Page 29 of Mistake of Magic
18
Lera
Malikai freezes for a heartbeat, his gaze flicking from the wine-soaked towel, to his own soiled breeches, to the deadly warrior now standing before him with a single brow cocked in question.
Let it go,I beg the males, my pulse pounding in my ears.Enough.
Malikai grins, showing sharp canines. “Ah. Coal, isn’t it? I’ve heard of you.”
“I’m flattered.”
“Sir.” Malikai clicks his tongue. “I’m flattered,sir. That’s the proper address. No matter, I’ve more pressing questions I’ve been meaning to ask you, specifically.” He stretches slowly, interlacing his hands behind his head. Keeping Coal waiting. Stars. The rules of the Citadel’s hierarchy must be ironclad indeed for Malikai to feel safe when most sentient beings would be hunkering down from the murder lurking in Coal’s blue eyes. Malikai jerks his chin at Coal’s hand. “Give the rag back to the girl. You are much too valuable for mopping up spills. I understand you’ve firsthand experience of Mors—experience that all at the Citadel would benefit from knowing. Tell me...” Malikai pauses to lick his canines. “Tell me, did your keepers fuck you while you were there, or were they not into that sort of thing with livestock?”
I’m swinging my fist at Malikai’s face before I can think through the wisdom of it. The wisdom of attacking a fae quint leader in the middle of a hall filled with other immortals.
“Leralynn! No!” River bellows, lunging for me as the world slows to a mocking crawl.
Malikai marks my coming fist and, instead of blocking it, opens his face to the blow—all but aiming his eye to connect with my knuckles. His grin widens.
Coal, who is closest, shoves me so hard that I tumble over my own feet and slide across the polished floor. Standing where I was a moment ago, Coal now leans down to bring his face so close to Malikai’s that the latter has the good sense to blanche. “I imagine you will discover the pleasures of Mors soon enough, Third Trial.” His voice is sharpened steel. “I wouldn’t wish to ruin the surprise.”
My heart pounds in the silent hall. I climb to my knees and feet, breathing hard, while Coal steps away from Malikai, whose chest seems to expand in relief. Before I can take a step, however, an arm that belongs to none of my males grips my hips.
“I believe a third trial ordered you to clean his breeches,” an unfamiliar voice says, shoving me forward into Malikai’s lap. My face slams into the wine-soaked fabric around his crotch.
“Oh, you are back.” Malikai’s hand clamps onto the back of my head, keeping me in place despite my struggle to rise. “See anything you like? Please have a feel if—”
The crash of an overturned table is the first sign that the world beyond Malikai’s crotch still exists. Malikai’s scream of pain is the second. I’m pulled away by River’s familiar hands just in time to see Coal’s fist strike Malikai’s jaw a second time. The blow lands hard enough to elicit an audible crack of bone.
Malikai drops to all fours, one hand trying to stanch the flow of blood from his mouth.
Grabbing Malikai’s now-empty chair, Coal breaks the wood easily over his knee, thrusting the two jagged legs against Malikai’s throat like daggers. Coal’s eyes are dark, the blue in them a deep, feral sapphire that is hungry for violence.
“Stand... down... First Trial,” Malikai says, straining to speak through his broken jaw, the words pushed out desperately as blood pours from his mouth onto his tunic. “I order—”
Coal twists, sinking the back of his heel into Malikai’s abdomen.
As if set loose by an open floodgate, the rest of Malikai’s quint, including the male who shoved me into Malikai’s lap, rush forward.
The chair legs in Coal’s hands move so quickly, they’re a blur of wood that sends the first of the attackers to the floor, a bloody gash crossing his chest from left hip to right shoulder. His gasp of pain cuts through the room.
River’s hold on me tightens, my heart racing.
The second male stumbles over his fallen companion. Grabbing the back of the second’s head, Coal spins the male in a wide arc, using the circular force’s momentum.
The third male’s eyes widen, his attempt to sidestep coming too late. Ice crackles in Coal’s blue eyes as he slams the forehead of the spinning male into the new one’s nose. Both males crash into a nearby table, sending bits of meat and porcelain into the air.
River’s arms cover my head, shielding me from the debris.
The fourth male, the only one of Malikai’s quint left standing, holds up his hands.
Coal tosses a chair leg from his left hand to his right and advances on the trembling male, blue eyes flashing with murder. Coal’s arm cocks and—
The air thickens to the consistency of sour cream, just like it did when River surrendered in the arena.
My heart stutters. I can’t move. Can barely breathe. Before me, Coal is stuck mid-motion, his eyes blazing. The other combatants, too, are held in their own odd and frozen poses.
“I see we have a small problem here,” Elder Elidyr says with a sigh, his thick brown braid swaying as he looks around the once-pristine dining hall. Splatters of blood, food, plates, and trainees litter the floor. “May I trust all parties involved to act like civilized children once I release the hold?”
