A sliver of respect glinted in her eye, and she nodded, letting go of her drawstring. I had expected the arrows to fly toward me, butthey veered toward Oliver. I reacted without thought, tackling him to the ground, and was up a second later, dodging more.
MJ didn’t let up—and neither did I.
“Alexei, stop babying them and throw those daggers you love.”
A moment later, an arrow came at me from the front and a dagger from the left. I dropped, but unlike the last few times, MJ didn’t let me stand. She shot arrow after arrow, and I rolled. Snow and ice sprayed my face, the tips of her arrows skimming past my head and driving into the ground.
I couldn’t roll forever. Alexei’s dagger sliced my cheek, and I stopped just in time to miss an arrow that would’ve sunk into my side. MJ was ruthless.
“Don’t stop! Stand or roll the opposite way, Luce!” Oliver shouted.
MJ tutted. “Nephilim, that’s helping. Her opponents may very well come after you in retaliation.”
I hissed as Alexei’s dagger cut my other cheek with precision. The fact that he could wound me without injuring me severely was a testament to his skill—and our budding friendship. Ignoring the sting, I moved to help Oliver, but I didn’t need to. He luscelered out of the way, smiling, and brushed imaginary snow off his shoulder.
“Don’t ever be persuaded by the taunting words of your opponent, beautiful. If you have help, trust them to take care of themselves, or suffer the consequences.”
Before I could ask about the consequences, an arrow sank through my hand, and I screamed.
“MJ!” Alexei shouted, flinging a dagger at her. She moved aside, giving Oliver time to lusceler in front of me—a barrier between me and the fierce redhead.
“She’ll heal, Alexei. You know Moira. If she can kill her, she will. You want her to survive? Stop coddling her. You know who I’m doing this for. If they choose it, she’ll need to know how to fight while in constant pain.”
Who was MJ doing this for?
Oliver glanced down at me, analyzing the arrow in my hand and the blood slowly dripping onto the snow. “You okay? We can stop and go to Sam,” he said.
I reached out my good hand so he could help pull me up. “No, we can’t. Can you hold your own, though?” I asked, knowing the answer, but it was hard not to worry about him.
He grinned and let his fear power flame in his emerald eyes. “I’ve been holding my own longer than you’ve been alive. Do what you’ve got to do. I’ll be fine.”
“Okay.” I clenched my jaw and held back a scream as I pulled the fletching through the hole. I knew it’d make me bleed more, but if I had to roll or drop, I couldn’t have anything slowing me down. Which meant I had to end this soon. Angels heal fast, but notthatfast.
I slid out from behind Oliver and found even more respect in MJ’s amber eyes. “Let’s go again, Redhead,” I taunted.
She notched two arrows. Alexei palmed two daggers, surveying Oliver and me. We dodged the projectiles and attempted to go on the offensive. But it seemed every time we tried, the next knife or arrow would stop us. Alexei aimed for the head; MJ for our limbs. I tried toavoid the arrows more than the knives, mostly because Alexei kept going easy on me, which meant my face continued to sting with cuts.
But MJ didn’t care how I fared with Alexei. If I avoided all her arrows, she came faster. It took all my focus not to get impaled, but I did. Then I gave her a cocky little smile.
That was a mistake.
Her arm blurred as she luscelered to notch more arrows and release them. They flew toward me and Alexei. It happened so fast—too fast.
Alexei crouched to retrieve his daggers, his back turned to MJ. I knew she wouldn’t kill him, but shewastesting me. I didn’t have the time to reach him. I had a choice to make.
Right or wrong, I called to my Glory and gave it one command—protect.
Perfectly crafted spheres of flame covered both of us.
The arrows hit and burned instantly.
Oliver turned to me with a giant grin. “Hell yeah!”
I smiled back. I’d been working hard on those.
Alexei shot up, taking in his flaming protection and the ash on the ground, then glared at MJ. “Were you trying to kill me?”
She formed a red fireball. “I had a backup plan.”
