Courts and Cabals by G.S. D'Moore (best e reader for academics txt) 📕

I dodged them all, but wasn’t able to go on the offensive. Thrusts and slashes sung through the air as the troll stepped up his efforts, but I continued to dodge. It had nothing to do with my new sight. This was all muscle memory from hundreds of hours of training. The troll stopped and started too much for me to get into the zone, so my new sight hadn’t activated. I had a moment of fear where I suspected he knew about my ability, and that cost me.

I was a hair too slow, and a slash at my abdomen struck home. It wasn’t deep, in fact, it was barely more than a papercut, but the stinging sensation stretched all the way across my stomach, and blood welled out of the wound. I stumbled away to put distance between me and the grinning troll, but he didn’t pursue. He just stood there smiling.

“Oh shit, does he have a poison blade or something?” I panicked. As far as miserable ways to die went, being slowly poisoned to death was about as shitty as it got.

As the full panic started to set in, something miraculous happened. The skin slowly knit together and the blood stop dripping down into my pubes. The troll looked momentarily confused, until a slow applause began from outside the dueling circle.

“Clever,” Aveena called out. “But I’m sure you would have wanted your protective spell to help on something a little more serious.”

“Duh,” I almost facepalmed, but remembered I was holding a sword. The way Lilith kissed me, and traced her nails on my chest, was definitely magic. It was good to know she’d tried her best to tilt the odds in my favor, but shitty that I’d wasted the gift.

“I want more blood, Ser Fredrick,” the noble Fae called.

“Yes, my Lady,” the troll’s voice sounded like two boulders being rubbed together, and this time he charged.

He was fast, but not that fast. Still, I couldn’t just dodge his blade anymore. I finally had to parry. Our swords met with a clang. My whole body shook from the impact, and I almost lost the blade. If the troll had been using both hands, there was no doubt in my mind he’d have bisected me, but with just a single-handed grip, I was barely able to hold him off.

The big monster looked momentarily surprised that I’d survived the strike, but then growled in frustration. He followed it up with more attacks. He wasn’t playing it easy anymore. Aveena wanted blood, and it was his job to give it to her.

The big knight flowed through forms I knew, and some I didn’t, but the herky-jerky fighting style was gone. As the attacks came flying at me, so did my concentration. I entered the zone, and my sight easily flared to life. I saw where the knight was going to attack, and had half a second to counter. I moved smoothly around his strikes, and started to mount my own attacks. I felt my confidence grow as I made the knight give ground.

The beast snarled as I came close to scoring a hit with the tip of my blade. Unlike me, one hit was all it would take to bring the colossal fucker down. Aside from my sight, it was my greatest advantage in this fight. The cold iron would spread through his veins and end him just like I ended Chloe. He knew this, I knew this, everyone knew this; but no one expected me to be able to do it.

My blade passed less than an inch from the troll’s quad, and I knew in my bones I could have hit him. I could have ended this whole shit show, but his sword was coming straight for me. I had to pull up short to duck under the blade and back away. On the edge of my bubble of calm, I could hear yelling. There was some argument between the cabal and Aveena’s court, but I didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was the troll and his blade in front of me.

I could tell when the knight, a noble Fae, and vassal of a great Fae house who’d been in countless battles, got tired of this shit. I saw him sigh a mental “fuck it” and kick his game up to the next level. He was here to gain prestige with the heir to the House, possibly a future member of The Nine; he wasn’t going to die against some puny human. Or worse, be made to look like a fool.

He swung high, trying to take off my head. I moved away from the blade with a twirl, but my sight screamed a warning at me. He’d deduced I had some type of precognition, because he made sure to strike the instant momentum would work against me. I might be able to see half a second into the future, but I couldn’t fight physics. I did my best, I tried to contort out of the way, but the human body didn’t bend like that.

I still dodged eighty percent of the attack, but getting hit by twenty percent of the troll’s gigantic fist, with the bone protrusions sticking out of his knuckles, still sucked ass. The blow picked me up and tossed me like a rag doll. I felt parts of me break, flesh tear, and blood flow. I landed in a heap ten feet away. The jarring impact bruised me even more, and most importantly, shocked me into inaction.

Movement was life in battle, and being broken on the floor was an invitation to die. I heard Aveena’s laugh. Whatever she’d been arguing about was a distant afterthought. Dani was cursing up a storm, with more than one threat to put a variety of sharp objects up the noble Fae’s ass. I didn’t hear Xamira, but she was more of the silent type; Xander too.