Page 112 of Dark Embers

I flashed stunned, insulted eyes at Caesar. How could he pair me off with the one person who hated me most? And for my first real fight? What the hell was he thinking?

All he did in response was give me a single, almost imperceptible nod.

I exhaled my frustration and apprehension and adopted a defensive stance as Cora came close.

“I’m going to destroy you, little muckmaid,” Cora hissed.

Then she spun around and kicked my legs out from under me. Fresh anger flooded me as my back slammed onto the mat. I was mostly angry at myself for letting Cora get the jump on me like that, and I vowed that it wouldn’t happen a second time.

Getting to my knees, I dove at Cora, barreling into her abdomen and knocking her over like a cut-down tree. Once I had her on the mat, I climbed on top of her, trying to get the upper hand.

Cora was just as swift on the ground as she was standing up, and she rolled so that she was on top. I tried to slip out, but Cora hadme trapped under her impressively heavy legs. Cora inched up to sit on my chest, then threw a punch right into my face.

The impact stupefied me for an earth-rocking instant. I had never been punched in the face before, and the pain to both my face and my pride was hard to ignore. When the second punch landed, all I could think to do was turtle up behind my shielding arms.

In all the sparring sessions I’d watched in class, the fighters never went this hard at each other. I didn’t know why I didn’t expect Cora to fight as cut-throat as possible.

Why did Caesar set this up? Didn’t he know Cora would mutilate me? Shouldn’t he be stopping this?

The punches kept coming, harder and faster. My forearms were screaming with pain as I hugged my own head. I struggled to focus, my mind rewinding over everything I’d learned, trying to remember anything I could use to get out of this. I couldn’t do anything with my hands. If I moved my arms, Cora would have full access to my face, and I was too afraid of the pain to risk it.

But my legs were completely free.

Using Cora’s weight on my chest as leverage, I swung my legs upward with all my strength and wrapped them around Cora’s neck, then I pulled them down as hard as I could, slamming Cora backward into the mat.

Once Cora was on her back, I wasted no time in shoving her legs off me and getting to my feet.

Cora didn’t stay down for long, and was standing up almost as soon as I was.

“Nice move,” Cora taunted. “But I don’t need to even touch you to beat you.” She pulled a vial out of her back pocket and opened it.

Before I could guess what the fuck Cora was doing, water shot out of the vial and pelted my chest like a bullet.

“Ow! What the—?”

I looked down at the spot on my chest that stung sharply. My shirt was dry, but I knew I had seen water come out of that vial. Where had the water gone?

Something flashed in the corner of my eye, and as I brought my head up to look, something cold and sharp struck my cheek with a surprising amount of force. My cheek felt wet after, and when I wiped my finger across it, the liquid was red. Whatever hit me had cut me.

“I always make sure to have some saltwater handy,” Cora said, holding up the empty vial before letting it drop to the floor. “Never know when you might need it. This is how arealmermaid fights.”

The little water bullet zoomed around me, striking me in different places again and again, stinging more and more each time it landed. The water was too small an amount to do any real damage, but it was still enough to piss me off. Cora was just toying with me.

Enough of this shit!

I lunged at Cora again, but Cora dodged me this time, and when I stumbled to the floor, the little water bullet splashed onto my face, getting into my eyes. I wiped my eyes, but the water would not wipe away. Every time I pushed at it, it pooled over myeyelids again, blinding me. The strife was making my eyes tear up, which only gave Cora more ammunition.

Cora laughed darkly and came closer. I was sure that she was going to mount me and finish me off. I was so fucking done with this. In that moment, I hated Cora more than anything. I just wanted to hurt her.

I opened my eyes to try to see through the water. There was a long fluorescent light directly above us, darkening as Cora’s head cast a shadow over me. Something clicked inside me as I looked at the blurred light, consumed with the need to hurt Cora, to stop her from inflicting any more damage.

In my rage, I could almost feel the glass tube break, and suddenly a burst of bright light slammed into Cora and sent her flying. The water spilled freely down my face just as the shattered glass of the light bulb above rained down on me. One stray shard nicked my arm, but otherwise I was unharmed by the falling light.

I stood up, ready to rip Cora apart with my bare hands if I needed to. But when I saw Cora on the floor, staring up at me with true terror in her eyes, I stopped.

The silence of the room was suddenly very loud. I looked around, realizing that Cora’s horrified expression was mirrored on the face of every other spectator.

I saw the glass shards at my feet, then looked up at the broken light on the ceiling. Did I do that?

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