Page 57 of Blood and Hexes

"Can't hurt," he drawled, moving to the weapons. He loaded his belt with two daggers, and tried a heavy sword's balance, twisting and turning it around his wrist. "You do have some tastes, child," Eirikr told Levi.

Diana laughed. "He's almost your age."

Eirikr might be the first of them, but Levi couldn't be more than one or two hundred years younger. Eirikr shrugged, as if to say, see if I care. He liked to get under Levi's skin, if only because the man was Chloe's mate.

Diana looked around, a little lost.

“What weapon do you use?” Mikar asked her.

He’d pocketed curved daggers and was holding an ax in one hand and a macuahuitl in the other. The wooden club was embedded with sharp blades.

Who would have thought she’d find barbaric weapons so very sexy?

She raised both hands and waved. “These,” she replied.

She could use swords and bows just fine, but Diana was better at hand-to-hand combat.

He grinned. “Come here.”

She didn’t even think, following him like a bee to honey.

Mikar led her in front of a display with several gloves, brass knuckles, and even short karambits.

“Levi caters to all tastes,” she mused, selecting a pair of comfortable gloves. Putting them on, she felt the reinforced knuckles. “Nice.”

“How about these, for your boots?” He pointed to another glass cabinet. She whistled, following him.

There were belts and sheaths she could tie around the boots to fit daggers at each side and pointed blades at the back. Greedily, she took several of the attachments, trying to work out how she could fit them all onto her leather boots. By chance, she was wearing Docs today. Docs with flowers painted along her ankles, but these were more suitable to combat than most of her footwear.

“Here, I’ll tie them for you.”

Mikar got to his knees, and focused his attention on her boots, securing the belts, knives, daggers, blades, and what looked like small shuriken.

But for once, Diana wasn’t paying attention to her shoes. She was watching him, at her feet.

“I can feel you staring.”

“So?” she challenged.

Mikar returned to his feet and shrugged. “So, nothing. I like it.”

Of course he did. Diana rolled her eyes. “When do you think they’ll arrive?”

It had perhaps been an hour since the attack.

Mikar’s face lost all humor. “Soon. The witches will tell us as soon as they sense the wards failing.”

She nodded. There was nothing else to say, really. Soon, they’d be fighting. For their lives. For their home.

“Is there any blood?” Diana asked, of no one in particular.

Levi had had a point. She was rather weak after the effort of holding an entire song for Thanatos.

Diana could hum in the shower, and even sing out of tune like everyone else. But when she called to the power of her voice, it tried her, like all core magic.

“You can have mine,” Mikar offered.

Would she stop getting shocked today?

---