Chapter 19
“I, Savaé Entropaé, challenge you, S?las Zyon, to combat,” I say without a trace of emotion marring my face.
“I was hoping to be fighting you between the sheets, but I suppose if you like an audience, I can make this work, too,” he finishes with a wink. Before I can respond, he tugs my arm, gently but firm. Pulling me close. Guess he does break promises.
He tucks my loose hair back, whispering along my ear, “I see you, and I am not looking away.” He pauses, as if hoping his words will dissuade me.
The darkness purrs inside me, but it does little to blur the red in my vision. After holding my silence for long enough, he continues.
“You tore through four males already. You have more than proven your worth. Do not think I will take it easy on you, little savage, just because you refuse to know your limits,” he growls low as the smell of amber and spruce fills my ragged breaths.
I shove him away.
“My challenge stands,” I snarl, refusing to let my plan be foiled.
He snatches the canteen from my hand, taking a large sip as beads of water trail down his face, cascading over every curve of his muscled torso.
I remind myself of the threat he poses to my goal and Zenith.
I roll my shoulders, clearing the sight of him from my mind as I take the mat.
He prowls around me; each step is calculated. The shadows storm in his eyes as he assesses my every movement. In my lust to see his heart still, I hadn’t even bothered to fix my hair, which streams down either side of my blood-splattered face.
We both stalk around the mat, waiting for one of us to make the first move. I grow bored and lunge towards him, slinging a fake punch, but it’s really a kick I’m intending to land.
He dodges my moves as if they’re nothing.
I growl at the wicked smirk that teases his lips, knowing I missed my mark. We each take turns, trying to land hits, each of us missing, dancing with each other between the movements.
Each time our bodies get close, he finds a way to gently graze me with a touch too lingering to be accidental. He’s enjoying the excuse to touch me far too much, playing with me, trying to use my hormones against me. I need him off his game.
“I’m surprised a flirt like you hasn’t taken advantage of my challenge to pin me to the mat,” I purr with a devious smile as we circle one another.
“Oh, trust me, there are all manner of things I would love to pin you to. But I’d prefer to hear you screaming my name in a much more intimate place than this pit of sweat and—”
Before he can finish his sentence, I dart one way, my toes barely touching the ground as I lunge the opposite way, landing a jab across his jaw, splitting his full bottom lip. I bet even Kissa’s impressed with my feline grace after that set of maneuvers.
“Look at you. Sneaky little savage Savaé. That’s your one free hit,” he says as he slowly licks the blood from his split lip.
“One free hit?” I croon sarcastically, ignoring the way my name rolling off his crimson lips sends lightning skittering through my veins. “Come a little closer, darling. I’ll give you a black eye even your shadows will be jealous of.” I wink.
“I can’t deny that I have a soft spot for a dangerous female with a tongue as sharp as her daggers.
” He slings me a cocky smirk and lunges for me.
I attempt to spin out of his way, but his hands spin me an extra rotation as he uses his lunging momentum to pin me down on my back, straddling me between the weight of his legs.
Thick arms knock down on either side of my shoulders as he leans over me.
I gasp from the blow as I watch the crimson flecks twinkle with amusement in his ice-blue eyes. He shrugs, then purrs with far too much delight.
“This is definitely not how I imagined the first time having you beneath me would go. But I’ll settle for it, since you seem to like a show.”
I wrap my hand around the back of his neck, dragging him in closer to me. “What if I prefer being on top?” I purr right back along the corded muscles of his neck, leading him into my well-laid trap.
Without hesitation, he spins us both, placing his strong hands around my hip as he secures my position on top of him.
My hair is wild now, and I brace my arms against his chest, holding my upper body weight close to his to hide my movements.
I slip my weapon out of my bracer, shifting my right arm to position the icepick dagger above his fifth intercostal space.
My hair now creating a curtain, I lower my weight into him, my mouth a whisper from his as the dagger begins to pierce his flesh.
“Do it.” A feral growl escapes his lips, his eyes darkening with a never-ending storm of shadows.
His comment catches me off guard. There’s a lighter part of my soul screaming for me to stop. Hmm, didn’t realize there were any light parts left. Well, that certainly muddles things.
The male beneath me is not a monster like Lorgan, Chet, or my foster father.
I suppose he doesn’t deserve to die just because he’s a distraction.
Nor does he deserve to meet death just because he has a way of scraping my vulnerable bits to the surface, nestling in between my ribs and curling around my heart in the most terrifying fucking way.
My soul screeches, begging me not to let the darkness win. A part of me knows killing an innocent being is something I will likely never come back from. The darkness in me begs to differ; she’s craving the kill. Certainly, he can’t be that innocent then.
“You’d be saving me from a lifetime of heartache. Do it, before my own monsters come up to play.” His words are laced with longing and agony, pecking at my dark bits—like our monsters play too well together already.
In fact, it’s as if my monsters know his all too well. The feral darkness inside me grows quiet as I search the hurricane of shadows that swirl within his eyes. Perhaps I’m not as broken and evil as I think I am.
Perhaps there’s still hope for my soul. For my ragged heart, limping to beat.
I hold his gaze as I sheathe the dagger. I linger, hovering above his face, studying the curiosity before me. I reach my free hand out to the mat, striking it three times.
Disappointment flashes across his face. Then his typical smirk tugs at the side of his lips. Before I can even blink, he lifts us both up to our feet in one graceful glide. I stare at him, waiting for him to make a move; after all, I just tried to kill him.
“If you wanted a moment alone with me, all you had to do was ask.” With an arched brow, he lazily looks me up and down. My body simmers beneath his lustful gaze, but I don’t move an inch. I’m stunned. I cannot comprehend what just happened between us.
I blink, and he’s right in front of me, raising his tattooed knuckles, stroking my broken cheekbone. I’m waiting for the pain of his touch to come, taking advantage of my sore spot, gutting me with the vulnerability I’ve foolishly bared to him.
My breath staggers from my lungs as his soothing Sangre magic heals the residual swelling lingering above the already mending bones. Not an ounce of pain follows; something quite the opposite blushes my face.
S?las clearly notices my shock, leaning his head down, his minty breath caressing my cheek.
“I could never hurt you,” he whispers. So quietly, I’m not sure he even spoke.
I close my eyes, not fully able to take in the weight of those words as they chisel along the glacial palace of my ribs, leaving fissures in their wake.
The air escapes my lungs, leaving me breathless, wondering how he knew exactly what I was thinking.
I open my eyes, hoping to study his face for answers, to catch his features in a lie…
But he’s already gone.
I look over to Juniper, stumbling in shock, jaw gaping wide. Both Kissa and Cinder are rolling their eyes as they head for the stairs. Clearly, we’ve been quite the spectacle.
I run my hand over the back of my neck, unsettled by not only whatever the fuck that was but having witnesses, too. I didn’t even hear the bell chime to signal class was over, but by the way everyone is clamoring for the stairs, the session must be done.
Kivi stops me, mending the rest of my injuries before we both head to the stairs.
I’m almost at the steps when a large hand grabs my wrist. My eyes snap up to silver ones framed by the same shade of metallic hair as Zander rumbles, “Sully trained you well. I heard of his passing. I’m sorry for your loss.
” He pauses, his eyes searching mine before he continues, “but know that he lives on, inside you.”
He releases my arm, and I nod, thanking him for his words. I dart up the steps two at a time, blinking away the tears threatening to fall from my eyes.
My limping heart is flooded with emotions.
The loss of Sully. The kindness of S?las.
The shit Chet put me through today. It’s all too much.
My mind is a fucking mess. I should have shoved those feelings—along with S?las—right out the window when I had the chance. But now it’s too late. I’m drowning.
My skin burns like the sun as tidal wave after tidal wave crashes within me. My control continuing to slip, too wrecked to grasp onto my reins.
I need to get outside. Fast. I need to breathe before the waves threatening to consume me drag me under.
Every emotion crackles through my veins. A building storm. Demanding release, destruction, mayhem. The power welling inside me seems tethered to my emotions. Which is fucking horrifying in this moment when I can’t reach my mosaic window to shove them out and lock them where they belong.