Poison Throne: A Dark College Romance(42)

Nolan snorted. “A little of both. And you can’t talk. Your first time here you asked me about a million questions in eighteen seconds.”

I nailed him with a deadpan stare. “That is legitimately not even possible. Asshole.”

Nolan reached out and brushed a hand across my cheek. “You’re cute when you get feisty.”

Unfortunately, I couldn’t show him just how feisty I could be because we were right in the midst of the crowd. The atmosphere was a little different tonight; for some reason it felt lighter, less cloak and dagger. Maybe it was that my purple outfit was covered in a robe, so fewer eyeballs were on me, or maybe it was that the news of the successful vote had already reached the resis—Society who ran these underground fights.

Either way, I was loving the new feel, and it sent trills of excitement through me. This was often how I felt just before a fight, and… it was fucking addictive.

“Welcome to fight niiiiiight” The announcer’s voice blasted through the room as everyone started to move toward the four square-shaped fight zones. There was more space in this section and judging by the additional marked off areas it looked like tonight was going to have a lot of fights.

Mattie started to bounce on her toes. “I can’t believe I’m here. This is not even remotely as grungy and gangland as I was expecting.”

A few faces turned our way at her loud exclamation, but a swift stare from Fallen Angel sent them right back to minding their own business.

“Fighters, make your way to the cordoned-off area,” the announcer continued. “We will announce the draw as soon as we have all of you checked in.”

“I’m going to keep an eye on Mattie,” Nolan said. “You all do me proud tonight, or I’m going to cancel our ugly Christmas sweater card this year. Winners get ugly sweaters, alright? Just winners.”

Jordan and Rafe punched their friend on the shoulder, and Mattie gave me a quick hug.

“Kick ass, bitch,” she said as she pulled away. “I’m gonna bet on you, and then we can use that money for booze and strippers.”

“Not a fucking chance,” Rafe growled before he and Jordan dragged me away toward the fighter’s special location.





Chapter 34





“How are you feeling?” Jordan asked as we stood a little to the side of the fighters. “Feeling in the zone? Not tired?”

I laughed at his cute worrying. “I feel great! I’m so ready for this fight… It’s exactly what I need after that stressful vote.”

“You’ll fight twice,” Rafe said. “The three of us all have two fights tonight, actually.”

Somehow Rafe always knew these things even though they were supposed to be secret.

“First round,” the announcer started. “Fallen Angel versus Cyclops in fight square one. The Bishop versus Viper in the fight square two. Sushi versus Anaconda in the third square. Sam versus Magic Hands in the fourth. Fighters, make your way to your assigned squares now.”

Rafe and Jordan were both fighting in the first round, and not near each other either, so I’d be running back and forth like a crazy person trying to see them both. “Be careful,” I whispered.

Jordan grabbed my right hand, Rafe the other, and both of them held on for a few seconds. When we were together like this, everything so perfect, it made me feel like we could do this. We could make our weird trio work. I was just a chick dating two dudes, and that was okay, right?

Modern independent woman. In love with two princes.

A much better fairy tale, if you asked me.

“See you in five minutes,” Rafe said, his confidence at peak as always. Jordan just laughed before they both headed to their fights. Once everyone was in their square, the announcer kicked off the first round.

I’d seen Rafe fight many times, and I had no doubt that Cyclops, with his one stupid, fucking “eye” cut out of his mask, was going to be nothing more than blood and guts in less than the five minutes Rafe had predicted. With that in mind, I decided to watch Jordan’s fight this round.

I’d never seen Sushi in action, so I pushed my way right to the front, needing to be as close as possible to the magic. Fuck, this was my aphrodisiac. Fighting, being around fighting, watching hot dudes fight. Sign me up for life.

For some reason I’d expected Jordan to be a sword man—maybe a samurai sword or even short blades—but he shocked me when he pulled out a set of nunchakus. That was not a discipline I’d ever really learned, outside of using them to increase my hand speed and coordination. It was not the easiest weapon to handle, and I was excited as fuck to see what Jordan could do with them.

His opponent, Anaconda, didn’t have any weapons outside of studded brass knuckles, and he eyed the prince warily. Jordan held his weapon in both hands, and then in almost slow motion, let one side fall, the metal glinting off the low lights in here.

It looked like his sticks were custom made, a mixture of wood and metal with some lethal-looking spikes across the tips. The moment Jordan started to swing them around, getting faster and faster until his hands and the weapons were nothing but blurs, was the moment I knew his opponent was going to forfeit this match.

No one, unless you were skilled beyond fuck, would go up against Sushi. And Anaconda, who’d brought brass knuckles to a nunchaku fight, was definitely not skilled.

Jordan moved with startling speed, twisting his body as he struck. The stick in his right hand cracked Anaconda across the arm, eliciting a yelp from the fighter.

That was followed with a quick, “I yield!”

“Anaconda yields,” the announcer shouted, “and is henceforth banished from fighting again tonight. Sushi is the winner in square three.”

Not one minute later… “Fallen Angel is the winner with a knockout punch in square one. Cyclops is done for the night.”

Jordan and Rafe both rejoined me on the other side of the fight squares; neither of them had even broken a sweat. “One minute,” Jordan teased Rafe. “How long were you?”

Rafe just shook his head. “Let’s see who is fastest in round two.”

I leaned in closer to Jordan, my heart still pounding hard, even though I’d barely seen him fight. “You are so getting lucky tonight,” I whispered, desperate to drag him out of here so he could put those magic hands to good fucking use.

His eyes darkened until they were near black, and I swallowed hard as he pressed me back into the wall we were near. “If we didn’t have another fight,” he murmured, leaning down so our faces were close, “I’d be hauling your ass to our room.”

The announcer's voice droned on in the background, but I totally missed it because blood was rushing in my ears—not to mention heat pooling in my center.

“Violence is up,” Rafe said, sounding amused as he broke us up. “Square three.”

Neither Jordan nor Rafe had been called this round, so they followed me over and stood on the east side while I climbed into the ring, shed my black robes, and handed them back to Rafe. My sword was in the special scabbard I had for it, so I pulled it free, removed the belt, and handed that back as well.

I had no idea who my opponent was, but that didn’t really matter since I had no prior knowledge of almost any fighter here. I’d only seen a few, and of those, none posed a threat to me.

A male stepped into the ring, or more accurately, was halfway through climbing into the square, when a huge shadow loomed over him and yanked him backward. A blade sliced across my opponent’s throat in a split second, and I blinked wondering what the fuck had just happened.

Before I could blink again, the murderous shadow leaped gracefully into the square with me, and I caught sight of his blade—a katana that was very similar to my wakizashi, except for the length of blade. As a larger and stronger fighter, Uriel preferred that length, whereas I was more comfortable with my weapon.

“Security!” Rafe shouted. “This man is a wanted terrorist! Arrest him.”

Uriel ignored the prince, smiling directly at me. His lips and eyes were the only things visible beneath his traditional fighting garb, and it was enough for me to see that he was not going anywhere. “Are you afraid to fight me, Rose?”

His words struck a chord deep inside me. I had been afraid my whole life of going up against my sensei, but while Uriel hadn’t seemed to move on from who I used to be two years ago, I was a very different person now.

Now I felt strong and supported. Now I would do whatever it took to keep my life safe, just as it was today.

A bunch of security were hurrying toward us, and I knew I could let them try and take Uriel out. But there was no one skilled enough here to do that, no one except me. “Wait! I want to fight him,” I shouted.

Rafe and Jordan started swearing from the side, already preparing to jump into the square and defend me.

“Stop!” I said to them, clutching my sword tight. “I need to do this. It’s been a long time coming, and there’s no one else here who could best him.”

Rafe scoffed, and I shook my head. “Not even you, Angel. I know Uriel. I know exactly how he thinks and moves and reacts. I can do this.”

Uriel let out a low derisive laugh while shoving the dead fighter the rest of the way out of the ring and into the crowd. Blood slicked the floor at the side of our fight space, but luckily the worst of it had run into the spectator area and not made our ground slippery.