Fae Champion (Royals of Embermere #2)

7. There’s More to Power Than the Size of Your … Magic

7. THERE’S MORE TO POWER THAN THE SIZE OF YOUR … MAGIC

My muscles scarcely twitched as Selwin sidestepped Rush and prowled toward my prone body. Rush mirrored his positioning, wedging himself between us.

Selwin growled, then rolled his shoulders, still gripping his sword and sizing up my neck. “Get outta my way, Vega.”

“No,” Rush answered, the one word vibrating with his resolve.

“I have my orders. Move, or I’ll make you.”

When Selwin’s magic stunned me, my head had been craning up as I fell. Now that Rush had turned me, I lay mostly on my back, my point of view aimed at the men’s thighs. I heard more than saw Rush draw his sword in response.

“So it’s gonna be like that, then,” Selwin said.

“If you don’t back off right now, I guess so.”

Selwin peered up behind him—to seek the queen’s orders—but guards decked out in her blue were already swarming the arena. Their footfalls shook the ground beneath me and rattled my weapons in their holsters.

Rush stretched out his free arm toward me in a protective gesture while attempting to defend me from too many directions.

I had to move. I had to get up and protect myself.

I couldn’t.

Anger at the injustice of my situation rocketed up my throat, immediately followed by fear for Rush. He was vastly outnumbered and already in the shithouse with the queen for taking me to the milder dungeon.

The paralysis wore off by a fraction. I was able to tilt my head up more. Rush was staring off in the direction of the dugout and very subtly shook his head no . I guessed his friends were offering their assistance. Take it, Rush, take it , I pleaded in my mind, but not a peep spilled out. He was being gallant, dammit, not wanting to drag his friends into the shithouse with him.

A guard barked at him, “Stand down, Drake Rush Vega, or we’ll be forced to take you in.”

Rush appeared to study all the dozen or so men at once. “I’ll stand down when the Lady Elowyn isn’t in immediate danger.”

“You can’t interfere with the Gladius Probatio,” Selwin insisted, taking half a step toward us.

Rush turned more in his direction than that of the guards. “I can if my orders are to protect her with my life.”

“That doesn’t count, not in the arena. ”

“It does when you’re fighting with magic she doesn’t have.”

Selwin tossed his sword from one hand to the other, then back again. I followed the path of the lethal blade. “Every fae has some magic.” The cocky bastard chortled. “Just ’cause she doesn’t have powers as awesome as mine doesn’t mean it’s unfair.”

Was that true? Did every fae have some sort of power? Zako had never told me that. I’d never seen him do anything particularly extraordinary. His powers were limited to basic tasks like providing lighting for our yurt.

“Fight her like a real man,” Rush said.

Selwin snorted. “Nice try, Vega, but I’m not falling for it. You’re just jealous ’cause my magic’s bigger than yours.” Selwin cupped his crotch and squeezed, eyes glimmering.

Despite the danger, I rolled mine.

“Back off till your stun wears off,” Rush said, “and we can compare sizes. I’m confident I’ll win.”

I swallowed so thickly that it helped me realize my range of movement was gradually increasing. I attempted to flex my fingers. I couldn’t move them enough to be helpful, but at this rate I’d get there before long.

Just as I mentally projected to Rush to keep stalling them, Selwin attacked without warning, charging Rush sword first.

Rush deflected the attack and pressed Selwin back, but as he did the guards approached, taking full advantage of the distraction.

I did my best to watch them, but without full range of motion, one of them could sneak up on me and I might not notice until it was too late.

The clanging of swords against each other was loud and jarring, but Rush and Selwin fought where I could no longer see. Then the crackle of Selwin’s magic electrified the air, and I held my breath.

The guards stood in a wall around me, intending to block Rush from reaching me. No doubt, they’d let Selwin through without a problem, uncaring that he meant to behead me without need.

When the crack of power rent the air, and the fae in the stands gasped along with me, I stretched my hearing to pick up on the crash of Rush’s body hitting the ground as mine had.

It never came.

Moments later, the guards surrounding me turned and I caught a flash of his silver hair. He exchanged strikes with several of them before shoving two of them to the ground and wedging his way once more between me and my aggressors.

Selwin was out of sight and silent. What had Rush done to him?

With his back to me, Rush fought off several more guards until the queen, from her balcony above us, said, “Rush, enough.”

Those in the stands quieted to hear what she’d say next since her words weren’t enhanced to carry .

Rush stared at the weapons the guards pointed our way with meaning until they finally lowered them. Only then did Rush follow suit and address the queen.

“Your Majesty, I’m following your directives. You and His Majesty the King have commanded me to protect her with my life. The Viscount Selwin doesn’t need to kill her to secure his victory and advance to the next round. I’m doing my job.”

I bent my neck to either side. I was almost there. The ten minutes of Selwin’s magic felt eternal, but they must be almost over.

The queen slid forward on her throne, crossing a leg over the other beneath her ample skirts. She glanced from Rush to me and far to the right.

Selwin . I was able to follow her gaze. He stood still, a murderous stare pinned on me, his fingers wrapped around the hilt of his sword. Sweat trailed down his forehead, sideburns, and neck as if he were straining against some invisible force.

Rush’s power, it had to be.

Could Rush stun as well? I hadn’t noticed a second crackle. Perhaps his had been the one I’d heard.

“She’s not the only one you’ve sworn to protect,” the queen added softly, her words only for Rush and those of us nearby.

His breath hitched.

“Remember who else depends on the … wisdom of your actions.”

Rush gulped. Many moments later, just as softly, “I can’t stand by and watch Elowyn get killed. I just … can’t.”

The king rose from his throne to lean against the balcony edge. It was the first time I’d ever seen him stand in front of his wife.

“You won’t have to watch her die,” the king called down to Rush. “She’ll accept her defeat and there will be no need for death to end this match.”

The queen also stood and moved next to the king. She rested an elegant hand on the railing, placing her ahead of him, even if by a few inches.

“Yes, yes, of course,” she said to her husband. “I won’t agree to a killing.”

But when she stared at Selwin, her icy eyes telling him to disregard her complacency, Rush was turned around considering me, as if to confirm I’d be safe while he chose to protect whomever else he promised to defend. I couldn’t tell if my father had noticed his wife’s deception or if he believed her lies.

Finally, Rush nodded. He’d convinced himself of something. He smiled. “You heard our monarchs. You’ll be safe now, El.”

I parted my lips to tell him that No, no I wouldn’t , but my throat still wasn’t working properly, preventing my warning.

Rush sheathed his sword. “It’s probably for the best this way anyway. At least after this you won’t be in danger anymore.”

Yeah, ’cause I’ll be dead! I screamed at him through my thoughts .

“The Gladius Probatio’s no place for a female, even one who’s capable,” he said. “This’ll be better. Yeah, for sure it will be.” He sounded scarcely more convinced than I was.

Another preoccupied smile, another nod, then, “I’ll see you when you’re finished.”

Next he glowered at Selwin, whose fingers were gripping the handle of his sword so tightly they were bleached of color. “Be gentle with her or I promise you’ll regret it.”

“Understood,” Selwin clipped out, and my rapidly releasing muscles tensed. Whatever magic Rush had used on the man, it hadn’t incapacitated him as much as I’d hoped.

The guards tailed Rush from the arena into the dugout, where they stood around him, Ryder, West, Hiroshi, and Roan to ensure none of them ran out to my defense.

Selwin observed Rush’s withdrawal—while I watched him. Satisfied he was behind a wall of guards, Selwin stalked toward me, closing the distance.

I strained to regain full motion. I was seconds away, but even that sliver of time was too great.

He raised his sword. The spectators cried out in alarm, some even saying things such as, “Don’t kill her! She’s our champion.”

Rush growled like a bear woken from hibernation. And his call was echoed by the four warriors surrounding him.

I stared up at Selwin and his wicked grin that reminded me of the queen. His eyes flared with a drive for brutality.

Rush and the others yelled, the guards shouted back, the fae in the stands hollered. Even the king muttered a “No” that was loud enough for me to hear, but not enough that Selwin couldn’t later deny he’d registered the command.

The sword arced downward. Selwin no longer aimed for my neck. But it was a killing blow. He’d end me however he could, and after deliver my head to the queen. Once I was dead, the king’s feeble protests would be even more useless.

Move, Elowyn. Fucking move, dammit! I shouted inside my head so fiercely that my body finished unlocking.

My movements sluggish, rough, and choppy, as if I’d only just finished thawing from a solid block of ice, I reached for the closest weapon, the one I could probably wield in my sleep.

I slipped a dagger from its sheath, lurched forward, and plunged it into Selwin’s thigh with all the strength I could muster from this angle. Before he’d fully comprehended what had happened, I rolled out of reach of his sword, then clamored awkwardly to my feet.

He roared, yanked the knife from his leg, and tossed it to the ground.

He charged me as Rush broke through the barricade of guards.

I tottered but drew three throwing knives .

Sword raised above his head as if to slam it down on me and cleave my head in half, Selwin ran at me.

My motion was creaky. But I’d practiced with blades until they felt like an extension of my body. These weren’t my familiar knives, but they were much like them.

I cocked my arm back and threw one at his throat. My aim—my muscles—was off, and the blade glanced off his jaw and nicked his ear.

Soon he’d be too close for the throwing knives to reach the speed they needed to inflict damage.

I stopped thinking and fretting about how my body wasn’t working the way it should when I most needed it to.

One-two. I sliced the air with whistles of glimmering metal.

Selwin’s cry gurgled in his throat as I met my targets with wet, quiet thuds.

He dropped his sword with a plunk to clutch at the blades sticking from his neck and eye. Blood meandered from the wounds, but before he could heed the warnings shouted at him, double fisted, he pulled out the blades with the distressed whine of a wounded animal.

Blood streamed down his face, neck, and chest, coating his armor in seconds. He crumbled to the ground and called for help.

After a flick of the queen’s hand, Ivar nodded, signaled to another, and eventually aides scurried out onto the field to staunch the bleeding.

I didn’t watch, however. Not when the healing staff carried him off the field. Not Rush as he crouched beside me. Not even when Azariah announced me the victor of the match.

The queen’s eyes burned with murderous promises.

As did mine.

This time, I intended to deliver.