Page 34 of Whispers Beneath the Deep
I swung the blade.
Chapter Eighteen
Kai
She swung at me.
I’d heard rumors, whisperings that the princess was a skilled fencer. I hadn’t seen it, as she’d kept herself all but hidden since I’d arrived in Thalassar. Fighting with a katana was not like fighting with a sword as thin as a needle. But even as she charged at me, there was no trace of her rumored skill. The ability to be grand was there, surely. In her stride, determination and stubbornness.
She swung the katana with such a force that would have made any normal mer tremble. But I was no ordinary mer.
Just before the blade came swinging down, I whirled so she struck empty water. She cried out, turned again to me, a vicious whirl of pink and purple.
“Skill and cunning, Princess,” I teased, then I held my sword up. “Where should I slice next?” The tip of my blade touched her shoulder. She stilled as it slid down the top of her bodice. “Here?”
She sucked in a breath and pushed the tip of my blade away with her own before stroking back.
“Maybe you’d like to be sliced yourself?” she threatened.
There went that wicked mouth of hers. I was so busy staring at it, that I didn’t predict her next move. She sliced forward, aiming for my chest. I barely had time to jump back before the blade sliced across the front of mybei zi. It was a garment I used for training. Long colorful robes that depicted the images of dragons with snarling teeth and vicious claws.
The material tore.
“Huh…” I observed the slit. “Impressive.”
Odele smirked, obviously pleased with the compliment. The dragon in me roared, bashing itself against the surface of my consciousness. Ready to claim its mate. The legends surrounding my family were unclear in the line of truth and myth. One thing in the legend was clear enough. As a lineage who bred dragons, it was no surprise when an ancestor consorted with one.
And so every single one of his descendants had the blood of dragons. Inside us, there was a beast buried beneath our surface.
It was my nature to be wicked. To breathe ice. To win battles. To collect treasures. To claim my mate.
Only a slip of the dragon came out now. It was him who fueled me. Adrenaline and carelessness pushed my actions. I supposed… the dragon and I were one and the same, I’d just pushed that nature away so often, that the primitive part of me had become something separate in my mind.
It was slowly unleashing now as we parried. I struck, and she responded. There was no real skill to her, but she was a quick learner.Slash. Swish.The blades of our swords struck, the force vibrating my arm with pleasant familiarity. We twirled, and hit, the tip of my blade ripping another seam on her dress. This time at her hip. The material parted to reveal the scales on her waist.
The dragon in me roared a second time.
A taste. A taste. A taste.
Her cheeks heated with a blush. And then she was advancing. I blocked, but she was relentless. Her sword came at me from every possible angle. But the sword wasn’t her only weapon. She struck with fists and tail. Her outburst of strength was so surprising, I staggered back and she advanced.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
The sword fell from my hands when she whacked my fingers holding the hilt. It clattered to the floor between us, and unarmed, she still came after me, punching the small of her fist into my chest.
I took it for all of two seconds before I smacked her wrist. The katana clattered to the floor next to mine. She gasped, from surprise, or pain, I couldn’t be sure, but I pushed her back by the shoulders.
The princess lost her balance and started to fall backwards, but not before she gripped the lapels of my clothing and I fell to the floor with her.
I wrapped my arm around her head to cushion her fall; that didn’t stop the breath from whooshing from the both of us.
A sharp silence descended, cut through only with the sound of our mingled breathing. Our chests pressed together, they moved together where it was near impossible to discern where one ended and the other began. Her heartbeat was captured in my own.
Then, the princess chuckled. “Now I know,” she panted, “why they call you the Dragon Prince.”
The world had fallen away around us. There were no advisors to lecture me on propriety. There was no carefulness between us any longer. There was nothing but warmth, and dare I hope it? Love.
I touched the tip of my nose to hers, and you’d have thought it had been a kiss from the way her cheeks warmed.
