MAIZE

Ryder had disappeared. Nobody—not even Maize—knew where he went and took Kota with him. It wasn't like he had made a move to explain anything before he left. Of course. He didn't care that much. In which, his leave, naturally it seemed, led to Kishan's questions and Alec's immediate suspicion. Maria was elsewhere, roaming the house or in her room still hoping for rest most likely. Maize still had it in mind to still keep an eye on her, Cassandra's cautions not lost on her mind. Though she thought she had analyzed the agent enough after the past few days to deem that she seemed to have no malicious intent whatsoever. She was not a threat to them. In fact, Maize rather liked how she seemed to unintentionally keep Kishan more reeled in. He wasn't as prone to acting out while she with him and he was always paying attention to her when she was around. Unfortunately, since she wasn't now, Maize had to deal with the both of them solely.

It was no secret that they harboured a sense of wariness about Ryder's character, Maria included. Her friend's obvious dislike towards them and no hesitance to make that fact exceedingly clearly hadn't inspired much confidence or trust in him, though Maize had declared, more than once, that he would not give up their location, no matter what. That wasn't who he was.

Though it didn't seem to matter what she said to Alec. The detective did not like the guy—especially not after the charade that had taken place that morning, and she highly doubted with the detective's level of stubbornness that she would be able to convince him of otherwise. Definitely not when the two of them, Alec and Ryder together, were more difficult to deal with than apart.

She felt like she had her work cut out for her. Which was something she as the infamous ember bounty hunter didn't admit to often.

She had been in desperate need to relieve some pent-up stress. Usually she would do so by taking a new assignment and hunting for a criminal. But since there weren't any criminals for hundreds of yards—convicted anyway, she added to her thought as her mind flashed to Ryder—she had to get creative in her search for an activity.

She stood outside, her boots making implants on the velvety soil with how planted she kept her centre of gravity.

It hadn't been hard to find the small training spot a few feet into the woods near the back of the main property. The tree trunks naturally formed a round arc around her as the dirt beneath her feet lay flat with years of being patted down. It made an excellent place to practice. A board of carved wood had been hung on the three largest trees in front of her, creating an open series of targets about a hundred yards away from where she stood.

Maize held six blades between her two hands, each one long and slim with pointed edges glinting in the peeking light through the leaf canopy above her. Each of her targets was directly in her line of sight, easy to concentrate on with the red dot in the centre of each board that had already been marred by countless repetitive strikes into its wood.

She had been at this for over an hour already since noon had passed.

Each time she retrieved her blades and crossed the distance to her launching spot, her focus reset like clockwork. This was something she remembered practising for countless hours on end when she was a child. A face flashed before her mind. Not the one that haunted her more recent memories, but one that she affiliated with warmth and caring. An old teacher. Also gone, but his lessons remained ingrained within her bones.

He had been no easy mentor, she thought to herself with a recollecting smile as she thought of the countless lectures and many more scoldings she had received as a kid. "Good times," she sighed to herself with a small chuckle as she readied her arms and spread her legs apart in a grounding stance. Her old teacher, even now, wouldn't have accepted her slacking off.

Six daggers found themselves ebbed in the very centre of the red target a split second later. Each divided into equal pairs of two with handles producing from the three boards. Deadly precision for such a fast-acting attack.

Maize allowed herself to release a slow breath as she smiled.

Someone whistled just a few feet behind her. "Impressive."

She turned and held her last remaining knife in her hand and she spun on her heel and aimed it at the sudden intruder.

His hands were already raised at eye-level before the tip of the blade fell into a hover just before his chest. Alec eyed her and smirked at the familiar position. "I surrender." He said the words with a slight hint of amusement and teasing in his voice as he held his preparedly raised hands before her at eye-level. Mocking the exact same scenario they had both found themselves in the last time he had snuck up on her while she was armed with a blade.

Maize didn't resist the tug that pulled at the corner of her lips as she rolled her eyes at his antics and dropped her arm.

How does he manage to sneak up on me every time?

She never heard him coming.

Alec soon lowered his arms and glanced back to the targets with a look of genuine impression on his face. "I knew you were good. But I didn't know you were that good," he commended.

"This is honestly nothing," Maize smirked with a teasing air as she lazily flicked the last blade and watched it soar into the centre target with perfect accuracy.

"Now you're just showing off," Alec muttered with a roll of his eyes as she laughed.

"So, what are you doing out here?"

Alec turned back to her. "Looking for you. What are you doing out here?"

"What does it look like?"

He looked back to the targets embedded with knives and then back to her.

"Anger management?" he asked with a baiting tilt of his head.

She smiled, "Close. Stress relieving."

"Is this what you always do? Stab trees to death?"

"No. Usually I work a case, but..." she gestured to their surroundings in an obvious reminder that they were not in a place they were used to.

Alec lowered his head and chuckled. "You must be stressed a lot back in the city then," he said as he met her eye. "You're always working it seems."

"That's just because I like my job," she retorted. "And I'm good at it."

"I won't deny that," Alec conceded with an uplifting smirk as he knew she would most likely make a comment about how he was complimenting her, and not to lie, she planned on it. But he seemed to know that and carried on before she could. "I'm the same way you know...when I don't want to be thinking about certain things I force my mind into a case. It's just easier that way," he said. Then added with an air of humour, "And I'm good at it too, so there's that of course."

Maize rolled her eyes and smiled wittily. "Of course."

"See, I knew you wouldn't disagree," he retorted, pointedly choosing to ignore the obvious tone of sarcasm that had been in her voice.

"Starting to regret it," she sighed, and he chuckled his amusement. She huffed, "Anyway, you're part of the reason I'm out here anyway. You and Ryder are a headache."

"I've been in enough courtrooms so far to have enough of an opinion, and in any lawful set, that situation this morning was all Riley's fault."

"Ryder," she corrected with a resigned sigh.

Alec shrugged. "That's what I said."

Maize rolled her eyes at him. "It's times like this that I wonder just how it is you're good at what you do. I thought detectives had to have sharp minds. At least sharp enough to remember simple vital details," she muttered.

"I remember what's significant," the detective returned.

"You're impossible," she muttered with a shake of her head as she turned to retrieve each of her knives from their targets. Suddenly she felt like she would need to keep up her activity for at least another half hour, since the detective's arrival.

How could someone be so frustrated, exhausting and enlivening all at the same time? She wondered with exasperation as she returned from fetching each of her hoard of daggers.

Alec was both watching her and glancing at the targets with a measuring gaze of interest. He caught her eye and nodded to the targets as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I wonder how I'd do if I gave it a try," he said.

Maize shot him a raised look. "Do you even know the first thing about throwing knives?" she asked pointedly.

"No. But I can shoot," Alec smirked as he pulled his gun from his back and twirled it in his hand. "Huh, looks about the same distance as the firing ranges we use at the precinct. So, let's make this interesting. What do you say we have a little bet? If I hit every one of my rounds in the centre what will you give me?"

"Be careful. You don't want to accidentally take on more than you can handle," she jabbed at him.

"More than I can handle huh?" He raised an eyebrow at her before he got a smirking look in his eyes and raised his gun arm towards the targets. He fired six rapid shots directly towards the middle target that echoed around the clearing. He looked back over his shoulder and sent her a smug grin.

"Now who's showing off?" she shot dryly.

"Well I've had a ton of practice this past week and a half," he said.

That was true.

In response, she narrowed her eyes with acuity and walked over to the target to check.

"So judge, what's the verdict?" He called from behind her, though the smug tone he used told her he knew exactly what it was before she even had to say it.

"You didn't...miss...any," she concluded reluctantly as she walked back over to him. Not willing to admit that he had hit each one dead centre while he wore that annoyingly satisfied expression.

"Told you," he chuckled.

Maize raised her arms at her sides and gave a dramatic sigh. "Too bad I never actually agreed to do anything for you if you won..."

At his look she explained, barely managing to hide her smirk.

"You went ahead and fired before we got to that part."

Alec narrowed his eyes until he realized she was right. And then he muttered out a curse at her.

"Better luck next time," she laughed as he rolled his eyes.

"You want to give it a try?" he asked, holding the gun out to her in an open invitation. "I bet your aim with one of these isn't as good as with your knives."

She shook her head. "I'm good. But would you care to try one of these?" she asked, dangling a blade between her fingers as she grinned slyly. "Who knows, you might like it."

Alec shook his head and chuckled. "I'll stick to what I know, thanks," he said. "Besides, I wouldn't want to steal your spotlight or anything."

"You seem so sure that you could," she smirked with tease.

"I do."

"I beat you in blades and in hand-to-hand. That much I'm certain."

"Since when?"

"Naturally."

"I disagree."

She smiled, this time with a new challenging spark glinting in her eyes. "Well then what's say you and I do another little wager? See who really dominates in hand-to-hand."

Alec crossed his arms and closed his eyes before he shook his head and chuckled. "I was raised to be a gentleman and not raise a fist to any woman," he said as he raised his hand to his chest in a sign of mock honesty.

She raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "A gentleman, huh?" She said, and then muttered, "Someone sure went wrong there..."

"You know what on second thought I can make an exception," Alec frowned.

Maize nodded thoughtfully. "I see, the gentlemanly charm just oozes out of you doesn't it?" She observed with sarcasm radiating off of each syllable.

"Are we going to do this or what?" Alec questioned impatiently. "Just so you know, I won't take it easy on you, Ember."

"I don't expect anything less from you, West," she replied with a smirk. "Give me your best shot."

* * *

ALEC

Alec let out a surprised yelp as he felt his legs get swept out from under him before he even had the chance to react. Alec landed in his back with a thud as he fell to the ground, probably for the thirtieth time since he and Maize had begun sparing. She stood over him from behind and bent over him upside down.

She stated bluntly, "Your best shot is terrible."

"No, it's just that gentlemanly charm that prevents me from winning."

"Sure, sure."

Alec couldn't help but chuckle to himself. Damn, she does not hold back.

As soon as they began to spare, Alec had begun to take note of how agile and light Maize was on her feet as she moved—not that he hadn't known. After all, he had seen her fight before. This was nothing new. Each attack was quick but controlled.

Nothing new, except now he was the one who had to do everything he could to dodge every strike she delivered. He could tell she was holding back for him, not using nearly the full force of her punches. However, she seemed to have no problem at all when it came to tripping him up.

Huh, lucky me.

Feeling her provoking gaze on him as he panted on the ground, already exhausted from having the wind knocked from his lungs for what he sincerely hoped was not the 34th time like it felt. He heard her light laughter fill his ears before Maize stood to her full height and whipped the small sweat off her forehead.

"Ok, that's enough," she said, standing in front of him and offering out her hand.

But he wasn't done yet. Alec raised an eyebrow at the gesture, and reached out for her arm, but at the last second before she could pull him up, he smirked and yanked her off balance.

Now, he was expecting her to fall on the ground beside him, but he must have miscalculated her trajectory. They both let out a curse at the same time as she fell over his chest, her arms just barely managing to catch herself in time before her face collided with his collar.

She pushed herself off her elbows on either side of his head, and stared at him.

He looked at their position. "...just so you know, this wasn't my original intention."

"Oh yes, I can see that," she stated sarcastically as she gave a roll of her eyes.

"You don't seem to mind," he purred humorously as his breath fanned softly over her left ear.

She shot him a look and quickly pushed off him, making a point to push harshly on his chest as she muttered to herself. "Jeez, you're an idiot."

"So you've said. Repetitively."

"For a reason."

"You're a parrot?"

"No. Because it's a fact," she stated. "One that I am convinced you need drilled into your brain."

He didn't look impressed. "That's harsh."

"That's facts."

"That's an opinion."

"It's logic."

They held each other's challenging stares, neither faltering, but the gleam of banter never left.

"So, did you get out enough stress? Using me as your personal trip-up dummy?" He asked sarcastically.

"Yeah," she answered. "Much appreciated by the way."

The detective rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah."

"I'm going to head back now. You coming?"

"Yeah sure I'll follow in a bit."

"I didn't break anything did I?"

"Course not, you don't hit that hard."

"I was talking more along the lines of your pride..."

He shot her an unamused roll of his eyes. "Just go already."

She pulled away, laughing. "Catch you later then, West."

Alec watched her go, a small smirk etched on his face that she didn't see. She really was something else, he thought to himself as he rose to his feet. She was already back inside by now.

He was about to follow, when suddenly he felt a faint prick on the back of his neck. He raised a hand to check, thinking it might have been a stray splinter from the ground, but as he did so his movement began to feel slow. His vision went foggy. Suddenly his legs felt like they couldn't hold him up any longer and he felt a pang of alarm before he collapsed to the ground.