Deciding Skies (Fate's Intent Book 2) Read Free

You can’t with Jaylyn. She’ll heal in seconds.”
    “I’m not going to treat her that way because I can but she’s staying in my room tonight so we’ll have to wait and see what happens.”
    “With that cute little tight ass? I can already guess what will happen.”
    “Hey!” Troy leaned in front of me suddenly just to hit him. “Don’t talk about her like that!”
    “Okay, that’s enough.” I moved Troy back into his own space. “Father’s here.”
    I watched him arrive, taking slow steps around the arena and took his seat in the high throne. He was such a royal. There have been times when I would have liked to forget but it all comes back when I see him behave around the public. It’s like how I should be but I was much more relaxed than him. I can’t even remember the last time I heard him laugh or even if I ever have. He always took things way too seriously and even now, he merely gave a simple hand signal for the duel to begin. He didn’t even have anything to say; he just wanted to watch.
    I turned my head when the door on the other side of the arena opened and three men stepped out. This was all wrong. These guys were huge like Darius huge but all of them. One had a large ax, another a heavy hammer and the other bore two long blades. They looked more than experienced and dressed for battle.
    “Oh no.” Troy muttered, putting his face in his hands. “I can’t watch this.”
    “I thought you said you fixed it?” Darius whispered.
    “I thought I did too.” I looked over towards my father and Lamar was sitting to his right with a triumphant smile, only making me more worried. “But it seems Lamar issued a new proposal. There’s nothing we can do now but watch and hope.” I put a comforting hand on Troy’s shoulder and he looked back up.
    The battle started out slowly.
    The men acted as if they didn’t know who was going first and just stood still, perhaps unsure if this was even real. They were probably never told they had to fight women. That would have been a conflicting thought for any man and the arena was dead silent.
    “Awe. I think they’re feeling a bit scared.” Ruby muttered with a humorous chuckle.
    Everyone in the stands laughed softly from it being so quiet that even we could hear her and the man with the large ax took immediate offense to her words. He lost his brief moment of hesitation and charged towards Ruby, swinging hard.
    Darius was on the edge of his seat while watching her run at him but she dodged out of the way from his swing and things from here only got more interesting. She jumped up and grabbed a hold of the back of his collar and my eyes were entranced. I couldn’t stop watching. She ran up the wall behind him a couple steps then pushed off it, flipping herself right over to the front of him. As she let go, she pulled out her swords and quickly swung the right one at his neck and the left one at his waist once she was closer to the ground. I didn’t even know if she hit him because it looked so flawless.
    At first nothing happened, he was just standing there, motionless but I saw his blood on her swords; she had to have hit him. I watched her smile and then quickly spin around, extending her right leg and kicking him in the middle of his chest. His head fell forward to the ground and his torso was split from his lower body.
    The small audience got loud when he fell in pieces, hearing the metal echo around us among their chants.
    I immediately looked at my father. He was impressed but Lamar sneered in response. I knew he was beginning to think their skills were too great to be of Leccan origin and I began to be even more worried.
    “Did you see that?!” Darius cheered, making sure Troy and I were both looking. “What a move!” Ruby looked up at us and brought her hand up to her mouth for a fake yawn. “I think I’m in love.”
    It was a bold thing to say indeed but I never saw him stray his eyes from her. He very well could have been and just admitted