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I blocked his second blow and decided to end the fight right now.
I dropped my sword. I snapped my arm forward and wrapped my hand around his neck. I tensed my arm and lifted him off the floor a full foot.
His eyes widened in shock. I guessed it was because no one had ever moved faster than he could before. He swung with his blades but I easily avoided them.
I did him a favor and threw him bodily into the opposite wall. He smashed into it, dazed for a moment. He struggled to get to his feet.
“I wouldn’t get up if I were you,” I said.
He collapsed. Either of his own volition or because he just couldn’t hold himself up any longer, I couldn’t tell.
The battle was over.
The klaxon sounded and I was ushered to the exit.
I didn’t expect to see Ivy when I reached the Prize Pool, so I wasn’t disappointed she wasn’t there.
The other girls presented themselves anyway. None looked particularly interested in me. Why would they? They knew my heart already belonged to another.
Lily approached and tried to interest me in her “wares.”
“Ivy isn’t with us right now. But perhaps you would like to peruse our other girls?”
“No thanks.”
Lily stepped in the way, blocking me from leaving.
“No. I must insist.”
“And I insist, I’m not interested.”
I moved to step around Lily but she was there in an instant. She moved quickly and it surprised me. She could have done very well in the pits. She sidled up close and said:
“Even if you don’t… take action with the girls, there are other things they can… do for you,” she said, and her eyes twinkled. “Like informative conversation.”
In all my years of fighting in the pits, I had never heard a madam—this one or any other—suggest there was anything the girls could do but the one thing they’d been abducted to perform.
There was something in the way she smiled at me, the way her eyes drifted over my shoulder to the girls, that she was trying to tell me more than she was allowed to say.
Besides, what harm could it do to listen to one of the girls? It wasn’t like I had to do anything with her. If I misunderstood Lily’s meaning that there was something of interest the girls could tell me, I could send her on her way back to the Pool. So, I nodded.
“Which girl do you suggest?”
“Might I suggest Harper? She’s an excellent conversationalist.”
Ah. The friend with the terrible perfume. Yes. I remembered her.
“Well, Harper, Lily tells me there’s something you’re interested in telling me. What is it?”
Harper glanced at the other girls lined up beside her. She was nervous. But of what?
“She’s very… shy,” Lily said. “Perhaps you would like to speak with her in private?”
Whatever it was they had to tell me, it was clear no one present but Lily and Harper knew about it.
I ran my eye over Harper. She was small, even shorter than Ivy, and had tanned skin and welcoming eyes. She wasn’t strong but I sensed she could be quick. A poison inscribed on the edge of a knife could be more deadly than any unique ability.
What reason would she have of making an attempt on my life? I wondered. Because I had turned her down so many times over the years and chosen her friend as a mate?
