15. Tressa
Tressa Abebe stepped up to the railing and carefully peeled the hood of her cloak away from her face so she could see down to the Contestars” Courtyard below.
She hadn’t gone to see where her room was, hadn”t bothered to go see her office in the Healer’s Hall, hadn’t unpacked, or even relieved herself after the trip. She hadn’t even gone to find Ren yet.
No.
First, before anything else, Tressa needed to see her.
Tressa squeezed the railing of the viewing platform over the courtyard and searched each Contestar’s face, looking for the one who was unfamiliar among the women. Six months ago, they had gathered initially, and Tressa had gotten to know all of the Contestars. All except the one who hadn’t come.
According to the schedule Ren had given her, the Contestars should still be out training before the dinner bell rang. The Guardian’s trainers hovered closely, trying to give the Contestars advice as they moved through fighting sequences and tried out new weapons. Tressa’s eyes moved over every one of them, until she found her. The only girl dressed in the Contestar leathers who hadn’t shown up the first time for the Choosing.
It was her.
Tressa was a healer, and not just any healer but the Princess of the House of Life. She was the daughter of Abebe, the old King of House of Life, and one of the greatest healers in the Realm’s history.
She could hold more than the average amount of healing magick in her. Her friends in the past had always described Tressa as sweet, loving, and kind. War, and pain, and death were not part of her nature, but as Tressa studied the girl carefully, her fingers twitched with the need to scratch her nails down that fierce, beautiful face.
Coward, Tressa thought as the girl she watched shifted her weight, keeping her eyes locked on the fight in front of her. Her skin was clear, not sweaty, and dirty like those of her counterparts. Maybe she couldn”t be bothered to train with the rest of them, maybe she had never fought before, but the Guardian’s men were giving her a wide berth, as if they were reluctant to cross over into her bubble of influence, and Tressa didn’t understand it. She didn’t like it either.
Tressa’s upper lip twisted into a snarl.
Two large hands wrapped around her upper arms. “Easy now, lass.”
Tressa knew the body behind her as well as she knew her own, knew that voice, and she reluctantly melted into his chest, biting back the groan of pleasure at enjoying the heat of his arms.
Warm lips brushed under her ear, and she involuntarily tilted her head towards his wicked mouth.
Tressa’s voice was low and lethal. “If she makes it past the first round, even you won’t be able to stop me when I kill her.”
Ren laughed softly and tucked one of Tressa”s waist-long braids behind her ear. “You assume, Princess, that I wouldn’t be with you. I already told you; I want to be an accomplice to all your sins.”
She hummed in pleasure and rocked back grudgingly into Ren’s arms. She hadn’t seen him in a month, and the warmth and strength radiating from him was enough to distract her from wanting to water the courtyard stones with the girl”s blood.
The girl finally felt the heat of Tressa’s glare and two icy blue eyes flicked up to focus on her.
Adrenaline flushed into Tressa’s blood and Tressa pulled her lips up and bared her teeth. I’m going to kill you in the most violent way I can think of.
But as the girl studied Tressa nothing in her face changed. She didn’t look confused, or annoyed, or even vaguely interested that Tressa was staring daggers into her.
The girl slid her gaze up to look at Ren, her eyes skating over the broad arm he had banded across Tressa’s torso, holding her tightly against his chest.
Then the girl blinked. Just once.
One bored, uninterested blink, and that was it.
Tressa let loose a low growl, her snarl deepening, but the girl’s expression didn’t change, and she didn’t look away. There was no shame or remorse or recognition in her gaze, and it shot another jolt of unfamiliar, furious adrenaline through Tressa.
Ren jerked her back a step from the railing. She stumbled back with him, hissing like a cat, but Ren just kept pulling her with him. He was at least three times her size, corded with muscle and brawn, and she felt like a paper doll being dragged behind him.
Using the gifts, she had inherited from her mother’s side of the family, she could have pulped Ren’s brain into nothing more than textured mush, but she would never do that.
Never to Ren.
She would rather pulp her own brain than touch a single synapse in his, and he knew it.
He continued to pull her away, through the door to the balcony and down a corridor before he tucked her into an empty hallway and had her back pressed against a wall. He grabbed her wrists and pinned them above her head.
Tressa breathed so heavily her breasts brushed his chest. She could see with smug satisfaction that he was trying not to look at her flawless, ebony skin visible down the front of her dress.
Beneath her bubbling anger at him for dragging her away, a different heat sparked through her, and her chest arched a bit more into him.
“Woman,” he growled, his face getting closer to her, keeping her eyes trapped on him. “Now is not the time.”
Tressa bit her lip and arched her breasts farther into him, brushing them against his chest until he growled with lust. “I haven’t seen you in a month,” she pouted. “Now is definitely the time.”
“That’s not what I mean. We will be getting to that as soon as I can talk my way into this thick head of yours.” Tressa glared, but Ren pressed on. “The God’s Law states that no one is to touch the Contestars until after the Protectorates choose. Now is not the time to kill her, Tressa.” His voice was thick and guttural, and her anger was fading fast, Lust spiraled up in her stomach instead. His familiar heat against her body was becoming something she needed, urgently.
Tressa licked her lips, and Ren’s eyes watched it. “Tressa, do we have an agreement?”
Ren slowly looked back at her eyes, and he pressed his hard body into her a fraction more. She had to bite back a groan as he ground his hips into her, feeling his cock hot and hard against her stomach.
“Tressa,” he warned. “I want to hear that promise straight from your cursed, bewitching mouth.”
She rolled her eyes and pulled her wrists out of his grasp to wrap her arms up around Ren’s thick, muscled neck. She leaned in and bit down on his thick trapezoid softly, her flat teeth scraping on the thick muscles that clenched across her tongue. Ren groaned, and he rolled his hips so she could feel him against her again.
“Tressa,” he growled, begging, the sound making her nipples harden into points under her dress.
“I promise, Ren. I will wait until the God’s Law does not protect her.” She smiled softly, pressing a palm against the side of his jaw, admiring the contrast between his pale flesh and her own dark skin. It was one of her favorite things about them. So different, and yet exactly the same. She looked up into his eyes to see him watching her, his look setting her blood on fire.
Tressa rocked onto her toes to plant a chaste kiss against his lips. “I have too much to lose. I won’t risk it on her,” she sighed.
Ren smiled and seeing his green eyes sparkle made Tressa’s heart squeeze. He bent down and finally kissed her, his tongue sending delicious shivers down her spine. Kissing him swept away all thoughts about the girl, the girl with ice in her eyes and an unflinching stare.
The girl who Tressa was going to murder to avenge her dead sister.