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“My lord!” A feeble voice stammered from somewhere to my right.
I held up a hand to halt him, my gaze still fixed on the woman. She looked dead, or at the very least knocked out, but I knew better.
The first time I’d had to fight one of these things I’d hesitated because it was female. Or at least, it looked female. The bruxa walked around looking like young, high Fae women, but once angered they shifted back into their true form.
And that true form wasdisgusting.
Sure enough, across the room the thing that had once resembled a young Fae woman leapt to its enormous webbed feet.
It towered nearly fifteen feet tall. Its body was gray and boney, and I could see its internal organs moving around beneath its paper-thin skin. It looked down at me with huge, milky-white eyes and snarled showing a mouth of brown fangs.
I snapped my own fangs together menacingly.Come on, let’s get this over with,
Rising to the challenge, the thing charged running directly at me with enough force to bowl over a team of oxen. I waited until it was close, then I launched myself into the air and landed gracefully on four powerful paws. As I’d anticipated, the bruxa skidded to a halt, its weird milky white eyes going wide.
Not giving the beast a chance to recover, I lunged forward, raking at its hollow chest with my claws.
Within seconds the entire thing was over and I stalked back across the hall to lie on the carpet in front of my throne. That one was really too easy.
There seemed to be some sort of rumor going around Underneath that I’d make an easy kill. People were saying that I wasn’t really Gancanagh's son. That I hadn’t killed him, and that I was a weak seelie prince, sent here by the capital to turn Underneath into another high Fae city.
Now, challenger after challenger was showing up at the court to try and take the crown.
On my first morning here I’d had to fight seven duels, one after another, until finally one of my father’s former servants told everyone to go home and come back tomorrow. Every day since had been exactly the same.
Eighteen hours a day, I sat in the throne room and waited for monster after monster to try and kill me. I would kill them instead, sometimes two or three per hour, and then I’d get to sleep for a few hours before we did it all again.
I loved it.
If not for the fact that I couldn’t see Lonnie, I would have never wanted to leave.
I let my eyes roll back into my head, searching. Every time I thought of Lonnie—which was more often than was probably healthy—I always felt the urge to search for her. When they’d all been in Inbetwixt it was easy enough to watch her, but now they’d moved, and I wasn’t sure which city they’d decided to search next.
I let my eye search several streets in Overcast before blinking and returning to the task in front of me.
On the other side of the room, the waiting challengers were recovering from their shock over the Brexa. I could hear the murmuring as they egged each other on, choosing someone to face me next.
I was eying a sturdy looking troll with a large spiked club, thinking he might be a fun challenge, when the voice of my advisor rang out again.
“My lord!” This time, unwilling to be ignored, Draven darted out from behind the throne and stood directly in front of me.
Draven was a short, thin man who didn’t look like he would be much in a fight. He reminded me a bit too much of Mordant, making me predisposed to hate him. Still, he still might prove useful. There were so many things about Underneath that I didn’t know.
“I believe we should conclude for the day, your majesty,” Draven said imploringly.
“Why?” I growled, before remembering he wouldn’t understand me. I abruptly shifted back. “Why?”
He looked nervous, and averted his gaze from my lack of clothing before continuing. “I have a list you might like to go through.”
“A list?” I didn’t think I’d ever sounded so disgusted in my life.
“Yes. Of potential challengers. I’ll gladly explain further once…” he trailed off, jerking his head meaningfully at the group milling around the edges of the hall.
“Once there’s no audience?” I guessed.
“Precisely.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine. Send them away until tomorrow. I’m going to take a bath, I’m covered in guts.”
