Page 64 of Blood of Two Crowns

“I’m gonna punch you in the dick as soon as we leave here,” I murmured in a voice only he could hear. Malekai chuckled as our backs finally turned to the arena.“No need to threaten me with a good time.”

We rounded the corner and stepped into an empty locker room nearby. Malekai looked me up and down, taking in my crown and the new clothing that Bernard had made for me—without frills.

“It suits you, ya know…”

At his words, I finally exhaled the breath I’d been holding. His eyes dipped again to my unsteady hands as I pinched the bridge of my nose.

“I’m asking too much of them. I know it. Why did I ever think I could do this? I’m a fool. I haven’t earned their loyalty. Their trust. I can’t even?—

“—Hey Nakoa…”

I heaved a heavy sigh, eventually looking up from where I’d buried my face in my hand. “Yes?”

“Can I borrow your crown for a minute?”

“Huh?”

He nodded at the crown on my head. “Your crown. Pass it to me. There’s some fluff in it.”

Fluff?

“Oh… Thanks.”I removed it from my head, feeling like I’d simultaneously liberated the weight of the world from my shoulders as I handed it to him.

Malekai gifted me another one of his disarmingly charming smiles, as he took the crown and set it down on a nearby bench before he turned to face me again.

“And your… cape-thingy, please.”

What the hell is going on?

“My cape-thingy?”

“Yeah, turn around. I think there’s a shit stain on it.”

I reared back, twisting to try and look down at the offending garment in horror.“A shit stain?”

Malekai’s mouth trembled with restrained laughter. “Yep, just there.”

He unfastened the cape from my shoulders and turned to set the cape down beside my crown.

“What the fuck is going?”

When Malekai turned back towards me, his fist made a beeline for my face, and I was too shocked and stunned to do adamn thing about it. I stumbled backwards, crashing into a set of lockers behind me. I gaped at him in shock, chest heaving.Was this revenge for yesterday?

Malekai grinned, widening his stance and beckoned me forward. “One for one. Come on. Don’t hold back on me now, fancy pants.”

My heart squeezed so fucking tight with love for this male.

He was distracting me.

When I rose from the dented mess of lockers, Malekai’s feral grin was a mirror to my own.“How did you know violence was my language?”

Malekai’s smiling face scrunched up in a wince of anticipation as he watched my fist come sailing towards him. Another loud crash rang through the locker room as Malekai’s body collided with the lockers beside him. Blood trickled into his left eye as a bought of hearty laughter rumbled out of him.

“Awe fuck, mate. Again? Already?”

I glanced over my shoulder to find Val, along with the rest of myolana kah’hei,pouring into the locker room. I waved them off as Malekai accepted my offered hand and I pulled him to standing. “We’re fine.”

I felt more than heard Pomona’s admonishing scowl.“You’re both bleeding.”

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