Piercing the Fold by Venessa Kimball

Author:Venessa Kimball
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science fiction, fiction magical realism

Chapter 28

The afternoon is extremely physical with jumping while in combat. Ezra does not speak any further about his life or parents’ lives. I don’t push the topic. He opened up quite a bit today, and I don’t want him to clam up on me.

Ezra is all business this afternoon and for good and obvious reasons. We are one week out from leaving the facility.

Ezra doesn’t hold back. I scramble to my feet after the first blow to my midsection. We dance around each other for a moment.

I ask breathlessly, “Aren’t you going to give me any clues on how to jump during the day, or are you going to continue beating the crap out of me? Seems a little unfair.”

I jab and miss, but follow with a leg sweep that takes him down to the floor.

Ezra disappears from the ground and reappears standing behind me. Ezra is breathing evenly, not fazed the slightest physically.

“It’s just like jumping in your dreams. Your Qi needs to be released. You have it, Jes. It is in there.” Ezra points to my head.

He points to my heart. “And in there.”

He puts his hands on his hips. “Remember this morning. Fuel the fire.”

Then he slaps me across the face. My head snaps back at him.

Oh no, he didn’t.

I zone in on Ezra. I feel the vibration and hear the humming. Everything around Ezra becomes blurry. He is in sharp focus, though. I imagine myself behind Ezra. I feel vertigo and weightless suddenly. All the blurriness shifts into sharp view; I am looking at the back of Ezra’s form.

I feel Ezra smile when he speaks. “Perfect.”

This feels like the feeling I got at the bookstore before I found out everything.

Ezra nods at my thought. “You didn’t know what it was then. Your body was trying to defend itself without your knowledge of it. Your body was trying to jump.”

He turns quickly, poised for another round of attacks. For the next two hours, we battle throughout the facility. We spar in the trails, in the rec room, in the gym. Jumping is nauseating at first. The feeling of vertigo just before each jump is sending my stomach upside down. By 4 p.m. I am heaving.

“Are you okay?” Ezra is out of breath and bends over with his hands on his knees.

I smile a little at the thought of my making Ezra Kahn exhausted. “Yeah. Yeah. I’m just feeling a little light-headed. I think I need to throw up.”

Ezra disappears and is back with cold washcloths in seconds. He places one on the back of my neck and one on my face. “Keep this on your head and neck. Sit down.”

I walk over to the bleachers on the far side of the gym.

Ezra yells, “Nate? We need you in here!”

He enters the gym just after Ezra yells.

“I know. I was heading your way as soon as I heard her thoughts. I was deep in the trails so it took me a little longer.”

I didn’t want to be vulnerable around Nate.

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