These marks are the fucking shit!
“You think I’d really believe anything you say anyway?” she growls at me as our staffs meet in another boom.
“I don’t really give a fuck what you believe. It’s the truth. If you don’t believe me now, you will. Right before she slits your throat or has that creep Ory take you out, you’ll know then that thestraywas right.”
“Ory is loyal,” she counters.
“Right, just like your aunt, the Sovereign, is?” I challenge.
Suryn backs away from me for a minute, and we both watch each other.
“How do you even know this?” she asks me after a couple beats.
“Overheard it one night.”
She scoffs.
“Trust me, I wish I hadn’t gotten myself lost in the castle. I would love to not know what the Sovereign sounds like while she lets some dude fuck her face,” I confess, and we both cringe.
“Was this the same night you were fucking my...yourShield?” Suryn corrects herself.
I watch her for a moment, taking in the fire that lights up in her hazel eyes.Is she jealous?
“You’ve got it wrong,” I tell her.
She gives me a sardonic smile. “What? That you weren’t rubbing up all over your Shield?”
“That, for starters, but you’re especially wrong about that whole filth mentality that’s poisoning your brain. You think you’re better than they are, but they’ve got you beat in every possible way. You’re the one lacking, not them.”
“Yes, and you know me so well,” she bites back.
“I know enough to spot a close-minded hypocrite when I see one.”
“And I know enough to spot a power hungry back dweller when I see one,” Suryn snaps back.
“Now, now, now, don’t go getting me confused with your aunt. Taking things that don’t belong to them clearly runs in your family, I wonder what else does?” I jab.
“Fuck you, mongrel,” she flings at me as we move to go head to head again.
“Better an honorable mongrel than a pureblood piece of shit,” I proclaim.
I spin, dropping my staff and slicing across her stomach with the throwing knife I just called into my grip. “Oh wait, that’s right, isn’t your dad lamia?” I ask, my voice dripping with faux sweetness, as I move inside the strike she’s trying to brain me with and cut up the inside of her arm. “Looks like we’re both just a couple of mongrels,” I observe, slamming my blade into her thigh and rolling away from her.
Suryn hisses and yanks the small dagger from the meat of her thigh. She throws it at me, and it goes wide. I pluck the handle out of the air and let the weapon disappear as I disengage the runes. She sways on her feet, and I can tell from the blood dripping down her arm that the cut up the inside of her bicep is the one that’s about to bring her to her knees.
I brush myself off and walk slowly toward her. She drops to one knee and shakes her head like she’s struggling to stay conscious. Suryn calls on her katana as I get close, but I push it aside like it’s nothing. I reach for her throat, recognizing the resignation I see in her eyes. She knows this is it.
I shake my head at her presumption and shove magic into her. I feel for her wounds, healing them one by one, and shove away any respect I might feel over the fact that she fought as well as she did when she’s this beat up.
“What are you doing?” she asks me, her tone laced with confusion.
“What does it look like? I’m healing you.”
“I know, but why?”
I crouch down to look her straight in the eyes. “Because I’m not actually trying to kill you. I just needed to blow off some steam. You need to broaden your horizons and open your mind, not die.”
I finish mending all of her injuries and shove her away from me a little harder than is necessary as I stand up. Suryn rubs at her throat and shakes her head at me. She watches me for a moment like I’m a puzzle she just now realizes she hasn’t figured out. She rolls over and pushes up from the ground slowly. But as she gets back on her feet, she hisses and clutches at her chest. She looks over at me, her gaze filled with agony.
