Emmett landed a punch to Sky’s shoulder, but the witch didn’t so much as grunt at the impact. His blade caught Em across the side, the attack exposing him for a split second. Em hissed and Freya’s gaze slid across to him, distracted.
Altair took advantage of the distraction, pulling his blade from where she’d blocked him and darting around to her back. She barely spun in time to parry again. If this had been a serious fight, she would have been seconds away from a sword through the throat.
If they couldn’t work as a team to take out two assassins, we weren’t ready for Kylan.
Why had I been deluding myself into thinking we would be able to win against a vampire with a whole arsenal of security?
At least Freya realized her mistake, ignoring the next time Emmett made a sound of pain. Sky was too fast for him, the match not as advantageous as it had originally seemed. While Altair was slimmer, he was somehow slower than the quick speed Sky moved with.
Altair’s slightly lumbering movements were giving Freya a bit of an advantage, at least. She was quick and small, light on her feet. After she’d blocked the attack she moved forward, using one dagger to block his sword and the other to slice his thigh. It healed instantly, but she was smirking anyway. She’d drawn first blood in their back and forth, and it probably inflated her confidence too much.
She was beautiful to watch in motion, though, and she took her newfound confidence to begin a flurry of attacks. Her strategy appeared to be moving too fast for Altair to keep up with, forcing him to be on the defensive. With the barrage she got a few good hits in, but came nowhere near a killing blow. I knew she was going to be defeated before it happened.
Sky and Altair exchanged a glance.
Altair jumped back from Freya’s barrage and Sky came up behind her to press his blade to her throat. She stilled, Emmett stiffened, and Altair had his sword pressed to Em’s chest within seconds. “Your teamwork is lacking,” Altair teased, dropping his sword. “We win.”
Freya elbowed Sky in the stomach when he didn’t drop his blade fast enough, rolling her eyes. “That’s the point of training.”
“He’s the one you’re bonded too, correct? You should trust him to take care of himself.”
“I trust him. To an extent.”
“You should trust unconditionally.”
“Yeah, I’ll fucking work on that,” Freya said, snorting. “Em, come on. Let’s go back to the suite. You all are coming too.”
My focus was on Altair, who was as cocky as ever. “I’ve got a fight to win.”
“Look, I’m not letting that happen,” she said.
I grit my teeth. “Not your choice.”
She proved once again that everything is up to her, because there was a whisper of magic a second later and my grip on Caspian loosened. Everything went hazy and I stayed standing only because my body couldn’t move. Freya was using her fucking magic on me.
Why the fuck did I love this crazy bitch again?
Probably because she was as insane as I was.
Gods damn it.
The world went black.
TEN
Freya
Shan woke up grumpy the next morning.
I couldn’t say I was surprised, but I didn’t know why he’d thought I was going to let him have an all-out brawl with Altair. I preferred him in one piece, and I was sure Nolan liked his assassins in one piece too.
He left in a huff to find some breakfast. Caspian and Emmett followed him out, leaving Ozzy and I curled up together in bed. Despite the tensions between my guys, we all shared my nest to sleep. Oswald alternated between staying with Nolan and staying with us, but I was hoping to change that soon.
Nolan would fit in the bed.
OK, we’d have to sleep on top of each other, but we would make it work.
“How’s Nolan doing?” I asked, turning over so I faced Ozzy.
