The Viper had chosen the details of this round and chosen who faced off against each other, and I’m sure he’s overjoyed at how much screaming is happening at the final pairing of his choice.
“Did you put money on Lucy? You might make a killing here,” I say, and Illi gives me a lopsided grin.
“Of course. The odds were like a thousand to one, so we’re gonna walk outta here loaded.”
I huff because I’m worried we’re about to lose our sponsor and ally against the skin markets and then I force my eyes back into the ring. No matter what happens, I’m going to watch it all.
I’m the reason she’s in there; it’s my responsibility to bear witness.
“I’m gonna break every fucking bone in your body and then fuck you raw, slut.”
I really, really don’t want to be forced to witness that, so Lucy better come through with these skills she was so smug about. Aodhan clearly doesn’t think she has it in her because he shifts a little more in front of me and mutters to Illi, “Get her the hell outta here if this goes south; I don’t give a fuck about keeping up appearances.”
Illi meets his eye with a nod and then glances over at Atticus who is also looking over at me like I’m a ticking bomb about to go off.
The guy, Travis, lunges at Lucy and tries to grab her, lurching forward as she easily ducks out of his reach and rushes behind him, the heel of her boot slamming into the back of his knee. He stumbles a little but keeps his feet, spinning around on the spot to go at her again.
It’s game over if he gets ahold of her but without a weapon, I’m not sure how she’s going to get through this.
Jackson moves over to stand with us, wincing as Travis finally gets a hit in and Lucy is knocked to the ground. Her head snaps back, and he dives on her as the crowd goes mental.
Illi shifts in front of me as well, Jack shifting back until I’m completely covered by them all in case the crowd forms a fucking riot over the bloodbath that’s about to start in front of us.
I was hoping for a little more than this from Lucy, disappointment curling in my gut.
Travis gets her legs split open and sinks further down onto her, propping himself up onto one hand and lifting the other hand ready to beat the life out of her just like he said he would.
One of her hands shoots up to grab him by the throat.
There’s no way she has the strength to actually choke him out in this position, and he roars out a laugh, all mocking as she lifts her other hand up to his throat as well. I desperately want to look away, but I force my eyes to stay on her.
She taps her fingers and thumb together, the silver jewelry making a little clinking noise and then suddenly it’s not a weirdly intricate piece of silver. It’s a claw… it’s a weapon.
She can’t move much except her hand but the moment she sinks the claws into his throat, Travis rears back and effectively rips his own throat out with the force.
The blood pours out of his neck in the most horrifying way, his heart pumping it out as if his neck is a hose, just gushing out until Lucy is absolutely covered in it.
“I fucking love that kid. Can we adopt her?” Jackson mumbles to me while I try not to vomit all over his shoes.
There’s a stunned silence from the entire crowd, no one knowing what the hell to say because… well, we were all pretty sure she was going to be raped and murdered right there in front of us and now she’s grinning like a lunatic, the whites of her teeth stark against her blood-soaked body.
Atticus steps into the taped off ring and says, “It’s over. Lucy moves onto the next round.”
The Bear snarls from across the room, “She fucking cheated! No fucking weapons allowed!”
Atticus stares over at him, the room falling deathly silent. “Travis is dead. Lucy moves on. Now leave before anyone else ends up in an acid bath.”
The room is quiet, no one celebrating or happy about the girl winning. I’m sure there’ll be a bitch fit over her jewelry, but they’re saving it for when the Crow’s men aren’t crawling all around them all. It doesn’t matter to me.
I can deal