Page 81 of Till Death

“Ask me if I’m scared, Maiden.”

I rolled my eyes. “You should be.”

“Two coins on Dey,” Hollis shouted, shoving his hand into his pocket, though I could only see him out of the corner of my eye.

No one took the bet, though.

“Go,” Orin barked.

I held my hands behind my back again, holding my feet planted as she lunged. “If I had a blade, I’d strike from the right and throw you sideways.” Stepping away from the tip of her sword, I spun to face her. “You can think like a dancer in sword fighting, except for one thing. You have to bend, Huntress. If you keep the legs straight…” She lunged again, but I was way ahead of her. “Your lead-off is too big, and I can predict what you’re doing from a mile away.”

She smiled, something wicked and stunning and maybe even terrifying. “Noted.”

“Are you paying attention, Orin?” Thea asked.

I could feel his eyes on me, but when I turned and heat raced down my body at his assessing gaze, I couldn’t hide the blush. Nor the pause in focus. Paesha came at me again, and while I was distracted, she nicked my arm, slicing into the loose sleeve of my shirt.

Thea gasped. But it wasn’t nearly enough to stall me as I jumped right back into motion, letting the thought of that beautiful man’s attention fuel every muscle in my body as I waited for her to turn and strike. When the blade came down, slicing through the air in a perfect arc, I simply stepped back, letting it bury into the dirt before kicking Paesha’s wrist. She yelped and released the handle, I snatched it away before the hilt hit the ground, and in one smooth, terrifying motion, brought the blade through the air and stopped an inch before her head, eliciting a beautiful smirk from her and a gasp from Orin.

“Ready,” Quill yelled from the front door, breaking the spell over all of us.

Althea sighed. “Oh, thank the gods. That’s enough for today.”

I dropped the sword to the ground, and it shriveled back into the cuffs it’d been formed from.

“I’m not sure if this was the greatest distraction I’ve ever witnessed or the worst,” Hollis said, leading the way to the house.

“Distraction for what?” I asked, following him.

But Orin grabbed my hand, stopping me as the others walked away. “You really are a brutal little thing, Nightmare, but next time you hold back, I will find a way to coax that lethal demon from you and force her to come play with me.”

“I can promise you that’s one side of me you never want to see.”

He pulled me to his chest, and I let him, relishing in the way our bodies felt when so close together. An ache building within my heart, my head wishing it wouldn’t.

“I’m beginning to think there are no sides of you that wouldn’t absolutely destroy me.” He brushed a strand of hair from my face, letting his fingers linger on my flushed cheeks. “Even the rare smile is enough to weaken a man.”

“I’ve learned to never trust your flattery,” I said breathlessly.

“Deyanira—”

“Come on,” Quill yelled from the door, though I hardly heard her over the racing of my heart.

“We better go inside, Deyanira Sariah Faber, Death’s Maiden, wife of a lying flatterer.”

Chapter 33

“Surprise!”

The gathered family, with Orin at my back and Hollis, Thea, Quill, Paesha, and Elowen before me, had been scheming. And when they yelled, my first instinct was to reach for a weapon. I hated that twisted side of my mind.

“Happy birthday,” Orin rumbled into my ear, his palm burning an invisible mark onto the small of my back.

A birthday was a pressing reminder of our eventual mortality and release from this world. Some celebrated with gifts and pleasantries as they could, but most said nothing, did nothing, preferring to closely guard every second of their one hundred years. Knowing that you would die on your one-hundredth year felt like sand in an hourglass, slowly ticking by, to people who had true happiness in this world. But to the rest of us, we’d begun the countdown for a different reason. Anticipation and not fear.

It wouldn’t be hard to figure out my birthday. As a princess, my birth was supposed to be a day of celebration in Perth, but the banners had been covered in black, the flags withdrawn, and the note pinned to the gate of my father’s castle announced my mother’s tragic death. My birthday had never been one of jubilation. Only mourning. Only bitterness in a cold castle when every servant and every court member had been sent home. Hallowed halls and fasting. That was how my birthday was spent.

I shook my head, trying to make sense of it all until I remembered a conversation with Quill right after I’d come. “You betrayed me, kid.”