Page 4 of Phantom Flower

Most certainly.

“Morning, Dima,” Ilya sing-songed, the smirk already in place. “How’s the family jewels? Still attached?”

Alexei’s mouth twitched, the closest he ever got to actually laughing.

I rolled my eyes at both of them. These two were the only assholes I could stand. Alexei was my cousin, raised in the same brutal world as me. Ilya was family through alliance; our fathers’ empires were tightly connected.

The three of us just worked.

I shot Ilya a flat look as the elevator doors opened. “Keep talking and I’ll use you for target practice later.”

“Please do,” Ilya said happily, stepping inside. “I’ve been bored. Last night was dull. Nobody interesting tried to die.”

The elevator reached the underground garage. My matte-black armored SUV was waiting.

Twenty minutes later, Bloodburn Academy rose in front of us. The board liked to pretend this place was about legacy and education, but the real power had always belonged to the families who paid for the renovations nobody talked about.

Three years ago the big syndicates, ours included, pushed hard for a real combat program.

The official story was character building, discipline, physical training.

The real story was that the heirs were going to fight anyway. It was better to give them a controlled ring with rules and gloves than to let them start carving each other up in the hallways with knives.

It kept the body count down. It trained the next generation. And it gave people like us a place to bleed without starting a war.

The academy had built a state-of-the-art gym in the east wing basement.

It was soundproofed.

Cameras conveniently stopped working when needed. The best equipment money could buy. And there was a ring that had seen more blood than most underground clubs in the city.

We parked and walked through the main doors. Students moved out of the way without being told. Some were still whispering about yesterday. I caught fragments of the gossip. The new Japanese kid had kneed me. And I had actually let him walk away.

The words scraped under my skin.

We didn’t go to class. We went straight to the boxing gym.

I pulled off my compression shirt and stepped into the ring wearing just sweats and hand wraps. Alexei followed, already taping his knuckles. Ilya stayed outside the ropes for now, leaning against them.

I started on the heavy bag.

Left, right, left hook, body shot.

Rei’s face kept flashing in my head.

Most people in this school either worshipped us or were scared shitless of us.

That boy from yesterday had looked at me like I was something he wanted to cut open just to see what was inside.

And then he ran.

I hit the bag harder. The chain rattled above it.

Alexei stepped into the center of the ring and raised his hands. We started circling. He was bigger than me by a few inches, but I was faster. We traded light jabs, then I slipped inside and drove a hook into his ribs. He took it with a grunt and answered with a straight right that glanced off my shoulder.

But then he caught me distracted, thinking about that fae boy, and swept my legs. I went down hard on the canvas. Before I could roll away, he had one heavy knee on my chest and a fist raised.

I glared up at him.