Evermore Academy (Evermore Academy #3) - Audrey Grey Page 0,47

myself to keep retreating instead of punching that smug look from his slimy face.

“If you want me to take it easy on you,” he drawls, “I’m afraid you’re going to have to beg.”

He’s barreling forward now, blindly, so sure that he’s the predator and I’m the prey. Every muscle in his massive body goes taut.

He’s a trap wound so tight that a single word could spring him.

Still weaving and bobbing, still inching backward, I match his smile with one of my own. “Beg? Did you forget what happened the last time you asked me to do that?”

His eyes go all-black with hatred, and I know he’s mine.

“Careful,” I purr, “or you’ll end up on your knees.”

Snarling, he leaps. His fist hammers to my left, so sure that’s where my face will be.

His punch meets empty air, the momentum drawing him forward.

Straight into my fist.

Concrete—it’s like pounding concrete! Even though I put all my strength into the hit and used his momentum, it barely touches him.

Good thing that jab was only meant to distract from my follow-up right hook. That’s my specialty. The one I’ve been working on with Eclipsa morning and night.

Every muscle in my abdomen contracts, my hips and core working like a pendulum to ram my fist into his jaw. The impact slams up my forearm, into my shoulder, and down my spine.

Something cracks.

For a moment, Rhaegar seems unaffected. His face blank, eyes unfocused, staring at himself in the mirror as if trying to remember where he is.

I’m pretty sure he’s toast, but just in case, I steady myself on his enormous shoulders and drive my knee into his junk.

Twice.

I’m nothing if not thorough.

He wobbles, swaying like Ruby after she’s polished off a bag of Nerds. If I didn’t need to prove myself just as ruthless as the Fae, I might let him be. Might let him get away with being the world’s biggest douche in existence.

But the time for being kind has passed.

My foot connects with his jaw, my roundhouse kick executed to perfection.

Like a felled tree, all six-foot-five of him topples straight over, his enormous body making the mat shake and the wooden frame around it rattle.

19

Panting and stunned, I stare at the fallen bully at my feet. There’s something unnatural about seeing a strapping male Rhaegar’s size laid out cold.

Unnatural and empowering.

“Timber,” a familiar voice yells.

Asher strolls up to Rhaegar, slaps his face harder than necessary, and then puts a hand in front of Rhaegar’s nose.

“Verdict?” Eclipsa calls.

“Still breathing.”

Relief pours through me. For a second there I thought I’d actually killed him.

Eclipsa frowns. “Bummer.”

Rhaegar groans, his russet lashes fluttering. Asher grabs his square chin and tilts the Summer Court Evermore’s slowly opening eyes toward me.

“You fucked with the wrong girl, didn’t you, buddy?” Asher drawls, toying with Rhaegar like a doll. Only Asher could make Rhaegar look tiny.

Rhaegar groans again between coughs. Blood speckles his lips and the mat. I doubt he sees anything beyond his pain right now.

Asher pats Rhaegar’s cheek, hard enough to draw his attention. “Know what that is, asshole? That’s your balls lodged in your throat.” Gripping Rhaegar by the arm, Asher lifts the Summer Court Fae to his feet. “You’re lucky you still have them. Next time you try to pick on Summer, I’ll rip them clean off. Understand?”

Rhaegar groans in answer, his eyes rolling in their sockets.

Asher does a quick visual inventory of me. When he realizes I don’t have a scratch, his face breaks out into a proud grin. “Atta girl.”

I give a little bow.

“Who wants to partner with her next?” His deep, rumbling voice booms over the entire gym, drawing the attention of the shadows grouped on the mat across from ours.

You could hear a sprite cough in the silence.

Asher claps a giant paw on my shoulder, his fingers reaching nearly halfway down my bicep. “I’ll spar with you if you promise to take it easy on me.”

He winks, probably overselling it a bit, but I’m too high on my win to care.

My high switches to straight up euphoria when the shadows on the other mat break into applause. They only settle down when Mrs. Richter makes them do burpees and mountain climbers, but even she looks proud.

After all, she’s had to deal with the Evermore bullying and intimidating her shadow students for years.

Watching one of the cockiest students get laid out by a weak mortal is poetic justice.

I’m not naive enough to think I’m safe now. But at least they know I give back as good