A bunch of security were hurrying toward us, and I knew I could let them try and take Uriel out. But there was no one skilled enough here to do that, no one except me. “Wait! I want to fight him,” I shouted.
Rafe and Jordan started swearing from the side, already preparing to jump into the square and defend me.
“Stop!” I said to them, clutching my sword tight. “I need to do this. It’s been a long time coming, and there’s no one else here who could best him.”
Rafe scoffed, and I shook my head. “Not even you, Angel. I know Uriel. I know exactly how he thinks and moves and reacts. I can do this.”
Uriel let out a low derisive laugh while shoving the dead fighter the rest of the way out of the ring and into the crowd. Blood slicked the floor at the side of our fight space, but luckily the worst of it had run into the spectator area and not made our ground slippery.
Rafe was furious, I could practically feel the anger and heat pouring off him, but he didn’t move any closer. Our gazes locked. I wrenched mine free to look at Jordan, who appeared to be torn but also wasn’t moving.
“Are you sure?” Jordan asked.
Before I could reply, Rafe bit out, “She can take him.”
Just like that, he accepted that I needed this, and he stepped back down, pulling Jordan with him. “The fight will go ahead,” Rafe added, and the security stopped their push forward.
Uriel grinned. He thought he had me.
He was a fool, and I was about to hand him his fucking ass on a platter.
"Bring it on,old man."
My sensei's lip curled in a snarl, and he launched himself at me in a lightning-fast strike, one that immediately made me second-guess my decision to fight him.
What the hell had I been thinking? I'd never beaten Uriel, but I’d come damn close to a stalemate in the tunnels last week. Except now he had nothing to lose. Regardless of whether he won or lost, he wasn't getting out of these tunnels—not with so many security guards and trained fighters filling the room.
But if I didn't strike the killing blow, it'd forever haunt me. I'd never be free of the shadows, of the feeling that he was out there watching me somehow.
Nope. Uriel wasn't leaving this fight except in a body bag, and what beautiful poetry it'd be when the bladehe’dgiven me took his life. The blade that I’d earned in blood, pain, broken bones, and lost innocence.
Drawing a deep breath, I spun out of his reach and found my center. The calm place devoid of emotions or fears. The place where I could block out the whole world and laser-focus on my opponent.
Tension dropped from my body like shedding a coat, and when my eyes came up to lock on Uriel, I knew I was ready.
Ready to kill my sensei. My mentor, my savior, and my first misguided love.
Uriel was going down.
The clang of steel on steel rang out through the cave, bouncing off the walls and echoing back in a way that drowned out the roar of the crowd. It was almost peaceful, the way Uriel and I danced around one another. Our blades met in a flurry of movements, but it was like fighting my own shadow.
Uriel had taught me everything I knew... until I met my princes. My few training sessions with Rafe had already modified my style the slightest bit, and I knew I was going to surprise Uriel soon. So soon. I just needed the right opportunity.
"You're weak," Uriel spat at me, his eyes bright with emotion. It was unlike him to show anything in a fight and a testament to how unhinged he'd become. He was the one who'd taught me to give nothing away. To give my opponent nothing to work with.
"You're weak, lazy, undisciplined, easily distracted." He rained blows down on me with every insult, but I parried hard and caught or dodged every single one of them. "You're worth nothing except a few minutes of pleasure between those tight thighs. You're awhore, Rose. After I kill you, I'll kill both your princes."
He was trying to get under my skin, and as badly as I wanted to block it all out, I hesitated.
Uriel could threaten me all he liked, and it wouldn't dent my armor. But threaten my guys? The two I'd so recently admitted I was head-over-heels in love with?
I faltered, and the tip of Uriel's blade sliced through the flesh of my upper arm.
Pain burned through me and I hissed in anger. I danced out of the way, giving myself a bit of space to get my head straight. He'd aimed to distract me, and it'd worked. But if that was the best he could manage when I was caught off guard, a little scratch to my arm? Then I doubted I was the only one off my game.
"It's been so long since my blade has been coated in your blood, Rose," Uriel murmured, licking his lips in a deeply disturbing way. "I forgot how much I enjoy piercing your flesh."
I swallowed back all the angry retorts building in my throat. I wouldn't let him suck me into that trap. No, I needed to focus, to block out all the noise, and toendhim. Sooner rather than later.
