Page 39 of To Claim a King

They had dragon strength. She didn’t. But she did have a bond with a tiger; never had she thought she’d be able to tap into it. Right now, her steps proved it. She was Claws.

She cleared the distance, effortlessly making it to the finish line in moments after this.

One certain traitor didn’t like that one bit.

“Oh for the sake of everything holy on this land! Won’t you just fucking give up yet? You should never have been allowed to partake in The Claiming,” Janive practically yelled.

“You poisoned me.”

She didn’t know how she’d deduced it; deep down, she just felt it.

“You would have done us all a favor if you’d just died from it, you filthy human skank.”

Well, that was quite enough of that.

She turned toward the royal tribune and asked, loud and clear, “Can I kill this piece of shit?”

Everyone gave her a thumb up.

Janive probably expected her to start a sword fight she hoped to win. But Xandrie had no intention to honor her that way - not when the woman had attempted to murder her withpoison,the most cowardly way she could have picked. She didn’t deserve it.

Xandrie smiled as she felt the bond with her closest friend still firmly in place; in the blink of an eye, Claws was on Janive, teeth bared, mouth wide, jumping right for her throat, and ripping it from her body. Janive’s body lay, crooked and bloody, in the sawdust.

Xandrie raised her gaze to the stands and let the Elders see the tiger in her eyes. Best they know she’d been controlling Claws, so none of them get any ideas.

She turned just in time to see Saskia pass the line before Althara.

“Err- if that’s what you do with your contenders, you won,” the dragoness joked, pointing to the other woman.

Xandrie smiled back awkwardly.

“I need to apologize. I thought you’d poisoned me.”

Saskia looked like the very idea offended her.

“No way. If I wanted you dead, I would just challenge you in combat. Or, you know, fry you up. Only if youreallypissed me off, though.”

That seemed fair enough.

More or less.

“By the way,” Saskia cried loud, also turning to the Elders and the King, “I renounced my claim.”

Althara echoed the same pledge, which didn’t make sense to Xandrie until everyone in the stands fell silent, and then dropped to their knees.

Shit.

Epilogue

Saskia believed in strength; she knew, in the first round of The Claiming, that Xandrie had only won against her thanks to a fair bit of luck. She’d gone easy on her. She hadn’t respected her because she hadn’t done anything to deserve it.

“Nothing personal,” the woman explained indifferently with a shrug. “Everyone says I’m a bitch. They aren’t wrong.”

She also didn’t mind being seen that way; bitches got things done.

After hearing that she’d fought for them, and risked her life to get their shield back up? Things had changed. But she knew how tales could be spun, and she hadn’t seen it for herself.

“I see you now. You’re strong enough for this - for us. You’ll be a fair Queen. I might have the strength, but I lack…”

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