Chapter 5
The Andreilians formed a large circle around them. A forceful shove between her shoulder blades had Adara stumbling into the ring. Tyson shot a cruel grin her way.
She surveyed the Andreilians, all eager to see her blood spill. A boy with auburn hair, who couldn’t be more than thirteen years old, held an hourglass—well, more like a five-minute-glass.
While Adara pulled Infinova from its sheath at her side, Dominic idly circled her as if she were a mere insect he could squash under his boot and be done with. She kept her eyes on him, tracking his every move.
“Scared?” Dominic said, an eyebrow arched.
Adara laughed. “Of what? You? Never.” The lie was smooth rolling off her tongue, but her racing pulse suggested otherwise.
“That’d be your first mistake,” he said, drawing the sword from the scabbard at his belt. He angled the tip of the blade at her, resting above her heart. He raised his brows, a sinister smile on his closed lips. “Prove it,” he urged.
“That mouth of yours is doing an awful lot of talking instead of fighting.” Adara raised her sword, lowering into a defensive crouch.
Dominic quirked a brow. “Is there something else you’d rather my mouth be doing?”
She choked on a laugh, eyes widening.
The boy flipped the glass, and sand trickled to the bottom.
Instantly, Dominic charged. Sword raised high, he swung downward in a strong, swift motion.
Adara quickly lifted her weapon, blocking the strike.
Fast as lightning, he moved, swiping at her legs.
But she was faster, swinging her sword low and deflecting his blade.
She pivoted around him, aiming her weapon at the back of his head.
He whirled around, staggered back, but not quick enough to avoid the shallow cut of Adara’s sword across his cheek. The Andreilians gasped, whispering among each other. Their words were drowned out by the sound of her own blood rushing in her ears.
Slowly, he lifted his hand to his face, fingers grazing his skin. He pulled away, staring at the crimson coating his fingers, like he’d forgotten he could bleed.
“Huh, so the infamous Dominic Nite does bleed red,” Adara said. After hearing all the petrifying rumors, she’d expected something else. At least, now she knew that underneath his cold exterior, he really was human.
But it was gone in a flash, the thin slice magically mended together. The only evidence of her cut was the drop of blood Dominic wiped on his tunic.
“You’re a Med?” Adara thought aloud.
A sadistic smile curled his lips. “Stole a key from a Med,” he corrected.
The King of Keys’s eyes darkened, lips twisting into a scowl.
He lunged at her, cold fury on his face.
His strength was overpowering with each swing of his sword.
Their weapons clashed, the sound of metal ringing through the trees.
Her arms shook beneath the power with which he struck.
“Kill her!” the Andreilians shouted. “Make her pay!”
Adara ignored them, their voices blurring into the background. “Yeah, Nite. Kill me,” she taunted.
She launched herself at him. Steel met steel, the sound singing through the jungle.
Birds scattered from the trees to the bright blue sky.
Palming free a dagger from her belt with her left hand, Adara swiped for Dominic’s legs.
He jumped back, weapon angled low to deflect.
His sword smashed into her knife so hard it went flying out of her hand.
With his upper body exposed, Adara aimed Infinova at his neck.
Dominic ducked, rolling backward out of reach before springing to his feet again.
Distance between them now, she lunged for her fallen dagger.
In a flash, Dominic was upon her. Adara threw her sword up in time to block, but the weight of his blow threw her to the ground. Both blades in hand, she rolled to the side as his sword crashed into the ground where her neck had been, dirt flying.
She scrambled to her feet, ignoring the ache in her ankle, meeting Dominic blow for blow. The sound of metal clanging against metal rang in her ears. They met one another at every move. A dance as she retreated while he advanced, following her movements.
Sweat dripped into her eyes. She blinked away the sting, stepping back far enough to allow her a moment to wipe her forehead with the back of her hand. She flicked her braided hair behind her shoulder.
“Tired already?” Dominic asked through even breaths.
“I’m just getting started.” Adara charged for him, swiping low for his right leg with Infinova, and high for his left arm with the dagger.
He leaped back, but took the brunt of the attack on his left arm, her dagger shallowly slicing through cloth and skin.
Dark liquid bloomed beneath his forest green tunic, the stain traveling down his sleeve. Adara smirked.
He returned the expression. Fear ran down her spine at the sheer promise of pain in that menacing smile.
Dominic had this way of looking at people, of smiling at them without an ounce of mirth or mercy.
It never failed to make her tremble at the sight of it, at the reminder that she had waged a war against the Thief of Hearts.
As if he were the magic flooding the island, Dominic struck like lightning. Faster and harder than she could prepare for, his sword collided with hers. Lashing out with her dagger, Dominic dodged, catching her wrist in his iron grip. Then he shoved.
Stumbling back, Adara had no choice but to let the dagger drop, or Dominic’s crushing grip would have broken her wrist. His sword flew horizontally through the air. A death blow aimed at her neck.
She dodged just in time, but Dominic’s foot hooked around her bad ankle.
The pommel of his sword struck Adara’s fingers, so powerful that she released her grip on Infinova’s hilt, bones aching from the impact of the blow.
Pain shot through her leg, searing and blinding.
The ruthless smile on his lips as she sprawled to the ground, gasping for air that whooshed out of her lungs, told her he’d noticed her injury and struck where he knew it would hurt most.
Steel plunged straight down for her chest. Adara rolled to the right, closing the distance between her and her sword—
Infinova skidded across the dirt, a phantom wind blowing it out of reach.
He was a Galemaker, as well. She hissed, pain sluicing through the back of her thigh, the warmth of blood leaking out of a shallow cut.
He could have easily thrown that dagger straight into her leg, sinking into muscle and hitting bone, but he didn’t.
Instead, he’d made a slice, enough to wound, but not to severely maim.
Perhaps he wanted her to survive, merely to destroy her in their game of love later.
Fingers wrapped around her injured ankle, nails digging into the open wound, and pulled.
Black spots emerged in her vision as she fought the wave of nausea roiling through her.
She kicked and clawed for leverage, dirt caking beneath her nails as he dragged her across the ground.
Adara reached for the knife in her vambrace.
Then she twisted, slashing at his wrist.
Blood sprayed, and Dominic grunted, yanking his hand back. He released her and was upon her sword in an instant. “What are you going to do now?” Dominic jeered as he picked up Infinova. “You’re nothing against me without a weapon.”
With both swords aimed at her, Dominic lunged. Adara dove underneath the blades, rolled between his legs, and popped up behind him, ignoring the agonizing throb radiating through her ankle.
“You’re forgetting one thing, Nite. You don't need a weapon when you're born one,” Adara snarled.
Power surged through her veins. Coils of cobalt fire snaked around her arms, crackling along her wrists, her fingers, until two flaming whips sparked at her side.
Heat simmered, distorting the air around them.
Gasps sounded, the Andreilians leaping back from the undulating flames.
Dominic’s eyes widened imperceptibly. Then he smiled and stuck the tip of Infinova in the dirt.
Embers danced across his fingertips, growing until a ball of orange fire sizzled in the palm of his hand.
He must have stolen a Searling’s key, too, Adara thought.
He also appeared to be one of the rare Pherra that could summon from nothing. He whirled his sword in the other hand.
Oh, how she wanted to hurl those flames at him.
To show him how pathetic his fire was compared to her own.
Adara let out a mirthless laugh and shook her head.
“Never fight fire with fire,” she said. With a flick of the fiery whip, it curled around Infinova’s hilt.
She snapped the whip back to her, her sword flying into her hands once again.
Embers sparked and crackled along the blade, leaping out, as eager to end this as she was. “Everything you love will burn.”
Dominic spun his sword again and tossed the ball of orange flames in his palm. “I guess it’s a good thing I don’t love anything.”
Not yet, Adara thought to herself. She lunged for him, flames searing through the air as she swung Infinova. Dominic hurled his flames into her sword. Their magic collided in an explosion of sparks and smoke.
Coughing from the smoke, Dominic waved a hand in front of his face, clearing the air.
Adara, using the gray, billowing mass as coverage, swiped her sword at him.
Blood leaked from the left side of his torso.
A superficial cut that he didn’t react to except for glaring at her through glossy eyes, the burning blade no doubt more painful than the cut.
To his credit, Dominic gritted his teeth and rolled his shoulders back. His blood clotted quickly, magic already working to heal him.