BLOODY KNUCKLES
I STOOD on the suspended platform beside the alphas in the middle of the stadium.
The air was hot and stagnant. All the teams hovered at the same level.
The crowd was dead silent. Everyone waited.
Suddenly, there was a loud whoosh as three empty platforms whizzed past. They came to staggered stops near me.
One platform floated close to me.
The moderator said, “Demetre has challenged the alpha girl. Please both proceed to the gold platforms.”
I cracked my neck back and forth.
Demetre smirked over at me. He thought he had me cornered, trembling, quaking with fear.
Kill him.
I was numb.
I didn’t feel fear.
He should be afraid.
“You can’t do this. We need to come up with a plan,” Jax said, and a long growl vibrated through his chest as he slowly moved toward me. His large biceps bulged as he flexed his hands.
Cobra stepped forward, chest heaving with anger, the diamonds and emeralds in his face glinting in the sun. “I forbid you.”
I backed away from them until my heels hung off the edge of the platform.
Ascher reached his hand out like he was going to grab me.
Jump.
I threw myself backward off the platform, away from the three alphas, and for a split second, I floated over hundreds of feet of air. My legs and arms flailed.
With a slap, my bare feet landed on the gold platform, and I snapped my back straight to maintain my center of gravity. The platform shook back and forth beneath me.
The substance under my toes felt like metal, but it didn’t burn under the rays of the hot suns. The platform was ice- cold against my feet, as cold as the ice that ran through my numb veins.
Suddenly, the platform zoomed upward, higher and higher, away from the other competitors.
Jax bellowed.
Cobra screamed an expletive as his eyes flickered to snake eyes.
Ascher said nothing, just stared up at me with his large onyx horns glistening in the bright sun. His amber eyes burned, and his tattooed hands fisted with rage.
I ignored the men.
Stay calm. Remain balanced.
Like usual, the numb was a reassuring homicidal voice inside my head. I was calm and measured, unfazed by any situation. I didn’t feel a single emotion, just blessed numbness.
Colors weren’t as bright, and the million people screaming at me were no longer a terrifying, distracting crowd.
They were of no concern. Just people. Bystanders.
They meant nothing to me.
The hundreds of feet of air beneath my feet were no longer nausea-inducing. It was just air. I was steady on the platform.
Movement flashed to my right, and I turned to observe
it.
I was projected on massive screens around the stadium
so a million fae spectators could watch me fight in high resolution.
Bounce on the balls of your toes. Legs wide.
Again, I cracked my neck and relaxed my shoulders. My muscles were warm and springy as I shifted back and forth on my toes.
Eyes on your enemy. Stay calm.
The numb voice was familiar but also different. It was louder in my head compared to its usually slightly muffled sound.
The numb commands echoed crisply through my skull. As usual, I obeyed them.
I focused on Demetre down below me on his platform, and everything bled out of focus. The bright suns were no longer a distraction. The world dimmed into cool shades of blue and gray.
I slowed my heartbeat.
Life was action and reaction, peace and violence, stillness and bloodshed.
It was all it had ever been. All it would ever be.
My shoulders relaxed, and my breathing slowed. My vision hyper-focused to take in every twitch of Demetre’s large muscles.
He is much larger. Use your size to your advantage.
Demetre leaped away from his team onto one of the gold platforms they had ordered us to fight on. His platform whizzed up toward me, his long black hair billowing behind him in a dark sheet.
Demetre easily balanced his weight and rode the platforms like it was second nature.
He was the hundred-year champion for a reason.
A part of me wondered what had happened to the half warriors. How had they gone from realm heroes to gladiators? Was it because they’d lost their abilities to shift into their alpha forms?
I shook my head and shoved the questions out of my brain. It didn’t matter why or how he’d gotten here. All that mattered was right now.
The challenge, the fight. The victory.
Demetre’s platform stopped in the air a few feet away from mine.
Up close, he was as tall as Jax and might have been wider. His face was chiseled and hard, his harsh eyes promised death.
Demetre’s alpha pheromones wafted toward me, and I breathed him in.
He smelled like fire and steel. His scent was rough and tangy. It burned my nostrils and the back of my throat.
It wasn’t intoxicating like Jax’s, Cobra’s, or Ascher’s. No, it was a brutal scent.
A warning.
Scissor kick his trachea. Rip his balls off with your hand.
I breathed in hot air and burning steel, and I exhaled concentration.
The moderator’s tinkling voice echoed loudly, and the crowd fell dead silent. “First match of the game: Demetre the half warrior challenges the girl from the alpha team. The first person to fall off the platform loses.”
There was a long pause as everyone in the stadium held their breath. The only sound was the whooshing of a soft breeze as it raced along the metal edge of the stadium.
Demetre’s bicep and left foot flexed. The moderator bellowed, “Begin!”
At the same time the moderator spoke, Demetre leaped off his platform and threw himself at me. Hundreds of pounds of tattooed muscle flew toward me.
I’d been expecting his move.
A platform is three feet to your right, slightly elevated.
I turned away from him and leaped with all my might to the third gold platform. It was larger than the other two, at least ten by fifteen feet. But it was further away.
I didn’t jump far enough. My feet didn’t land.
Reach with your arms.
The crowd held its breath. The stadium was still dead silent.
I reached my upper body forward and strained my arms toward the platform. There was a loud slap as my sternum slammed against the edge of the cold metal.
For a long second, my legs kicked over empty air.
My biceps strained, my nails scraped desperately across the metal, and I slowly dragged my body up and over the edge.
Behind you, approaching fast.
I didn’t look back, and I didn’t stand up. There wasn’t time.
Facedown on the platform, I swung my right heel out in a hard arc behind my back, and I scissored my other leg after it.
My leg rocked with the vibration of slamming against hard muscle.
Demetre had thrown himself after me, and my heels slammed into his side.
His large body rocked backward, but he caught himself before he stumbled off the platform.
In a flash of movement, he grabbed my heel with both hands, lifted me, and slammed me face-first down against the platform.
There was a loud crack as my nose splattered against the metal hard. Blood gushed down my face in a familiar rush and spilled all around me.
My vision watered and blurred, and the world spun.
The platform bounced up and down beneath me, ricocheting from the force of my frame being slammed against it.
Kick out your other leg. Slam into the side of his face.
Regain purchase. Get on your feet.
I went limp.
The bloodthirsty crowd screamed with excitement, and my eardrums popped from the pressure.
I barely discerned Cobra screaming obscenities below and Jax roaring like he’d transformed into his bear form.
Demetre’s grip on my leg loosened infinitesimally, and he reached down to grab my limp form, probably to throw me over the edge.
It was all I needed.
While he was bent forward, I whipped my body around and slammed my knee across his head.
There was a loud crack, and pain vibrated up my thigh where it slammed into his skull. Blood pooled across my leg where his skin split from the force of my blow.
The crowd was silent in shock as Demetre’s blood sprayed and splattered across the platform.
He stumbled back and shook his head, his already harsh features tightened into a hard scowl.
With his black hair streaming behind him, red blood splashed across his tan skin, pink eyes glinting with rage, he looked like his alpha form—an angry dragon.
I slipped in blood as I scrambled backward away from him on all fours.
The edge is five feet behind you.
The scent of burning steel became thicker and more oppressive. It was cloying and heavy, and just like Demetre, it demanded surrender.
Blood flowed from the cut on his face. His tribal tattoos were streaked with red. He was a macabre painting come to life.
He lunged forward.
Flip backward. Kick out your leg.
I threw my body backward into a handspring that ended with a roundhouse kick midair. If I weren’t numb, I would have been shocked by my fighting skills.
I was numb. My body was a weapon.
Demetre dodged my kick and wiped sweat and blood off his brow. He narrowed his eyes, and his face scrunched up in confusion.
He hadn’t been expecting me to put up a fight. From the tilt of his head and the question in his eyes, he was realizing just how badly he had underestimated me.
Keep your eyes on him.
I took a deep breath as we circled each other, and narrowed my eyes with confusion as I took in my attacker.
Demetre hadn’t used any fae ability. He was fighting like an alpha who couldn’t shift, not a half warrior with fae abilities. I racked my brain as I tried to remember the stories, but I couldn’t recall anyone that had talked about him directly using his power.
There were stories of fae with abilities that weren’t always weaponizable in every situation: fire fae who could see into flames far into the future, air fae who could speak to the wind, water fae who could communicate with monstrous sea creatures, and earth fae who could plant docile forests.
Concentrate.
As we circled, Demetre’s unnatural pink eyes flashed. No one knew what fae abilities the Big Three possessed.
All the stories were about their impressive alpha forms.
My intuition told me it wasn’t a coincidence they were secrets. That they were unique powers they kept hidden for a reason.
If that was true, I stood a chance against him.
The warm air was rich. It inflated my lungs and muscles with vibrating energy; every cell in my body burned with the need, the energy, to destroy my opponent.
I didn’t want to leap, kick, fight—I had to. It was my life’s purpose.
Platform to your left. Jump up and grab it.
Demetre’s calf muscle bunched slightly.
I ducked low at the same time Demetre threw his large body forward. Air whooshed past my face, and I dodged his massive fist by a hair’s breadth.
He stumbled past me.
I used my downward momentum to spring as high as I could to the left.
My fingertips grabbed the edge of the other gold platform, which had slowly floated until it hung in the air above us. I barely hauled my ass up and scrambled to a standing position.
Step back.
Demetre cleared the edge of the platform a second later, much more easily than I had.
I moved backward, but he was quicker.
He grabbed my shoulders and threw me to the side with all his might. I flailed as my momentum took me over the edge of the platform.
However, I’d been expecting his move.
Midair, I twisted my torso and wrapped my legs around his thick waist. As my weight carried me over, it carried him with me.
Jax, Cobra, and Ascher bellowed with fear.
Instead of sailing through endless air like I expected, we both slammed back into the other platform. It had drifted over below us.
Beneath our bodies, the platform grew larger, then moved around at a ridiculously fast clip.
The crowd chanted and screamed. Fae reached their hands out and tried to grab at us as we passed.
Bend your knees. Lean forward. Stabilize yourself.
I crouched low as the wind whipped through my white hair.
Across from me, Demetre also bent forward, his dark hair a cloak behind him. His powerful muscles and excessive height weighed him down and made it easier for him to stand up.
The wind pushed me back, and it felt like any second it would fling me off the side.
Belly down. Reduce friction.
Neither of us could move forward with the platform spinning so quickly. I crouched low and kept my eyes trained up on him as we both held on for our lives.
Suddenly, the platform stopped with a jerk.
A loud, pulsing song played throughout the stadium. The heavy bass vibrated through my bones, and the arena trembled as the fae stomped along to the beat.
It reminded me of the loud songs at the Ianuarius celebration.
“Fight!” flashed across the stadium in bright neon letters, and a million fae chanted it back.
I jumped to my feet and stumbled as the podium splintered in two. It separated beneath us.
Then both our platforms splintered into dozens of smaller squares. We balanced on the small sections.
Whoever was in charge wanted us to fight more.
Arms forward, feet bouncing. Leap now.
We both jumped off our small platforms and there was a loud smack as we collided midair.
Demetre’s powerful fist slammed into my sternum as my foot crunched his knee.
Fight. Show him who you are.
For the longest moments, we leaped from section to section. We fought for our lives. There was nothing but air beneath my feet as I flew, kicking midair and balancing precariously on the small platforms.
Demetre leaped and spun, his long limbs flashing as I dodged and kicked like I was built to fight.
For the first time in my life, exhaustion didn’t set in the longer I exerted myself.
No, something different happened. Something magical.
My muscles warmed, my heartbeat steadied, and adrenaline coursed through me like a cold flame. I couldn’t stop the grin that split my bloody face as I leaped.
For a second, a smile flashed across Demetre’s face. I stumbled mid-step in surprise as his pink eyes danced. His energy was volatile, but it wasn’t malicious.
Why would he challenge me? It didn’t make any sense for him to target the smallest alpha and only woman in the games.
Concentrate, the numb ordered me. It was too late.
My moment of confusion cost me, and I leaped backward a split second too late. Demetre slammed his fists against my body in quick succession. I scissored my legs at his kidneys and punched his neck.
For the longest moment, we grappled midair, limbs flying as we punished each other with brutal blows.
The crowd fell dead silent as they held their breath to see who would win.
My feet crashed down on one of the dozen small floating platforms, and Demetre grabbed onto one with his hands. He easily hauled himself up.
With gasping breaths and sweaty brows, we stared at each other.
Arms up. Deflect. Attack.
This time, Demetre lunged at me faster than I could follow. I barely blocked his right fist, but I wasn’t able to dodge his left fist.
He slammed it against my cheek, and a loud crack echoed through my head.
Another podium is one foot to your right. Jump behind you.
I jumped backward onto the floating square, but Demetre expected my move.
His massive arm shot out and wrapped around my neck.
Standing still, with just that one arm, he lifted my slight frame off the podium and choked me out.
A smirk slit onto his handsome face as I kicked my legs against the air desperately. No matter how hard I dug my fingers into his hand, I couldn’t get any purchase.
He shook me back and forth like a cat with its prey. He toyed with his kill.
Use the snake.
Cobra’s shadow snake zipped across my lower back with anxiety. It communicated with me, but I’d never tried to communicate with it. Mentally, I sent it image after image, hoping it could understand what I wanted.
The shadow snake zipped up my spine and stopped at my neck. It sent me a zing of acknowledgment.
It understood.
My eyes watered, and my throat burned.
The little black body traveled along my neck, down my arm, and across where my hands clawed at Demetre’s choking hand.
It opened its mouth and showcased wicked fangs. The snake reared back and bit Demetre. His hand spasmed, and I jammed my nails underneath his fingers.
The half warrior released me.
As I fell, I reached my hand forward for the little snake. It leaped off Demetre’s skin and for a split second became a solid emerald snake that refracted sunshine.
Then the little snake slammed against my outstretched palm.
The solid crystalline body melted into my skin and zinged at me in welcome. I tightened my fingers around it and sent it images of love and thanks back.
Brace for impact.
I plummeted through the air, and the stadium whooshed around me as the fae screamed in a bloodthirsty roar of excitement.
Above me, Demetre tipped forward, his body paralyzed from the snakebite. His massive form followed my trajectory.
The crowd gasped in surprise as he hurtled after me toward the hard ground.
Through the crowd’s roar, I heard Cobra scream in horror and Jax roar. Even though I was numb, their anguish made my stomach pinch uncomfortably.
My heart hurt.
I didn’t want to leave them.
Protect your head. Sacrifice your legs. Land with your feet extended.
I contorted my body, aware I was about to break every bone on impact.
Satisfaction coursed through me.
I’d taken Demetre down with me, and that was all that mattered. I hadn’t lost.
Still, what happened next, even the numb couldn’t predict.
A hard body slammed against me.
Midair, large onyx horns flashed in the sunshine, and colorful, tattooed skin wrapped around me in a cocoon of warmth. The musky scent of pine and conifers overwhelmed me.
“It will be okay, Princess, I got you,” Ascher’s deep voice growled as he gripped me.
The jerk had jumped to save me. Now we were both plummeting hundreds of feet through the air with no way to brace ourselves.
He still isn’t forgiven.
The ground rapidly approached, and I squeezed my eyes shut, embracing the inevitable.
At the last moment, Ascher flipped us midair so his large body would take the brunt of the impact.
He tucked my head against him protectively. “I’m so sorry, Princess.”
Crack.
For an infinitesimal moment, every neuron in my body reverberated from the shock of colliding with hard sand.
Yet all I could focus on was the feel of Ascher’s hard body squeezing me tight protectively.
“Please be okay,” he whispered.
As the world exploded around me, I concentrated on Ascher’s words. They vibrated through my skull.
Then everything went black.
