His friend, the one with the matching wifebeater and buzz cut, shot his arm out. I guessed Landon was aname.
August dodged the fist flying at his face, then backhanded Landon in the jaw so suddenly that he blinked and stumbled backward before toppling onto the ground. I charged the other friend just as he raised his foot to kick August between the legs. August would’ve probably blocked the hit, but I didn’t wait to find out. I slammed my foot against the boy’s rising leg, flinging it away, then grabbed his shoulders and kneed him so hard in the groin he let out a high-pitched shriek before bending over and panting inpain.
Adrenaline coursed through me, sharpening all of my senses. I could feel the cluster of raw energy on the lawn of the inn and the din of voices. I could hear the whisper of the smile growing on August’s lips and the steady thumps of his heart as he gazed down atme.
“Fuck . . . you . . . both,” Justin hissed, snapping August’s attention back ontohim.
“That didn’t sound like an apology,” Augustsaid.
Justin’s nails curved and sharpened, and then he clawed at August’shand.
August tossed him almost as far as the rock he’d skipped on the lake. “If any of you so much as look at Ness again, I will shred you like the vermin youare.”
I grabbed onto his hand. Blood trickled out of the puncture wounds, ribboning down his wrist and soaking the cuff of his cream cotton shirt. I pushed his sleeve up, then dug a tissue from my handbag and pressed it against the four smallwounds.
“You’re a fucking lunatic, Watt, just like all the Boulders. All fucking inbred degenerates,” Justin rasped, rubbing his reddened throat. “First thing Julian’ll do when he wins the duel is kick your pack off our land forgood.”
“We aren’t on your land,” I said, still tending to August’swounds.
“He’d have to win first,” August added matter-of-factly. I didn’t think for a second he hoped for another outcome, but the taunt made Justin purple withrage.
“Like that bitch has a chance in hell,” Landonmuttered.
“She beat the Aspen Alpha,” I remindedhim.
“I see where your loyalties lie.” Justin tugged on the hem of his white wifebeater to lower it over his baggy jeans. “Is it because she’s a bitch likeyou?”
“Stop referring to my gender like that.” I lifted the bloodied tissue and balled it up in my fist. The torn flesh had stopped bleeding and was already knittingtogether.
The fight begins in fiveminutes.
Both August and I craned our necks in the direction of the lawn at the sound of Liam’scall.
“Let’s go.” August snaked his arm around my waist and towed me up thedriveway.
No one was inside the inn—no housekeepers, no perfidious aunt. I stretched my hearing to check if I sensed human heartbeats, but all the hearts that pounded were not the least bithuman.
Before we walked into the living room, August said, “You were remarkable outthere.”
I rolled myeyes.
He stopped and pulled me against him, stroking my cheek. “I’m serious. In case you forgot, I was at the receiving end of a punchonce.”
Ifrowned.
“The day I startled you at thegym. . . ”
The day I’d decided to enter the trials. That day felt like eonsago.
He dipped his head. Before he could kiss me, I pulled out of hisarms.
“August . . . ” Iwhispered.
Thankfully no one was around. Justin and his friends must’ve circled the innwalls.
August rubbed his mouth. “Right.”
I knew it was silly to worry about being caught, considering what was happening outside the inn walls, but I couldn’t help it. I was a ball of nerves—because of August, but also because of the impendingduel.
