Max

"This way, sir." I have two orcs in full combat gear in front of me and two behind as I'm directed through a maze of passages.

The battle axe feels right in my grip, and I make ready to use it if necessary. The thing is finely tuned so the buzz of organic magic within it adds to the power I already have seeping through me from being together with my mate.

I have my Vee. I'm never letting her go.

A pall of smoke hangs at chest height. I clutch Vee close to me, keeping her head turned towards me so she doesn't breathe in the toxic smelling stuff.

"Where are we going?" I ask.

"There's a car waiting for you, sir," one of the orcs says in clipped tones. "And we'll get you seen to."

I snarl. "I don't need assistance, my mate does."

Behind us, there's a burst of what sounds like stun spells, and the orcs up their pace. I can smell the night air ahead and I start running.

"Max," Vee moans in my arms.

"I'm sorry, my sweet one. It'll all be over very soon."

As one, we burst out into the street, and a large Hummer is waiting for us. Tavvick's team open the door, and I'm pushed inside, just as there is a lightning flash and several of them fall backwards, stunned. I lay Vee down in the back of the Hummer as carefully as I can. She grumbles my name but lies still, too still.

I swing the axe in a figure eight, reveling in the weight and the desire to do some serious damage. I haven't felt like this for a long, long time.

And I know this is my once chance to make things good.

"Come out and face me," I say through the clearing smoke. "Show yourself."

The troll who steps through the swirl and into the light is exactly who I expected.

"Got your human, Maxim?" Vulzal says. "Are you ready to lose everything?"

"I won't be losing, Vulzal. I never lose. Because I fight, unlike you."

He charges at me with a roar, his axe held high. I swing mine and it connects in a shower of sparks and magic. Vulzal withdraws and comes back with a low blow. I parry, sliding his axe down mine until I hook his blade and jerk it back with all my might. The weapon frees itself from his hands, and I fire it away from us as hard as I can before stepping forward and running my blade up to his throat.

"You can't win," he says, guttural and dark.

"I can. I can win whatever the odds. The company you believe you stole from me, it's worthless. I will always find my mate, no matter where she is. And my friends will always have my back," I say coolly.

"Worthless?"

"I got the final piece of due diligence back. The contract they have to supply all the human vehicle manufacturers is fake. Their order book is empty. They're worthless."

This piece of information supplied via a text from Peter earlier was enough to slow my whisky drinking earlier, if not stop it altogether. The look on Vulzal's face is priceless. The realization he has been had, whilst trying to get one over on me, is writ large in widened eyes. The realization someone else has made a fool of him but not me.

The realization he has lost.

A nasty smile steals over his lips.

"You might have all of this, but you won't have your library," he says as I press the blade farther into his neck.

"What have you done?" These words are spoken by Vee.

She clutches the side of the vehicle, one hand on her side, glaring at Vulzal.

"I don't think books and fire mix much, do you?" he says nastily.

Vee slams the rear door shut and leaps into the driver's seat, turning the engine over as I flip over my blade, slam the flat surface against the side of Vulzal's neck, and he tumbles backwards. I race around to the passenger side and throw myself into the vehicle as Vee guns the accelerator, the Hummer lurching forward just as Tavvick appears.

"The apartment! Call the fire brigade!" I yell out of the window as we roar past him in a cloud of smoke and fumes.