Tori blushed. “I’m sorry, sometimes we get caught up in the old ways, living out here in obscurity. Solina, what are you trying to ask me?”
“It’s probably nothing, but I have a friend I think you should meet. She’s fierce, and I think she would fit in your ranks.”
“It’s unlikely that we’ve overlooked one of our sisters, but I would be happy to meet her if the opportunity arises. What’s her name?”
“Skyla. Skyla Ramirez.”
“It isn’t familiar to me.” Tori waved a hand, dismissing the thought, and pushed open the barn door. She showed me a room full of modern exercise equipment, weight machines, fighting dummies, gym mats—more paraphernalia than I wanted to catalogue. Two women in fencing gear sparred against each other in one corner of the room. To our right, another pair went through a series of motions vaguely resembling martial arts.
“Wow,” I said.
“Yes,” Tori agreed. “This is where we train.”
“Obviously. Y’all take yourselves pretty seriously, don’t you? I’m not really a fighter.” I followed Tori as she picked her way through the room, clearing a path through yoga mats, jump ropes, hand weights, and resistance bands. “Always thought of myself as more of a lover.”
Tori glanced at me over her shoulder. “Why can’t we be mighty both in battle and in the bedroom?”
I blushed. “That isn’t what I meant.”
Tori directed us through another set of doors and down a flight of dim stairs into a basement. “I know what you meant,” she said, “but all that is about to change.” Tori brushed a switch, and a row of fluorescent lights flickered to life. In contrast to the bright, warm room above, the basement was stark and cold. “New world, new rules. You need to learn them if you’re going to survive.”
My insides went cold at her words. “Can’t you set up a perimeter of bodyguards or something? Is it really necessary for me to fight?”
Tori’s face scrunched as if she had tasted something bitter. “You’re beyond that, now, don’t you think? You have a weapon. You need to learn to use it effectively.”
She had a point, and I really didn’t want to be helpless. “What am I going to have to do?”
Tori turned and put her hands on my shoulders. We met each other eye to eye. “We’re going to tear down what used to be and build something stronger in its place.”
“Like the bionic woman?” I asked. Tori shook her head, apparently not understanding my reference. “Never mind. Tell me one thing, though.”
“What’s that?”
“Is this going to hurt?”
Tori’s stern face shifted into a smile, an evil, masochistic smile. “Oh, most definitely.”
Chapter Twenty-nine
The first morning of my reconditioning, after an embarrassingly wheezy and cramp-inducing three-mile run, Tori took me to the Valkyries’ work-out barn and deposited me into the calloused but graceful hands of Inyoni, a sturdy girl who wore her dark hair trimmed close to her head in a soft poof. Big brown eyes set off the smooth, unlined face of a teenager. Part of me wanted to dismiss her for her youth and innocent looks, but her impressive stature and obvious athletic strength made me reconsider.
Inyoni paced the padded floor mats between us like a caged and irritated cat. In the wall of mirrors at her back, a second, dimmer Inyoni mimicked her every move. “You’re here for self-defense training,” Inyoni said, her tone harsh and sarcastic. “You are a grown woman, raised out there”—she motioned in a non-specific direction—“among the Normies, the soft, innocent, mundane population. It’s going to take a miracle to fix you.”
“Normies?” I said, ignoring Inyoni’s insult. Maybe she wanted to pick a fight, lure me into exposing my weaknesses. I might have been soft, but I wasn’t stupid. Well, not that stupid.
“The normal people,” Inyoni said and rolled her eyes.
“Normal served me well for twenty-five years.”
Inyoni paused in mid-stride. “Oh yeah? Then what are you doing here?”
I huffed. “Tori kidnapped me, duh.”
“Duh.” She snorted. “You just proved my point. That never would have happened to me.” Inyoni motioned to the front door. “But I won’t stop you if you want to leave.”
“What about the fate of the world if the wolf gets me?”
“It’s a load of crap, if you ask me.”
“Then what are you doing here?” I asked, impersonating her insolent tone. I motioned to the exit. “I won’t stop you.”
Inyoni rolled her eyes again. “As if. I’m here because the helpless-woman routine makes me sick. It’s like… like…” She pinched her bottom lip between two fingers as she devised an appropriate analogy. “It’s like those suffragettes in the women’s liberation movement—yeah, I take online history classes, what of it? I’m doing all of womankind a favor by training you.”
I smothered a snicker. “How’s that?”
“One less pansy-bitch in the world equals one giant leap for womankind.”
Unable to hold it in anymore, I burst out laughing. Inyoni reminded me so much of Skyla. Inyoni scowled at first, but then she relaxed and let a grin spread across her face. “So, are you in or are you a wuss?”
“I’m definitely a wuss,” I said, still giggling. “But I’m in. I make no guarantees, though. You’re right. I’ve had a lifetime of taking things for granted. We probably won’t fix that in one day.”
Inyoni shrugged. “Whatever. It’s either train you or spend my mornings cleaning our weapons stock.”
“Weapons stock?”
Inyoni threw herself into a dramatic, martial arts pose. “I know, right? Like a woman needs anything other than her bare hands.”
I swallowed my less-than-agreeable reply.
