Ronan

Ronan

I had to take deep breaths to stop infecting the entire glade with my anger. That vile human had no place among us, and her sassy mouth was infuriating.

I stalked over to Gabrelle to snatch the scroll from her hands, but she flicked it aside and shoved me hard enough that I stumbled.

“Behave yourself, moody,” she scolded.

I wanted to know what the first trial would be. Every year the trials were different, either testing physical or magical skills. Hopefully, today’s would be magical, so this humanoid wannabe queen would fail.

Gabrelle stared us all down, enjoying the power of us waiting on her every word. She unfurled the scroll and patted down her purple jumpsuit. “Today’s trial—”

“Wait,” the tomcat interrupted. “The first trial is today? As in now?”

Clearly, she hadn’t known that because she’d turned up in a four-year-old’s idea of what a princess looked like with her spiky blond hair poking out the top. Everything about her radiated ignorance and a lack of belonging. She had no right to rule. Sebarah knew this stuff back to front, and this female dared to waltz in and think she could take his place?

Never. I would never let that happen. My anger toward the usurper princess was deeper, grittier than I’d expected, and more personal than I could have anticipated. Because of last night, I supposed.

I no longer wanted some unknown princess to piss off back to Hebes, I wanted this particular tomcat to piss right out of my life.

She’d fooled me last night. I hadn’t even noticed the damn Floran Bracelet melted into her skin because I hadn’t expected Seb’s sister to look human.

She’d fooled me with her whacky coloring, tractor-beam smile, and wriggly damn ass.

Getting rid of her wasn’t just for Seb anymore. It was personal.

Gabrelle watched me through slitted eyes until my focus returned to her, where she always expected everybody’s attention to be, then continued reading. “The first trial is a foot race. The heirs will travel twenty miles through the forest on foot, passing a number of obstacles. The winner will be awarded five points, the runner-up four points, blah blah blah.”

Gabrelle scrunched up the scroll and tossed it aside, not bothering to read the details we all knew by heart.

Well, all of us except for Neela. First place got five points, down to last, who earned one measly point.

So far, I had accumulated an average of thirteen points every year I’d participated. And Neela, I was pleased to note, had scored precisely zero.

Leif yawned wide, showing off his sharp incisors. “Let’s start then, hey?”

He wriggled out of his gray sweatpants and stripped naked. I sighed. The wolf had Ascended last year. He used to come dead last in running races, but now he could shift, he’d outrun us all. Four legs were always faster than two.

Leif shifted into his giant silver wolf form, and we all formed a rough line. Neela was still unstrapping her stupid heels with a look of shock on her face when I shouted, “Go!”

Leif shot off with a taunting tail waggle. Though it stung, I had to resign myself to coming second behind him.

Gabrelle fell into step beside me; I would let her keep pace for the first couple of miles before I left her in my dust. Dion was always the slowest, and he quickly fell behind.

“This is Dion’s lucky day,” Gabrelle drawled. “He won’t come last for a change.”

The clumsy female tomcat without her fae speed would bring up the rear and earn one lousy point.

But she didn’t deserve even that. “Yes, he will,” I retorted.

Gabrelle glanced at me and arched an eyebrow.

“Because Neela won’t even finish,” I explained. “Let’s make sure of it.”

Gabrelle stopped lightly, and I joined her. Neither of us was panting, although a light sheen sparkled on her brow. “I like the way you think, moody. What did you have in mind?”

I didn’t have anything planned in advance because I hadn’t known what the trial would be. Gaia liked to keep us on our toes, changing the tests every year. Besides, they were supposed to assess our innate ability rather than being something we could prepare for. Plus, I didn’t know Neela would show up today.

But I had to stop her somehow. She didn’t deserve a single point.

I ran through some options in my head. Only one made sense. I shrugged. “She can’t run on broken legs.”

Gabrelle’s jaw clenched, but she didn’t say anything against my plan, for which I was grateful. Leif would’ve whined about that being unfair and suggested we try to rule with her. Actually, he probably would’ve suggested we all have sex with her.

Even Dion would have tried to talk me out of breaking a princess’ legs. But Gabrelle was an ice-cold bitch, and sometimes I loved that about her.

“Fine,” she said. “What do you need me to do?”

This alliance between me and Gabrelle was temporary. We both knew that when we neared the race’s finish, we’d trip, fight, and scratch to beat each other across that line. But for now, we had some breathing space. Dion had zero hope of passing us, so we had a few minutes to plan.

Gabrelle’s dusty pink eyes sparkled with mischief. “If we want to watch her fall, we’ll have to set something up here. Any further down the track, and we’d have to stand around waiting for hours.”

“You’re a devious bitch, beauty queen.”

She blinked slowly. “Thank you.”

We worked together to make the trap.

Sebarah would’ve done a better job. He could have used his powers to dig a beautiful deep pit and cover it with leaves, and Neela would’ve tumbled right in.

But he wasn’t here, and that was why we had this human-sized problem in the first place.

We had to make do. We dragged a massive log across the track on a long downhill section, and Gabrelle used her limited Stealth powers to disguise it. If you looked closely, you could still see the fallen tree, but hopefully, our target would be focused on sprinting instead of watching her footing.

Dion appeared first, and we worded him up, so he ran around the trap. I still wasn’t bothered about overtaking him when the time came.

Neela turned up sooner than I expected, not far behind Dion—he should take a good hard look at himself for letting a human lag on his heels. She’d be damn fast once her exposure to human tech wore off.

When she came panting around the corner, the evil bastard inside me rubbed his hands in glee.

She sprinted downhill, urgency lining her face, her spiky blond hair plastered to her forehead, and I had to admire her determination despite the fact she was inevitably coming last.

But it worked to our advantage. She barreled right into the near-invisible log and tumbled ass over tit. Her ankle broke with a spectacular crack, and I came out of hiding.

Gabrelle blew us both a kiss. “I’ll leave you two lovebirds alone.” She waggled her eyebrows and then ran off along the path.

I waited a few moments, looking down at my victim in victory, watching the lines of pain etched into her face.

She wouldn’t finish this race, not with a broken ankle. I could summon a Healer, but I wouldn’t. I needed her down. I needed to keep Seb’s promise and ensure she never sat her writhing ass on his throne.

So why did my victory taste like burning oil and line my gut like molten steel?

She looked up at me, determination still shining from her damn face.

“Why don’t you just give up?” I hissed. “You’ll never take the throne. Go back home to Hebes. We don’t want you here.”

Determination burned in her startling blue eyes. “I’ll never leave. You’ll have to take me down, asshole.”

I forced my lips to curve, but I wanted to weep. “With pleasure, tomcat.”

I turned to walk away, but she called out, her mud-streaked face showing the first sign of fear I’d ever detected on it. “You aren’t going to just leave me here, are you?”

Noticing the odd angle at which her left foot hung, her heaving chest and her grim expression, I stared at her for a long moment.

Seb’s face hovered before me, the sting of our promise still tingling on my palm. “Yes,” I growled. “That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

I turned and sprinted down the hill, needing to overtake Dion and Gabrelle, needing to finish this race in second place. Needing to get as far away as possible from Neela.