I pushed even closer to the front, knowing that if it looked like Kade was losing the fight I would call forth the mecca and blast the two-headed monster to bits, consequences be damned. The beast reared up on hidden hind legs like a horse ready to charge, and Kade wasted no time with fanciness. He just dug his feet into the ground and charged, running right at it. I knew Kade’s fighting style by now, which gave me a semblance of reassurance that he would be perfectly fine, but still, as I watched my mate slam into the beast, knocking him backwards with the force of his blows, my heart was definitely in my throat.
The beast recovered quickly, striking back at Kade with one of his taloned hands, opening a gash on Kade’s shoulder, but he barely flinched. He leaped forward, grabbed one of the beast’s heads in his large hands, and squeezed as hard as he could, twisting it around. The beast clawed at his back but my mate didn’t seem to notice. With a loud crack, the head Kade held flopped to the side. The beast lashed out, kicking the shifter off of him, and Kade slammed onto his bleeding back, sliding across the dirt floor.
Before I could panic, Kade did a kick up and was on his feet, a set of handcuff chains dangling in his hands. The crowd roared. I guess there were no rules to these fights, and you could use anything around you as a weapon. As the beast charged him, Kade tightened the chain between two hands and pivoted to the left, swinging over the beast’s back and wrapping the chain around its one still-functioning throat. Kade pulled the chain taut and the beast’s eyes bugged out, its face going purple. Finally, after an agonizing minute, the fae creature dropped dead to the ground and the crowd roared.
Kade was hurt. His back was bleeding and full of dirt, but he stood strong, glaring at everyone in the room, his eyes only softening when they fell on me. The next fight was quicker, and while the goblin seemed to have some healing and regenerative powers, there was nothing that could bring an opponent back from having their head and spine ripped from their body, which looked to be Kade’s preferred way to end a fight. I was starting to feel positive about his odds. Only three to fight left, and then I assumed they would let him sleep or rest or whatever, and we would sneak out.
That’s when the fairy girl looked at the crowd and called for them to quiet down.
“Let’s make this interesting, shall we?” she yelled into the room, and the crowd went wild. I leaned forward, wondering what she was going to do. She flitted across the arena and the chains clanked off the three remaining fighters. A highborn fae man, a highborn female, and an ogre. Crap. Kade was strong, but he was injured and three against one were not odds I wanted on my mate.
The highborn woman looked the fiercest of all the fighters, outside of the guy with two-heads who was now dead. She did look a bit emaciated, but still tough. She wore all black, including a leather corset and canvas pants. Not to mention her thin arms were littered with rock hard muscle. This wasn’t her first fight; she knew how to survive.
She looked up at the fairy and said, “Anything goes?”
The fairy nodded. The bell hadn’t rung yet, but in one quick movement the female highborn did a roll and popped up next to Kade. My mate tensed, ready for anything, but the girl just gave him a sidelong glance and extended her hand. “Partners?”
He paused, staring her down for a beat, before a grin slowly lifted one side of his lips and he took her offered hand. She was smart, picking the strongest and partnering with him. I wondered if in the end the fairy would force them to fight one another. Something we would deal with if it happened. The moment Kade and Badass chick’s hands met, the crowd roared. They liked the idea of this team up. The fairy wasted no more time now, and rang the bell to start the round.
Kade and the female highborn moved together as one, almost as if they had been fighting as a team for many years. The pair they faced looked slightly nervous, but didn’t hesitate to step forward either. When there was about three feet between the four of them, Kade and his partner quickly split apart so that they could come in from either side. I had been right about this badass chick, she was trained, and fast. She had her opponent on the ground in a headlock within seconds, which left Kade to deal with the ogre.
My mate flicked one quick glance in my direction, as if he just needed to reassure himself that I was still there, that I was still safe, and then he launched himself at his massive foe. The ogre was strong but slow, which allowed Kade to get in a few heavy hits before he received one back himself into the chest. With a bearlike roar, his body started to shift into his in-between form, which gave him some of the strength and speed of his full bear form.
With both hands, he latched onto the ogre’s arm and wrenched it to the right. At the same time he released his left handhold and smashed that fist into the fae’s face. He then rained down as many hard and heavy blows as he could manage. The ogre got a few of his own in as well, but he was vastly outpowered by the bear king.
It didn’t take long before Kade and his fae partner had the other two either knocked out cold on the ground or dead. It was hard to tell. The dirt had turned to mud with the blood, and it made my stomach twist. Bits and pieces of fae were scattered around the ring, and I wondered how many had died down there for the entertainment of others.
I knew whatever happened next would determine how we got out of here. My mate would never kill a female unless it was life or death, and he would especially not want to kill this one after they had just fought to save each other’s lives. If the fairy called for them to fight each other, I was going to have to unleash the mecca and hope for the best. We would have to run, and running would probably entail the queen’s guard on our heels.
My hands stilled in the air, heat burning below the surface, as the fairy took center stage, her gossamer wings flitting about.
She seemed to consider the two before her. “What do you say? Another fight?” she asked, and the crowd roared, though less than they had earlier. The fairy seemed to consider Kade and the female again. “Or shall we let them get some sleep and round up a new group tomorrow? Start two man fights from now on? That was rather fun to see.”
This time the crowd’s roar was deafening; the walls shook as it thundered on. All I could think was, Thank the gods.