Page 57 of A Deal with the Shadow King

Her elbow collides with his left eye, “One.” She slams the other one with a right hook, “Two.”

Cary tries to knock her off balance and immobilize her in a bear hug, but she slips under his arm, spins around, and finishes him off with a kick between the legs.

“That’s three,” she chimes happily.

Her lethal poise and impressive speed sparks a sense of pride in my chest.

Who knew she was so good…

She presses her thumb to the middle of Cary’s forehead to knock him off balance, and the poor bloke topples over to the grass, holding his groin.

James hisses by my side, his hand flying to his crotch. “I have my answer.”

Lori pulls down her scarf, and her huge grin is contagious while Misha goes to help his friend up. “Ouch. That must hurt.”

Cary stumbles to his feet with his back hunched, holding on to the tall brown-haired man. He gives Joseph a nasty glance. “How did you know she’d gotten so good?”

“Don’t blame me. You’re the only one who didn’t notice.” Jo dusts off his pants and strolls over to shake the winner’s hand. “Congrats, little ninja. You showed him.”

Lori beams at him. “Thanks, boss.”

As the leader and more advanced hunter, I can tell his praises mean something to her. Before stepping off the mat, my friend curtsies like a trouper after a show. “Jo and Mitch.”

The hunters clap at that.

Mitchell, the tall boy with more limbs than muscles, makes a weird gesture with his hand, showing just his middle finger, and everyone laughs. “Go to hell, Lori.”

Jo shrugs off his button-down shirt, leaving only a thin gray camisole to cover his chest. “Sorry, Mitch. This isn’t your season.”

The two men circle each other, but before the second revolution is done, Jo breaks the pattern and slides a foot forward. Mitch draws back, skittish, and widens his circle to avoid the attack, but his leader anticipated his move and pirouettes in front of him. Mitch digs his heels into the mattress and braces his hands in front of his face, but instead of throwing a punch, Jo waits for him to go on the offensive, his feet inches from the edge. Thinking he has a shot at winning, Mitch roars forward, but Jo uses his friend’s ill-advised momentum to swing him off the mattress instead.

Our gazes cross, and Jo offers me a wink. He points to two new fighters, and so the contest goes. I quickly realize everyone picks him for the next fight, the entire band of hunters united against him.

“Why do you guys always pick Jo?” I whisper to Lori.

“Jo always wins. It’s his tenth straight season leading the hunt, and last fall he even won on a bad knee.”

Everyone groans loudly every time Jo eliminates a player, the predictable fights ending quickly and without any real tension. Even Lori’s flexibility and speed can’t manage to hold the slick hunter off, and my friend is quickly eliminated.

It’s all over before long, and the victor wipes his face off with a towel. “Since I gave you all a good whipping, I get to go against Two. For fun.”

The tired grimaces melt from the crowd.

“You know me, I’m always up for a fight.” Two unzips his thick black jacket and tosses it to Mara under a throng of applause. He’s not wearing anything underneath, and the sight of his bare chest melts my brain. My breath catches when I catch a glimpse of a wide-tipped shadow over his heart.

The same scar…and just like One’s, it moves with its owner, blurring slightly like there’s a few seconds delay between its movement and Two’s.

Before the knight can step on the mattress, Jo motions for him to wait, his gaze glued on something behind me. Murmurs echo around the gardens, and I crane my neck around to see what stopped him cold.

One contemplates the crowd for a long minute until the whispers die down. His voice is low and devoid of humor as he finally says, “What about me? Would you fight me, Joseph?”

“Sorry Two.” Jo shakes out his fists and cracks his neck. “I can’t pass up on that.”

Two grins a little too widely, his distaste for the interruption clear as day. “Of course.”

He crosses his arms, the muscles all knots and bulges, and leans back on the castle wall. Many of us continue to ogle at his nakedness, a fact that doesn’t please him enough to erase his sour pout.

The combat starts as many others have, with Jo and One circling each other, but Jo doesn’t have the same air of ease to him as he did before, his sight riveted on the dark Fae, his nostrils flaring. He’s got the face of a man who has something to prove.

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