Elise took Jae's hand and let him pull her to her feet. Her fingers were still warm from the spar, and there was a faint ache in her arms from trying to keep up with him.
She brushed herself off, swiping her palms down her trousers as if ridding herself of dust, though most of it had already been shaken off.
Her breathing was still a touch uneven, chest rising and falling in a steady but slightly quickened rhythm. She gave him a look that balanced somewhere between awe and irritation.
"You fought me way too effortlessly," she said, narrowing her eyes at him. Her tone was accusing, but there was a grudging respect in there too. "How did you get so much stronger so fast?"
Jae chuckled, rolling his shoulders with an easy, loose motion, as though she had asked him why the sky was blue. "I don't know," he replied, his voice carrying the kind of casual confidence that made her want to hit him again just to wipe that smirk away.
