“Some would say so. My fellow brats used to taunt me about it relentlessly.”

“You?” I gasped. “But you’re like the biggest, strongest badass around.”

“And yet I too am a magic lightweight. A single sip of Nectar is all it takes to get me drunk.”

“A cheap date?” I teased.

He snorted. “You’ll find, Leda, that we all have weaknesses, every single one of us, no matter how big or strong or badass we might be. You can’t let them drag you down—and you can’t let others drag you down because of them.”

“Wow, that was a surprisingly good pep talk.”

“Don’t get used to it.”

“I won’t,” I promised. “I know that tomorrow you’ll be back to torturing me.”

“I fear you’ve overestimated my magnanimousness. Your torture continues tonight.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

I chuckled, then sighed. “I do wish I didn’t have so many weaknesses.”

His brows arched. “Oh?”

“Yes, I have—” I stopped, narrowing my eyes at him. “If I tell you my weaknesses, you won’t use that knowledge against me to more effectively torture me, will you?”

“I am well aware of your weaknesses, and I have already made use of that knowledge.”

“Oh, really?” I sat on my hands. “Please enlighten me.”

“You have a hard time bending to authority and holding your tongue, even in the face of danger. Which makes me wonder why you signed up to join the Legion in the first place.”

I smiled at him. “I heard it’s where all the hot guys hang out.”

“See, that is exactly what I mean. No sense of self-preservation.”

“I happen to have an excellent sense of self-preservation. I don’t mouth off to people I can’t take in a fight.”

“And you think you can take me?” he asked doubtfully.

“I have a taser at my thigh and a bottle of pepper spray in my pocket.” I smirked at him. “And you are too busy driving at the moment to put up much of a fight.”

He met my eyes for a moment, then returned his attention to the road. “As I was saying, no sense of self-preservation. I could take you with both hands tied behind my back.”

“Prove it.”

He remained perfectly still—so still that I didn’t think he was going to do anything. I kept my eyes on him the whole time anyway so I’d be ready if he did try anything. Well, he did try something, and I wasn’t ready. He moved so fast that even my newly heightened senses couldn’t keep up. One moment both of his hands were on the steering wheel and the next my wrist was handcuffed to the armrest. I yanked against my bindings, and a surge of electrical magic tore through my body.

“This isn’t fair.”

“Life never is,” he replied. “But the scales do have a way of balancing out in the end. Which brings us to something else you need to work on.”

“Revenge?” I growled at him through clenched teeth. I pulled on the handcuffs again, biting back a yowl when that didn’t work out any better than last time.

“No.” He tossed me the keys to the cuffs. “Learning to fight opponents bigger and stronger than you. Fighting from a distance isn’t always an option.”

Yeah, I couldn’t slam his head into the steering wheel from a distance, for instance. Then again, I couldn’t do it up close either. My hands now free, I tossed him the keys and the cuffs. He snatched them out of the air, and then they were just gone. I really had to figure out how he was doing that.

“Your performance at Firefall was an improvement over previous exercises,” he said.

“Was that praise I heard?” I asked with a smile, rubbing my sore wrists.

“An observation. And I’d like to see more of that. No more fighting with inflamed dishtowels and broken mirror shards. I want to see you fighting with your body. And proper weapons.”

“Like a sword? A sword has range.”

“For instance.”

“Geez, teacher, I’d love to, but you won’t let me near a sword.” I smirked at him.

“I said I wouldn’t let you have a fire sword.”

“Ah, but they’re so pretty.”

The hint of a smile hovered on his lips. “In truth, I am reconsidering letting you have a fire sword. Under proper supervision, of course,” he added.

“Yours?”

“Yes. Harker would go too easy on you, and Basanti wouldn’t go easy enough on you. You don’t learn much if you spend the whole training session unconscious.”

“I’ll remind you of that the next time you shout ‘loss of consciousness is no excuse for not running your laps, initiate!’ at me.”

“You are an initiate no longer. You are a soldier of the Legion of Angels.”

“Then I guess you’ll need to update your catchphrases.”

“And you need to update your decorum,” he told me. “I am your commanding officer.”

“Does that mean I get to call you ‘sir’?”

“It means you have to.”

I snickered.

He shot me a hard look. “You are not taking this seriously.”

“Did you expect anything different from me? Sir,” I tacked on quickly, clearing my throat to swallow a second snicker.