Redeemed by Rubies (A Dance with Destiny Book 6) (40 page)

“Where did you get those beauties?” Ardune asked as he stepped up beside her.

“When I received Vashti…” She held up her hand, turning it from side to side. “…I received
these
.” She smiled. “They are my favorite thing about being the Angel I was.” She clinked them together, producing a magical chiming sound. “I love my claws. And… they perfectly match my priceless wings.”

“Well, you might want to pop those out as well,” he said. “Looks like you’ve made them pretty mad.”

Jenevier turned when Ardune softly elbowed her, and saw the hoard of gathering Banshee.

“What? The whole damn coven at once?”

Ardune chuckled. “You ready?”

Jenevier popped the bones in her neck and loosened up her shoulders. “I was just warming up, Brother.”

Ardune glanced at her from the corner of his eye, a sardonic smirk painted across his dark lips. “You are not like any Lady I have ever known before.”

“Aww… Do you think ill of me now? Am I not
Lady
enough for you?”

When she winked at him, Ardune chuckled.

“More Lady than even a seasoned Drowl could handle, yes,” he mumbled.

Jenevier was still smiling as she charged toward the oncoming hoard.

*****

It took a few minutes, yes, but soon the hardened pillars of Banshee-shaped salt were being removed from the arena floors.

“Gratitude, Brother,” Jenevier said, breathing heavily. “Your might is astounding. I’m not sure I could have handled that many in one go.”

Ardune inclined his head toward her. “Anything for my Lady.”

She smiled. “You’re as quick as the wind, Drowl. You want I should just sit this next one out?”

He chuckled. “If it pleases you.”

Jenevier nearly toppled backwards when a giant creature suddenly landed in the center of the arena floor, sending dirt and sand flying in every direction.

She coughed and fanned the air in front of her. “Wh-what the hell is that?”

Ardune growled under his breath. “Those bloody Banshee and their ear-splitting shrieks… they’ve stirred up the Griffins.” He glanced sideways at her. “Looks like
neither
of us can sit this one out, my Lady.”

Jenevier raised her sword… just as stone wings suddenly blocked her view.

“…Hunter?”

“Un. Freaking. Believable,” the Gargoyle grumbled.

She chuckled. “Don’t go picking up my bad habits, Brother. You are too noble a creature for such as that.”

Hunter was still smiling when he drew his blade. “I’ll clip his wings.
You
…” He glanced back at Jenevier. “…watch out for its claws.”

“
And
the beak,” Ardune added.

*****

The three allies didn’t actually defeat the giant Griffin, no. After Jenevier was way past winded, the mortally wounded creature crawled up through the stands and over the edge of the witch-vine covered arena.

Jenevier was bent over double as she watched her injured opponent retreating, holding her side and breathing heavily.

“Bloody hell,” she rasped. “Are there any timeouts in this thing?” She stood up and stretched her back. “How about a water break?”

Hunter chuckled. “The tournament was originally set for one match at a time.
You’re
the one who challenged the whole of Sheol.”

She bumped him with her shoulder. “Go big or go home, eh?”

Hunter snorted and shook his head. “I’ve never met a creature so desperate for an expedient death.”

“Pfft… if I wished to pass on swiftly, Brother, I wouldn’t have unsheathed my second blade. I have no desire to die this day, nay. Alas, death is preferable to bondage.”

Jenevier was still smiling at the large Gargoyle when she heard the unmistakable sound of an arrow being released. The almost silent
twong
drew her attention half a heartbeat before the tip pierced through her thigh.

“Gargoyles to the ready!” Hunter yelled out his command as he leapt into the stands. “Find the coward!”

Jenevier was silent—numbly watching the blood soak through her pant leg—when screams rang out from the audience. She glanced up just in time to see Ardune move like a blur, making short work of the unlucky onlookers in the general area of where the archer should have been.

When an eerie silence finally hushed the crowd, Jenevier called out, “Any luck?”

Hunter turned toward her, shaking his head.

“No, my Lady.” Ardune glanced her way. “There’s not a bow among them.”

She withdrew Iole Máni and sliced off the pointy end sticking through the back of her leg, then grimaced as she grabbed the dark feathers and pulled the other half out through the front.

Jenevier growled loudly before yelling, “A coward can never defeat me! If you have the nerve, step forth!”

“
I
have the nerve.”

She slowly turned toward the unfamiliar, deep, warbly voice.

“I have nerves to spare.”

Water trickled down from the creature’s sodden hair as he took another step toward her.

“Holy stars in the merciful heavens…” Jenevier gaped at her massive opponent. “What
are
you?”

The creature held up one webbed hand, proudly displaying his talon-like claws.

“No!” Ardune yelled. “Get back, my Lady!”

Yet, Jenevier remained as she was.

When the reptilian looking creature opened his beak-like mouth, he let his forked tongue dart out between the gaps in his needle-sharp teeth.

“What am I?” he hissed, amused. “I am the god of the deep, the demon of still waters. What I am, tiny human, is a Kappa.”

“A… Kappa?”

When the creature flexed its large neck muscles, Jenevier noticed the giant spiked tortoise shell upon his back.

“But…” She furrowed her brow. “Aren’t Kappa supposed to be childlike water nymphs? I mean… I’ve never actually seen one myself or anything, but Mika used to tell Lala fairy stories concerning mischievous little Kappa. They were
nothing
like you.”

“No,” he said before chuckling. “The ones yet remaining upon the layers are
nothing
like me.”

When the Kappa took another step forward, Jenevier took a shaky step back. The sharp pain in her leg went straight to her brain. She winced.

“Wh-what is that upon your head?”

The Kappa reached up. “This? This is a bowl,” he said, lifting it. “It protects my power.”

Jenevier’s eyes went wide when she saw that the top of his head looked as if it had been scooped out and filled back in with nothing but water.

“I will give you a hint,” the Kappa said. “Spill my power upon the sand. Only
then
can you defeat me.”

“You mean… just knock off the bowl and let the water underneath spill?”

He chuckled. “Yes.
Just
knock off the bowl and let the water underneath spill.”

“No, Jenevier!”

She looked toward Ardune when he called out to her, frantically trying to make his way back down to the arena floor.

“Do not accept his challenge!”

“Quiet, Drowl,” the Kappa hissed before turning back to face her.

Jenevier furrowed her brow. “…Why?”

“Why what, little girl?”

“Why do you want to fight me? What will you gain from it?”

“What is wrong, tiny human? Do you fear me?”

She immediately straightened her shoulders and narrowed her gaze. “I fear nothing.”

“Is that so?”

When he ran his long tongue out again, Jenevier had to force herself not to visibly shiver.

“Sooo…” The Kappa drew the word out into a long hiss. “You fear nothing?” He chuckled again. “Not even your death?”

“Death?” Jenevier smiled then with only one corner of her mouth, readying Amatiste. “Well now, death is all but certain. Such is true for us all. You ready?”

“Almost.” The giant creature dug his taloned feet into the sands. “It is only proper that you know the name of the one who will claim you.”

Jenevier waited—silent, motionless.

The Kappa placed the upturned bowl back over his concaved skull. “My name… is Naga.”

“Wha—” She glanced toward Ardune, then back to the creature before her. “But…
my
name is Naga as well. Kagi Naga.”

The Kappa chuckled loudly. “A fire serpent, are you? Well, I am Mizu Naga—a water serpent. Which element do you think will overcome, little one? Fire… or water?”

Jenevier swallowed hard.

“Come, Kagi Naga.” The Kappa assumed his fighting stance. “Let me douse your lovely little flame.”

“No!” Ardune yelled.

“Get out of there!” Hunter was shoving creatures aside as he made his way back to the arena floor. “That beast will destroy you without even trying.”

Jenevier kept her gaze fixed with the Kappa’s as she answered the frantic Gargoyle. “Oh, trust me, Brother. He’ll
have
to try.”

The Kappa didn’t respond, yet moved with such speed… Jenevier almost didn’t have time to dodge his foot before the monster’s claws buried into the arena’s stone wall behind her.

She gritted her teeth and sucked in a sharp breath when her sudden movement betrayed just how badly that arrow had damaged her leg.

By the gods!
she thought.
Of all the times to be human, and minus a healer at that.

The Kappa didn’t give her time to think. He lunged for her again. Amatiste made a hollow, clanging sound as it banged off of the hard shell covering the creature’s back.

Dammit! He’s too fast. How am I supposed to get to that stupid bowl?

As she made to distance herself, the severed muscle of her left thigh refused to obey.

Jenevier barely turned in time to see the Kappa’s clawed foot, before the impact sent her flying across the arena floor.

Slamming hard against that granite wall hurt almost as badly as where the giant talon had pierced her side. She cried out. She couldn’t help it, couldn’t hold all that immense pain inside. Strangling, she coughed and she spit the rising blood from her mouth.

“My Lady!”

Jenevier ignored the Drowl’s shouts as she quickly tried to take a mental inventory of her injuries… and determine her next move.

The Kappa laughed a low, warbly laugh.

“Damn water serpent,” she mumbled to herself.

She tried to take a deep breath. It was no use. Jenevier had heard the sickening, cracking internal sound of her spine when she had made contact with the cold stone. Now, the dull numbness inched down from her lower back to the soles of her feet.

Not like this
, she thought, quickly ramming Amatiste’s point down into the ground, propping herself up upon her sword to keep from crumbling.
I will not die with my face in the sand. Come on, Kappa. Look in my eyes as you finish it.

“Well now… look at this.” Mizu Naga laughed. “The fire serpent now gazes at me through ruby flames. Are those ethereal orbs the source of your power?”

When the Kappa drew back his clawed hand to strike, Jenevier suddenly felt her diamond wings spring to life. It was the same as it had been when she’d finally recalled them upon Val Hal so many years ago… they exploded from her back like a million bursting stars—glorious and ethereal and magnificently lethal.

She immediately covered her face with those priceless pinions, instinctively trying to protect her precious eyes.

The jarring impact didn’t come.

She held her breath… waiting.

Then… Mizu Naga made a strange gurgling sound.

Jenevier looked up just in time to see the monster’s grotesque head jerked back—the bowl falling, water soaking the sand… as long sapphire claws sliced cleanly through the creature’s thick neck.

When the Kappa fell silently to the ground, Jenevier saw her glorious savior standing there—long raven locks blowing softly across his handsome, smiling face.

Merciful heavens… Who is this man? If my legs weren’t already completely numb, they would melt beneath me. Perfection is too small a word for—

“Are…” Jenevier furrowed her brow. “Are those… Dr-Dragon wings?”

The man slowly closed those giant sapphire pinions as he strode purposely toward her, his enchanting golden eyes gleaming brightly.

“Ahh… Little Fire,” he said softly.

The man’s rare beauty had left her awestruck, yes. And when he smiled at her, she lost her voice entirely.

Jenevier’s breath hitched when the stranger reached her. He wrapped one arm around her waist, grasped the back of her neck, pulled her firmly against him—fire blazing in those gorgeous ethereal eyes—and kissed her deeply.