Page 25 of Death’s Kiss (The Order of the Tide Raiders #1)

T he rest of our first week after the initial pillar task passes in blissful ease.

Without Agni there to vex me at every turn, the other southern raiders are much more manageable. And by manageable, I mean easier to ignore.

Even Corvina is suspiciously quiet, though I still find her gaze on me often. I’m aware when she leans in to whisper something snidely to one of her crew, exactly who it’s regarding. But she hasn’t made another move against me. I wonder if she isn’t waiting for me to make mine first.

When Corvina isn’t whispering nasty pointed insults, she’s cooing over Olsson’s supposed heroism in the trial.

I’ve overheard her chatting loudly with several other southern raiders about his horrific injuries.

They lamented weepily for days about how very unfair it was for him to be given a beast so much more dangerous than any of the others. Including her own.

My blood thrashes in memory of just what exactly the prick did to his kelpie, but I keep my mouth shut.

Agni isn’t the only one absent after the first pillar .

One of the western captains, Ansil Tetsuo, is said to have spiral broken his leg and hasn’t been seen since. Reed Namak, the eastern captain, only returned just yesterday. Vash was lucky enough to get away with some tonics from the leeches and claims his cracked rib is a scratch.

We’re down to three weeks until the next pillar trial, and Preceptor Oplon has begun assigning us opponents outside of our cardinal. So far, the experiment hasn’t gone too poorly. Only a handful of prohibited affinity fights have broken out. Nearly all of them started by the south.

I’ve been paired up against almost every other captain’s second in command.

The toughest to win by far was unsurprisingly Corvina’s.

Aella Bellum, I’ve now learned, is her name.

Raider Bellum is just as skilled as I suspected, maybe even more so.

Her strikes with the bo-staff we practiced on were damn near lethal.

I managed to outmaneuver her in the end with quick footwork that Herse has helped to drill me on, but my shins are still barking in protest.

Today Preceptor Oplon is having us return to the basics in an effort to determine next week’s pairings. We’ll be partnered with someone outside our cardinal and expected to use three blades of choice as our allotted weapons. The first one to submit, of course, loses.

I’m sent to the far left corner per usual and begin stretching while awaiting my opponent.

A shadow falls across one side of the mat I occupy.

“Ah, so it’s the squid for me today,” someone says from above, the deep male voice like smoke sliding over gravel.

I turn around, and my eyes dart upwards. There’s a scowl already plastered across my expression and a smart-ass retort just waiting on my tongue, but I stop short at the sight of Agni’s face.

He’s come back marked .

My swallow is tight.

The scar is wild and jagged as it slices through his left onyx brow, just narrowly missing his eye, before scattering down to the edge of his sharp jawline in the unmistakable pattern of branched lightning.

The marking is made even more shocking by its odd coloring.

Its strange hue reflects that of molten gold, the exact same auric shade of his kelpie’s lighting.

It seems as though he was branded in turn— interesting.

“ Vide nonnihil vos lubido? ” Agni asks, his tone mocking.

His foreign words snatch me from my thoughts, and I realize I’ve been staring. Standing up from my sitting position on the mats I glower at him in an effort to hide the flush creeping up my neck in embarrassment. His smirk lets me know that whatever he said was somehow insulting.

“So the asshole survives,” I muse while tightening the gold pin in my hair and checking the security of my blades. “What a pity. I already had my pyre-burning outfit all picked out.”

Those amber eyes flicker, his mouth twisting into a familiar sneer. “Sorry to disappoint.”

I’m silent while watching the southern prick move into position at the other end of our mat.

He pulls out three daggers from his person, they look so different from any I’ve seen before that it’s a struggle to conceal my curiosity.

The blade on them is violently jagged, and the metal is a dark obsidian shade that shines with a curious ruby hue under the nearby orb lights.

Agni tosses two of them onto the side of the mat, and I look at him in question.

He scoffs in return. “I can handle you without needing any weapons. But I say we make today’s challenge a bit more interesting.” The jackass is sure to put enough emphasis on the word ‘you’ to convey the many layers of loathing and disgust that he associates with who and what I am.

“Oh? Do tell,” I drawl, my tone bored. Though, annoyingly, I’m rather intrigued by the dare.

Agni’s eyes darken before me. “I say one blade each, otherwise hand to hand. Unless you’re too scared, of course,” he taunts with another smirk. “Last time you did go down pathetically easy.”

My face sours at the memory of him disarming me. I can’t resist the temptation of a challenge, however, and begin discarding my weapons one by one over to the pile where his own lies.

“Fine by me. One blade is all I need to give that pretty little scar of yours a twin,” I mock, resuming my position at the opposite end of the mat. His eyes on me smolder with contempt.

“Ready?” Agni asks with the sharp tilt of his chin.

I nod in silent confirmation, and our dance begins.

I strike first, relying on the one edge I have against an opponent as massive and powerful as the Southern captain—speed. Moving fast, I go for a deceptive maneuver, a swift feint followed by a sharp kick, a tactic that has never failed me before.

Agni dodges my blade with infuriating ease before catching my leg in the next moment.

“Predictable.” He ‘tsks’ and the room moves in a blur of motion as I’m promptly slammed onto my back. The impact is sudden enough that I'm left without air. Suffocating fury rises up inside.

I’ve kept my grip on my dagger, so I focus first on getting a breath inside my lungs, then I lunge for his thigh second.

He knocks away my attack with a lightning swift block from his forearm, but I still manage to graze him with the passing edge of my blade.

Using the impact of his block, I roll out from under him with a grunt, and in a flash, I’m back up on my feet.

“Effective,” I counter, nodding to his torn sleeve, now budding a line of cherry.

He gives a cold, unfeeling laugh before pouncing, his jagged blade slicing through the air with deadly precision.

I sidestep him, feeling a rush of air pass dangerously close as the ruby weapon narrowly misses my shoulder.

I move in next for a quick counterattack, aiming a punch at Agni’s torso.

He blocks it effortlessly, and I swear as the impact of his deflection vibrates up my arm.

“Anyone ever tell you before that you fight like a drunkard?” Agni inquires snidely while deftly moving around my person. “Must be a sign of bad breeding. ”

My teeth clench together, and my jaw sets in annoyance. I’m determined to catch him off guard. I need to find his weak spot—any vulnerabilities in his fighting-style that I can exploit.

“Anyone ever tell you to shut the fuck up?” I snap before launching a series of quick strikes, aiming for any gap in the southern captain’s defense.

He parries each blow with preternatural skill. His movements are so impossibly fluid and controlled that it’s throwing me off my game. I’ve never seen someone move like him, and that includes the entirety of the Cardinal South Order raiders.

Agni catches my next blow with his free hand. He gives me a flash of his capricious smirk before yanking my captured arms, so I’m forced to spin until my back hits the solid wall of his chest.

“ Fuck. ” I’m practically seething.

My chest heaves with renewed fury. He’s so obnoxiously tall that slamming my head backwards won't make any kind of impact. His weapon arm is now across my upper ribs, and it feels like solid steel. I'm effectively held prisoner against the unyielding planes of his stupidly firm body.

Agni hisses in my ear with the slash of a wicked smile, “Just as wild as ever I see.”

“Fuck you,” I spit before stomping down on his foot as hard as I possibly can.

“Godsdamned— brat ” he barks out in pain, loosening his hold.

I tear free from his clutches with a laugh before whirling back around to face him, the dagger still in my grasp. Others have stopped their practice to watch our spar. I can practically feel the eyes of his crew as well as my own burning onto our backs. I don’t allow for the distraction.

Agni comes at me next with a self-assured blow that’s poised for my neck when I spin around and kick. My mouth hooks upwards as I finally feel the satisfying ‘thunk’ of my blow landing.

Even better, I managed to kick his weapon arm .

The ruby-hued blade in his grip goes flying to the end of the mat. I laugh again, and the sound of it, mixed with the loss of his blade, sends a wave of rage rippling across his striking features.

I take advantage of his lack of a weapon and move with a well-placed jab to the throat. He dips at the last second, and my blade kisses the air above his head. The southern prick grabs my arm next, and something in my gut twists as I realize the obvious move he’s about to pull on me.

I’m such a fucking moron.

Agni yanks me forward before flipping me around his body so that I smack down hard onto the ground once more. Vital air is once again stolen from my person, and I gasp.

“As I said, predictable, ” he sneers.

It’s almost not possible to believe his arm appeared snapped clean in half only a week ago. If I hadn’t witnessed it with my own eyes, I’d have said they lied about the extent of his injuries.