I had to hold back a chuckle at that colorful description.
“Actually, she’ll be shipping me off to elvish territory at the summer solstice, so it hardly matters to me anymore,” was the prince’s retort.
“You foolish, spoiled, selfish man. I seriously can’t believe I ever–” Skylar was interrupted when Monica clamped her hand over his mouth and forced him down from the bar. I nodded in appreciation. However true his words may be, I didn’t want the prince to take his ire out on Skylar.
“You’ve clearly come here for a reason,” I said to the prince. “What do you want?”
“I’ve come here to fight you, Minotaur, for the honor of the fae.”
Royals were known to be blowhards from time to time, but this seemed a tad ridiculous. “Fighting me will bring honor to your people?” I asked dubiously while scanning the faces of the guards and trying to gauge my own odds of success.
“You besmirched my good name during our last encounter, and I’ve come to settle the score.”
“Good name, huh?” I said with a deep sigh of resignation. The prince was spoiling for a fight, and I doubted diplomacy would dissuade him. Blades would only lead to one or both of our deaths, not to mention the dozen or more of my shifter kin who’d slowly filtered into the bar and were now hovering on the sidelines, waiting to see which way this thing went. My clan were not known for their restraint when it came to bar fights, not to mention the few wild wolves among us, and the fae were now in our territory. The guards positioned themselvesaround their prince in a loose semicircle, hands on their swords while glancing around nervously. If they got involved, then things were going to get real ugly, real quick.
“Let’s make this a fair fight, Your Highness,” I said while stretching out my arms and rolling my shoulders. I was getting on in years and the last thing I needed was to throw out my back. “Hand-to-hand combat, no swords or blades, just a good old-fashioned boxing match.”
“What about your horns?” he said, eyeing them with trepidation.
“I’ll keep my horns out of it, if you’ll call off your men.”
Cedrych glanced around and, seeing himself outnumbered, nodded tersely. With a flourish that he surely must have practiced in front of a mirror, he removed his emerald cloak and handed it off to one of his lackeys then did the same with his sword belt. I had no doubt this soldier would offer the blade right back to him at a moment’s notice, but I had to take whatever advantages I could get.
“I’m ready,” Cedrych said and raised his fists. “Come at me, Minotaur.”
I advanced on him slowly, noting his stance and posture. His form was good, and he seemed well-seasoned in combat. Hadn’t Skylar mentioned he liked to start fights? He must have won at least some of them with skill alone.
We circled the center, each of us testing the others’ reflexes with a few short jabs. The prince was agile and light on his feet, surely an advantage of the fae. I was slower, more ponderous,but I knew when to strike and when to pivot. After trading a few more light punches, my fist glanced his chin. The prince stumbled and was slow to regain his footing.
I gave him a beat to recover, dodging a vicious left-hook that came out of nowhere before socking him solidly in the solar plexus. A woosh of air escaped him and he staggered backward, arm raised to block my next blow. I wasn’t interested in humiliating the prince, only putting him in his place, which was far, far away from here.
“Had enough?” I asked with a sideways stance while still balancing on the balls of my feet.
“Not quite,” the prince said, and then he drew an ornate dagger from his deerskin boot.Fucking royals,I thought bitterly. Leading with the blade, he slashed through the air like lightning as he strode toward me.
My kin erupted at the sight of the prince’s steel. The sounds of bottles being broken and the scrape of swords being drawn echoed in the cavernous room. Distantly, I heard Skylar calling the prince every bad name in the book. The boy’s vocabulary was impressive.
I dodged the prince’s blade as he sliced the air to ribbons, hoping he’d hurry up and tire himself out. I may have been bigger and slower, but I was well-versed in defending myself. It was a matter of survival.
The chaos surrounding us shook the very foundation of the bar, but I kept my eyes trained on the prince’s movements, trying to anticipate his next move. Feinting to one side, Iknocked his wrist heartily, trying to dislodge the dagger from his hand, but he pivoted lightly and jabbed again, aiming for my mid-section. I swiveled away, but the sudden searing pain just above my hip told me his blade had made contact.
Then he caught me with that vicious left-hook, which sent me reeling to one side. I steadied myself on the bar top, knocking over a few upturned chairs in the process. I put a barstool between us, pretending to be more stunned than I was, and as Cedrych approached with his dagger drawn, I lowered my horns.
“Hiero, look out,” Skylar called, but I’d already seen it coming. Not only was the prince an asshole, but he was a dirty fighter too, more than willing to stab someone in the back. Cedrych’s blade swung in a wide arc, his attempt to land a killing blow, but I ducked his attack and countered with a mighty headbutt. My horns collided with Cedrych’s rib cage, hard enough to lift him off his feet and hopefully bruise a few of his ribs in the process. The prince fell back on his ass, gasping for breath, and his knife went skittering across the ground. His guards began to circle us, closing in on me with weapons drawn, when Skylar suddenly landed in the fray, plucked up the dagger, and placed the cutting edge of it against the prince’s throat.
“Stay back,” Skylar shouted while dragging Cedrych to his knees by his hair. The brawl in progress halted as all eyes turned toward the two of them. Though I hated that he’d put himself in danger, Skylar appeared to me then as an avenging angel,bathed in the prismatic colors of the stained-glass windows, absolutely breathtaking.
“I demand you stop this madness before the prince gets hurt, because Iwillhurt him,” Skylar warned with a mad glint in his eyes. He looked pretty convincing to me. “Tell your guards to back off,” he commanded the prince.
Still clutching his ribs and gasping for air, the prince held up one hand, signaling for his guardsmen to fall back. I gave my own clan a similar order and the warring factions slowly separated from each other.
“Enough of this, Cedrych,” Skylar said and rounded the prince’s kneeling form so they were facing each other, still with the knife at his throat. “Your fight is not with me or these people. It’s your mother who’s been manipulating you your entire life. You let her treat me like garbage, and you lied to me and cheated on me. You broke my heart and caused me so much pain that I had to flee my only home. I found sanctuary here and acceptance, and now you’ve chased me here to punish me further. Why, Cedrych? Why would you do this to me? After all we’ve been through?”
Skylar started crying. The prince reached out, perhaps to comfort him, and I swiftly placed myself between them. Carefully, I pried the jeweled dagger from Skylar’s fingers and passed it off to one of my kin, not trusting the prince nor his men to possess it. In the meantime, my clan had made quick work of surrounding the guards and forcing them back toward the exit.
“Skylar,” the prince said, clamoring up to stand, but he had no other words of comfort to offer. I waited for him to apologize, but none was forthcoming, so I intervened.
“You’ve upset him, Your Highness. Again. And I won’t stand for it. If you come back here again looking for trouble, it will mean your death. I don’t care if I hang for it.”
