“You need to lean more on your stick. It weighs more that way and hits harder,” Marlowe said after lunging a training rod at my back.

We were sparring in the makeshift training dojo that used to be a stable for horses.

Marlowe had traveled to the human world and came back obsessed with their sports and their exercise or combat. He believed they were meant to discipline the body to make it align with the will.

I thought it was ridiculous, but he was the boss. So for the past ...