Page 62 of Faerie Gift

The guy bared his teeth and his growl ripped through me. “Who the hell is Kendrick?”

Oh. What? He didn’t know who I was. That could only mean—

“Damn. You want the Augundae Imperium.”

How did this guy know about the artifact?

The name clanged between us and the boy charged, driven by some serious fury I couldn’t even hope to match.Shit. He was bigger than me. And a lot stronger.

Ducking to avoid the swipe of his claws, I reacted, ramming my elbow up into his solar plexus. It didn’t slow him down. Instead, he jerked to the side from the force of the blow, giving me enough time to hold up my arms and use the last of my power to change my hands into claws. It would have been easier if I had the full strength of my wolf. But without an easy way to break my glamour, I had to rely on my transfiguration power to aid me.

Fur sprouted along my forearms, accompanied by wicked sickle-curved claws.

I slashed at the boy, going for his face. His eyes. Anywhere I could reach to give me an advantage, something soft and fleshy.

Except he didn’t give me an opportunity to hit him, countering with his leg and kicking me on the side of the head at full strength. The world shattered into a shower of pain and I tasted blood. I’d bitten the inside of my cheek. The blood filled up my mouth.

A second kick sent me sprawling back and this time I miraculously managed to make it onto my feet, blocking his followup punch by sheer luck. On instinct, I jammed my knuckles into his throat directly beneath his Adam’s apple. His growl cut off on a gurgle as his teeth sliced through his lower lip.

“How does that feel?” I taunted, breathless.

I really needed to learn how to keep my mouth shut.

The boy charged at me again, his palm locking on my shoulder and sending me slamming into the wall. His teeth snapped in front of my face inches from my nose.

Fatigue rode me hard. I was hanging on,clawingon, desperately trying to win this fight. I got in a quick kick to his knee at just the right angle and listened to the satisfying sound of bone crunching. Good luck walking away from this on both legs. I kicked him again but he spun me around in a circle until my cheek pressed to the wall, his teeth clamping down on my wrist. Fire raked through my skin.

No matter how I tried to kick or punch or claw at him, I couldn’t seem to get the upper hand. I twisted and unleashed a quick jab to his face, but his claws clamped my shoulder and the world narrowed, shrinking to a tiny point as blackness choked my vision. There wasn’t enough space for me to kick my way out of this one.

“I’m going to warn you right now,” the boy said, too softly, his fangs scraping the softness of my neck. “I’ll warn you this once and then it’s on you. Give me the Augundae Imperium. I don’t care what else you do or where you go, but if you try to take what’s mine, then I’ll make sure you regret it. I will hurt the people you care about. Death will seem preferable.”

His words fell like stones against the side of my head. If I stole the Imperium, then I might doom my friends, the ones I considered my true family. Where would that leave them?

What would happen to them if I didn’t do what Barbara asked?

I clucked my tongue in a show of bravado. “For you to threaten my friends’ well-being is a low blow. Bad move, guy.”

I opened my mouth to continue to taunt but his snarl rattled the lanterns hanging from the walls and clanged through me. With the last of my magic I urged my claws to grow longer, punching out from my fingernails, skin groaning as it parted to accommodate the size of them. But I wasn’t fast enough to avoid his fist. It landed on my jaw and knocked me sideways. Holycrap, that hurt.

It hurt enough for it to take several seconds too long for me to come around. He took hold of my hair and dragged me toward him on a screech.

Damn the hair. I’d rather see him rip it out than leave myself defenseless. I swiped my claws through the strands he held until I felt a release.

I rose to my feet in a powerful, brutal move and made no attempt to hide my fury. I let him see how my canines lengthened. I couldn’t let the wolf out but the transfiguration was enough to let him know I wasn’t going down easily.

“Give it to me!” he demanded again.

Then he was on me, his claws in my flesh, rivers of agonizing pain. My head swam and I closed my eyes to brace against the agony, chest constricting as though someone wrapped me in an iron band.

“I have nothing to give you,” I barely managed to say. “I don’t have the Imperium.”

He tore his claws away from me and everything began to blur together. I knew better than to tell him anything. Even being half fae, the boy would find a way to exploit me. If he didn’t kill me first. Fae were notorious for bargaining. And I’d already been foolish enough.

We came at each other in unison, movements impossibly fast. I spun out of the way and sliced across the boy’s back. He whipped around to face me, almost oblivious to the pain, and raked his own claws down the front of my leg to slow me down. Scarlet blood swelled along the lines of torn fabric and we collided again. Jaws snapped.

The boy was bigger than me. Huge fangs loomed over my face and his breath bathed me in a hot cloud of fetid stench.

Snarling in pain, I wrenched away from him, dropping down and swiping my leg at him to knock him off his feet. The boy anticipated the move and jumped straight off of the wall, driving his fists down into the back of my head on his descent.

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