“Makes sense,” I say, and loosen my shoulders and knees a bit. “It’s the same for fencing.”

“Exactly,” he says. “Now go ahead and take a swing.”

I lead with my left and he blocks me before my arm even gets halfway to him.

“Blocking is going to be your friend in the beginning. Even if you can’t win a fight, you can keep yourself from getting seriously hurt if you pay attention to people’s eyes and movements,” he says. “Go ahead and think about where you want to punch me next.”

I picture hitting him in the stomach with my right hand, and for a split second my gaze shifts to his stomach. “Ahhh!” I laugh. “You’re right. Eyes give you away. That’s so helpful.”

“Do it once more, only pay attention to the arm you plan to hit me with.”

He’s correct again—my left arm pulls slightly backward as I’m thinking about a jab. It’s an involuntary tell.

I look up at him, happy to be learning something useful. “You do it. Think about hitting me and let me see if I can pick it out.”

He glances at my face, and his left shoulder twitches ever so slightly.

“Face shot with your left arm,” I say, and he nods.

“Charles looked at your chest before he threw the knife. People with weapons will always look exactly where they’re aiming,” he says. “But every once in a while…”

He looks at my face and his right arm twitches.

“Face shot, right—”

“This happens.” He sends his left fist toward my gut instead, barely touching it. He doesn’t take his hand back right away, and I can feel my blood pulsing under his touch.

“Every once in a while you’ll run into someone who’ll intentionally mislead you by looking somewhere they’re not going to hit,” he says. “But that only really happens in a relaxed environment. If someone’s moving quickly and is in the moment, they will almost always give themselves away. Of course, if they’re moving fast enough, the tells are also much harder to pick out. But the whole idea is similar to the way people look at your lips when they want to kiss you.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Or want to punch you in the mouth.”

“Or that,” he says, and smirks. “I’m going to walk you through blocking in slow motion and then we’ll do it at proper speed.” He throws a punch at my face and I put up my left arm.

“Not bad, but you’re still too stiff,” he says. “A punch or a chop or anything directed at your face is going to come with force. But that doesn’t mean you need to use a great deal of force to repel it. Use their momentum against them by redirecting it.”