Chapter 79

Anthony!" Wake up! Anthony was pulled joltingly back to the present when a fencing blade was slammed into his chest. The most recent daydream vanished as soon as he opened his eyes.

 

The girl with the tattoos is bidding goodbye to her father, who has eyes that are unusually unfeeling. But something else, too. Someone. Standing on the opposite side of the roadway and watching. Someone armed with a firearm.

 

The blade struck him once more, and Anthony found himself reflexively kicking his foot underneath his assailant's extended leg, bringing her down and slamming her to the ground under them. Her heart was beating quite fast.

 

"I didn't know that."

 

Anthony looked down at her buddy Sasha, who was currently lying face down on the wooden strip, and did so in an embarrassing manner. "Sorry. I have absolutely no idea why I just done it."

 

"Ignore the question about why; tell me, where did you learn how to accomplish that?" Anthony could see Oksana Davis laughing through the mesh of the mask, which revealed her brown eyes flashing and her skin to be the same color as her eyes. Despite this, she was taken aback.

 

"Nowhere. I have no idea how it came to be, but it did." Anthony took the mask off of her face. She was aware that that wasn't much of an explanation, but it was the truth; recently, Anthony had been experiencing many different things for no apparent reason, and she was unable to provide an explanation for any of them.

 

"Jeez. Your efforts in the past are finally beginning to bear fruit. Sasha sat up.

 

Two years ago, the X began offering beginner fencing courses, and Anthony and Sasha made it a point to attend each and every one of them whenever they could. They were free to use the facilities whenever it suited them, so it wasn't unusual to find them lounging around the X during the afternoons, especially when there weren't any child classes or senior citizen activities going on.

 

They both took a liking to the activity. Both of them did not belong in any single place in the world, and through time, they had developed the pattern of being out of place when they were close to one another. When they first met in the shelter, Anthony was scarcely able to speak, whereas Sasha was fluent in French.

 

Her late mother had a successful career in the ballet. Her father worked as a taxi driver. Both and every discussion that Anthony and Sasha had was like a little window into each of their respective homes for each of them. Even though Sasha had never gone to France, her mother spoke French well. French was Sasha's mother tongue. Which was what led them both to take up fencing, something that Anthony had started doing back when he was in elementary school in London.

 

Sasha had allowed Anthony to drag her into their first épée class at the X, but from that point on, Sasha had been the one with the advantage due to the infinitely long limbs that she possessed. Despite the fact that Anthony was quick, muscular, and even occasionally completely reckless, he was at least two inches shorter than her slender pal.