Rivals (24 page)

“Yes.”

“You’ll let me come back?”

Danato’s irritation faded away. “You were always my first choice. Now go, talk to Cori.”

45

Cori found her way to the part-time level, and stood before the cage of her former lover. It was empty now. There were no remnants of him in the cell or in her life. He had been a brief albeit important part of it, but he was gone.

“Cori?”

She turned and saw Ethan standing not far from her. He had crept up so quietly she hadn’t even heard him. She wondered if he had acquired that skill while bounty hunting, or if he had always been so light-footed.

Her eyes stung from her tears, but she couldn’t stop them. She didn’t try to hide them. She didn’t even wipe her nose, which she knew was starting to run. There was no happy ending to primp for. “I’m so stupid.”

He shifted slightly, placing his hands behind his back. He was ready to listen.

“When I came back, you were different. I was still the same though. I didn’t have enough time to catch up. I was angry, and hurt, and bitter. By the time I realized that you were the one person who could help me, love me, and tolerate me… That bitch Sophie was here.” Cori tossed her head back, cringing away more emotion than she could speak through.

With a sniffle and a harrumph she continued. “When I walked in on you with her. I felt… you know what I felt. But when you asked me if you should take the job, it wasn’t because you needed to know what the right decision was. It was because you didn’t want to feel guilty for making that decision. So I told you what you needed to hear.

“I told you to get drunk, and get laid, and you did just as I asked. It never occurred to me that I would be just as miserable without you here as you were without me. Last night… I should have just told you then. I should have just quit the test and let you take it instead.

“The only thing that stopped me was Danato. He had worked so hard to get me permission to compete. I came in today with the intention of losing. I figured if I lost you would have to take the test. You would win, and then you would have to come back.” Her shoulder ached. She rolled it and rubbed it until the sorrow demon didn’t feel like a bag of rocks.

“Why did you want me to come back, Cori?” Ethan asked in a low tone. He was still standing like an at-ease soldier.

Cori stepped forward and grabbed the bars to Vince’s old cell for support. “Because somewhere between losing a lover and gaining a demon parasite, I saw you. Somewhere between chocolate puffs and worm heart, I admitted to myself that I wanted you. Somewhere between that goodbye kiss and the door closing on the truck I realized I was in love with you.”

She waited a long time for his response. She looked over at him. His eyes were closed and he was concentrating on his breathing.

“I love you,” she repeated in case he hadn’t grasped the extent of her words.

He looked up at her and nodded. “I’ve been waiting to hear that for a while now.”

“I’m so sorry, Ethan. I screwed up.” She backed away from the bars and faced him. “I shouldn’t have competed. I didn’t really think I could win. I just thought I would try to make Danato look good. I tried to throw the shield off, but it was stuck.”

Ethan took two long steps to her and crushed her in an embrace. “Don’t apologize for winning.”

“It was my stupid dumb luck,” she said, muffled in his shoulder.

He rubbed her back. “Lady Luck does have your number, that’s for sure.”

She detected humor in his voice and she looked up. A strange quirk of a smile was seeping into his face. “You did want to come back to me, didn’t you?” she asked, realizing that he had not said “I love you” back to her yet.

He looked down at her. His eyes flickered over her face. He placed his hands on either side of her face. “Say it again, so I know I’m not imagining it.”

She wondered what he meant, but the anticipation in his eyes told her the answer. “I love you,” she whispered.

He took a deep breath and licked his lips. His eyes showed just a hint of moisture. “One more time, please.”

Cori smiled, but she understood how long he had been waiting to have his feelings reciprocated, if indeed he still had those feelings. “I love you, Ethan.” She added his name so there would be no mistaking who she meant.

He threw his head back, blinking away that excess moisture, and took in a few rapid breaths in preparation for what Cori hoped would be another long, sensuous kiss. His head dipped down and his hands pulled her forward. She closed her eyes and parted her lips.

His warm lips descended onto her. With firm pressure, he offered a sincere, emotionally loaded smooch to her forehead. He backed away, slipping from her arms before she could object. After two or three backwards steps, he turned and ran out of the room. 

She stood there waiting for her kiss, waiting for her “I love you,” and waiting for an explanation.

46

After a good deal of time waiting for Ethan, Cori decided to head back home. She was probably supposed to meet and greet with the judges or something, but she didn’t have the energy. She also probably should check into the infirmary to get her ribs checked out, but she wasn’t in the mood to be poked and prodded.

She made her way back to the main foyer and found her coat. She could hear commotion from the gym. She wondered what other festivities they had planned for the day.

She zipped up her coat, positioned her scarf, and prepared to head out the main doors to the house. Secretly she was hoping Ethan was there so he could explain his buffoonery.

“Leaving so soon?”

Turning back, she saw Danato coming from the hallway the gym was in. She smiled a fake smile, but dropped it right away. There was no point in pretending with Danato. He knew her too well to believe her anyway. “I’m sorry, Danato, I know I have obligations, but can’t I just go home for a little while?”

“Would you like to tell me why you’ve been crying?”

Once again, she considered saying something evasive, but he had lived every day with her the last eight months. He knew how much she had been missing Ethan. “I told Ethan I loved him.”

“That sounds like something to be cheerful about, not tearful.”

She shrugged.

“So why aren’t you two stashed in a broom closet somewhere?”

Cori smiled. “Aside from that not being my style… He didn’t really reciprocate his feelings for me. At least not in the way that might have led to said broom closet.”

“That’s too bad. He does love you, though. I know that for a fact.”

“I know.” Cori nodded with a thin smile. “But now that he isn’t going to be able to stay here and be warden, it makes things complicated.”

“He can stay here and be warden if he wants. He just has to beat the dragon faster than you did.”

Cori tipped her head. “I thought… he can compete? He can beat me. He can stay here and be warden!” She practically jumped at hearing this revelation. The pain in her calves kept her down to earth though. “We have to tell him. He should do it today before the judges leave.”

“Yes, he should and he is.” Danato’s face couldn’t fully hold back the smile that he was trying to hide. “You’re kind of missing it.”

Her eyes widened. “He’s in there now?”

“Yes, the match just started. You might want to…” Cori ripped off her coat and threw it at Danato on her way to the gym.

Cori sneaked inside and skirted behind the bleachers to the outskirts where Ethan had watched her compete. Ethan was in the middle of the gym, sword in hand, bare chested, pouring sweat, and breathing hard. He looked unharmed until he turned his back to her. A long red gash peeled the skin on his back. The blood had stained his jeans down to the thigh.

He looked tired, but he was still fighting with all his might.

She stood on the sidelines, feeling the same angst he must have felt watching her. She caught sight of Belus and he gave her a nod. She sneaked over as if library silence was necessary in a room with a screeching dragon. “Is he doing well?” She knelt on one knee to save his neck from craning to her.

“He lost his shield but his blows are keeping it at bay.” Belus looked back at her legs. “How are you doing?”

She looked over at him with the same stuttered shock that she’d had when he approached her before the battle. “Good, err… two slashes on the calves, a puncture on the left thigh, an irritating, long cut on my left arm, and maybe a broken rib or two,” she reported dutifully.

Belus nodded, looking over each wound as she mentioned it, as if he were going to catalogue them in a report. When he didn’t say anything more, she found herself watching him, still waiting for that final statement. The one that would make everything okay.

When he caught her staring, he looked back at her. “What is it?”

She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. There was nothing she could say that wouldn’t sound needy. “Thank you.” She finally blurted something out that could be considered words.

“You did good today, kid.” He turned away even as he said it, which was good, since the smile that fastened itself to her face would have made him roll his eyes.

Ethan slid to a stop on his knees just after being batted by the beast. The dragon came after him again, playing the part of the cat. His paw raised in preparation for flattening him to the floor. Ethan had his back to the animal. Cori’s mouth opened to yell, “
Watch out!
” Belus’s hand latched onto hers.

She shut her mouth. Ethan saw her at the sidelines. She frantically nodded to look behind him. He gave her a nod and winked.

The paw descended onto Ethan’s back, just as his sword ejected from under his arm. The pointed sword buried between the creature’s toe pads. He groaned in pain and pulled back his paw.

“Oh, that poor thing,” Cori said.

Belus arch a brow at her concern. 

The crowd started to applaud and rally just as they had for her win. 

“Did he do it? Is he warden?”

He checked the clock. “He did it in less time. That should do it.”

Cori smiled and clapped her hands together. The crowd had already started to huddle around him. She tried to see him through the people, but she couldn’t.

“You can go see him, Cori,” Belus said. “Go congratulate him.”

She got up from her knees and rushed into the crowd. She couldn’t see him until she was right on top of him. He was genuflecting in the same place he had been for the final blow. He was leaning over his sword and his one knee. The gash on his back was extensive and deep, she wasn’t sure he would get away without any stitches.

Everyone had clustered around him, but given his bloody back, no one gave him the physical cajoles they gave her. Most everyone was talking with each other about the excitement of two matches in one day.

She stepped closer. When her feet were in view, he looked up. She put her hand to his cheek. “Are you okay?” she asked.

He took her hand and pulled her down to his knee. As soon as she was in position, sitting on his half lap, he pulled her face to his. His lips latched onto hers. His gentle kiss offered an apology for anything that might have resembled disinterest earlier. 

They came up for air only to mark the moment with a look of liberation.

He pulled her in again, this time for a deeper, more insistent kiss. The noise of the crowd fell to a distant hum. They were the only ones in the room at that moment.

Cori felt her heart race; the longevity of the kiss reminded her of how much more she wanted to share with Ethan. Their kissing slowed in pace, but increased in depth.

She got the sense that the crowd had trickled away from them. She even heard a couple of distant “ahems” as Danato tried to break up their make-out session. They both ignored him. They had waited far too long to let a little thing like propriety get in their way.

As lip-locked as they were, in the end it only took three words to separate them. “It’s a tie,” said one of the judges.

Their hungry lips, suddenly satisfied, parted. They joined the rest of the baffled faces: Danato, Belus, and the judges.

“What?” they both said together.

“His written score was lower than hers. They tied,” one judge explained.

“You’ve got to kidding me,” Ethan said. “That’s not possible. I studied forever on that.”

“No mistake, she beat out the last four wardens on her written score,” the judge concluded with certainty

“No freaking way.”“Hey!” Cori said, once again annoyed that no one could believe her score.

47

The argument on the topic of who beat whom, and how the problem should be rectified, continued back in Danato’s office. Danato had mostly stayed out of the argument. The judges bickered about the necessity of knowledge over strength and vice versa until their faces were red with anger. Not one could find an argument that satisfied rejecting one candidate or the other.