18. Chapter 18
An icy wind ripped through the fabric of my tunic, but the coolness couldn’t touch the roaring furnace within me.
I wanted to rage. I wanted to tear the lord’s manor down stone by stone and light the remains on fire.
I wanted his lifesource to be imbued into my skin and fuel me.
The tight grip on my elbow led me through the tastelessly decorated halls and exuberated extravagance.
My mind tightened its clutch on my fury as I thought of the overworked citizens who paid their lord triple what they needed to, while the pompous prick sat here with too many things to count and enough food to feed numerous families for months.
We stormed through the front courtyard, our boots stepping through the flowerbeds for a minor shortcut until we were well past the gates and near the main road that led up to the manor.
Down the hill, the city was illuminated beautifully, but the shadows of the large mountains around us loomed like hidden monsters.
I was pulled off course and through the grass that led us to a thicket of trees a few paces away from the road.
“Find your calm,” the voice growled at me again, finally bringing us to a halt next to a large evergreen.
“How can I find fucking calm when you’re gripping me like that?” I hissed as I yanked my elbow from the person’s hold and whirled around to find Peiro standing with his arms now folded across his chest.
“You were losing control,” Peiro said a little more softly. “Come back to me, Na—“
“No! You don’t get to call me that,” I hissed again. “My anger is just! We have been nothing but disrespected at every turn. Upon our arrival here. Since I was fucking born. No, he doesn’t get to do this, Peiro. I demand his respect—if not for me then for my sister. The damn queen!”
“Show them!” Peiro engulfed my space, his chest a hair’s breadth from mine.
“Show them that you are a force that demands retribution, but do not cower to his level. You have every right, Ophelia, to feel what you feel. Use it. Use that power of its own to do right by Gria. Please don’t succumb to what the voices in your head beckon you to do.
I see it because I have lived it. Learn from my mistakes. You. Are. Stronger.”
All reason evaded me as I turned to storm away, back to the parasite whose throat I wanted to rip from his spine. I could see it now, his blood dripping through my hands as I cradled his lifesource with my fingertips. A sweet taste coated my tongue and made me smile.
“No!” Peiro yelled as he grabbed at me again, but I was too fast for him to calculate and twisted out of his hold.
My other hand called forth the power to Wield the air and shoved Peiro back with a hard gust. The force caused him to stumble back a few steps before regaining his balance. His gaze snapped to mine, narrowing.
“Are you sure this is how you want to play, darling?” His smile grew mischievous, a purr at the end of his words.
I snarled at his attempt to pacify me, to ground me. “I will make him bow, even if it costs him.“ I turned again to walk toward the manor only to find my feet were no longer on the ground as strong arms squeezed hard across my waist. “Put me down, asshole.”
“Oh, come on, darling. A man can’t just let his woman waltz into a gated manor and try to kill its resident—even if it is just.” He moved away, but not before I caught him muttering, “Any other circumstance I would gladly hand you the blade.” His grip around me grew even tighter.
“Now, let’s find your calm before you regret anything by morning. ”
He only wants to control you. Why else would he try to stop you? I shivered against the trailing ink.
I threw my elbow back and jabbed it inside the soft spot of Peiro’s ribcage as my heel simultaneously found his shin with a hard thud.
He growled as my feet met the hard ground and challenged my balance, but I quickly regained it thanks to all the training my body has seen over the last several weeks.
Without giving him a chance to recover, I Wielded another gust of air to hold him back and then called forth vines from the ground to wrap around his ankles and wrists to keep him in place.
Peiro lifted his head with a snarl and pulled against the vines, ripping them free from the earth as he prowled forward. “Dammit, Ophelia! Find control!” he barked as he took more steps, ready to grab me again. “Remember what we talked about—“
“Fuck off!” I snapped back, anticipating his next advance.
He stopped in his tracks and stared at me, calculating. A single eyebrow raised over his gray-brown eyes as he tilted his head. “You’re sure you want to do this? Fight me?”
I smirked. “What? Think I can’t handle it just because I warm your bed? Or is it because I’m a woman? Do you think I’m frail? Weak?”
“I remember quite clearly the day I told you that you were anything but docile, moonlight.”
“So then what is it? The almighty Peiro can’t take a challenge?” My smile widened viciously.
“Fine.” He tilted his head, relieving a loud crack. “We’ll try it your way.”
I cackled. “Good. I knew I’d hit you in your pride.”
With preternatural speed, Peiro was in front of me. I lifted my hand to block his move with another call of Wielding only for him to knock my arm away, disrupting the call and dispersing the power back into my fingers.
The logical side of my brain screamed that this was a distraction he was giving me, to direct my rage toward something else. Someone else. But the side that screamed for rage didn’t care who was in front of me as long as they paid in blood. A foreign laughter echoed around me, ready to play.
I shifted my stance for this dangerous dance, ready to tear in.
My body was not my own as I watched my hands throw jabs and punches, splitting the skin at Peiro’s brow.
I laughed as I blocked each blow he swung and spun low on my heel in hopes of knocking down his massive stature.
He found his mark on my jaw, drawing blood from my lip, but through the haze I barely felt the tap.
“Yield, Ophelia!” Peiro roared as he held a guard to block the uppercut to his ribcage.
“In your dreams!” I spun and kicked out my foot, hoping to land it on his side, but he swiped me away. Quickly I regained my balance and shifted back into a defensive stance.
“Well, if you’re going to kick me, at least try not kicking like a child!”
Our fists tore into each other’s flesh, blood welling with every blow, but neither of us would relent. We welcomed the brutality—craved it, even. The fight heightened us.
I spun again, an elbow landing in my stomach, forcing air out of my lungs.
I quickly dodged his jab, leaning away at just the right angle as I twisted to throw another punch.
Before it could land, his hand caught my wrist and twisted it behind my back.
A hiss of pain escaped between my teeth that caused my gravity to jilt, but not before my hook found its mark underneath Peiro’s jaw, forcing his head back.
His grasp loosened, allowing me to break free from his hold and watch him stumble back a step before regaining his composure.
His eyes narrowed as he spat blood onto the ground.
To further his distraction, I called on my Wateras Wielding to pull the moisture from the mountain air and doused Peiro’s face and clothes in a fine mist. He shook the water away from his face, splattering me in the process before slicking back his hair away from his eyes.
“Cute. How long have you been wanting to do that?”
“A while.”
“You know, moonlight”—he promptly untucked his wet tunic and lifted it over his wide frame—“if you were trying to unclothe me, all you had to do was ask.” Even from the faint moonlight that trickled through the trees, I could make out the planes of his body and the dark swirls of ink that coated his skin.
My eyes traveled down to the four thick bands on his forearm before tracing the inked shield on his chest. Forever the guard.
He sprang at me with a force only one could master from training a body to the point of abuse. His leg swiped my ankles and sent me toppling to the ground. Before he could tower over me, I sent a gust of wind to blast him back and into a tree.
“That fucking hurt,” he said through clenched teeth as he rolled his shoulders and shook away the evergreen needles from his now dried hair.
“Good.” I bounced on my toes, ready for his attack, my magic practically screaming beneath my skin to be released and thrown into the man before me. To make him yield. To make him hurt. To make him pay for my wrath.
Give in to it. You’re almost there. Let your potential rise.
I watched Peiro stare at me in disbelief. What he saw, I didn’t have time to ask—nor did I care—as I watched his eyes change from anger to concern.
“Fuck,” he said under his breath, then lifted his head to the sky as he stretched his arms out wide.
What was he doing? I took a step back, repositioning my stance, readying for the next attack—only to watch him take a deep breath, like he was trying to find self-control.
My magic suddenly felt wild, ready to unleash as it felt a charge in the air.
My mind’s eye saw my magic intertwining with the power that radiated off of him as if they belonged together.
The corners of my vision stayed faintly gray as I continued to bounce on the balls of my feet—ready for more.
I needed more. Just one touch of the lifesource within him would ease the desire.
My skin felt aflame as my heart raced in my chest, wanting to crack through its cage.
We stood there for a heartbeat, the silence swelling between us within the trees as the wind carried, swirling the branches at the top. I just about spoke, to spew more of my ire in his direction, but then he lowered his gaze to me.
My breath caught in my throat when I saw that his eyes were no longer gray-browns but now held an iridescent glow. A silver that warred for control.