Page 80 of Till Death

“Take the handcuffs off, Althea,” he said, standing upright.

“But—”

“Take them off,” he demanded, and I didn’t have to look at his eyes to know there would be darkness there. A darkness that was so, so familiar to me.

Thea did nothing at all, made no movements, spoke no words, but the cuffs fell with a clink to the ground. I locked my fingers together, refusing to take the bait. He stepped to me and swung; I dodged with ease. He threw a knee; I took it in the gut. Another swing; I stood and let it shake me to my core.

“Stop it,” he growled.

“Stop what?”

He pulled a blade from his boot and held it in his hand. “You know what.”

When he swung, I blocked but did not strike.

“Paesha’s going to be pissed if she loses money because you’re scared of a fair fight.” His voice was so quiet I almost didn’t hear him.

“I’m not scared of a fair fight,” I whispered. “There could never be a truly fair fight between us. The first fight we had, I was poisoned. You know this is a bad idea. I don’t want to hurt you, and I don’t want to scare them. There’s a difference.”

“You might be good, Deyanira, but you’re not that good. You got lucky before. I know what I’m doing. And I trust you.”

Those final words were such a shock to my reality. Trusting me was foolish. Because, just like him and the rest of this band of misfits, I was not my own person. Still, something in the way he’d said those words empowered me.

I flashed my eyes to his fingers. “Loosen your grip.”

“What?”

“Loosen your grip on the blade.”

“No.” He jabbed the knife forward, and I twisted, grabbing his wrist, snapping it backward, and stealing the weapon.

“If you hold the blade too tightly, you cannot manipulate the way you thrust. It is meant to be an extension of your arm, but your fingers can bend. Loosen enough that you can rotate your wrist at the last second.” I held it out for him. “Try it again.”

He stubbornly gripped it the same way he had before. A challenge. When he moved, assuming I would do the same thing, I trapped his thrust-out hand, snatched the knife, and flipped him onto his back, planting the blade just above his Adam’s apple.

Paesha slowly clapped her hands, but I couldn’t look at Althea and see the fear that would surely be there. Instead, I watched the face of the man who never feared me, even when he hated me.

“Good girl,” he said smoothly, pushing away the blade. “Do it again.”

The next time he came for me, I tried something different, meaning to strike him in the kidney on his initial step, but he’d been ready and blocked, his face nothing but concentration. Spinning to move with the momentum of his forceful counter, I dropped and swept a leg out, once again knocking him down.

“This is honestly sad,” Paesha said, clearly bored. “No wonder you’re getting your ass handed to you every night, Orin.”

“I’d like to see you try,” he said, peeling himself from the ground.

“Okay.”

My breath caught in my throat as they traded spots, but I held my composure, masking the surprise by finally looking at the others. Hollis dipped his chin to me, and Thea hadn’t lost her smile. Maybe they weren’t afraid.

“This is a really bad idea,” I said when the Huntress took her mark across from me.

“Thea,” she answered with a grin, tossing one of the discarded cuffs to her friend. “I need a sword.”

Within moments, I faced off with the Huntress. She’d taken a traditional stance, elbow near her ear, point facing right at me. But her posture was immaculate, her sun-kissed skin gleaming beneath the rays that poured out from the clouds as if they were eager to watch such a beauty perform.

She’d overextended her muscles, though, far more focused on her initial pose than what she might actually do from that point. Had she been on stage, it would have been a marvel to see, but in a real fight, in the bloody hallways of a king’s castle, she’d be so easy to tip over, I might have laughed, if not for the severity on her face.

“You sure?” I asked.