Congratulations on the win. You earned it.”
For some reason, that throws her off. Hazel opens her mouth, ready to snap, then pauses, suspicion flickering across her features.
“Thanks?”
“You’re welcome.” When I don’t leave, Hazel raises a brow. “I just realized we’ve never sparred.”
She blinks at me for a long moment, then starts gathering abandoned weapons from the ground. “I think we’ve established our Divines won’t let us fight.”
Last week, I made the mistake of thinking her daggers were fair game and hid them as part of my prank, and Hazel nearlytook my head off. That’s how we found out our Divines won’t let us harm each other.
Thank fates, because I was pretty sure she was going to disembowel me.
I feel her slipping away, so I go for the only thing that works. I piss her off.
“Oh, I’m sure your Divine can handle a friendly duel between mates.”She opens her mouth, but I keep going. “Don’t worry, I won’t go easy on you just because our souls are tied for eternity.”
A spark ignites in her sharp onyx eyes, and I know I’ve got her. “What do I get if I beat you?”
“Me, of course. You can’t ask for a better prize.”
She turns away, ready to leave. “Wait, wait. I’m sorry. I’ll take it seriously. Hazel Seagrave, will you please spar with me and give me the honor of beating your ass?”
Hazel agrees, and like I’m coming out of a daze, I finally take her in. Her top is damp with sweat and blood, her pants torn at the thigh where Seiji’s whip caught her. The wounds are already healed, but I still feel like an ass for pushing this now.
I’m a little ashamed that it didn’t even occur to me how exhausted she must be after fighting a dozen warriors less than ten minutes ago.
Fuck. I should’ve waited.
“Don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet now.” Hazel unwraps her bloodied bandage and replaces it with a clean one. “Relax,mate. You know I can’t kill you.”
Nevaeh tries one last time to stop me, but it’s too late. If I back down now, Hazel will mock me till the end of time.
At Harvey’s whistle, we start circling each other. Hazel’s gaze is fixed on me, tracking my every move. And it’s doing exactly what I expected. Having her entire focus on me is addictive. So addictive that I don’t see her leg until it sweeps me off my feet.
Nevaeh hisses when I hit my knees, but years of training have me back on my feet before I can embarrass myself too badly.
Hazel’s smirk is so damn cute, I’m pretty sure if she asked me to get on my knees again, I’d do it without hesitation.
Her fist aims for my shoulder, and I block it with my elbow. What I don’t expect is the follow-through. Her dagger-clan hand moves to my side, stabbing me in one clean move.
But I barely flinch. And that sets her off.
Hazel comes at me like a bat out of hell. I dodge hit after hit, but she doesn’t slow down, doesn’t tire, doesn’t stop landing hits.
My girl has stamina.
Seiji is cheering for Hazel like a maniac, shouting helpful suggestions on where to stab me next. We’re both healing as we fight, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt like hell when her dagger sinks into my side before she yanks it with a frustrated growl.
Her Divine is blocking her attacks. Just like mine won’t let me shift from defense to offense. Hell, I can’t even summon my scythe.
She must have much better control over her essence to be able to attack me on will, even if it doesn’t last long.
She’s incredible, one of the best I’ve ever fought, but I didn’t earn my throne by sitting on my ass. When you tend to piss off the most unhinged beings in existence, you learn a few tricks.
Neither of us could go all out because of the mate bond, but I still have over a decade of training on her.
She’s ten times better than I was at 26, but until last month, I spent three years in Purgatory. After fighting rabid undead souls of every kind, duels like this feel like… child’s play.
