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She was smart—too smart—and tried to pretend nothing was wrong even though her insides screamed. “This is a nice sword… I’ve never seen these kinds of markings before.” She referred to the snake print along the scabbard, the hint of gold in the creases. It was unlike their human swords, different in every way even though they had the same purpose.
I came closer.
She locked her eyes with mine, waiting for a moment to run or fight. The adrenaline pumped in her ears. Terror washed over her, along with self-loathing. “You have nothing to say?”
I knew what she was doing. The mind couldn’t focus on two things at once, so if I spoke, my reflexes wouldn’t be quite as strong, so it would be her opening to run or attack. “It’s nothing personal—”
She grabbed a wine bottle and chucked it at my head.
I sidestepped it and rushed her.
She dodged out of the way of the sword and grabbed the first thing she could reach, a book sitting on a table. She threw that at me too on her way to finding something more formidable. She probably would have reached for the sword instead, but I intentionally blocked her way. When she made it to the kitchen, she shattered the base of an empty bottle and used that as a weapon, facing me with blood lust in her eyes.
I faced her, giving a sigh of irritation. “Don’t make me hurt you.”
“Who are you?”
“I told you my name—”
“Thenwhatare you?”
“Just because I have a sword doesn’t make me a bad guy—”
“A banker doesn’t have a sword—let alone a sword likethat. I’ve never seen anything like it in all my years, meaning it wasn’t made in the Kingdoms or HeartHolme. And your clothing has the crest of a snake—a symbol I’ve never seen used. My father left because danger lurks across our lands, and now I realizeyou’rethe danger. Now answer me.Whatare you?”
Harlow was a lot smarter than I’d given her credit for. “I meant what I said. I have no desire to hurt you—”
“We’re both going to bleed before this is over.” She lunged at me, slicing the jagged bottle toward my face, moving as fast as I’d seen her move when she trained with her father. When I tried to grab her, I missed, and she sliced the bottle down toward my arm. She made me bleed like she’d said she would, but my armor protected me from most of it. “I’m going to kill you and hang you right above the castle doors.”
“Spoken like a king.”
She lunged at me again.
This time, I grabbed her wrist and spun her around, forcing the bottle out of her hand and onto the floor. I kicked it away so she wouldn’t accidentally step on it then tightened my arm across her neck, cutting off her air supply so she would struggle to breathe. My hold on her body was so strong that her kicks were useless, and she eventually gave up, going limp in my arms.
I gently lowered her to the floor then picked up the bottle from where it’d been kicked into the other room. Then I heard the sound of steel leaving a scabbard and turned back around to see Harlow standing there, holding my sword by the hilt, murder in her eyes.
Despite her small size, she spun the sword around her wrist like it was made for her even though it had been crafted in another world far away from this one. There was an arrogant smirk on her lips too, like no amount of good sex would dampen her resolve now. She would strike me down and kill me. “Run.”
“I don’t run, sweetheart.” A smirk moved on to my lips as I stared at her. All I should have felt was annoyance that she’d tricked me, but I felt a surge of admiration instead. I tossed the bottle aside because I could kill her by mistake if I weren’t careful.
We stared each other down in the open space between the entryway and the living room, her holding the heavy sword with ease, like a lifetime of training had prepared her wrists and forearms to bear the weight. The adrenaline in her heart was probably giving her an extra push as well.
Then she moved, spinning the blade for my neck to end my life quickly.
I dodged out of the way and avoided another strike that would have cut at the armor on my torso.
She chased me around the house, slicing into the furniture and knocking over dressers as she went.
I was much faster than her, despite her proficiency with the blade, and that was something she could never replicate as a human.
She groaned in frustration, unable to land a single blow. “How are you doing this?”
I came at her and blocked her blade perfectly with my vambrace and forced the blade down to the floor. I slammed her wrist into my knee and forced her to drop the blade before I moved to grab her again.
This time, she punched me right in the face and threw an upper hook at my jaw. She wasn’t big enough to knock me out, but it still made my mouth flood with blood. This was a battle she couldn’t possibly win, but I admired her for how well she put up a fight. I spun her arm around mine, kicked her in the back of the knee and forced her to drop, and then locked my arm across her neck again. I cut off her air supply and watched her struggle against my hold. “I’ll make sure you don’t fake it this time.”
11
