Chapter 770: Free Advice
Gabby remained still for several moments after Liam declared the spar over, her body facing partly away from him while the last traces of flame and disturbed air faded around her. Her breathing was heavier than she wanted it to be, not because the spar had lasted long enough to exhaust her completely, but because her body had been forced to shift from aggression to shock too quickly.
The platform beneath her boots still felt warm from her own flames, and the air around her skin still carried the faint pressure of the wind she had compressed moments earlier. Slowly, she turned to face Liam again.
Liam noticed her expression immediately.
Gabby was stunned, yes. Frustrated too. But beneath both of those things, there was something else sitting in her eyes, something that looked almost like satisfaction. It was small, barely there, but it was clear enough for Liam to read.
She had lost the spar. She had been marked dead five times. She had not landed a single hit. Yet because he had used his flame affinity at the end, some part of her had decided that she had achieved something worth feeling proud about.
That surprised him a little.
Then it disappointed him.
"You look pleased with yourself," Liam said.
Gabby blinked, caught off guard by the bluntness of his tone.
Liam stood across from her with his hands relaxed at his sides, his sleeves still folded to his forearms and his expression as calm as ever. But his voice had shifted slightly. It was not harsh exactly, but there was a quiet edge in it now, the kind that made the words harder to dismiss.