Page 64 of What Fury Brings
“Save it,” Athon snarled. “Glenaerys chose me. I am honored to be hers. I don’t need you speaking like you know anything about us.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You think you’re special because you have Olerra? Because she’s nice? Glen is going to be queen one day. I will be the envy of every man.”
“Except the thirty others who are also sharing her bed.”
He regretted the words as soon as he said them. He didn’t know why Athon was egging him on so.
“Exactly. Thirty out of hundreds of thousands of men. Glenaerys honors us.”
“Fine.”
Sanos sped up a little, hoping Athon would take the hint.
The bigger man matched his speed.
“I want a rematch,” Athon said. “I will prove myself to Glen. Next time, I can beat you.”
There was a nasty taste in the prince’s mouth. “Is your entire existence centered on that woman? Didn’t you only start courting a couple of weeks ago?”
“I was nobody. Now I’m everything. Quit changing the subject.”
Sanos started to get pissed. This man was utterly stupid. Sanos had been doing his utmost to help him, but he didn’t see it that way. Athon genuinely liked where he was. He only didn’t like that he’d lost.
“We’re done,” Sanos said with finality.
“I say we’re not.” And Athon shoved him.
He hadn’t been expecting it, and Sanos quickly lost his footing. He landed with skinned knees and smarting palms. Before he could get up, Athon threw a kick under his stomach, sending the breath out of him.
But Sanos had been made to fight his whole life while injured. It didn’t matter that his lungs couldn’t draw in air. He spun and flung a fist at Athon. The bigger man hadn’t been expecting him to recover so quickly. His face flew to the side and blood dripped from his mouth.
Then they threw themselves at each other.
Sanos maintained that he was defending himself. But this was so much more than that. He was being attacked by someone with whom he could finally fight back. Athon was no king. No woman. He was a soldier. He was a bed slave. He was a pain in the ass.
So Sanos took blows and landed blows. Though certain he’d win, it didn’t go on for too long before someone tried to break up the fight. A strong hand landed on Sanos’s bicep to pull him back. He shoved at the figure so he could continue laying into the man in front of him.
But the gym went silent. Even Athon froze, and Sanos wasn’t about to fight a man who wouldn’t fight him back.
So Sanos turned to see what everyone was looking at.
On the floor was none other than Glenaerys. She’d been the one who’d tried to pull Sanos off her man. He’d shoved her. She’d landed on the track, scraping her elbow on the floor.
And it was bleeding.
The guards were on him faster than he could blink. Two held each of his arms in check. Another wrapped an elbow around his neck from behind.
Glenaerys rose and surveyed the entire gymnasium, which had witnessed the encounter. She looked at Sanos with a sneer.
She said, “I want his head.”
They dragged him from the room.
Sanos fought. He tried his hardest to break the holds on him, but the women were too strong. He knew with certainty that he was about to be put to death. He had committed one of the gravest of crimes in Amarra.
They’d nearly gotten him to the exit when he managed a last look back. He saw Glen cupping the face of Athon, whispering something in his ear. He looked smugly back at Sanos.
