Page 169 of Upon Buried Embers
“Yes?” she says, her voice breathy.
“Get your fucking hand off of me before I remove it.”
She flinches back, hurt spreading across her face, but I see the anger too.
“But—”
“Leave!” She frowns, then she walks away, but not without giving me a scathing look.
“Calian, pass me your waterskin.”
“What?” His brows are furrowed.
“Pass me your fucking waterskin.”
He reaches down to grab it, eyeing me before passing it to him. Rohan opens it and pours it over the hand Darcia touched. My eyes widen in surprise, to which he notices.
“The only one I want to touch me is you, Elf.”
“What?”
“Next!” someone calls, and the two women in the ring walk away as Rohan stands, stroking a finger down my cheek before stepping into the center.
My fingers tighten in my cloak, feeling eyes on me.
“He’ll be fine,” Tofa whispers to me, even when the blue Dragonbond, Varan, walks in the center and the rope is tied, this one shorter.
“Why?”
“Because even with a rope, their fights can last hours. This way, it’s a little shorter as they can’t get too far from one another.”
“Hours?” I whisper, and she nods. “That’s…”
“Barbaric?” she smirks, and I huff out a laugh.
“Just the way we like it,” Calian says, shuffling closer to her, and I watch Tofa’s cheeks heat.
“Hey,” she says casually to him, but the look in her eyes says otherwise.
I hide my smile.
“Just in time,” he says, and then shouts as Rohan swings the first punch.
My head snaps to him, and I watch in somewhat horror and amazement as they go blow for blow.
They don’t seem hurt at all, despite the blood already coming from both of them. In fact, Rohan has a smile on his face, and Varan laughs at something as he head-butts him.
The blood and violence should make me want to vomit, but with Rohan, I’m fixated on his strength, on his pure power when he grabs Varan by the back of the head and pulls him down to meet his knee.
“They’re insane.”
“They’re Dragonbonds.” Tofa replies, leaning in and whispering. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” I touch my throat. “I’m… better.”
“Beau told me about yesterday, he was really worried.” She nudges me. “Speak to him?”
“I will.” I need to thank him for trying to help me.
