Page 31 of A Dead End Wedding

“The feet,” Jack, Carlos, and Susan all murmured.

“AT-AT Walkers,” I said at the same time.

Susan and Carlos grinned, but Jack and the troll looked blank.

“Never mind, it’s aStar Warsreference. Jack,be careful.” I couldn’t force myself to release his hand.

Jack pressed a hard kiss to my mouth, untangled my fingers from his, and stepped forward. “I’m Dead End’s champion for this challenge.”

“Then let the battle begin,” Viviette proclaimed, and she rang a little bell. I wondered if she carried it around all the time, or if it just appeared when she needed it, and then I realized I was trying to distract myself from thegiant immortal warriorwho was stomping his way toward my fiancé.

I started forward without realizing it until the troll stepped in front of me.

“No, Tess,” he said, not without sympathy. “You will only distract him.”

Jack raced towards Rosen, and the two met with a thunderous clash in the center of the square. Both bounced back but kept to their feet.

“You stink like swamp troll,” Rosen thundered at Jack. “You keep low company.”

“He may smell bad, but he’sourswamp troll,” Jack snarled. “And I like his company better than yours.”

Next to me, Braumsh’s mouth fell open.

“I told you,” I whispered. “You’re one of us now.”

“You are very odd people,” he rumbled, but I didn’t answer, because I didn’t have time for conversation when Rosen was kicking the stuffing out of Jack. Jack fought back with everything he had, but he was half the size of the Fae, and the odds were not looking good for our side.

Or for the man I loved even surviving this challenge.

I suddenly wished Shelley wasn’t hiding up in Aunt Ruby’s office with my aunt and uncle. Maybe she could secretly magic this monster into a dead faint.

“Get him, Jack!” somebody yelled, and then everyone else took up the refrain. Soon, the entire town was chanting Jack’s name and calling encouragement.

The Fae guards kept silent, but their horses twitched and shuffled back and forth nervously.

“Watch your left!” I shouted when Rosen unleashed a powerful right hook.

Jack glanced at me for a split second, distracted, and the punch landed so hard I could have sworn I heard ribs crack.

I smacked my hand over my mouth to keep from saying anything else, but I thought some very bad words about Rosen, Viviette, and all Fae.

“That. Is. Enough,” Jack shouted, and he threw a flurry of punches at Rosen’s head.

When the Fae raised his arms to cover his head, Jack dropped to the ground and lashed one foot out in a sidekick that swept Rosen’s legs out from under him. When the enormous Fae crashed down, the ground shook from the impact.

Rosen lay there, stunned, for a few seconds, but then he shook his enormous head and tried to climb back to his feet.

Only to be stomped flat by the front paws of a quarter ton of Bengal tiger. Jack stood on Rosen’s chest and roared. Then he snarled at the fallen Fae and opened his jaws very wide, showing a mouthful of very large fangs.

Rosen was no quitter, though. He tried to shove the tiger off his chest.

It might even have worked.

Except then the tiger put the Fae’s head in his mouth.

The entire town instantly went silent, so everybody could hear the sound perfectly clearly when Rosen smacked the ground in surrender.

Dead End = 3

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