Page 97 of Raze
I grit my teeth together through the pain, praying that my idea works, or else I’m going to have to hope that these healers can reattach body parts.
Knight swings his sword down, and I raise that arm up between us, concentrating on strengthening my gift there. His blade touches my skin and then turns to dust in an instant. He falls forward when it disappears, and I take that opportunity to use my legs to knockhim all the way down.
More weapons appear in his hands, but I grab one with my charged right hand to make it disintegrate, while my left hand, which no longer has my gift in it, knocks the weapon from his hand and snatches it up. I hold the blade against his neck, the same as he’d done to me, while my charged hand is held up and ready as a threat.
“Yield,” I command softly.
He doesn’t give any attention to the dagger at his neck, since he can probably make it disappear at will, but he’s eyeing my hand with wariness.
“Yield!” I don’t want him to think about his options. He doesn’t know that I don’t have full control over my gift and that I can’t use it against him. He has no idea what it would do to him if I were to touch him with it, so he has to decide if he’s feeling lucky today and wants to test it.
Knight frowns and then his blue-gray eyes jump to mine. “Alright. I yield.”
I breathe a sigh of relief and fall back on my heels. The room goes wild around us. My heart is jack hammering in a mixture of adrenaline and panic while I focus on reeling my gift back in. My hands and arms still burn after it’s gone, and I’m now dreaming of drowning them in a cold bath when we get home. I touch the floor with each hand just to be sure there are no remnants of it that stick around, then get to my feet.
Knight holds out his hand for me. “Good match,” he says when I accept the handshake. “Now that I know your gift, though, it won’t be so easy next time.”
I think about whether or not there will be a next time and decide that, yeah, maybe that was fun. And crazy. Seeing everyone using their gifts freely and in creative ways only makes me want to know what else I can do. A smile breaks free despite myself. “I’ll be better than this next time, too,” I promise.
He nods and stalks off, waving a hand up in the air as a farewell before exiting the ring. “I look forward to it!”
Kellan dashes over to me, and I’m suddenly airborne as he lifts me by my thighs. I squeal and grab onto his shoulders. “That’s my fucking girl! I knew you could do it.”
“Kell! Put me down!” York is already calling the next fighters into the ring, and Kellan seems to give zero fucks that there’s anyone else around but us.
He chuckles and loosens his grip so that my body slides down the front of his. His mouth stamps over mine, and then I’m right there with him, where there’s nothing left outside of us. I moan into his kiss that feels like fireworks exploding in my chest. My arms wrap around his neck, and I press further into him as my body melts and liquefies just for him.
“Ahem!” York’s voice cuts through my momentary loss of brain activity. “Please clear the fighting dome if you aren’t Bubbles or Spitfire!”
I jerk back and cover my mouth and then my face as embarrassment floods under my skin.
Kellan laughs and flips the bird in York’s direction, then guides me out since I’m too fucking mortified to open my eyes and see myself out. I have to assume, tohope, that I wouldn’t have fuckedKellan on a stage in front of a hundred people because I was too doped up on adrenaline and lust to notice.
We find another spot along the cages to watch the rest of the fights and wait for Kellan’s turn. I’m not gonna lie. I’m now excited as hell to see his fight. By the time his turn rolls around, my thighs are clenched, and I’m gripping the metal of the cage with bated breath. York runs through alistof people who want to take on the Dragon, and I turn worried eyes on Kell.
“Can they do that? Make you fight all of them in a row?”
He shrugs. “They could fight me all at once, but they want the glory of taking me on by themselves.” Kellan bends down to nip my ear. “I can’t wait for you to cheer for me, beautiful. Your voice is the only one I want to hear.”
I push him playfully away from me. “Only if you promise to win every single match.”
And he does.
Every.
Single.
One.
Chapter twenty-five
Kellan
I’m not sure howI managed to fall asleep last night while Raegan laid in my arms, but somehow, I’m peeling my eyes open at the intoxicating smell of vanilla while sunlight peeks through the slit in the curtains.
Raegan is sprawled over and around me like a baby sloth. There’s absolutely nothing ladylike about the way her limbs are tangled up in mine, and her body is pressing into me as if she could sink into my skin to steal my warmth.
The covers are gone. I can see the pile at the foot of the bed like she couldn’t handle the heat of both me and the blankets, and she chose me.
