almost inaudibly.
Kallie flushed and ran her hands over her arms. “We should get our jackets.”
“Yes.” Sloane snapped to attention. “She may actually skin me if I am not ready.” He laughed as he jogged down the hall to his room.
Kallie turned back into her father’s room. “I need my outer jacket and my bow, dad.”
“Target practice?” Bryce asked curiously from his bed.
“Yes, Elite Sentinel Tegan and Sentinel Sloane are going to practice and asked if I wanted to join them?” Kallie hesitated. “Is that okay?”
“Of course, although if she is not on duty, you may call her Tegan.” Bryce smiled at his youngest daughter. “She is easy to like.”
“She already said I could call her Tegan,” Kallie told him. “And she is, she has no pretences.” A frown marred her face. “I think she may need friends.”
“Then she can do no better than you, sweetheart,” Bryce said fondly. “Do you regret your decision to guard Zahra?”
“No, dad, I regret that Zahra is so utterly annoying to protect.” Kallie rolled her eyes. “She shuns our lifestyle, yet she used her Akrhyn gifts for everything. She makes it very hard to like her.”
“Her mother was the same,” Bryce said thoughtfully. “However, you are here again and training with the other sister, who I am pretty sure is the poster child for Akrhyn.”
“I think she is inspiring,” Kallie admitted.
“Then go be inspired before Court ruins her,” Bryce encouraged his daughter. With a grin for him as she picked up her bow, she waved farewell.
Tegan was waiting in the hall, and she was glaring at Sloane’s door. “He is not there.”
“Maybe he is still in his room?” Kallie suggested, hoping that she also had not kept the Elite Sentinel waiting.
“I share the door with him,” Tegan mumbled.
“What?” Kallie looked at her in confusion. “Oh, you have an adjoining room?” she said in understanding.
“Oh, yes. That one.” Tegan nodded. “He is not in there.” Tegan looked over her shoulder. “I merely left him for a moment,” she muttered as she searched for him.
“He’s like a naughty puppy.” Kallie grinned as she put her bow over her shoulder. “We could wait, or we could go and leave him? I am sure he will find you.”
“You do not want to wait for him?” Tegan asked in surprise.
“Um...no?”
“Oh.” Tegan searched the other Akrhyn’s face. “It will just be me.”
“I know that, Tegan.” Kallie smiled at her. “I am okay with that if you are?”
“Yes.” Tegan felt her face warm. “You are just one of the only Akrhyn I have met since being here that would rather spend time with me.”
“You are intimidating to others,” Kallie said as they set off. “You are an Elite Sentinel at eighteen years old. You are the Heir to the House of Holt. You share some kind of magical juju with Michael, the other Heir to the House of Holt—it’s a lot,” Kallie told her honestly.
“What is juju?”
“Human terminology, sorry. Like magic juice but obviously…not.” Kallie giggled at Tegan’s expression.
“Huh. Odd.” Tegan was thoughtful as they descended the stairs. “Maybe Iamintimidating,” she acknowledged. “But I have trained all my life to be an Elite, and I cannot do anything about being the Heir.”
“You should not be ashamed of who you are.” Kallie pushed the doors open as they headed outside. “My dad is the father of three daughters. He wanted sons, not just for carrying on the House name, but because we are targeted by the Drakhyn. My two older sisters are both domestic servers. I am keen to be an Elite Sentinel. When Jessie was five or six, dad realised he was okay with girls and stopped trying to make us soldiers. Sentinels he wanted, but he recognised quickly early on that we are who we are.”
“You are becoming a Sentinel to please your father?” Tegan asked as they headed to the back of Headquarters where the archery fields were.