Page 33 of Obsidian Prince

Bradley roared a lion's rage and pain, shaggy mane shaking.

Liliana flipped to one side. Her slippers touched down on the concrete floor. She attached a silk line to one of the bars of the cage about two feet off the floor. As the lion charged her again, she danced to his left to yank the line taut.

Even as Bradley tripped, he tucked into a roll. He bounced back to his feet on the opposite side of the dome, mace and shield still in place. "Is that all you got?" he taunted. "I'm going to crush you, little bug."

Liliana swallowed, remembering her crushed body in her vision. But she no longer followed that path.

She climbed the inside curve of the cage to the top as fast as she could. Having one functional hand slowed her. She touched her wrist to a cage bar, attaching a line, as Bradley came after her again.

Holding the line in her good hand, she swung from one side of the dome to the other, avoiding the lion by several feet.

He shifted his charge so she couldn’t avoid him. To attack her, he was forced to put all his weight on his injured left knee.

The spider-kin bounced off the side of the dome to reverse direction She hit that knee from the unexpected angle with the full weight of her body.

She both heard and felt the sickening crunch, even over the noise of the crowd outside the cage.

Everyone in the hangar heard the lion's roar of pain.

Bradley staggered. For just a moment, his shield lowered.

"This is for Marilyn," the spider-kin whispered. She released her line, landing on the lion's shield. Her body weight forced it down another few inches to expose the lion's neck.

He drew back his mace. If that blow struck her, Liliana would die.

She swept her razor-sharp arm blade across his throat, lightning swift, with every ounce of strength she had behind it.

Blood flew in a circle that caught every spectator in the front row. A bit of warm spray touched Liliana’s cheek. The new penny scent of blood overpowered the scent of sweaty lion.

The bushy-maned lion-kin's head slid off backward. His weapon dropped from limp fingers. Liliana rode the twitching body to the ground.

The crowd that had been shouting and growling in a cacophony of noise so ubiquitous, Liliana had long since ceased to hear it, went silent with a collective gasp.

She stood balanced on the lion-kin's shield on top of his massive chest drunk with battle joy. She lifted her face to the ceiling, too high on adrenaline to care that everyone was staring at her. "Daniel Magoro is the king of the lions of North Carolina!" she shouted. "Anyone who says different must face me!"

She opened all her eyes and bared her tiny fangs to her potential opponents. She turned a circle, feet balanced on the shield atop the dead lion beneath her, with the champion lion's blood dripping from her arm blade. "Who challenges Daniel Magoro?" she shouted, daring anyone to answer.

The lions that had spoken for Tray Bradley all dropped their eyes in submission as she looked at them.

One man didn’t look away. Colonel Alexander Bennet met her gaze with one as fierce as her own. Some intense emotion that she couldn't name shone from his dark eyes.

Liliana wished she had not given her word not to look into the prince's heart and mind. She would have given anything to know what he thought and felt in that moment.

Arel Magoro's voice broke the tense silence. "Daniel is king!" she shouted.

Every face but Liliana's and Alexander's shifted and roared in a wave of sound so deep it rumbled the spider-kin's belly. It shook the metal supports of the old hangar.

By the cage door, Daniel was mobbed by the jubilant lions who supported him, and a great deal more who had been too afraid to express their support before. Strong, hairy shoulders lifted the big old lion and carried him away. Even most of the lions who had supported Bradley smiled with relieved delight that Daniel would be king instead.

The pride swept Daniel and his family away, out the doors into the parking lot to celebrate under the stars,

Liliana was left standing in a cage with a dead body.

The cage doors were designed to be opened from the outside. With both arms in good shape, the spider-kin could probably have found a way out.

Probably.

Liliana hated cages. Battle joy still sang in her blood from defeating a powerful opponent in single combat, yet she was stymied by a cage.

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