Page 30 of Obsidian Prince

The bleachers went up to her right and left, filled with excited beast-kin watching eagerly. The spider-kin shivered inside, reminded of the stares of the crowd back in her circus days.

Liliana hated being stared at.

She closed her eye again to shut out the staring faces, even as Daniel opened the first cage door. He had to duck to get through the opening.

"Are you sure about this?" Daniel whispered to her. Kazi closed the outer door behind them. Daniel's supporters stayed by it, guarding.

Liliana nodded. It was all she could manage.

Daniel placed a sword hilt in her right hand. He buckled a heavy shield onto her left arm. That felt right. It felt ... natural ... good.

Her parents had always used combat practice to bring her back when her mind became overloaded by her new senses. Focus was essential in combat. All that mattered was the here and the now. In combat, staring crowds were just background. If they were not potential threats or potential allies, then they were superfluous, unimportant.

Liliana felt her shoulders, hunched for so long, drop down. She breathed in and let it out slowly, centering herself.

The spider-kin opened her human and second eyes. She did a quick scan of the area to assess her situation, look for allies, weaknesses, the lay of the land.

She stood now on one side of the Dome, in the small extra chamber like a blister on the edge of the circular fighting cage. Tray Bradley stood in a similar chamber on the other side. Another lion-kin in demi-lion form strapped a shield to his arm.

Daniel lingered beside her. The fight would not begin until the two combatants entered the central part of the dome-shaped cage, and the non-combatants left the outer cages.

In her quick scan of the surrounding crowd, a familiar face stood out, his tall, aloof form contrasted with the emotionally charged beast-kin. The Fae prince stood to her right, watching her from just outside the bars, wearing gray slacks and a white synth-silk shirt with folded sleeve ends held by golden cuff links. Two lion-kin in demi-lion form wearing Army uniforms stood to either side of him with their hands on automatic weapons, the only guns she had seen in the hangar. Lieutenant Runningwolf, in short, broad, brown demi-badger form stood behind the prince, completing his protective detail.

Some part of Liliana’s mind wondered what affect the nanites had on the stout badger-kin. At least, thanks to Doctor Nudd, he wasn’t dying.

She walked up until curved triangles of steel and a few inches were the only thing that separated her from the prince. Daniel stayed at her side.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Liliana?" Alexander Bennett asked. His voice was pitched low, tight with controlled worry or anger. She couldn't tell which.

"What the hell are you doing here, Alexander Bennet?" she asked him right back. She would not answer the prince's questions. The memory of how badly he treated the wizard who loved him was still fresh in her mind. The consequences of his casual cruelty might cost lives. Dark paths flowed forward from that moment. If she didn’t tame her unruly heart, it might be her in the wizard’s place one day.

"I thought I was here to ensure the peaceful succession of the pride-king in my lands. But apparently, I'm here to watch you commit suicide."

"Someone might think you gave a damn," Liliana snapped. "But you have no heart, so that can’t be true."

The prince's face darkened with anger or offense. "I have a heart."

"Perhaps the wizard believed that, before you cast him aside like used Kleenex."

"He was no longer useful," the prince stated without inflection.

"I have heard that the fastest way to reach a man's heart is through his stomach, but that is wrong," Liliana commented.

A tiny crease appeared between his brows. "You seem very interested in my heart."

Liliana slanted the sword in her hand through one of the foot-wide triangle spaces of the small cage bars. The sharp tip touched the prince's chest before he could move. "The fastest way to find any man's heart is through the third and fourth rib on the left side."

The two lions beside the prince hesitantly raised their weapons to point in Liliana’s direction, but looked around nervously at the beast-kin that surrounded them when they did.

Lieutenant Runningwolf's gun held steady with a bead on Liliana's forehead.

"Stand down," Colonel Bennett ordered, holding up a hand.

His three protectors lowered their weapons but continued to eye Liliana with suspicion, Lt. Runningwolf’s finger hovered near the trigger.

Daniel stood tense beside her but said nothing. He didn't know what was going on between her and the powerful Fae, but he clearly had no intention of interfering, even if she killed the prince right there in front of him. Daniel probably assumed she had a good reason.

Liliana wasn't sure he was right. Her reasons for her anger at Alexander Bennett were not entirely rational.

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