Page 72 of Fire of the Fox

Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes, and my head felt much heavier than normal. Sucking in a sharp breath, I started to push off the ground again.

Jonah laughed and stomped on my outstretched hand, scraping it into the twigs and rocks.

I winced, biting back a whimper.

Think, Bria, think. You aren’t defenseless anymore.

Gritting my teeth, I yanked my hand out from under his boot and kicked out my leg. It hit the back of his knees in the weak point, and he collapsed. Without hesitation, I smashed my elbow into his cheek, and his head snapped to the side from the blow.

Knowing when to stop fighting and make your escape—especially if you knew it was a losing battle— was one of the most valuable lessons I’d learned in self-defense. As confident as I was in my newfound strength and as much as I wanted answers, I knew I couldn’t win this fight. Jonah was Fae. He had a huge advantage on me in terms of strength and power. Seeing that he was momentarily impaired and stunned, I knew it was now or never. This was my chance to play it smart and run.

Rushing to my feet, I took off in the direction of the dorms. Not even five steps later, Jonah grabbed my hair and yanked me back against him.

“That hurt,” he spat into my ear.

“That was the point, bastard!”

Jonah threw me to the side, and I landed hard on my back. The impact knocked the wind out of me, and my body went rigid as it tried to recover from the jolt that shot up my spine. I didn’t have time to recoup either, because Jonah knelt over me, and with an evil tilt to his lips, he drew back his fist and smashed it into my right eye.

I yelped and clutched at my face. Blood seeped through my fingers, and my head instantly began to throb.

“You know,” Jonah laughed, getting to his feet again. “This is so funny to me. You’re going to die tonight, and you don’t even know why. Isn’t that the best kind of torture? You, lying there in agonizing pain, thinking to yourself, ‘Why me? Why me?’ Oh, I just love thinking about it!”

I opened my lips, wanting to reason with him, to explain that he had the wrong person. If it was a Fae he wanted, he had the wrong idea about me. But no sound came out, despite my efforts. I couldn’t bring myself to think or talk anymore. Things were getting too fuzzy. My eyes started to drift shut, but that seemed to reignite his fury.

He brought his foot down hard onto my side.

My scream caught in my throat in a tight choke. I clutched at my ribs and rolled onto my knees. Nausea rocked through me as pain overtook all my senses.

“Are you scared?” Jonah laughed.

I took a deep breath to calm the urge to vomit. Glaring up at him past my bleeding eye, I shook my head defiantly. I was scared shitless, thinking this would be my last moment on Earth, but I’d never give him the satisfaction that he wanted.

Roaring with a newfound anger, he kicked me again and sent my body rolling back over the dirt. I barely had time to suck in a breath through the pain before he grabbed me by my neck. I clutched at his hand as he yanked me up by my throat. My legs wobbled as he forced me to stand, and I dug my nails deep into his hand. He ignored it, as well as the blood now seeping from his hand, and he slammed my body back into a tree. It sent another shock of agony through me, and the jolt made my hands fall limp at my sides.

Darkness seeped into the edges of my vision. No air filled my lungs despite my desperate gasps for it. Pain laced every inch of my skin, muscle, and bone.

This was it.

This bastard’s ugly, malicious sneer would be the last thing I ever got to see.

“Bria!”

Jonah whipped around and dropped me.

I collapsed at the base of the tree, too broken to move. I didn’t need to move to see the owner of that voice, though.

Dax.

Chapter Thirty

IT TOOK EVERYTHING in me to speak and turn my head in Dax’s direction. “Run, Dax.”

Jonah’s piercing glare turned on Dax, who stood a distance away from us. It looked like he’d come from the direction of the creek. I had been so close to another person, to safety. And now that Dax was here and had seen Jonah, I only feared for what that might mean for him, despite all our history.

Dax met Jonah’s glare with a confident sneer of his own. “How dare you! You filthy Land Fae.”

My mind stilled.

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