Page 9 of An Empress of Earth & Darkness

Sick crept up her throat.

“Kill him,” one man roared from nearby, banging a heavy fist on a rickety table that threatened to break.

“Finish him, Blacksteel,” another bellowed, spit spraying from his mouth.

Gideon shifted uncomfortably beside her, and it was then she placed a hand on his arm. It was his brother in the ring, after all. She knew he would be feeling this too. This thunder would be in his heart like it was in hers now.

Torin moved like a winter wind, cold and deadly, and hit the silver-haired male right on the chin. His jaw snapped, his head wrenching to one side, and the crowd flared up like a toxic flame as he spat out blood and possibly teeth.

“He’s Fae,” Artem shouted to Gideon across the standing table as Emara noticed the slight point in his ears. “And a big bastard. But he doesn’t have the skills Blacksteel does. He’s slower. Tired. And the guy has one eye, for Gods’ sake. Torin should win.”

“Let’s hope.” Gideon watched on again as he cracked his neck. “The Fae, he’s probably an ex-guard of the king’s court. Probably committed a crime against the king and found himself here.”

The Fae landed a punch on Torin’s cheek and then a knee smashed against his ribs.

Emara flinched as shouts and terrible taunts were hurled from the crowd that was hungry for blood.

“Try not to do that down here,” Artem told her.

“Do what?” she quizzed, finally peeling her eyes away from Torin.

“Flinch.” He looked around, scouting for trouble. “It makes you an easy target.”

She swallowed any fear that started to creep in and looked back to where Torin was standing in the ring with a smile full of sin, his hands up, ready to punch. Even as blood gushed from his lip and his eyes were dark with monstrous danger, she couldn’t help but feel her heart swell and threaten to burst for him.

He was glorified violence. Her heart should not connect with that.

But maybe that was her darkness.

It had been coming to the surface a little more. It was harder to control than all her other elements. Even now, it buzzed around her fingertips for release. Ever since the chains broke from her neck in the Amethyst Palace, and the black tendrils of smoke emerged from her hands, she had been desperate to use her darkness. She shouldn’t think like that; she couldn’t think of the very element that grew in her blood from the underworld. The more she acknowledged it, the more it came alive, and she had a meeting with the prime just around the corner. She had to focus on getting Torin back in some form of order. She wouldn’t let this place destroy him. He was her lead guard, and if he was taken from that post…

She wasn’t going to let that happen.

The crowd roared as Torin struck again, and this time, he kept striking, like a starving snake who had found its prey. Blood and teeth flew across the room before the Fae went tumbling down to the mat.

“Get up, you lousy Fae prick, and end that Blacksteel bastard,” a man beside Gideon roared. “Kill the Hunter. Make him bleed out.”

Before Emara could even clutch Gideon’s uniform, he punched the man on the nose. Blood burst everywhere. Emara gasped a little as a fully fledged riot broke out around her.

“Fucking knew this would happen.” Artem sighed and rolled his eyes. “No one talks badly about the Blacksteels but the Blacksteels,” he said before turning and landing a booted foot in the face of a man who had come at Gideon with a small sword.

Emara had trained like a true hunter these last few months, and she was ready to fight anyone who came at her. She braced herself.

“I thought we would be in here a little longer than five minutes before I had to break noses, G,” Artem shouted over the commotion, pulling another man off Gideon.

Gideon came up for air after landing two punches and turned to Emara. “Get out of here. We will get you at the entrance. Follow the tunnel to the stop and wait for us there.”

Emara shook her head and dug her nails into her palms. “Absolutely not. I didn’t come here for nothing.”

It was then she unsheathed her favourite weapon from her leg and pressed in the beautiful ruby that lay in the middle of it. The stunning spear turned into something longer and more dangerous and she felt a rush of adrenaline fill her muscles as it elongated in her hand.

A bald man with an eye patch that looked like it had been dipped in tea made his way towards her. As he bared his teeth that looked like rows of condemned buildings, broken and neglected, a revolting smile pulled his lips apart.

Artem came closer to her as he pushed a man out of his way like he weighed nothing at all. “Don’t—”

She pushed out her hand that held the Agnes. “I’ve got this, Artem.”

“Oh, I know, I was only coming to say do not let anyone harm you, or the Blacksteels will boil my head and bathe in my blood.” He winked and leaped to his next victim in the crowd.

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