He realized that he was beaming back at her, and when they ended locked against each other a moment, they both staggered back instead of pressing for advantage.
A scattering of applause made him remember that they had an audience, and Henrik dragged his eyes from Gwen and made a show of inspecting his blade, pulling his mouth into a frown.
“You are very skilled,” he conceded, without meeting her eyes.
“Thank you,” she said, every bit as formally. Then, nervously, “Did it...ah…?”
“I felt no hint of magic,” he said regretfully. He’d certainly felt other things, heat rising in his veins, in his…
“A shame!” Trey said laughingly. “But perhaps if they were alone?”
Heather and Daniella smothered giggles.
“Perhaps if they are fighting together against a common enemy?” Robin suggested with a note of disapproval in their voice. Disapproval for the teasing? For his failure to tap into the power of this world? Henrik was unsure.
Robin was perched on a metal cylinder bristling with pipes and wires, legs folded beneath them. Henrik had still not gotten used to their diminutive size in this world. “That does seem to be how the rest of you established your bonds,” they said thoughtfully.
“I would welcome a chance to cross blades with both of you,” Trey said with a grin. He took down a two-handed sword and went to face Henrik across the mat.
Henrik sighed inside. He was good at fighting with a sword, but his shieldmates were considerably better and he felt worse about looking bad in front of Gwen than he did about fighting her directly. Not that he was going to admit that.
He caught the tail of a glance from Gwen as she came to stand beside him, adjusting her distance from him carefully.
Daniella, standing at the perimeter of the room, began to hum.
Henrik, suddenly hopeful, closed his eyes and cast about for the threads of power he’d always been able to draw upon and control.
It was like standing in a river in the rain, looking for a pair of dry socks.
Then Henrik heard the tell-tale rustle of Trey lifting his blade and he opened his eyes and thrust forward with his sword.
Trey easily deflected the hasty attack, but by then Gwen was already at Henrik’s side, her steel flashing, and Trey had to retreat.
The fight itself was exhilarating; if fighting against Gwen had been enjoyable, it was nothing to having her at his side. She was a talented swordswoman, dextrous and swift, and they quickly established a rhythm of fight and parry. The two of them were more than a match for Trey, and Henrik smiled as they made him dance back faster each time.
Then he seemed to swell in power, and Henrik realized that the song he was hearing was not merely in his head. Daniella was singing, and Trey was moving faster, his blows stronger.
Magic.
The tide turned swiftly, and no matter how hard Henrik tried to scrabble for his own power, it would simply not obey his command. A ward, a burst of energy, a quick portal to let them jolt to an unprotected flank...nothing that he willed came to pass, and their surrender came quickly.
He and Gwen stood, defeated, and he was keenly aware of their failure.
6
Gwen was pretty sure that nothing in the world was worse than failing so spectacularly as a key.
Henrik looked absolutely miserable, and Gwen’s heart broke for him. It wasn’t his fault. Maybe there was something wrong with her. “Well, that was embarrassing,” she said loudly and jovially into the uncomfortable garage. It didn’t do as much to lighten the mood as she’d hoped.
“Oh, gosh, no, you guys were great,” Heather said quickly. “I’ve watched a lot of combat, at the Renaissance festival, and you were a great duo. I mean, really in sync.”
Daniella was nodding entirely too enthusiastically. “Yeah, it was great. I mean, you looked really natural together.”
“No magic, though,” Robin said, and theirs were the words that meant the most. Gwen stared at them, trying to read their inscrutable expression.
“I could sense it, barely, a few times,” Henrik said. “But could not command it.”
“It was a worthy battle,” Trey said, hanging his sword with the others. He looked vaguely guilty, and just a little bit pleased with himself.
Gwen hung her own sword beneath his, and Henrik brought his sword to put away. There was a weird moment when they just sort of looked at each other before Gwen realized that she was standing in his way.
“Well,” she said too loudly as she scooted aside. “What Earth wonders shall we show you next?” What she really wanted to show him was an inappropriate topic for the company.
“Television,” Trey suggested. “I particularly like the moving art called cartoons.”
“Cars,” Rez countered. “We should tour the town of Wimberlette!”
“I’m not sure that he’s ready for a spin out in public,” Heather said reluctantly. “We should coach him a lot more before we take him anywhere.”
“We do not have to exit the car,” Rez said hopefully.
“You want to drive around with your head hanging out like Fabio?” Heather teased him.
“You know what you guys could really stand to show him?” Daniella said, wrinkling her nose as Trey came to give her a kiss. “A shower.”
And everyone looked at Gwen again and she probably looked like a stunned fish because she was picturing Henrik in a shower and the rest of her brain was simply gone.
They had worked up a sweat during their sparring, and Gwen was abruptly aware that she was damp with perspiration, and she probably didn’t smell much better than Trey or Henrik.
Not that Henrik smelled bad, exactly. Just...musky. Delicious, really. Exciting.
Gwen bit her lip so she had something do with her mouth that didn’t involve licking him. “Okay, so one of you can do that, I need a shower of my own. Myself. By myself.” She looked anywhere but at Henrik as she stalked to the door into the house.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to show Henrik the shower, and possibly even share it with him. But she’d just completely failed at basically the only thing a key did. If this was her destiny, why hadn’t it worked? And why did Robin look so...hesitant?
She managed to forget about the dogs who’d been jailed in the house to prevent them from trying to join the sparring. She had to reach down and awkwardly catch Vesta by the collar, kneeing Fabio back as both canines tried desperately to escape from the house. Flushed and flustered, she squeezed herself through the door, shutting it behind her, and didn’t glance back as she fled for the stairs.
Ansel’s sprawling house had two full bathrooms downstairs, and three upstairs, one in the master suite that Ansel lived in, one in the second master bedroom that Heather and Rez lived in, and one in the middle of the house that the remaining three guest upstairs bedrooms shared. Daniella and Trey lived downstairs in the suite past the gaming room.
Gwen made it to the upstairs bathroom that she realized quite belatedly she was going to be sharing with Henrik. She undressed in her room and wrapped herself in her robe, tying it rather more tightly than she usually did, then crept across the hall. She checked to see that the door was locked twice before hopping into the shower.
She hurried through her bathing, trying not to linger over the memory of nude Henrik that was burned into her eyeballs. She turned down the water until it was almost chilly, trying to cool the irrational need that seemed to be burning into her. It wasn’t just that Henrik was a Sports Illustrated-worthy chunk of muscle and curls; more than anything else, she wanted to simply fold herself into his arms, bury her fingers into his golden hair, and comfort him.