He must have groaned because Mia shushed him.
“It’ll pass,” she said softly.
He closed his eyes, feeling the sandwich he’d just eaten threaten to come back up.
Then, the swirling stopped. He opened his eyes and realized that everything had stopped.
“This is the Between. It’s a safe place.” Mia dropped his hands and stood up. “We can practice here.”
“Practice?” he asked, standing up. Everything was stopped as he suspected. There was a bird hovering in the air about a hundred feet off the ground, not far from them. Its wings were stretched out, as if it was using them to glide, but it wasn’t moving.
“Sure.” Mia motioned to him. He followed her down to the grassy yard. He glanced back at the house, worried about Selene.
“She’s safe. She won’t even know we’re gone.” Mia motioned to him. “Show me what you’ve got.”
He frowned. “Like?”
“Fight me.” She moved, positioning her feet shoulder-width apart.
He laughed. “I am not going to fight you.”
“Why not? Afraid?” she challenged with a smile.
He laughed again. “First off, I’m probably a hundred pounds heavier and a foot taller than you.”
“So, you are afraid.” She wiggled her finger. “I’ll go easy on you.”
He shook his head. “Nope, not going to.” He crossed his arms over his chest. He remembered trying the same thing with Selene when they were teenagers. He’d ended up in the ER with a broken wrist for the trouble.
He didn’t know if Mia had super strength like Selene did, but he wasn’t going to chance it.
“I’ll dare you that you won’t even lay a finger on me,” Mia said with a tilt of her head.
“Dare?” He laughed. “What are we twelve?”
“Okay, a wager then. Loser cooks dinner.” Then she added, “For the duration of our stay.”
He chuckled. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
Mia lifted her chin in challenge. “Try it. I promise, in the Between, no one can get hurt.”
He frowned. “No one?”
She stood straight and glanced around. Then she lifted a large chunk of firewood and chucked it at his head. He didn’t even have time to duck. The thing hit him square in the face and bounced off as if it were made of rubber. He hadn’t even felt it.
“Okay. Game changer,” he said, raising his fists.
What seemed like half an hour later, he was covered in sweat and had yet to even put a finger on Mia.
“It seems sort of unfair now that I know you have a black belt in pretty much every martial art,” he said, as they headed back up the stairs to the deck.
“You really need to work on your self-defense. I’d suggest taking some classes yourself,” Mia added. “How are you supposed to defend yourself against what’s coming?”
“Whatiscoming?” he asked, suddenly worried.
“Only Selene can answer that,” she replied. “For now, I’m going to enjoy having you cook all week.” She stopped at the top of the stairs and looked at him, her eyes narrowing slightly. “You can cook, right?”
He nodded. “Yeah, it’s one of the things I can do very well.”