Chapter 13 #3
I slammed my fist into his jaw while he was watching my dagger clatter across the flagstones, wiping that victorious look off his face. I hadn’t trained much in fighting with my fists, but Vyr had taught me everything I needed to know to take him down.
I screamed when he grabbed my braid and yanked my head back, and grunted when his forehead met mine with a harsh crack.
Stars winked across my vision. A growl of effort pealed from my lips as I wrenched my knee up, right into his balls, slamming into them so hard I was sure they would be in his throat.
I hit him again just to make sure, gripping his arms to keep him in position as he began to crumple, so he would feel the full force of my second blow.
A harsh grunt burst from his lips and I was sure I heard several males in the audience wince. A few definitely gasped.
I released Lorien, grinning as he staggered backwards, clutching himself and fighting for breath.
Breath I refused to give him.
Kill him.
That oily darkness swirled through me, murmuring in my ear, filling my mind with pleasing images of sinking my own claws into him and ripping his heart out.
I shut it down, the part of me that was still struggling to get over how much blood I had spilled, how many lives I had taken, balking at the thought of adding another name to the tally.
There was another reason I didn’t want this asshole dead too, one that had nothing to do with keeping my hands clean, one that had a place in my plan.
Lorien lifted his blond head.
I slammed my fist into his face, knocking his head to one side, and grunted as he launched at me on a feral roar, his shoulder digging into my stomach as he lifted my bare feet off the ground.
The air rushed from my lungs as my back met the flagstones and pain exploded on the side of my face again as his fist met it.
I fought against him, shoving and kicking, bucking my body to throw him off balance.
He struck me again, and again.
And maybe I should have killed the bastard when I had the chance.
I threw my head back, howling with effort as I pushed my hips up and tilted them, and growled as I managed to topple him, rolling him so he was underneath me. White fur rippled over my skin as I hit him. Once. Twice. A third time. Splitting his lip and leaving a bloody welt on his cheek.
Making sure he knew that I could have killed him if I wanted.
When his struggles grew weaker, his attempts to block my blows failing more than succeeding, I shoved one hand against his chest to pin him to the ground and wrapped the other around his throat.
Squeezing until he frantically kicked, a wild and desperate thing with fear in its eyes.
Prey to my predator.
I leaned over him, getting right in his bloodied face, the cut on my jaw dripping blood on him as I sneered at him.
“You thought it would be so easy, didn’t you?” I hissed at him, letting him see that darkness that snaked through my veins, that wanted me to end him. “I’m just a female. Just a mutt. An easy kill, right? Bet you’re regretting underestimating me now, aren’t you?”
He just sneered at me, flashing bloodstained teeth.
His blue eyes telling me to do it.
Kill him.
Unfortunately, he was of more use to me alive.
I shoved him down as I sat back and released his throat, letting him breathe. His ragged gasps pounded in my ears together with my thundering heart as the high of adrenaline surrendered to the cold of reality, and every inch of me throbbed and ached.
When I pushed to my feet, my balance a little unsteady, exhaustion rolling through me in deepening waves, I got my reward.
Murmurs rushed through the highborn.
Benevolent heir.
Merciful queen.
Kind. Loyal to her bloodline. Generous.
Lorien glared at me as I towered over him, and those remarks about me grew louder as I extended my hand to him, offering to pull him up onto his feet rather than strike him down as was my right.
He smacked it away and lumbered onto his feet without my help.
I wiped the back of my hand across my mouth, ridding it of blood as I breathed hard, fighting to catch my breath.
Lorien cast a pained glance at Sylvan.
While sparing him might have rallied the highborn to my side, it hadn’t done anything to improve Lorien’s view of me.
I had hoped maybe he would stop trying to kill me now he knew I was stronger than him, able to beat him in a fight, and that I wouldn’t need to kill him to get him off my back, but I remembered what Meiryn had said about him and there was only one word to describe that look he was giving Sylvan.
Crushed.
Sylvan didn’t seem very impressed with either of us, and this outcome didn’t seem to surprise him either.
He turned his back on Lorien and walked away, shaking his head.
Lorien turned on me with a vicious snarl, his blue eyes blazing, and I had to think it had something to do with how Sylvan had reacted to him losing more than the fact he had lost to me.
Had this all been to impress Sylvan? Was Lorien really as bad as Meiryn had said, so eager to please the steward and prove himself to him?
My gut said he was when he squared up to me.
And growled in my face.
“This is not over.”