Page 7 of Hostile Holiday

“Yeah, I saw. Um, next round, you are going into the high tiers. Are you ready for it?”

She looked at him and felt her lower lip wobble. “No.”

“You can get an easier fight if you negotiate with your opponent before the fight starts.”

“With what? I can’t use any of the magic I have learned, and my money isn’t impressive.”

Tristan stared at her. “You do have one thing left to bargain with.”

“What?”

He smacked his hand over his eyes and then looked at her. “You can’t be that innocent.”

She stared and then remembered that he said he spent his spare funds on women. “Oh. Oh, no. I don’t do that.”

“Are you sure? It would make the fights easier.”

“When I was fourteen, my brother sold me to shadows for a power boost. Since then, I have not been interested in anything of that nature.”

Tristan stared at her in horror. “He... and you... you were a child.”

“Yeah, he got more power for that.” She teared up. “My mom came to get me, and I don’t know what she said, but they let me go and actually apologized to me. She never said why and just held me and took me home.”

“Oh. Shit. Well, that isn’t your problem directly, but every opponent is going to ask.”

“Thank you. I stand warned.” She nodded. Orla took a deep breath. “Sorry for unloading on you.”

“It isn’t a problem. Not many survive the shadows.”

“Yeah, my mom was the only reason I got out of there. My brother was counting on me dying. I disappointed him, so when my mother passed the following year, he made sure that Dad kicked me out immediately.”

“Did your grandparents take you in?”

She shook her head. “My grandfather is an asshole who just participated in a bid to get my organs, and my mother had to leave her family when she married my father. It was a sign-off arrangement to try and get a second heir. I showed up instead.”

He looked intrigued. “The purpose of the union was a male heir, and they were both magic users?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Nothing. It is just unusual.”

She shrugged. “So, what are your weak points if I end up against you?”

Tristan laughed and went to get them some tea.

He distracted her for a few hours, and when she went to bed, she had no idea what she would be facing the following day.

* * * *

Hunter watched the alarmingly quick arrival of emergency services and a tow truck to haul the car out of the water. The woman was right; her family was trying to harvest her organs.

He obscured the marks of her escape from the water and her path into the woods. She had fought hard and deserved to be hidden.

Hunter walked back through the woods, and when he got to his car, he shifted back to human and drove through the city and to his home. The young woman was safe and would be cared for at his palace. She just needed to relax and enjoy being cared for.

He got to his home and walked to his door. It opened, and he stepped inside, moving past his butler and smiling. “Yesoff. I did a good deed today.”

“Good, sir. You will enjoy the new feed at the arena. There is a woman who is slashing her way through her competition.”

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