“Are we doing this?” The Demon asked, his deep voice echoing through the marble hall.
Arianna growled in response, then launched forward, crossing the space separating them. The Demon blocked her strike with a slap to her wrist. She brought her elbow in withher other arm. He blocked that, too. A kick to the midsection. Another block.
Gods, he was so ridiculously fast. And every time their skin touched—she shuddered, hating the current that pulsed throughout her entire body. She was thankful for her sleeves, but even so, the smallest movements still felt like tiny bursts of lightning. His callused hands might as well have been red coals. The pain reached inward, tugging at something cut off from the rest of her present self.
She hated it.
She hated him.
She hated Vairik and everything he’d done not only to her, but to the entire continent. Her people, Alastríona.
This was the first step in taking it all back.
The Demon fell back on his injured leg, grimaced, and stumbled. She took advantage and lunged at him, planting her elbow in the side of his ribcage. He grunted in pain and she brought her other arm around, but The Demon grabbed her and yanked her closer. His breath whispered against the side of her ear and her heart thundered in response.
Arianna dropped her weight and elbowed him again, breaking his embrace from around her body. He fell back and winced on the leg again. It was apparently hurting him a lot more than he’d previously let on.
She smiled.
Arianna assaulted him again and again, making her movements predictable, only changing it up here and there as she forced him back on that leg over and over.
She spun, and he caught her foot, shoving her back. Arianna dropped to her knees and swept at his legs. He cursed and went sprawling to the ground.There.Arianna barely let her hand hit the marble floor before she launched herself forward and yanked the bracelet from her wrist. She had him.
Someone screamed her name, but Arianna ignored them, letting frost cover her fingertips. The Demon’s eyes went wide. For a famous general, he really should have known better than to trust someone to keep their word.
Her fingers grazed his chest, and she pulled a dagger from her boot with her other hand.
His body slammed against the marble floor and a thrill of excitement ran through her. He bounced once, then her weight was on top of him, her magic spreading across his chest like frost on a pane of glass. Her knife was at his throat, ready to finish the job with both magic and steel.
All the attempts on his life and she was finally going to be the one to do it. She’d be hailed not only as a queen, but a heroine to her people.
Pride flew through her chest. She could do this, she could—firm lips met hers and lightning speared through her so fiercely that her entire body seized up. Her eyes flew open wide and her heart leapt into a gallop. He was—what the hell was he doing? But before she could pull away, he pushed up and moved his lips in a way that had her entire body igniting.
She watched his green slitted eyes and felt as if the world were falling out from under her. Her hand loosened on the blade, her magic faltered, nearly fizzling.
“Arianna!” Talon’s voice. Was that fear? It was, but she couldn’t bring herself to look away, couldn’t move from the trance this creat—thatRionhad locked her in.
Her hands tingled, reminding her that she could still move. She barely felt the blade, but the scent of his blood hit her and she glanced down to see a bead of red rolling down the strong column of his neck.
Rion pulled back slightly, still so close that he could have recaptured her lips in another kiss if he wished. And the way he was looking at her, those eyes … those gods-damned eyes.
“You’re in control,” Rion whispered.
“W—what?” She didn’t feel in control. Maybe she had a few minutes ago, but now? Now she felt as if she were falling off a steep cliff, crashing into the waves below only to be tumbled and tumbled and tumbled.
“You’re in control,” he repeated, as if it was a mantra. A promise. Words he’d uttered before.
Her body trembled. She had The Demon exactly where she wanted him, covered in her magic, a blade to his throat, and yet she was the one who felt frozen.
“Arianna.” Her name coming from him had entirely different feelings stirring. “What do you want?” Her jaw clenched. She hated the way he said her name. As if she were the planet and he the moon. As if she were gravity that held him to the earth.
“I want you to pay for everything you’ve done.”
Something flickered in his gaze. Pain? “That makes two of us.” Her lips parted at the serenity in his words. She hated that too, how he always seemed so honest. No, Gavin was part of this; he’d done something—
Rion’s hand was suddenly over hers, pushing her fingers tighter around the hilt of her dagger. “Is watching the hate in your eyes punishment enough or do I pay right here with my blood?”
The answer should have been an easy, but—
