Kai kept his exhaustingly jovial attitude and Wren was proving to be more and more of a badass, even out hunting me. Lichen was Lichen. Still full of a thousand questions. Greeve was driven and quiet. The prince was still the beautiful male struggling to let me have some space. I’d worked out each day, and though he’d given me freedom the first day, by the second he wanted to come along and by the third, we were practicing sword fighting pretty fluidly and he had yet to beat me. I still had nightmares, so I tried to keep myself a little farther from the group, but Fen would always end up beside me. They never came when he was there, but I didn’t want to tell him that.
“Did Mom kick your ass again, Dad?” Kai asked as we joined the group one day after a particularly sweaty workout.
“You try fighting her,” Fen answered.
“Oh, come on, she’s tiny.”
“Pick your weapon.” I wiped the sweat off my forehead.
“No, I couldn’t. If I hurt you, Fen would kick my ass.”
Fen snorted. “I’ll give you a pass.”
Kai shook his head, his messy blond hair falling into his blue eyes. Clearly, he thought the idea was completely irrational. I read the unspoken question on his face. How could a female beat a commander of the southern army? Still, as Greeve slipped three coins into Wren’s hand and nodded to Kai, he couldn’t back down.
“Fine. You wanna fight, I’ll kick your ass. But don’t come crying to me later when it hurts. I say hand to hand combat. No weapons. First to tap out loses.”
“No other rules?”
“I promise I won’t just sit on you. Does that work?”
“Thank the gods for that.” I started taking off my weapons. I first dropped the sword from my back, then I took each of my throwing knives and dropped them in the pile. I pulled the dagger from my boot and let that one fall, then twisted my wrists and let those hidden knives pop out so I could drop them too. I pulled the flap at my back and removed the last small dagger I had hidden.
“What the hell? You just walk around with an armory attached to you? Wait, you actually sleep with all of that?”
I shrugged. “Your turn.”
He dropped the sword he kept strapped to his back and patted himself down dramatically. “That’s it for me, I guess.”
I stood in front of him and held my fists up.
“Are you sure you want to do this. I don’t want to hurt—”
I jumped and kicked him in the face, his crazy hair went flying.
“You ...” he croaked.
Fen burst into laughter behind me and Wren was already slipping the coins into her pocket.
I dropped my hands while he reset. I perked an eyebrow and waited for him to make a move. He pulled his fists close to his face, jumped back and forth on his feet and stepped in to swing, but I dodged and cracked my elbow across his face.
A little sniggering behind me made me smile as I waited for him to reset again.
“That should be a good enough head start, don’t you think?” Greeve asked. “Time to get serious, Kai,” he joked.
Kai spit to the side and brought his hands up again while I did the same and waited for him to strike. He didn’t. We circled a few times, and I blew him a kiss right before I kicked the inside of his thigh, causing his leg to twist as he fell to one knee. Before he could react, I brought my own knee up to his nose, and though he tried to block, he wasn’t fast enough.
“This is like the hottest thing I’ve ever seen,” Wren said. “Aside from watching you chuck knives at the wall blindfolded and practically naked. Oh, and when you were drunk dancing around in Fen’s shirt.” She clapped her hands over her mouth. “Sorry.”
I tried to catch Fen’s face, but he was looking away and tremoring. I don’t think he wanted his pseudo brother to know he was genuinely laughing at him. Or me—hard to tell.
“Give up?” I asked, moving my feet around.
“No,” he cried behind bloodied hands as he stood. He let his nose run as he set his stance once more. I got too cocky and moved in to punch him again, but he caught me. He struck me right in the side, but I could tell he was holding back.
“I’m not afraid of you, Kai. You can hit me like you would Fen or Greeve.”
I bounced around on the balls of my feet, waiting for him to make another move. He swung wide, and I ducked below, taking a groin shot. It was cheap, but ... no rules. He fell to the ground, and I plopped down right on top of him.
