Chapter 3 #2
Harvey grabs my shoulders and shakes me. “Snap out of it, dude. Trust me, even if you win, you’re going to lose.”
I’m not afraid of losing to my mate. I’d happily lose to her for the rest of my life if she’d just look at me with a smile for once.
I shrug off Harvey’s hold like a man possessed and walk straight to my mate, ignoring the whispered warning behind me.
Hazel sighs when I stop in front of her, still grinning like a lunatic.
“What do you want, Reaper?”
So much attitude for such an innocent face.
Congratulations on the win. You earned it.”
For some reason, that throws her off. Hazel opens her mouth, ready to snap, then pauses, suspicion flickering across her features.
“Thanks?”
“You’re welcome.” When I don’t leave, Hazel raises a brow. “I just realized we’ve never sparred.”
She blinks at me for a long moment, then starts gathering abandoned weapons from the ground. “I think we’ve established our Divines won’t let us fight.”
Last week, I made the mistake of thinking her daggers were fair game and hid them as part of my prank, and Hazel nearly took my head off. That’s how we found out our Divines won’t let us harm each other.
Thank fates, because I was pretty sure she was going to disembowel me.
I feel her slipping away, so I go for the only thing that works. I piss her off.
“Oh, I’m sure your Divine can handle a friendly duel between mates.” She opens her mouth, but I keep going. “Don’t worry, I won’t go easy on you just because our souls are tied for eternity.”
A spark ignites in her sharp onyx eyes, and I know I’ve got her. “What do I get if I beat you?”
“Me, of course. You can’t ask for a better prize.”
She turns away, ready to leave. “Wait, wait. I’m sorry. I’ll take it seriously. Hazel Seagrave, will you please spar with me and give me the honor of beating your ass?”
Hazel agrees, and like I’m coming out of a daze, I finally take her in. Her top is damp with sweat and blood, her pants torn at the thigh where Seiji’s whip caught her. The wounds are already healed, but I still feel like an ass for pushing this now.
I’m a little ashamed that it didn’t even occur to me how exhausted she must be after fighting a dozen warriors less than ten minutes ago.
Fuck. I should’ve waited.
“Don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet now.” Hazel unwraps her bloodied bandage and replaces it with a clean one. “Relax, mate. You know I can’t kill you.”
Nevaeh tries one last time to stop me, but it’s too late. If I back down now, Hazel will mock me till the end of time.
At Harvey’s whistle, we start circling each other. Hazel’s gaze is fixed on me, tracking my every move. And it’s doing exactly what I expected. Having her entire focus on me is addictive. So addictive that I don’t see her leg until it sweeps me off my feet.
Nevaeh hisses when I hit my knees, but years of training have me back on my feet before I can embarrass myself too badly.
Hazel’s smirk is so damn cute, I’m pretty sure if she asked me to get on my knees again, I’d do it without hesitation.
Her fist aims for my shoulder, and I block it with my elbow. What I don’t expect is the follow-through. Her dagger-clan hand moves to my side, stabbing me in one clean move.
But I barely flinch. And that sets her off.
Hazel comes at me like a bat out of hell. I dodge hit after hit, but she doesn’t slow down, doesn’t tire, doesn’t stop landing hits.
My girl has stamina.
Seiji is cheering for Hazel like a maniac, shouting helpful suggestions on where to stab me next. We’re both healing as we fight, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt like hell when her dagger sinks into my side before she yanks it with a frustrated growl.
Her Divine is blocking her attacks. Just like mine won’t let me shift from defense to offense. Hell, I can’t even summon my scythe.
She must have much better control over her essence to be able to attack me on will, even if it doesn’t last long.
She’s incredible, one of the best I’ve ever fought, but I didn’t earn my throne by sitting on my ass. When you tend to piss off the most unhinged beings in existence, you learn a few tricks.
Neither of us could go all out because of the mate bond, but I still have over a decade of training on her.
She’s ten times better than I was at 26, but until last month, I spent three years in Purgatory. After fighting rabid undead souls of every kind, duels like this feel like… child’s play.
Ten minutes later, Hazel hits the ground… and I know I’ve made a mistake.
Her face is flushed, her usually soft monolid eyes burning with anger, and all of it is aimed at me. I know she can’t hurt me… but I’m a little scared now.
Hazel pounds the ground with her fist. “Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.”
This looks like a tantrum.
“Aw, are you feeling hormonal, honey?” I coo.
I might have a death wish.
She glares up at me. “No, just homicidal… honey.”
I know she’s furious, but Fates, she just called me honey. Maybe this wasn’t a completely stupid idea.
I tear my eyes from my seething mate at the sound of my daughter laughing her ass off, tears streaming down her cheeks. I gesture for her to cut it out by dragging my thumb across my throat, but that only makes her laugh harder.
I’m so fucked.
Hazel dusts herself off, and I see she’s about to get so I offer her my hand… like a fucking idiot. How can someone mess up so many times in such a short time?
It’s like I want to get stabbed.
Hazel ignores my hand and pushes herself up, pinning me with another glare. This time, I’m smart—and scared—enough not to smile.
“You were amazing.”
“Uh-huh.”
“We should do this again. It’s a good learning opportunity.”
Hazel’s brows shoot up, but she stays quiet as my eyes widen in horror when I realize how that sounded.
“I meant for me. I could learn a lot from you. You just took down over a dozen warriors and beat two Horsemen.”
Her glare softens slightly, but then Nevaeh, Harvey, and Seiji start giggling like little children, and she rolls her eyes.
Before Hazel stomps away, she looks at me over her shoulder, her gaze sharp as her blades, a barely concealed smirk on her lips. “Enjoy the next twenty-four hours.”
“Is that a threat or just how you wish people a good day?” I call after her, but she doesn’t answer. Shit.
“I’ll sleep with one eye open if I were you.” Harvey bumps my shoulder.
“I’ll move to a different realm if I were you,” Seiji adds helpfully.
Shit.