21. Chapter Twenty-One #2
Aleksandr growled, slicing his hand through the air to silence me. “I said, quiet . We have more important things to deal with, so we’re going to settle this right now. Illayana has the right to issue you with a challenge, and you do not have the right to deny her. Father’s rules.”
My fists clenched at my sides. He was right.
Father invented the concept of the ring for several reasons.
One of which was to settle any disagreements between us.
He didn’t want us holding grudges or resentment towards each other.
We would challenge them and fight it out instead.
Once the fight was over, that was it. The matter was considered settled and we both had to move on.
Aleksandr finally let Illayana go and forced her to look him in the eyes. “Do you still—”
“Damn fucking straight I do,” she gritted out behind clenched teeth.
“Fine.” I cracked my neck. “Let’s get it over with, then.”
I reared back, avoiding Illayana’s fist, ducked underneath her arm and jabbed her in the ribs.
She sucked in a pain-filled breath, her eyes widening.
I dropped, stuck out a leg and spun, kicking her feet out right from under her and making her slam to the ground.
I rose to my full height and placed a foot in the centre of her chest, keeping her down.
I didn’t apply too much pressure. I wasn’t trying to kill her.
But she’d pissed me off so much, I wanted to at least make it hurt a little. Or a lot.
We’d been fighting for the better part of an hour, and I feared there was no end in sight. My sister was angry . Beyond angry. I think a lot of that anger stemmed from being hurt. Instead of dealing with that emotion, she leant hard on her anger, letting herself succumb to it.
I was having a hard time holding her back anymore. She just kept coming, and coming, and coming, refusing to tap out or give up.
As the challenger, the fight couldn’t end until she ended it, by tap out or KO. And I was running out of options on ways to end this fight safely.
“Give up, Illayana.” I’d said those same three words multiple times already and she’d done the same thing she was doing then; she bared her teeth and shook her head, flat out refusing.
“I’m not stopping until I knock your fucking teeth out.”
I sighed, applying a bit more pressure, making her choke. “You’re going to look back on this moment and regret how much of a fucking idiot you’re being.”
She gasped. “No, I won’t.”
“Yes, you will. You’re overreacting.”
“Overreacting?” she screeched. “You lied to me for years . You hid this massive, traumatic event from me—”
“Look how you’re acting!” I screamed down at her. “Can you honestly blame us?”
Movement behind me made me glance over my shoulder, catching sight of Tatiana climbing into the ring.
People stood around the outside, watching on.
Aleksandr, Drea, Lukyan, Illayana’s guards and a few other soldiers.
Way at the back of the crowd stood Ivan, his feet planted firmly on the ground and arms folded across his chest.
“Let her go, Nikolai,” Tatiana commanded.
I took my foot off Illayana’s chest and stepped back. She immediately jumped up and went to run at me again, but Tatiana wedged herself between us, stopping her.
“ I’m the one you really want to fight, Illayana. Not Nikolai. If it were up to him, he would have told you all about it the moment that it happened. I’m the one who told him not to say a word.”
“Tatiana—”
“No, Nikolai.” She put a hand up, telling me not to say another word. “You know it's true. I’m the one who wanted to keep our relationship a secret. I’m the one who didn’t want to tell them. The only person to blame here is me.”
There was nobody to blame. Tatiana and I had the right to keep what was happening between us private. We weren’t obligated to tell anyone a damn thing. I wanted to say it. I even opened my mouth to do so, but one glance from Tatiana had me snapping my mouth shut.
She looked at Illayana head on. “Once we do this, it’s over. We leave it all here. We move on. Agreed?”
Illayana pursed her lips in distaste, her eyes still burning with anger. She nodded once. “Agreed.” She stepped back and put her fists up.
Tatiana cracked her neck. She slipped a hand over her slender fingers and pulled off her rings, holding them out to me. I took them from her and she pulled out her earrings next, dropping them in my open palm.
“Tati—” I began.
“We both know this is the only way for this to end. She needs to fight it out. So I'm going to let her.”
“You shouldn’t have to.”
She shrugged before giving me a wink. “If I wanted a sane, reasonable best friend, I wouldn’t have chosen Illayana.” She flicked her head to the side. “Go, quickly. Before she changes her mind.”
I didn’t care if she changed her mind. I didn’t care if she was still pissed off. I didn’t care if she wanted to fight until she couldn’t stand on her own two feet any longer. At that moment, all I cared about was Tatiana.
She was putting on a brave face, but I knew reliving the past was painful for her, and that she was willing to accept whatever punishment Illayana dealt out because inside, she felt like she deserved it for hiding it from her all these years.
Illayana was her best friend. The guilt of keeping this secret weighed heavily on her every single day, and suddenly it was all coming out.
Exhaling an annoyed grunt, I turned and climbed down from the ring. Cheering rang out through the room, loud and boisterous as Tatiana and Illayana ran at each other.
“Here. For your eye.” Lukyan shoved an ice pack at my chest, keeping his gaze locked on the ring, refusing to even look at me.
He—like Illayana—was angry that I never told him about what happened.
His choice of punishment, however, was the silent treatment (as much as Lukyan was capable of being silent, that is).
He viewed the loss of his “dazzling personality” (his words, not mine) as a punishment worse than death.
The crowd groaned when Tatiana landed a brutal right hook, Illayana’s head whipping to the side, and then planted a fast front kick to her chest, sending her flying back. I’d feel sorry for her if she wasn’t being such a brat.
Aleksandr walked up to my side. “You okay?”
“I’m fine,” I grunted, wincing when I lay the ice pack against my skin. Fuck, she got me good. My face, arm, shoulder and abdomen all ached. Despite her anger, she didn’t cause any lasting damage. I’d have a shit-ton of bruises though.
Aleksandr sighed. “Nikolai—”
“I don’t want to talk about it. Not right now.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Fine. But, later.” His tone brokered no debate on the matter, so I just nodded my head, and focused back on the fight.