Meaning she wants to steal my Scala powers. If only she’d say that in plain English, I could use it as a confession.
“I owe you nothing. You’re here to steal my powers.” I’m tempted to add a ‘riiiiiiight?’ to the end of that sentence, but that fall into the ‘not too subtle’ category of sting operation. I’m already pushing the envelope as it is.
Adair raises her arms again. Another igni cord blasts at me, heading straight for my waist once more. I leap high into the air, do a somersault, and land safely out of harm’s way. In response, I conjure an igni wrecking ball that swings across the warehouse floor, taking out Adair as well as five more aisles of crates.
This is fun and all, but neither of us is getting the upper hand. And at this rate, we’re bound to knock over the aisle where Lincoln and everyone else are hiding. I need a new strategy, and fast. My warrior sense kicks in, running through approaches and options. An idea appears in my mind. I nod once to myself. It’s worth a try.
The next igni-cord that Adair sends my way, I dodge it while making an offer. “How about a quick truce? Let’s see if we can talk this out before we kill each other.”
“Before I kill you, more like. Why don’t you send me to Hell?”
“So you can steal my igni? Not going to happen.” I lower my arms. “Let’s discuss options. Short truce?”
She doesn’t need to answer, really. I know I have my truce because she’s stopped sending the same igni-cord attack at me for the umpteenth time.
I slowly walk towards Adair, my arms down and palms facing forward. “Here are my terms. Want my igni? Come and get them like a warrior. Let’s fight one to one, not use igni as shields. You’ve got the blood of a demon in you now. Show me how strong you are. Take what’s yours, if that’s what you think my powers are.”
We’re a yard apart when I stop.
Adair’s mismatched eyes narrow. “You’re an Arena warrior.”
“I thought you were the Great Lady of the greatest House, Acca. The first Scala heir. The first Angelbound to Lincoln. Are you telling me now that you’re too frightened to fight?” I slap on the snarkiest grin I can manage. “Let me guess what kind of demon blood you have in you. Slug class? Insect, perhaps? No doubt, it’s something small and slimy that hides in the shadows. Lowest of the low.”
It’s the ‘lowest of the low’ bit that gets her.
At those words, Adair’s eyes flare demon-red. Pay dirt. It took me years to learn to control my inner wrath demon. As Adair’s about to discover, that inner fighter will make you do all sorts of stupid stuff if you aren’t careful. I don’t want to be a premature gloater, but I can’t help but smile, just a little.
Adair bends over at the waist and races towards me, ready to head-butt me in the stomach. As she rushes forward, I work hard not to roll my eyes. Here’s exactly the kind of stupid move that I was hoping to goad her into. Head butting? Really?
Adair’s skull rams into my belly, slamming me onto my back. I make a great show of pretending to pant for air, like the wind was knocked out of me. Adair straddles my rib cage and presses my hands against the floor, careful to keep our palms flush against one another.
The set-up is in place. Time to get a confession.
“What are you…” Pant, pant, pant. “Going to do now?”
“Steal your powers, of course.”
Bingo. A massive jolt of happy runs right through me.
The ignited end of a baculum sword appears at Adair’s cheek, the rest of it attached to a very pissed-off Lincoln. He speaks two words in his most menacing-yet-Princely-way: “Get up.”
Adair looks into Lincoln’s eyes. “No, my love. I have to take—” But then, her gaze rests on the array of folks standing behind Lincoln. “How are you all here?”
I hop back up to standing and I must admit, it’s a pretty impressive group we pulled together at the last minute. There are my parents, Octavia, Connor, Cissy, and about a dozen Rixa knights in blood-red armor. These guys run the top-priority jail for especially bad thrax.
My tail and I exchange a high-five. We did it. We actually caught Adair.
Suddenly, my heart feels so light, I could float out of this warehouse. It’s probably bad form to do a happy-dance right now, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to. Badly.
Mom steps forward, pulls out a parchment, and reads the official charges against Adair. There’s a lot of awesome stuff in there about why stealing igni power is one of the worst crimes in the after-realms. Dad suggested putting that in. Nice touch.
Once Mom’s done, Octavia takes the sheet from her hand. “We accept the prisoner transfer.” She motions to the Knights. “Take her to the dungeons.”
It was Connor’s idea to put Adair into the dungeons at Arx Hall. They aren’t exactly a five-star hotel, but they’re pretty close. I pushed for a more dungeon-y setting, but there’s only so far I can push at this point.