No request for reassurance in it. Just a woman who had decided something and was stating it as fact.
“I can teach you,” I said without a second thought.
“Now?”
—
The smaller training room was enclosed, private, removed from the yard and its audience.
She stood in the center of the mat in borrowed training clothes – slightly too big at the shoulder, cuffed at the wrist – and watched me cross the space between us with an attention that made the back of my neck warm.
“First principle,” I said, stopping behind her. “Your advantage is never strength. It’s surprise.”
I put my hands on her shoulders to adjust her stance; light, deliberate, keeping myself focused on the task. “Stand like you have no idea what you’re doing.”
“That shouldn’t be difficult,” she said dryly.
Something pulle
