21. The Duel
THE DUEL
Seraphina
My stomach sinks.
You’ve been waiting for this.
Apparently, everyone else has too because no one goes back to their sparring practice. Not even Aes and Stannum, who remain around our circle.
Ever since that first night in the bathhouse, I’ve hoped the time will come that I get to take a pound of revenge for her throwing the journal in the pool.
My pride, if I allowed myself to give into the sin, would be excited for this too. What, with how she always seems to be one step ahead of me, one sly move in front at all times.
Yet somehow, I feel blindsided, and completely unprepared.
Lilliana straightens out of a lunge gracefully. While I’ve been gawking, she’s been warming up. Preparing.
Did she know? Has Silver told her today would be the day, that the time will be now?
I shake my head.
Had I not been so distracted by the spectacle Silver and Az put on for us all, I might have spent the last round warming up too. We are pretty much the only ones who haven’t been selected for the Triad yet.
Lilliana smirks as she steps forward, her sword gleaming under the torchlight. “It’s about time Overlord Silver called our names, isn’t it Halo-rat?”
My nostrils flare at her smugness, sparking a fire in my stomach. I take a deep breath, set my shoulders, and enter the ring.
You were trained by Seraphim warriors.
As I select my weapon of choice, golden skin still glistening with sweat catches my eye, and Silver shrugs on a loose, robe-like jacket that the Overlords sometimes wear over their tunics.
He tilts his chin my way, but it’s Lilliana he’s talking to when he says, “One weapon, Valtren. You may use your wings and one weapon of your choice.”
Wings or weapons. It makes no odds. I’m trained to attack and defend against both.
The demoness puts back the daggers I hadn’t seen her stashing in her uniform and boots.
The sparring yard buzzes with anticipation for the duel, even more so than when Az and Silver stepped into the ring.
Of course, the calls are all in Lilliana’s favor.
“Ruffle her stuck up feathers, Lilliana,” Ulrik Morogan says.
“Better yet, pluck them out!” Brandor Bane adds.
Her followers are not just in Ferrum though, they spill over to Aes and Stannum too.
“Come on, Valtren!” an Aes cadet calls out.
“Beat the halo off her, Lilliana!” comes from over where Stannum Company congregates.
Yuvi stands with his arms crossed over his chest, Ravi at his side. I look between him and the hound, whose tail is wagging frantically.
Yuvi nods, and I know someone here is rooting for me to win, someone who isn’t in an alliance with me anyway. Though he’s showing his support silently, unlike Lilliana’s lot.
Diana’s eyes are on the skies, her mouth moving quickly but I can’t hear what she’s saying, like she is praying under her breath.
Az has an arm slung over Khali’s shoulder. When they see me looking, Khali mouths, “Use your speed.” During our private training sessions, my speed is the only skill I’ve truly let them see.
The only one here with any real idea of what I can do is standing at the front, his feet planted on the edge of the circle, arms crossed and jaw clenching. Expression unreadable.
“Ready?” Silver asks.
“You’ve got this, Angel girl,” Az calls.
I take a few deep breaths and step into the circle.
Steady fingers curl more tightly around my katana’s grip. It’s not the same as the one I gave to Lorelei in the alley back home, but it’s plenty capable of killing in a hundred different ways.
No killing, just maiming.
It occurs to me as Lilliana steps in and immediately begins to circle me, smirk set in place, that I am trained to kill, not maim.
My muscles flex as I recall her fighting style. I’ve been watching her for weeks now.
We circle each other around the edge of the ring, and I debate my first move. How best to finish this quickly with only my claws and katana? Something that won’t result in opening her throat or giving away the full extent of my abilities.
Lilliana charges first, faster than I anticipate. I catch her sword on the katana's blunt side, allowing the mune to take the hit and avoiding damage to the sharp edge of the blade.
I strike quickly, and Lilliana’s eyes widen, but she leaps back as the metal clashes.
She’s quick on her feet, but so am I.
Our katana’s meet in the middle again, hit for hit, as we move faster and faster.
Slowly, I back her closer and closer to the ring’s border, but her smirk does not falter.
Between one breath and the next, she switches to the offensive, sweeping back into my space. Stealing back the advantage.
She’s playing with you.
I parry her attacks with swift twists of my katana, my heart pounding in my ears, holding the weapon with both hands. I push the single edged blade into Lilliana’s sword, the loud sound of metal sliding against metal making our spectators cringe, some covering their ears.
Each time I move in to trip her, each inch of space I gain to close the gap, Lilliana digs deeper, finding another burst of energy to counter with.
She flashes her unnaturally sharp white teeth and laughs, the sound more patronizing than humorous.
“I knew this would be easy. I hadn’t expected it to be quite so boring.”
One of us needs to break the stalemate soon, and I decide to make that person me, but first…
“Then let’s make it more interesting,” I whisper.
Her eyebrows raise. “How so, Halo-rat?” she asks, her voice equally low.
“You have something of mine.”
She smiles. “I might.”
“I want it back.”
“You want to make another wager? How very unholy of you.” Still, unable to resist a deal or bargain herself, Lilliana licks her lips. “Okay. If you win, I will tell you where it is.”
“No, you will give it to me. You will put my journal in my hand, and you will never touch it again.”
She snarls. “Fine.”
“And if you win?”
“You will owe me one favor. Anything I ask, you will do it.”
No, I want to snap.
But I need that journal, I’ve already decided how to win this, recalling something Silver used to surprise Az earlier.
I have no intention of her winning and calling in that favor.
“Deal.”
“Deal,” she agrees. Then louder, so the entire sparring yard can hear, she adds. “We have a lot of bored people waiting for a show.” She raises her weapon. “I’m ready to give them one, are you Halo-rat?”
I twirl, and whip the katana through the air, swinging it in a graceful arc toward Lilianna’s exposed neck. Not enough to kill her, but scar her, sure.
The crowd gasps but Lilliana deflects, and I have to grapple not to lose my footing.
Without giving her a chance to wage a counter-attack, I spin and try again. She blocks, smirking once more, and rage floods my veins.
How I wish I didn’t have to hold back from a death blow.
Lilliana raises her weapon fast, but I duck the sword and slam the pommel of my katana into her nose.
The crowd falls silent and the smirk vanishes from her face while she wipes her bloody nose against the back of her hand.
Her eyes blaze. “Is that it?” she taunts.
But I’m already dropping to the ground, swinging out a leg and spinning. Lilliana’s feet sweep out from under her, sending her crashing to the ground.
She loses grip of her sword as she falls and it’s my turn to grin as I kick the blade away.
I need to end this now, before the Hell-cow comes at me all sharp claws, bared teeth and taloned wings.
I angle the sharp end of my blade under Lilliana’s chin, allowing the deadly tip of the katana to graze her throat, drawing blood. Not deep enough to be fatal, but enough to break Lilliana’s supposed boredom.
Panic flashes in her wicked eyes.
Oh how I want to make the lights go out in them completely.
“Yield,” I demand instead, tilting my head and releasing the blade's pressure on the demoness’s throat just enough that she can respond.
“Bitch!” she spits.
I smile down at her. “I’ll take that as your submission.”
Lilliana just stares at me, her bloody nose trickling down the side of her cheek.
I’m still smiling when I toss the katana and my eyes meet Silver’s.
The Overlord’s eyebrows twitch. It’s brief, but I can tell I’ve surprised him. Again.
Dare I assume, impressed him?
The angels know I needed the win.
Adrenaline fills me as the crowd look at me different now.
I move to leave the ring, hardly even out of breath—
“Scarvo!” Khali’s guttural scream is the only warning I get.
Whirling around, I brace.
There’s no way I can reach my discarded weapon in time.
It’s not there anyway, I realize.
There’s no time to chastise my sheer stupidity as Lilliana, looking every bit the hell creature she is, swings my katana. I step back as the blade glides across my chest, shredding the halter neck of my training corset, nicking my skin.
The leather strap falls away, but now is not the time to worry over modesty.
No katana, no weapon, no wings.
I’m naked, even if I were fully clothed.
I raise my fists, my only defense. But Lilliana leaps up into the air, her demonic wings sending gusts of wind around us as she flips over my head, stolen katana clenched between white knuckles—
She slams the pommel into my back.
Hard.
Then the sharp end slashes through my shoulder blades in a deep cross shape and I scream, hot agony setting fire to the trauma where my wings had once sat proudly.
The metallic scent of blood hits my nostrils, warm liquid soaks the inside of my leather training top, and I know she’s opened up the decade old scars.
My legs give out instantly and I crumble to my knees, catching myself with my hands, winded and desperately gasping for air.
Lilliana laughs, then slices the katana’s curved blade through the laces of my top, the only thing holding it onto my body, and she tears through the material like butter.
I try not to cry out as panic digs its claws into my chest. I struggle to think through the pain and differentiate what’s from now and what’s phantom agony from the past.
I feel the blood flowing more freely without the leather to soak it up as Lilliana’s laughter cuts off. The crowd gasps, and so does she as the corset falls away, exposing me, my back, and the inch thick twin scars running from the base of my neck to below my shoulder blades.
Reopened once more after they took so long to close.
“W-When he told me…” Lilliana starts.
“What the fuck?” Az cuts over her as more gasps echo around the ring.
A low growl silences them all, too deep to have come from Lilliana, or even Az.
The sound makes the hairs on my arms stand on end as it vibrates through my entire body all the way to my core.
“I-I didn’t know!” Lilliana swears, her voice trembling for the first time since I’ve known her. “When he told me… I didn’t… I didn’t know… I assumed…”
“Move, Valtren.” Fury drenches his words as Silver’s measured footsteps come closer. “Shut up and fucking move, now!”
“He-he just said she was wingless…” Lilliana continues, like Silver isn’t about to lose it and silence her forcefully.
Her voice is further away now at least, but I remain frozen, desperate for the ground to open and swallow me up. Even if it’s to take me to Hell for eternity.
I don’t care.
I need away from the burning stares and mutters of pity and disgust.
I need the pain to stop.
“I assumed it was some inbred angel birth defect,” Lilliana goes on. “How was I supposed to know they’d been hacked from her like that?”
“Someone get that fucking cadet out of my sight,” Silver demands, and I watch the ground as Az and Reiva’s boots come into view as they pass me, moving toward where Lilliana’s voice is coming from.
I’m distracted when I see the blood cascading down my arms and between my fingers into the ash. Like that night on the front lawn of the citadel…
I can smell the freshly tended grass, the clean green sweetness rising from the blades.
I can feel the wrongness at my back, the tearing pressure and jagged blades carving through bones and nerves and—
I hiss as heavy fabric falls over me, swamping my body until all I can smell is him.
Silver crouches down and leans in close to my ear. “Breathe, deep breaths. Come on, you’ve got this. Breathe, Little Nephilim.”
His words must shock me into submission, because after a few moments of his lips pressed to my ear, I find my breaths coming more easily, matching his.
“That’s it. Good girl. Now, listen to me.” His voice is low and gravelly, yet it’s all consuming. “You are going to tell me who did this to you. And then you are going to talk me through exactly what they did to your beautiful wings, in great-fucking-detail. Yes?”
I swallow, but nod.
He’s so close, I feel rather than see his head nod in response. “But first… Khali!” he barks. She’s the only cadet he calls by her first name. “Help Scarvo to the infirmary.”
The way he says my name.
Scar-vo.
As though he can’t get past the first syllable…
My jaw clenches.
“Angelo,” Silver snaps to Diana. “Stop fucking praying and help too.”
“Yes, S-Sir,” she stutters.
Khali is already at my side, and I swallow the lump in my throat, letting wrath in instead.
I don’t need saving.
I just took on my biggest rival here and won, if you ignore the last few seconds.
Except, no one is going to ignore the last few seconds.
Chatter has broken out all around me. They’re not even trying to keep their voices low as they gossip about what Lilliana exposed, about what they saw before Silver covered my back.
My biggest humiliation and most exploitable weakness, on display for my enemies.
Almost worse, the betrayal from Elias.
What else has he told her?
My nostrils flare and I shake my head. “I can take myself,’ I snap as Khali reaches out to take my arm, but my fury is all directed inward.
How naive to assume Lilliana wouldn’t stab me in the back.
But she yielded…
Did she?
No. She hadn’t.
She hadn’t actually said the word.
No, I have no one to blame but myself for this.
I gave into pride.
I declared the victory my own.
I left myself weaponless and ruined everything.
I didn’t deserve to win my father’s journal back.
I deserve whatever repercussions are coming for me.