I was talking a big game, and I prayed to whatever powers that be I managed to take him down just once. Once! It was all I was begging for. He could knock me down twenty times but if I got him down one time, I would be victorious.
He didn’t smack talk back with me. Instead he analyzed me and my breathing for his advantage. I hopped from side to side toward him, hoping to catch him off guard when I threw my right fist out for a punch, but he was ready. I expected it and lifted my knee into his path, connecting with a hard abdomen. His head shifted to look at me, then smiled so bright I thought my heart stopped beating for a moment.
I’d got him, and he’d smiled!
The distraction was my undoing, and Rune grabbed my arm and rolled me over his back to the solid ground. With quick feet, I jumped up and came at him again. My body angled in a spear tackle to his waist, like Najen taught me. Rune lost his footing. My body was small but the momentum of my attack had us toppling over, fighting for who would come out on top.
He did, of course, but I wasn’t done. With skills of an acrobat, I lifted my hips, using my newly strong core to wrap my right leg around his neck and shifted my weight.
“Shit!”
His curse gave me all the motivation I needed to throw every ounce of my body weight into the move where I had him beneath me with my knee against his throat. I did it! I couldn’t believe it.
“That’s right, Grandpa!” I shouted in victory.
“You forgot an important lesson.” He wasn’t grinning, as his focus shifted to my heaving chest, then my face. His throat bobbing, and his breathing was as labored as mine.
“Oh yeah?” I pressed my knee into his throat a tiny bit more, showing dominance in this position.
“It’s never a win until your opponent is incapacitated.”
He moved his hands lightning fast, and I was beneath him in seconds, his broad body flush against mine. He didn’t gloat, and I couldn’t mutter a word or a breath. His face was close to mine, close enough I could feel his breaths heating my cheeks. A trembling gasp rushed from my lips at the contact of his hard body settling over mine, gravity pushing us closer than we’d been before.
His gaze moved from my eyes to my lips, and my chest seized. Wandering thoughts drifted toward his face, his perfectly hardened face. The three scars his father gave him didn’t hinder his beauty. In fact, they fit him . . . the warrior with the romantic’s heart. Every nerve was sensitive, and I wanted to feel those warrior’s lips pressed against mine.
My gaze moved from his parted mouth to his ice-colored eyes. So many emotions and questions swirled inside their frigid depths. It was mirrored in mine . . . the desire, the pull toward him in this moment. He lit something inside me that I’d never felt so strongly before.
Iknew . . .I knew this inexplicable draw could never be.
“You got me. Good job, Rune.” I wiggled to get out from under him. He didn’t fight me. He rose to his feet and held his hand out for me to take, but I couldn’t chance touching his callused fingers. I was burning too hot, and I didn’t know what to make of it besides the fact I wanted to toss my heated body into the cool river.
“I learned how to axe throw, too. I’m pretty good.” I walked over to the axes and lifted one up, sparing one glance at Rune.
His glare was unreadable, and his body was rigid. But I knew he was feeling the same emotions streamlining through my mind.
Complete, unexplainable confusion.
Chapter Thirty-Two
I stared at Princess Nyx while cleaning her onyx tomb again. This time there would be no climbing expeditions or anything that would land me in the healer’s quarters. The job was still mine, apparently. It was better I get hurt than one of the other servants since I was still low on the ranking system. I didn’t mind. This was a good thing for me. I needed to see if there were any more clues as to how to rescue her.
What secrets in the onyx was she hiding? I puzzled for over an hour about her jewelry and the dark blue rock concealed beneath her perfectly manicured hands. There had to be some key story or information I hadn’t stumbled upon yet. Something that when I finally figured it out, it would connect all the random dots in my head.
The ring on her marriage finger was a tiger’s eye band, which meant either Rune and Nyx were married or they had intended to be.
The light blue bracelet may have been a gift from Tor. It fit the description of turquoise, his gem core, and there were two men who were fighting for her heart. Each had a gem core with the powers to create those pieces of jewelry for her.
Rune and Nyx were mates. I blushed, as if she stared at me through the crystal shield in accusation, like she knew I thought about her mate’s lips on mine, his warrior’s body against my own.
The whole situation was confusing. I loved Tor, but if I really delved deep inside myself, I knew something wasn’t right between us. Something was missing within me that he hadn’t been able to reach . . . an unyielding force or unnamed longing in my heart he had not possessed, as much as I wanted him to.
Then I thought of Rune. He wasn’t mine, either. He couldn’t be. His mate, the unrelenting bond between two people, lay right here, the half to another soul.
Whatever feelings stirred in my chest for the general would need to be taken out back and stabbed. Once I freed both Tor and Nyx, then we could go our separate ways . . . Rune and Nyx, me and Tor, a half-Fae male who loved me. We were good together. My stomach churned at the thought, so I focused on scrubbing the onyx harder, and avoided Nyx’s face out of guilt.
The woman would likely be able destroy me if Rune’s description of her fighting skills were anything to go by. Hopefully I wouldn’t find out, they would be together and all would be right in the world. The end.
I was wired and on edge by the time I finished cleaning, too hyped to go to sleep and afraid of what I might dream of . . . or who. After dropping the cleaning supplies off in the closet they belonged in, I strolled quietly through the halls toward the library where Dris was organizing a shelf. I’m sure it was perfect to begin with but she liked to fuss.
