Page 94 of Shadow Bound

He’s always fought dirty, unfair. I learned at a young age to not look away from him while sparring because the second I did, he’d attack. It usually happened when we’d be done for the day and cleaning up, but he always felt like he had something to prove, so he’d attack when my guard was down just to show off to Nessa.

She praised him for playing dirty, encouraging the behavior. I think it made him weak, that he could only get the jump on me while my guard was down. He didn’t stand a chance before.

I duck just in time, the sound of the blade slicing through empty air hisses in my ears as I roll away from Alexandre. As I roll in the snow past him, I dig my knife into his calf muscle, earning me a howl of pain. The scent of his blood floats through my senses, but it doesn’t trigger my bloodlust. With Ransom now my bloodmate, my bloodlust has been sated.

Bouncing back up to my feet, Alexandre wastes no time trying to drive his blade through me. I bend back as far as I can, but the blade runs across my chest, slicing my skin. It’s fine, I’ll heal. Grabbing onto the arm that holds the outstretched blade, I twist it painfully in the wrong direction. Using the opening I’ve just created; I pierce his stomach and chest with my own knife twice.

I shove him back away from me as hard as I can, making him stumble in the snow. He presses his hand to his chest and stomach wounds, his palm comes away bright red. Looking down at his hand, an angry snarl rips from his chest. With a battle-like cry, he barrels toward me at top speed.

He lands on top of me in the snow, the air is temporarily knocked from my lungs making me wheeze. Alexandre’s fist rears back before slamming square into my face, the bones in my face cracking from the force. The taste of my own blood fills my mouth. Laughing maniacally, I spit the mouthful of blood in his face.

Pissed, he goes to do it again, but I rear my head up, slamming my forehead into his face. This buys me enough time to crawl out from under him. On my hands and knees, as I scramble away, I make it five feet away before his hand clamps down on my ankles. He yanks me back toward him, dragging me through the snow. The blood from my face and chest wound leaves a red streak in the snow.

Twisting in his hold on my back, I kick up at him. My boot lands right where his stomach wound his. Coughing and holding his stomach, he lets me go.

Climbing back up to my feet, I snatch my knife from the snow, the one that I’d dropped when he’d tackled me. Both knives in hand, fury now fueling me, I ready myself again.

“You’re such a pain in my fucking ass, Izzy,” he seethes. Blood runs down his face, the same as mine from his broken nose. “Always have been.”

“Well, you know what they say about little sisters.” I wipe my face with my forearm, but the blood still runs from my busted lip and nose.

“You’re going to be the one to die this time,” he vows. “And then we are going to go for that shifter you’ve grown attached to. Or better yet, I’ll kill him and make you watch as I do.”

The snarl that comes from me is venomous. “I fucking dare you to go anywhere near him, Alex. You thought dying by hellfire was painful? I’ll make you suffer a slow, agonizing death, by the end of it, you’ll be begging me for the hellfire as a reprieve from what I do to you.”

Alexander flies at me, his wicked long blade aimed for my chest again. Running toward him at a faster speed, I duck and slide through the snow between his legs. On the other side of him now, I slam him into the tree behind us and catch the hand holding the long knife pointed at me. Twisting his arm and hand, I bring the blade down into his chest with so much force it cuts through him before impaling itself in the tree at his back.

Panting, I back away from where my brother is now stuck to the tree. He tries to pull the blade from his body, but the blade is buried too deep in the wood and he can’t get enough leverage to dislodge it from the weird angle he’s at.

As he growls and fights to free himself, a cough bubbles out of his throat and blood pours out of his mouth. It drips down his chin, adding to the blood covering his face.

Nessa and Noah stand where I left them, Noah looks a little uneasy, but Nessa looks like she’s ready to kill me where I stand.

Good.

The feeling is mutual.

“I know why you’re so angry at the world, Nessa,” I tell her.

Alexandre continues to choke on his blood behind me, but I ignore him.

Nessa looks at me, eyes narrowing. “You have no idea what you’re talking about, little girl.”

“No? I think I do,” I continue to press. “I think I understand better than anyone what it’s like to have a bloodmate. Though I suppose Noah here understands what it’s like to lose a mate better than I do, seeing as I haven’t lost mine.” The thought alone makes my body ache in a soul-deep kind of pain, one that a painkiller couldn’t fix.

For the first time since I’ve known Nessa her eyes sparkle with interest, the mention of bloodmates drawing her attention. She tries to mask her sudden curiosity, but I saw it before she firmly fixed her expression. “You’ve gone and found yourself a bloodmate, Isabeau? What a pity. Had you stuck to your vigorous training, you would understand why that is not a good thing. You’ve suddenly found yourself in the world of fairytales and rainbows, my dear, but as I’ve learned, nothing lasts forever. I could have warned you of the dangers of bonding with someone had you not turned on me.”

“Yes, Nessa, I know all about how your fairytale ended. It was fire, was it not?” Her midnight black eyes flare with anger, but I press on. “What was it like watching your bloodmate burn until he was nothing but scorched bones? Did Hugo call for you as he burned? Did he beg you for help?”

“Don’t say his name,” she seethes, her body now shaking with anger. “I never want to hear his name uttered from your mouth again.”

“I thought we had an understanding, but let me remind you, I no longer take orders from you. You can bark them at me all you want, but know they now fall on deaf ears.” The days of me taking orders from Nessa and Sterling are long gone.

“What’s happened here, Isabeau, is you’ve spent ten months alone. You clearly believe you’ve discovered some self-worth and you deserve to live a life chock-full of freedoms, but let me be the one to remind you of your place.”

Nessa clears the space between us in less than a second. Her hand rears back and before I have time to do anything but blink once I’m backhanded so hard my vision blurs and I sway backward. “You’renothing,” she tells me coldly.

I slash at her with my knife, but my hands are blocked and shoved away from Nessa’s body. I attempt again, but as my arm lifts, her fist slams into my ribs, cracking them instantly. Gasping for air, I stumble back another foot from her. “You’re worth absolutely nothing,” she continues.

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