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“Okay. You think you’re so strong, Odile Kemp?” Axel challenges me. I nod. “Hit me. If you can make me bleed, I’ll concede that you’re just as good as me.”
I hesitate. Do I want to hit Axel? Yes I do. Am I scared to? Absolutely. But I have a point to prove and he has me so riled up that I think I can actually do it.
I pull back my arm and curl it into a fist. I don’t really know what I’m doing, only that Kaiden once said not to tuck my thumb inside, so I make sure it isn’t.
Axel is laughing, not believing I’ll do it. Taunting me.
I snap.
My fist flies out and makes contact with his mouth. Damn. I was aiming for his nose but he’s so much taller than me!
My god that really hurts. I shake my hand out and Kaiden quickly catches it in his to check on me. The knuckles are pink but there’s no blood. He gently runs his finger back and forth over the bumpy bones and it tickles.
“Well done,” he whispers.
“This is bullshit! You’ve been teaching her!” Axel accuses.
I look up at him. Blood is trickling from his mouth. He has a split, slightly swollen lip. I did that. I’m torn somewhere between pride and horror. Part of me wants to rush over to him and apologise, to see if he’s okay…but I can’t. I can’t back down or show weakness so I grin at him instead.
“See. Girls are just as good as boys.”
“No they’re not,” he snaps, spitting blood into the grass near my feet.
“You said—” I cry but he cuts me off.
“I said you’re just as good as me. You’re way better than any normal girl, Peony. That’s why you’re one of us.”
I flush with pride.
Fuck she’s got a mean right hook. Kaiden, the fucker, has to have been teaching her. She didn’t even tuck her thumb in and most girls do that automatically! Hell, I thought she’d try to slap me, not punch me.
There’s no denying how proud of her I am. I’m pleased that she’ll be able to stand up for herself if anyone tries giving her trouble.
I think most people know by now not to try anything with her because they’ll have The Holy Trinity to answer to, but still. We can’t be around all of the time, so it makes me happy to know she can hold her own in our absence. She can make them bleed and then we’ll come back later to finish the job.
I’m strangely protective of Peony, and not because my father wanted us to befriend her all those years ago. At some point she went from being a job – a project – to being a real friend, and I don’t want to mess that up. I feel like I’d die for her as soon as I would my brothers.
