Page 7 of Wicked Curses
“Anymore?”
“Prince Cogsworth of the trolls used to reside there but was killed during The Reaping.”
“What’s The Reaping?”
“Here we are!” Orin announced as he released Sahira’s arm to clap. “Let the fun begin!”
CHAPTERFIVE
Orin gazedat the hole the immortals of this realm had dug into the earth. Some of the black rocks jutted through the sand and into the pit. They helped make for some very interesting ways to destroy an opponent. He’d used them well to his advantage.
He smiled as he recalled smashing the berserker into those rocks. The look of astonishment on the man’s face and the way his jaw dropped when he saw the rock jutting through his chest had been great fun.
Orin rubbed his hands together as the lycan and vampire descended the black stone steps into the pit. Someone cleaned the pit after every battle, but bloodstains still marred the sandy floor fifteen feet below them.
Some stains could never be washed, shoveled, or raked away. Mostly, he found the Cursed Realm extremely boring, but the pit provided a distraction from the mundane days and nights of their lives here.
For the most part, the Cursed Realm was well-ordered, had an established set of rules, and the immortals here usually got along. Whatever fights happened here were resolved in the pit… if both parties agreed.
If one fighter agreed and the other didn’t, the rest of the immortals knew who the winner was and who the coward was. If both parties disagreed, it was all forgotten, and everyone moved on. If both parties agreed to a fight, they settled their differences in brutal hand-to-hand combat that one of them might not survive.
In this realm, everyone worked. Each of them had a job they had to do, and if they didn’t, they were banished. They were given everything necessary to survive here if they pulled their weight.
Even he tended bar at the pub. It wasn’t a job he’d ever imagined himself doing, but those who didn’t work were thrown out of town and told to make their way in a realm with little to offer outside of this area.
And there were some battles he picked and some he didn’t. He wasn’t stupid enough to pick a fight with a woman who had this realm running so smoothly when it could be a complete shit show.
Being in this town was as boring as watching paint dry, but he wouldn’t live in the outer reaches of some forsaken realm withnoentertainment and no way to survive. He’d far prefer to sling drinks.
Besides, tending bar could be amusing, and he did learn all the gossip. Although, in this realm, not much happened.
Bartending also came with the perk of a steady supply of women. But that part of his life would have to change for a bit.
He glanced at Sahira as she stared into the pit with a furrowed brow and her full mouth pursed. With her here, he had a new source of entertainment, and he was going to enjoy breaking the little witch.
Provoking her was great fun, and there was so little of that here. But, if he was going to get her in his bed—and hewould—he had to back off that source of entertainment and some of his other ones.
The more he rattled and annoyed her, the more she would resist him. And to appease a grizzly bear, one had to offer some honey, or so he assumed.
And shewaslike a bear, all cute and disarming, until she gutted you with her claws… or, in Sahira’s case, her words. The witch had a vicious tongue—one hewouldfeel against his cock.
So, until he got her in his bed, he’d have to be less irritating to her and work things differently. She wouldn’t like his normal approach to getting a woman—being arrogant, flirty, and goddamn good-looking. Plus, he was fantastic in bed, a reputation that preceded him everywhere.
But his little witch didn’t care about those things. She wouldn’t respond well to them because they didn’t matter to her.
What does matter to her besides her niece and brother?
She had a lot of pride, strength, smarts, and enjoyed her freedom. She wasn’t one to fall for flattery or flirting. She was strong, independent, and could keep a secret—she’d helped Del keep Lexi’s heritage under cover for over two decades.
He’d bet she was wild in bed. He couldn’t wait to find out, but to do so, he’d have to stop irritating her. He’d never get anywhere if she continued to hate him.
He surveyed the witch’s striking amber eyes and mahogany hair, which she’d pulled into a neat bun that had come loose to hang against her nape. She was beautiful with her heart-shaped face and Cupid’s bow mouth, but she didn’t flaunt it.
“Fight!” someone shouted.
Orin turned his attention to the pit as the lycan and vampire went at it. Unlike him, few in this realm went through with the kill. Most of those who entered the pit walked out again.
Probably because, while over three hundred immortals clustered around the pit, this was a small town. If they kept killing every time they went into the pit, the number of residents would be much smaller, and things would be evenmoreboring.
