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“My life won’t be easy anywhere. Running away won’t change anything.”
He stuck his hands in his pockets and regarded me thoughtfully. “I believe you. Which is the strangest thing.”
“Thanks? I think.”
“But I’ve been sent with instructions from the King, you understand. I cannot possibly just let you go.”
“Dude, I don’t want this to get bloody, but if I’m being honest, I will blow your head off and step over your corpse if you try to get between me and my plane.”
“And leave my beautiful wife a widow?” He clucked his tongue, clearly unimpressed by my threat.
I didn’t want to leave Kellen a widow. I hadn’t wanted to return her to the fairies either, though. “Kellen made her choice and married you. That’s fine. But she abandoned everyone in this realm who loved her. I might feel bad for killing you, but I don’t tend to let little things like a conscience get in the way of my violent outbursts these days.”
That got his attention, because suddenly he wasn’t smug and chuckling anymore. Good boy, Brokk. Play this one smart.
I straightened my posture and stared him dead in the eye. “I give you my word. My most solemn motherfucking promise, I will come back here. And I will go to Aubrey. And he can make his damned request. But I have stuff I need to do. So get out of my way and let me do it.”
Brokk snapped his fingers, and the two armored guards drew near. He said something to them in a speedy, beautiful language that brought a sweet taste to my tongue just to listen to it. One man began to say something in return, but Brokk raised a hand and dismissed them.
I wasn’t sure if they’d arrived here by magic or by car, but either way the fairy guards were no longer my problem as they wandered off the tarmac and out of sight.
“Hit me.” He tipped his head to the side, presenting his perfectly chiseled jawbone to me.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Hit me,” he repeated.
“Oh, I heard you the first time. I just have no idea why you’re asking me to do it.”
“I can’t simply let you go, as I’ve already explained.”
“So you want me to hit you.”
“Yes. And I need you to make it look good.”
I felt like an idiot for not catching on sooner to what his request meant. It was so difficult for me to believe a supposed enemy might do something nice for me that I couldn’t actually process the gesture for what it was.
Brokk was letting me go.
“Sorry if this hurts,” I muttered.
“I think you’ll find it’s awfully difficult to hurt m—”
My hard right hook smashed into his face, sending him reeling backwards a few feet. He staggered before regaining his balance, and rubbed his jaw with his thumb and forefinger.
“Not bad, Secret. But I think you can do better.” He lunged at me with a quickness I hadn’t expected, and my mouth must have fallen open in surprise, because when his uppercut punch made contact with my face, my teeth clacked together.
I stayed standing where I’d been and shook off the force of the blow. Behind me a car door opened, and though I couldn’t tell if it was Holden or Desmond trying to come to my rescue, I waved my hand over my head. “It’s fine. Stay there.”
Brokk chuckled. “You think you can manage all by yourself?”
“I think I could have managed you and the two knights together without needing backup,” I lied.
Since this wasn’t a real fight, or at least not my typical fight to the death, I felt something I hadn’t experienced in quite some time. A thrill of enjoyment. This was fun. I hadn’t sparred with anyone in quite a while, and I longed for the old days when Nolan, Shane and I would break into school gyms so I could teach them survival skills.
Brokk, too, appeared to be enjoying himself, as his grin got broader with each passing minute.
“Come on then. Strike at me. And not like a girl this time.”
