Page 57 of Rebellious Royals

"He is," Wilder agreed, matching my pose. "I have a weakness for his abs."

"I like his ass," I said, reaching out to tap Wilder's blade.

And Wilder surged in. "Nice thighs too."

I barely got my block up in time. "I love his eyes."

"My weakness," Wilder said, spinning to come at me from the other side.

Because Wilder knew how to fight too. Fuck! Swordsmanship was a noble skill, Torian had said. Well, I was pretty sure he'd called it royal, but I had a feeling that was just about the same. In the courts, it seemed learning how to keep oneself alive was basically mandatory. Either that, or I simply had badass friends.

So I stopped trying to pick on Hawke and focused on Wilder. When I was just about to lose, Hawke stepped in beside me, offering a block. That put the two of us against Wilder - which was when the magic began to flow.

Wilder dropped one of his practice sticks and shoved his open hand toward Hawke. He blocked with a burst of silvery-grey power. The pewter color of it was like a wall, eating up Wilder's conjuration. I saw, but I was moving in to get Wilder's attention back on me.

"Show me more?" I begged. "Give me a few ideas?"

"Fuck me," Wilder groaned as Hawke began to use his magic liberally.

The wooden floor turned into arms to grab Wilder's legs. He magicked those away, freeing himself just as Hawke lit Wilder's blade on fire, mostly the hilt. A glance froze that over, and Wilder kept going, yet I was quickly getting the idea.

We both began to throw out Wild magic, and Wilder evaded, blocked, or countered all of it. When I sent a shadow harpy at him, he stabbed upwards, exploding the shape into dark mist. Hawke reformed it and sent it back as a spear, but a shield of ice blocked it, shattering at the impact.

And we fought. Over and over, we hammered each other, but two against one wasn't fair at all. Just as Wilder began to falter, Keir rushed in to lock in at his side, blocking a volley of grey arrows from Hawke with an iridescent shield of magic. I turnedthe floor into an oil slick, but Wilder had that. He grew moss over it, regaining their footing.

Then Wilder started attacking with his magic. A glamour sprang up around me, turning the world into a beautiful meadow filled with fae flowers. That threw me enough that I paused. I couldn't see the guys!

"Morrigan!" Jack cawed.

And through the glamour, he flew into sight, landing on my shoulder. Immediately, the glamour shattered, but Keir was already mid-swing. Hawke got the block, proving glamours were more dangerous than I'd realized, but I was right back at it, and Wilder was clearly the bigger threat.

Which meant Hawke and I needed to take him out first.

I spun, giving Hawke the better position, and tried to make Wilder's weapon impossible to hold. I saw a smile flicker across his dark skin, but then he was locked in and serious again. I couldn't see what he'd done, but he'd clearly countered it.

Yet Keir wasn't about to make this easy. As we focused on Wilder, he tried to take out Hawke. That meant I needed to use my magic on him to even this up. I called a pack of wolves, sending them at him, then followed up with an explosion of shadows in his face. Keir tried to swat them away, but it was just enough.

With Hawke focusing his magic on Wilder, and Wilder once again spending all his power to block, I saw my chance. Thrusting hard, I twisted and bent low enough to get under Wilder's guard, earning myself a solid touch on Wilder's waist.

"I'm out," he said as we both turned to Keir. And with the two of us, Keir didn't stand a chance. Hawke hammered him with all the magic he could think of: lights, projectiles, shields, and more. The conjurations were sent out quickly, as if he barely had to think about it, and Keir was doing his best to block with both his sword and his magic.

Then Keir stopped playing nice. Grabbing Hawke's arm while still holding his sword, he slung my ally over at Wilder before hacking at me. Jack took off, flying out of the way just in time to avoid the sword that walloped my shoulder.

Wilder managed to catch Hawke's back against his chest, but Keir just wagged his sword that way. "Can we call this over?" he panted.

"Fuck, yeah," Hawke agreed. "I'm almost empty."

"And our Morrigan learned a few things," Torian said, proving everyone in the room had stopped to watch.

I just nodded, breathing too hard to get a word out. Jack didn't have that problem.

"Morrigan!" he declared. "Court!"

Aspen caught my eye from across the room. "Yeah, the court's Morrigan," she said. "An amazing one."

Jack slung his bill up and down, proving that was what he meant, or at least close enough. I'd take it too, because I'd won. Maybe not alone, but I didn't care about that. I'd still won against people who'd been doing this a lot longer, and Torian was right.

I'd learned a lot more than I'd expected. I'd finally figured out that the limits on my magic were all me, not it.