Page 95 of Immortal Throne

CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE

“When are you going to stop moping?”

I glanced over at Chupey from my position at the window, chin resting on my palm and my elbow balanced on the sill. I lifted an eyebrow at the snarky tone. “Since when do you care whether I mope? You’ve gotten your walkies today.”

Chupey panted, his tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth. “I’m just saying that being heartbroken isn’t a good look for you.”

This was what life looked like for me now. Back in the cage, back to doing what I excelled at, and for what? To come home alone to a demon familiar who constantly berated me for what I did. It wasn’t so much that he disapproved, only that he wished my emotions would stop making the decisions for me.

When he’d returned from the Underworld, I’d held him and cried, but our dynamic quickly returned to our familiar bickering.

“He wasn’t going to kill you, you know,” Chupey continued.

“Stop trying to make me feel better.” I cast him some serious side-eye. This wasn’t the first time he’d tried but for some reason, his insistence irritated me today.

“He wasn’t,” Chupey continued. “I saw the way he looked at you. I heard how he broke Mobius’s hands because he dared to touch you. Those aren’t the actions of an indifferent man.”

“It doesn’t matter now,” I tossed back to him, rising at last to grab my bag. I’d wasted enough time. The fights wouldn’t wait for me.

“But it does matter. He didn’t do what you think he did, Sloane.” Chupey trotted after me on the way to the door.

And I really didn’t want to hear it. Ryker and the Underworld no longer concerned me. “If you keep this up, I’m going to call that no-kill shelter.”

This is it. I closed the door behind me, shutting my demon familiar inside the apartment and heading toward my next fight.This is my life now.

This was how every day would look until I died or actively made an effort to change, and that might be a long time coming.

How wonderful.

* * *

My opponent attemptedto jam his fist against my teeth with all the force at his disposal. I dodged the swipe and kicked his leg out from underneath him. He’d been expecting the move but that didn’t make it any less potent, and the beefy brawler stumbled back a step. Getting him off balance was good enough for me and I launched into an attack of my own.

The fights had been this way since I got back.

I thought they’d be harder than they actually were, considering my demon half was slowly killing me.

Except, for some reason, I didn’t feel like I was knocking on death’s door anymore and my demon magic continued to hum inside me.

“Fucking bitch.” The guy looked up from a crouch and spat out some blood. “You were supposed to go down easily.”

I approached him with a cocky saunter I’d learned to perfect over the years.

No, I didn’t feel like death anymore. I felt good.

Better than I deserved to feel under the circumstances.

“Didn’t they tell you?” I asked him, having to raise my voice over the jeers of the crowd gathered around the cage. “I have a reputation.”

“You’re a woman,” the bald-headed asshole retorted.

“Ah, that’s your mistake right there.”

He launched out of the crouch and came at me with all of his strength, his growl rivaling the crowd in volume. I sidestepped him easily, spun, and slammed my fist into the back of his head, sending him sprawling forward. He landed on his stomach with a slap.

“I’m so much more than a woman.”

The man scrambled to his feet. He should’ve stayed down. The demon inside of me rose to attention. The powers I’d claimed when I fought the monster during the tactical trial roared to life, and I embraced them wholeheartedly.

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