Page 103 of Unbound

I eye Beck and his small parade of pretty girls. A prickle of foreboding crawls up my spine—whatever he's doing, I'm sure it's going to be stupid.

"Agreed,"Typhon says."His elemental, Uther, also lacks deep intelligence. And he's rather promiscuous, from what I hear."

"Elementals gossip about sex, too?"

"We do not gossip. We simply exchange facts, suspicions, and bits of news."

"So you gossip."

Typhon blows out a puff of steam from his nostrils and turns his head slightly from me, his reptilian pride clearly wounded."In any case. It seems the yellow-haired human is displaying his mating conquests. Impressive. I can deduce he has a preference for large milk glands in sexual partners. Curious. Would those not prove a hindrance in combat?"

"These," Beck says, sweeping his arm with a flourish, "are my suggestions for our fifth Crucible member. Each woman here was carefully vetted.”

One of the girls—a redhead with a curvy figure and, as Typhon noted, large "milk glands," cocks her head. "You said you had a surprise for me."

"Right, Misti!" Beck says, moving to touch both her arms and bend down to her height. "You've got a one in five chance of being added to our group. That's the surprise."

"But who are these other girls?" She asks, pointing at the others, who all look equally confused. "You told me you didn't talk to Havi anymore."

"Excuse me?" Havi asks. She's a dark-skinned girl with upturned eyes and cat-like features. "You said Misti was 'old news.'"

"Old news?" Misti asks, stepping out of line to face off with Havi. A dagger of water forms in her hand and the temperature in the room drops like a stone. "You want to see old news? Because I can show you?—"

"Ladies, ladies," Beck says, stepping between them. "We can all be friends here. But... only one of you can be our fifth. So who is it going to be?"

"In a way, it's almost impressive," Mireen says out of the side of her mouth. We're both sitting on the safety of a comfortable couch as we watch the tensions rise among Beck's girls. "How does someone so dumb manage to string along so many people?"

"Hold on," a black-haired girl named Poltrice cuts in. "Are you still sleeping with all these whores, too?"

"Hah," Brunhild says. She's taller than all the other girls by at least a head and nearly Beck's size with broad shoulders and muscular arms. "She admits she is whore. This is funny."

"What did you say?" Misti says, raising her water dagger, her eyes flashing dangerously.

"Real man sleeps with who he likes. Just like real woman does. Weak woman calls names." Brunhild spreads her wide arms. "We should fight for him."

I raise my eyebrows and look to Ambrose. He has a small handful of nuts he smuggled from the dining room and he's snacking on them eagerly, eyes wide as he watches the unfolding chaos.

"We don't need to fight," Beck says. "I was hoping we'd just?—"

But all hells break loose.

Misti gets disarmed and pinned to the ground by Poltrice, who is tackled by Brunhild.

There's some hair pulling, a lot of shouting, a little bit of unsanctioned channeling, and then the elementals appear.

I pull my feet up to keep my distance from the melee as water elementals clash amid the wrestling and screaming girls. Despite the tensions, nobody is going for fatal attacks, thankfully. It looks more like a training session on overdrive.

Somehow, it's all over in less than a minute. Beck is slapped no less than four times as disheveled and pissed girls storm out of the room.

Once the dust has settled, Brunhild is the last one standing and she wears a satisfied grin.

Beck clears his throat and brushes some dust from his uniform. "Well," he says. "That's basically how I planned for things to go. More or less. Winner, Brunhild!"

"This was good plan," Brunhild notes, arms folded as she nods with satisfaction.

"Meet Brunhild," Beck says, gesturing with both hands. "Her elemental was that giant crab doing the hair pulling. The crab is called Nora."

Mireen eyes me. "Is he serious?"

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