“Fine. You win.”
A pride-filled smile pulled at my mouth. She hadn’t only bested him, she’d dismantled him piece by piece. She could’ve humiliated him, but she didn’t.
Restraint like that was rarer than raw power. I’d fought beside warriors who could break armies but had no control over when to stop. Isi knew exactly where the line was and how to walk it without stumbling.
I glanced at the others, who were all watching now. Lexie was nodding to herself, a half-smile on her face.
Maddox might not have respected Isi before, but after this display? He’d be a fool not to.
Isi climbed off him fluidly, a cat who knew the kill had already been made. She didn’t gloat or preen. Only rolled her shoulders, her eyes flicking to me for the barest second, a glance that felt like a hand closing around my throat.
Heat flared through me.
If she ever turned that look on me in private, without an audience and without rules, I wasn’t sure whether I’d end up on my knees or flat on my back. I was open to either.
Maddox stood, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth, and stared at her like he didn’t know what she was.
Maybe none of them did.
ButIdid.
The room echoed with scattered conversation and shallow laughter.
Isi stood near the edge of the mat, stretching the tension from her shoulders like it hadn’t been a real fight. Like Maddox hadn’t come for her blood. Her braid was half unraveled, and sweat made her tunic cling to her frame. She tilted her head toward Lexie as if she was going to say something.
I forgot the warriors, the hall, the world. If I leaned in, I could follow the faint sheen of sweat there with my mouth, trace it to where her pulse beat hard and fast. I needed to know if it jumped for me or the fight.
And then I felt it.
A spear tore itself from the mount on the wall with a shriek of metal.
It ripped across the room, aiming for Isi.
Something in me snapped taut, and my body moved before my mind caught up. Stone underfoot shivered as my power surged, reflexive, ready to throw walls between her and the threat. I reined it in mid-stride. In a flash, I was across the mat, reaching for her.
One heartbeat Isi was standing, her spine exposed. The next, I slammed into her. We hit the mat hard. I wrapped my arms around her and rolled to place her beneath me. To protect her with my own body.
The wind was knocked from us both, and the wounds on my chest screamed.
My heart roared against my ribcage while the scent of her filled my lungs. Her breath hit the hollow of my throat, and my body decided the spear wasn’t the most dangerous thing in the room anymore.
The weapon punched through Crey’s chest where he stood on the mat beside Kerralyn, emerging out the other side. He looked down, blinking, confusion clouding his face. A choke, and blood bubbled out of his mouth, splattering on the mat by his feet.
Kerralyn groaned and reeled away from him, her gaze scanning the room.
With a sigh, Crey slumped forward, landing hard on the mat with a sickening thud, driving the spear the rest of the way through his chest.
Ashmaw shrieked, a high, mournful sound that was echoed by the other companions.
A pop, and he was gone.
I was still half on top of Isi, my arms wrapped around her, her breath fanning my collarbone in quick gusts.
Kerralyn shouted for a healer. Bryson swore. Lexie kept whispering, “No no no,” in a prayer she knew wouldn’t be answered.
Isi swallowed hard beneath me.
Above, the shadows behind the viewing glass shifted.
