The demon fed me each move a half-second before I needed it, the angles arriving ahead of the action. Block high, step left, the middle segment low. My opponent jumped it—good reflexes—and I used her jump to redirect, the tail segment snapping toward her guard hand. She deflected hard. I reversed the momentum, and the tail end of my sanjiegun cracked across her sword arm from a direction she hadn’t tracked.
These Coldiron were from within the DarkVeil, aggressive in nature, and they’d learned battle moves when we went against the horde of mutant wolves. And they adapted fast.
The wooden blade dropped from Delia’s grip.
She lunged for it. I swept the sanjiegun low, the tail segment hooking behind her lead ankle, and yanked. Her foot kicked out from under her, and gravity did the rest. She hit the groundback-first, the impact driving the air from her lungs in a sharp, ugly bark. Before she could roll, I planted my boot against her hip and pinned her flat.
Then I put the Coldiron tip—the sentient metal making its own editorial call—against the soft notch of her throat.
Delia went utterly still.
The training hall sank into absolute silence. Jack Xiao stood with his arms loose, expression complicated. Two cadets near the rear had their mouths open wide enough for a bug to fly in. Delia’s circle took a full step backward. Bryn had both fists in the air, a wild glee in her eyes.
“Yield,” I called.
Let’s murder her,Coldiron offered instead.
Not today,I said, and gripped the shaft.
Delia’s face had gone beet red. Her jaw worked. No words came. Not concession, just hate, and the expression of someone who had never had to swallow her pride in front of a crowd and didn’t have the muscle for it.
“You lost, Cadet Delia,” Jack Xiao said. “In battle, you’d be dead.” His gaze moved from the sanjiegun to my face with the look of a man filing something new into a system he’d thought was complete. “Cadet Max. Stand down.”
I stepped back and lowered the tip of my sanjiegun. I didn’t drop my guard, and I didn’t give my back to my nemesis.
Jack Xiao scanned the crowd. “Next cadet who wants to challenge Cadet Max—step forward.”
No one moved. Around me, the space reshaped, cadets drifting back to their positions, the knot of the ring loosening.
“No one?” Jack Xiao spread his arms in exasperation. “Anyone?”
The Fae’s here!Coldiron tattled.
Frost strolled forward. Pewter uniform, silver hair, reading the room in one sweep before his eyes settled on my sanjiegun.
No more challenges, then. I told Coldiron to stand down. The sanjiegun shifted in my hand, the armguard flowing back to my forearm.
“Cadet Max. Prince Aelindor requires your presence,” Frost said.
“Run along.” Delia’s sneer followed me. “I’m sure the prince has a very specific use for you. Go practice spreading your legs, Cadet Max.”
“You are way out of line, Cadet Delia!” Jack Xiao barked.
I’d already turned back. I wouldn’t let her openly disrespect Aelindor. I stepped toward her, eyes burning, ready to shove her face into the dirt until she apologized and kept apologizing. Instructor Xiao couldn’t have stopped me.
But Frost beat me to it.
He moved like a flash. Delia’s sword arm was captured at an awkward angle, Frost’s other hand closing around her throat with two fingers and a thumb, Delia’s heels lifting off the floor by a foot.
Frost had answered the insult because it had crossed to Aelindor, which made it his to answer more than mine. The heirs had their own lines, as did their officers. Delia had stepped over one she hadn’t seen coming, and I had no sympathy for her.
“Do you know who I am?” she managed, her face turning purple. “Drakken will hear about this?—”
“He will.” Frost’s voice carried no heat, which made it all the more menacing. “How he’ll deal with you is his business. As for me, disrespect my prince again and I’ll tear out your tongue. I won’t warn you a second time.”
He tossed her aside like she was nothing. Adjusted his cuff.
Delia stayed on the ground, one hand at her throat, everything she usually wore on her face stripped away. She’d seen the killing light in his eyes. So had everyone in the room.
