Page 23 of Secrets & Curses of Crimson

“Give me my dagger and let's get this over with,” I demanded.

“Find your own,” he muttered, but it was more confused than angry. My eyes drifted to the viper-handled dagger he was holding.

“You find your own and give me my damn dagger.” I pointed to the viper-handled blade and held out my hand for it. Cassius glanced at the dagger before turning around and looking over the ground. A moment later he leaned over and plucked my dagger, which I missed him with, out of the ground. He lifted it and inspected it.

They were the same daggers. He glanced at me, and I swore I saw a smirk grace his face. What the fuck was he so happy about? An overwhelming feeling of relief and happiness flooded me, but it wasn’t my own. Cassius tossed my dagger between my feet, and I picked it up. Cassius smiled brightly at me. Something in the air shifted as he watched me. His eyes flickered to the floating orb, and I swore his smile widened at it.

He focused on me again before he charged me. I twisted away from him, but he knew what I was doing and moved from my swipe. Cassius rushed me, and we both made the same moves. Everything I did, Cassius mirrored me. What the fuck was this—some sort of weird magic?

“What’s wrong, Captain?” He smiled without hatred this time. I charged at him, and my body seemed to remember how to fight because I did things without thought. My blade stopped an inch from his ribs as his hand wrapped around my wrist, and he yanked me so I was against him. Fuck, I could feel his muscled body perfectly.

“This helmet is doing you no favors, Thea.” He had wrapped me in his shadows and ripped my helmet from me. Shit. My father said they would know me. Cassius’ handsome face looked over me like he was assessing something sacred. His eyes dropped to my mouth briefly before meeting my eyes. His hand brushed my braid over my shoulder. My heart hammered in my chest at his odd gesture. He released me, and I stumbled back.

“That’s much better.” His eyes glided across my face. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

A moment later, I heard someone else coming up behind me.

“Stop!” Cassius ordered. “She belongs to me. Go get Haden, Zade, and Leer. Tell them to come here immediately.”

The guard scurried away. While he was distracted, I stepped forward and stabbed his leg.

“Fuck!” he groaned. His wild, black eyes pinned me to my spot, but gods, he looked proud of me.

“That’s for cutting me earlier,” I breathed out with a vicious smile.

We both took our stance, and Cassius smiled as I rushed him first. Again, we did the same moves. It was like a never-ending sparring match. We both breathed heavily, but neither of us was stopping. Sweat ran down my back as I tried desperately to keep up with him. I’m sure he had worked and trained much harder than I did for this. There was no way I could win. He looked like he was hardly sweating.

“Fucking hell.” I heard from my side, and I made the mistake of turning toward the familiar voice. Haden from the scouting mission stood staring at me, but then two overly large fae appeared too.

“Shit.” One of them muttered as he looked at me.

Cassius leveled me onto my back and pinned me down. He pointed his dagger at my throat.

“Dead.” He gleamed at me.

“That’s not fair. They distracted me,” I spoke like this wasn’t a war. Cassius shifted, and I groaned under his weight. Gods, his weight felt good on top of me.

“You should know better than to get distracted, little viper.”

My heart pounded, but I wasn’t sure if it were because of how completely inappropriately attractive I found this man or because I knew he would kill me in a moment.Gods, please let Exile be free if I die.I squeezed my eyes shut tightly, giving in to my fate.

“What are you doing?” Cassius asked. His warm breath fanned over my face. Stars, he smelled good, like rain and forest.

“Just kill me quickly,” I spoke.

It was so silent, besides the men still fighting around us. So, I cracked my eyes open, and Cassius was smiling at Haden. They were talking without saying a damn word. He was happy. Cassius glanced down at me. Then he leaned close to my face and gave me a chaste kiss. My heart hammered quickly as I tried not to kiss him back.

“What the fuck?” I thrashed under him so he wouldn’t know how much I liked that.

“My prize for winning this match.” His smile was so bright that I stopped moving so I could admire him. “If you win the next one, I’ll let you chooseyour prize.”

“How about killing you? I won’t stop; I’ll plunge that dagger into your heart.”

His face fell for a moment.

“We’ll see about that, Thea.”

He glanced over my face slowly once more before standing up. I stood up quickly and got in my fighting stance. Cassius kept his back to me as he walked to Haden. There was not a fuck given that I could stab him right now. My eyes shifted to Haden as he gave me a small wave and a friendly smile. What the fuck was this?

---