He leaps forward with explosive speed. I dodge the first hit to my chest, then push away the second. I grab hold of his wrist on the third strike and twist into him as I drive my heel into his thigh. Fiery power surges down my leg, and the hit lands with an explosion of sparks.
It’s like hitting a tree trunk.
He snaps up my ankle with a wild grin. “Got you.”
I pull into him, standing on his leg as I bring my other knee up into his chest. I twist, holding my wrist as I smash my elbow against his big jaw. It hurts like hell, but his fingers slacken on my ankle. I push off him, flipping to land a few feet away.
“You’re a fuckingbadass!” Sylvia screams from the sidelines, and I can’t help but smile.
I even surprised myself with how cool that was.
Heat tingles across my fingers and sweat tickles my neck. It’s not just hot in here—I’m hot. Like there’s literal fire coursing through my veins, powering me, making every move stronger. But it’sstuckin me. It’s not releasing in my strikes.
Rhaz rubs his jaw with a brilliant, animalistic grin that makes my insides melt. I squash the feeling and take cat stance, centering myself. He circles and I move, my legs like liquid fire. The audience fades in my ears as I home in on him, on the beat of his heart thrumming through the lava-like cracks in his skin.
He takes a deep breath that glows all the way out to the tips of his fingers, and then he moves like lightning. I barely dodge the next attack, and the second has me dropping to the floor to evade. I explode up in a dual-fisted strike. The hit lands in his gut with a blazing smack that resonates back down my arms. He didn’t even budge.
I pull back and whirl under another punch, then deflect his fist, but not fast enough. He clips my shoulder, and the raw power behind the strike makes me yelp.
This isdefinitelymy real body.
I leap back, ready to avoid another hit, but it doesn’t come. Rhazan stands up straight, a look of terror paling his red face.
“We’re done,” he says.
Just like that?
“Like hell,” I snap, coming at him with all my strength.
He blocks my first punch, and I shove his arm away with my other hand, then come back in with another. It hits the soft spot of his ribs, but it feels more like punching brick. I roll away from a grab and chop down on his elbow.
He grunts in pain as his arm goes limp and—
A hot hand closes around my wrist and I’m yanked skyward. No, not a hand. His tail.
I kick at his chest, but he captures my ankle, then the other, until I’m drawn before him. His eyes travel the length of my body up to my face.
“Everyone out,” he booms. “The fight is over.”
I growl. “We’re not done!”
Fiery chains twist between his fingers and surge for my neck. They’re hot against my skin, though they feel less like metal and more like rough cloth. They wrap around my mouth, gagging me. They’re not so hot that I burn, but it’s right on the edge of uncomfortable.
I hurl curses at him and thrash under his strength, but it’s all useless.
Helplessness worms into my mind, and the invisible band snaps like a whip around my middle.
Sylvia and Apollo appear at Rhazan’s side.
“Same time next month?” Apollo asks.
He grunts confirmation at him, his eyes never leaving me.
“Good to meet you, Jade. Hope to see you next time,” she says.
“You were so cool!”Charlie quacks in my head.
There’s not enough oxygen in the room. I’m panting heavily through my nose and biting down against his magic to quell the anxiety that’s got a noose around my guts, dragging me toward the abyss of an attack.
