The Hollows In Our Freedom | 'Hollows' Book Ⅲ

Chapter Thirty-Nine

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T h e   H o l l o w s   I n
O U R  F R E E D O M
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"So what next?" Jace asked, calling from where he was down the hill.

I looked up at him from where I sat atop the hill, embracing some very cold temperatures.

"Show me the moves you remember!" I called back down, seeing him falter for a second.

It was just over a week since the attack, and I was still healing—though, the wound hurt much less now. We were steadily approaching February, and I feared that we'd start to rust before we began to plan again. Everyone seemed happy here, though, and Sky had even begun to talk to her parents—even if it was detached and less frequent than I did. You'd think that I'm their child.

Starting two days ago, I had begun to train Jace again—or, review what he already knew, and get him into shape whilst I recovered. I had been doing some gentle exercises to make sure I didn't lose my touch, but watching Jace, I could feel him starting to catch up—strength-wise; he was nowhere near to knowing the full skill set.

His one fallback was that he focused too much on getting the moves right. I had told him over and over that he didn't need to get them dead on, just whatever works for him.

I watched him finish. "That's good!" I yelled down at him, watching from a distance as he grinned.

I beckoned him up, waving with big arm moments so that he could decode what I was doing.

Soon enough, he was sitting by my side, albeit out of breath.

"Your kicks were better," I complimented him, feeling him turn to look at me. "But you need to watch yourself on the last move, you nearly threw your body and not just your arm." I told him, hearing him laugh beside me.

"Want me to do it again?" He asked.

I turned to frown at him. "Are you serious? I'm tired."

Jace frowned. "You're tired?" I pulled a sweet smile out of probably my five year old self, making Jace roll his eyes but resign.

"Come on," Jace said, standing up and holding out his hand for me. I smiled up at him, taking his hand and feeling his other on my waist as he helped me up.

We walked back to the house with random conversations floating between us. We had gotten to a stage where we just kind of spoke about whatever—as long as it wasn't completely odd, or out of our comfort zone.

Approaching the house, we saw Elle and Richard exit, their gym gear on. Elle was tying up those famous blonde locks when she spotted us, before smiling.

"Did you have a good training session?" She asked, making Richard look over to see what was going on as he screwed the top on his water bottle.

I nodded. "So-so." I responded, making her smile grow as she nodded. Elle exchanged looks with Richard, before they started their run.

I walked over to the back door, waiting for Jace to catch up. When he didn't, I turned to see him shaking his head at me.