I kept my gaze locked with Tamina. “You have a deal.”
An uproar rose behind her—the Thropes buzzing among themselves.
“Keep the whip,” Tamina said. “A pre-fight gift. It’s been a long time since someone stood up to me. How exciting.” She clasped her hands together beneath her chin. “I do hope you don’t crumble too soon…”
“You can count on it.”
“Next week, arena day. Seven sharp. Don’t be late.” She singsonged her last words, blew me a kiss, then clipped toward the exit. “Ruspin, come.”
Ruspin lingered a moment, his huge brown eyes filled with words he couldn’t say.
“Ruspin!” Tamina snapped.
I smiled down at him. “Go.”
He padded close and bumped me with his snout before following his mistress from the room.
As soon as they were gone, the chamber erupted in a cacophony of sound.
Clary rushed over and took my bloody hand. “Dark skies, that’s deep. We need to get you to Darla. Now. Oh, Trinity…” She carefully unwound the whip from my hand.
“That’s gotta hurt like a hex,” Benedict said.
I winced and let out a groan, an expert in faking it. “The adrenaline helped. I’ll be okay.”
Clary pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and wrapped it around my palm.
“You idiot,” Dori muttered, pacing back and forth. “I’ll speak to her. I’ll fix this. It’ll be okay.”
But I didn’t need her to fix anything. “I want to do it. Just le?—”
“The muscles are coming over,” Benedict whisper-hissed.
Four males ambled over, dressed in undershirts that hugged their pectorals, leaving their epic biceps on display to be admired. Trousers hanging low on their hips left no doubt that the rumors of Therianthropesizewere real.
The one leading the group had spiky dark hair streaked with silver highlights. “You’re chaos, Onyx,” he said.
There was something eerily familiar about his smiling brown eyes. “Chaos?”
Benedict leaned in, speaking from the side of his mouth. “It means insane, crazy, delusional, psycho.”
“Ah, well, the only way to fight psycho is with psycho.”
“She’ll turn you inside out,” one of the other males with white gold hair said. “Trust me, we’ve all tried to free Ruspin.”
“Well, anyone who can survive a mudark and Echo attack has my vote,” spiky hair said.
Dammit, that voice… “Have we…met?”
He offered me a lopsided smile. “Is that a pickup line?”
“What? No!”
He chuckled. “Yeah, it’s Jay, from the other night on the road.”
Of course it was, and white gold dude had to be Brek. “You’re Brek, right?”
“In the humanoid flesh,” Brek said. I scanned the other two males. “Drayven isn’t here,” Brek said. “He doesn’t come to the canteen anymore.”
