King Cave (35 page)

I moved downwind, breathing in the cool air coming from the ocean before turning my head, and shouting, “Medic.” A Mage rushed forward from the cave’s entrance, sidestepping the decapitated Shifter. I held my hand out. “It’s broken.” I had felt the bones snap, but there was no physical pain. Nothing overrode the sorrow for taking her life.

The medic quickly fixed my hand, popping noises erupting over the sounds of the waves crashing and the wind picking up. I didn’t watch as the Mage worked, his hands glowing as he healed the injury, instead staring up at the silent Shifter who had wanted this challenge. Once the medic moved away, I leapt into the air, landing at the edge of the sand dune he sat on.

He wasn’t as big as King Kincaid, but by the length of his legs in his sitting position I gauged him to be at least a foot taller than me. His muscles were well defined under the black t-shirt and jeans he wore, his black-and-light streaked hair glistening silver under the moon’s light. His features were beautiful in their harshness while he stared at me with unflinching dark eyes, digging his shoeless feet further into the sand, preparing for an instant attack, even though he didn’t rise.

But there was one thing that gave me pause.

Where the previous Shifter had power pouring from her in an effort to intimidate me, he was the exact opposite. In fact, I sensed nothing from him. Not a damn thing. He was completely masking, which shocked me just as much as it made me wary. The only indication he was Shifter was the heavy scent of wolf pouring from him, thanks to a recent shift. Pushing all thoughts of the previous fight aside, I walked toward him. Cautiously. “How did you get mixed up with her?” They were nothing alike.

“She only saw me writing the note.” He shrugged, his shoulders tense for action. “She wanted to be added to it.” He surveyed me as I made my trek toward him. “Our fight won’t be as easy as yours with her.”

I knew this.
“And your reason for wanting to challenge me?”

“I don’t agree with the Laws you enforce.” Another shrug. “I plan to change things when I’m ruling.”

“You don’t know what I believe in,” I stated softly. “I’m not Queen yet. I currently hold no true power.”

“You are no different than them,” he said just as gently, his voice void of emotion as he nodded at the King and Elders. “And I plan to kill you for it. It’s no more than you deserve for living your life with your eyes shut.”

He attacked.

He sprung so quickly and landed so close that I didn’t have time to deflect as his fist pounded into my stomach. I could only jump back to lessen the blow. Still, it felt like a sledgehammer to my gut. A shout echoed the night — my shout — as I flew backward through the air, barely tucking and flipping in time to land on my knees on the beach, heaving oxygen that didn’t want to fill my lungs. My sense of smell gone, I ducked, rolling as I gasped for air, knowing he would be coming.

And he did, the sand billowing out from beneath his feet as he landed next to me. I hit him squarely with my power, letting it all flow into him. Bad thing was, he did the same thing, at the same exact moment.
My God.
I did get air in as I screamed and as my body bowed in fierce, relentless agony, his magic something damn powerful. Luckily, he dropped, holding his chest and head, shouting right along with me, my power hitting him.

As quickly as we attached magically, both of our powers switched off. Like they short-circuited. Gasping, I rolled to my hands and knees, a deep growl erupting from my throat. The fucker had damn near killed me with that shit. Hearing his own growl, I tried to hit him again with my power. But, crazily, he did the same thing.

With the same damn effect.

“Well, fuck it,” I panted, rising on unsteady legs after another pain-filled screaming match. “I’ll just kill you the hard way.”

He growled, wobbling in front of me, in the same condition. “Good luck, Red.”

I sniffed with a bored air then sprung at him, hitting him square in the gut with my shoulder, returning the favor from earlier. He landed hard on his back as I rolled, coming clean — okay, a little shakily — to my feet. I aimed my boot straight at his crotch, giving it all I had, but he adjusted at the last second. The contact wasn’t exactly what I was aiming for, but I still heard his leg snap.

He only grunted.

I snorted at his show of ‘manliness’, and then lunged on top of him, going straight for his throat with my mouth. It didn’t happen quite like I wanted. We ended up rolling around on the sand, fists flying, but nothing connecting as we dodged the blows, his bum leg not giving him any problems. He got lucky after a few minutes when I felt my left wrist break. He had managed to grab it and crush it within his grip. Gritting my teeth through the pain, I slammed my fist into his forearm before he could rip my hand clean off.

A satisfying snap sounded, and I dove at his neck when he jerked. And, fucking finally, my teeth latched onto his throat. What I didn’t expect was for shock to freeze my body as his blood filled my mouth. He shouted, grabbing at my head with a last attempt to get away from the killing blow I had him in. My wolf growled long and hard, but I used my Shifter power differently this time, pushing soothing pulses toward him.

He grunted, his body relaxing for the barest moment. Just enough to quickly flip him under me, pressing his chest to the sand, and hold his thumbs behind his back with my good hand. Quickly, before he retaliated when figuring out I didn’t have the killing blow on him anymore, I breathed quietly at his ear, “Think carefully because I can only ask this once. Do you want to stop this?”

He froze under me, in the process of beginning to attempt to free himself. “
What?
”

“I can’t ask it again.” I pressed my elbow into the side of his neck. Where I could easily break it with the tiniest shove. “I need an answer.”

He lay under me for a full minute. Silent. Smart. Fucking powerful enough to rival the Queen’s power, just unlucky in this fight. “But…you’ve…”

And also a fucking hybrid.

Shifter and some type of Elemental I couldn’t quite put my finger on. But it was there in his blood, which still lingered on my tongue. He understood I knew this. He was also confused as shit.

“Yes, I know,” I whispered. “I told you before that you don’t know my views of the Law.” Louder, I stated, “Now answer my damn question.”

He paused, then stated, “Yes. I want to stop.”

Still, I held him down. Just because he said he wanted to stop, it didn’t mean I had to. He had instigated this challenge. But ultimately it was up to me after he decided to back off. In the barest breath I whispered against his ear, “Did you know about the beasts?”

Instant. “No.”

Truth
.

“Would you ever create one?”

Instant. “No.” A pause. “I’ve taken care of the possibility of that occurring.”

Truth
and
truth
.

My wolf growled in approval. “We never had this discussion.”

“What discussion?”

I let his thumbs go and removed my elbow from his neck. “Don’t ever challenge me again.”

He grunted, not really an answer, but I heard his wolf growl low with respect.

“Your name?”

“John Smith.”

I chuckled, getting to my feet, before yelling for the medic to see to his injuries. “Creativity isn’t your strong suit, Mr Smith.”

Dark eyes stared up at me, since he was unable to stand because of his broken leg. “I believe I could be creative enough for you.”

I laughed outright. “From killing to fucking?” I shook my head, holding my injured wrist. “Not interested.”

Eyes traveling up and down my frame from his fucking prone, broken position, he shrugged, pure cockiness, sand shifting under him. “Yeah, me neither, but it was natural to ask.”

I shook my head in exasperation, moving back as the medic arrived. “If that’s your idea of reasonable foreplay, you’re out of your damn mind.”

He grunted as the medic began working on him. “You’re right. It was a bit much.”

Hearing his bones snap back into place, I muttered, “Just a bit.”

He groaned, “Okay, more than a bit.”

King Kincaid, Elder Merrick, and Elder Talus walked behind me as we traveled back to the fighting/movie arena after the Mage had fixed my arm, I very much feeling the injury that time. King Kincaid was silent. Elder Merrick had thumped me once on the back, but was silent after that. Elder Talus was still shaking his head.

“That was the weirdest challenge I’ve ever seen,” he mumbled. Another shake of his head.

“He wanted to walk.” I ran my fingers through my hair, getting out the tangles and sand. “I let him.”

“Huh,” he murmured, giving me the distinct impression he probably wouldn’t have.

I shrugged, and shoved forward into the arena, not wanting to answer any more questions. Now that the challenges were over, I felt queasy with the remembrance of the first one. All I wanted to do was sit. My head was spinning a smidge, the memory of taking her life not as easily forgotten for me as it might be for other Shifter Rulers who had seen it happen many times.

Moving through the Mysticals who were still conversing merrily, my heart ached. It was part of my life now, but that didn’t make it any easier. I stumbled past a few couches and stopped in my tracks. Jack and Pearl were talking quietly on our reserved couch, laughing about something mundane. My gaze dropped, and I sighed heavily as I rubbed my forehead. I didn’t want to tell them. I didn’t want to ruin their good spirits, which had only recently become more commonplace. Too much shit had happened to pull them down.

Rolling my shoulders, I shook my hands out and took a calming breath, preparing myself to…I stilled, sniffing the air. My head snapped to the side as I felt something heavy land inside my cargos pocket. Ezra was standing directly next to me. He took a drag of a cigarette, attention toward Jack and Pearl, not looking at me. My hand immediately went into my pocket, staring at him as he continued to watch them. My breath caught at the gold flask I held, and I instantly unscrewed the top, chugging one large gulp after another of the smooth whiskey, the icy cold quickly transitioning to a fiery burn.

“Not too fast,” he said softly. “We wouldn’t want you puking again in front of everyone.”

A half hysterical laugh burst forth, the burn of the liquor slowly becoming a steady warmth. “Where did you get this?” I studied the flask. It was solid — as in probably real gold — and overly fancy with engraved designs, one of which was his initial.

He shrugged. “My dad gave it to me as a gift one year. I had it in my closet.”

“And the liquor?” It went down a lot smoother than the shit from the bar.

His lips twitched around his cigarette, still not glancing my way. “Let’s just say you’re guzzling some of the finest whiskey ever made.”

I blinked from him to the flask. “It’s the original stuff he gave you?”

He hummed while blowing smoke up into the air.

“Thank you.” My eyes lowered as I rubbed my forehead, my gaze catching on his boots. “Ezra?”

“Hmm?”

“Where else did you go besides your room?”

His chuckle was more of a rumble as he bent, breathing at my ear, “You lied to me.”

Staring at the sand on his black boots, I took another sip from the flask. “You shouldn’t have been there.”

“I wouldn’t have interfered,” he whispered.

Nostrils flared, my eyebrows rose at the
lie
.

His own rose, still bending, our faces level.

Ah, a lie for a lie.

Barely above a breath, I hissed, “You cannot
ever
interfere with a challenge.”

He hummed. “I didn’t.”
Truth
. “You didn’t need my help.”
Truth
. His head cocked. “Although, I would love to know what made you stop at the end of the second one.”

My lips lifted. “The world will never know.” It wasn’t my secret to tell.

Ezra blinked. “You’re really not going to tell me?”

“Nope.” I twisted the top back on the flask and handed it to him. “You’re in trouble, mister.”

He snorted, pocketing the liquor — not stupid enough to drink after me in front of people — and sidestepped the fact he had trespassed on a Shifter tradition. “I can’t believe the fuck hit on you afterward.”

I shrugged, turning my attention back to Jack and Pearl, who had caught sight of us. “He wasn’t really interested.” I glanced at him. “Where were you hiding?”

He grunted, and then grinned naughtily. “Keep your secrets and I’ll keep mine.” Probably downwind and in the trees for me not to have scented him. His smile faltered for a moment, his eyebrows puckering a smidge as he glanced at me. “You alright now?”

My lips pinched. “I’m…better.”

He nodded once, then motioned for us to move forward. As we did, I found it a tiny bit amusing the way he positioned himself next to me. As if he were protecting me, automatically maneuvering himself between me and anyone else who got too close. “Really, Ezra. I’m better.”

His only response was a grunt. He didn’t stop what he was doing even when it was King Venclaire who was heading for what appeared to be a refill of popcorn. The King blinked, his nostrils flaring, and he slammed a hand on Ezra’s chest, his head swinging in my direction. “Lily? Are you hurt?”