Nox stared a little too long into her eyes. She knew he spared her life. But she may never know why. “They wanted you to bring me in?”

Rayne stepped back as she explained, “They want you for the same reason they want me.” She had no idea how true that was. “If you win, you can have my nacre and the perfect Weapon with it. If I win, I’ll take your nacre. I won’t let them have you.”

He stood and took a step toward her. “I don’t want your nacre. I want you.”

The anger in Rayne’s eyes spiraled and danced momentarily into insanity. “Any chance of that died on your throne. Do you hear the screams of the girl you ruined? The screams you broke away?”

Somehow, gasps and pleas whispered to Nox. They echoed throughout the chamber. Rayne’s eyes swirled between Atramentous and the color of Icarean blood. The beast beneath the surface stretched its claws. Her voice carried only the lowest pitch as she promised, “This ends only one way.”

Afraid. Aroused. Certain of only this, “I’d accept no other to send me to eternity than you.” Nox bowed to Rayne.

In two seconds, she broke his femur in two places, his left ulna and radius, and dislocated both hips. Nox never experienced pain on this scale. Not even on Gait. Hard tissue repairs hardly kept up.

She dragged him across the floor by the broken arm. Twisted and worried at the elbow until it, too, dislocated. “Tearing our worlds apart instead of accepting my help. Destroying me to get back at her. Was it worth it?!” There went carpals and metacarpals.

The femur repaired, he grappled with his legs to kick out at her face. It connected with her jaw, and she dropped his arm with a pretty grunt. His arm healed almost Warrior-Caste slow. Unacceptable. She charged at him, jumped off the wall, and wrapped her legs around his ribs. Before he peeled her off him, she backflipped and took him with her until the world went upside down.

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With his back on the floor, Nox stared up at Rayne, who straddled him. She punched him with a fantastic right hook. “I hated letting you kiss me outside.” An uppercut with the left. “But I couldn’t let them see how fast I move now, can I?” He snarled and took both her arms and pinned them behind her. Her chest pushed forward in that plunging dress astride him.

Nox smirked. “I often wondered what you’d look like on top. Almost a sight worth dying for.”

The sun in Rayne’s eyes flared as she seethed and concentrated. The pressure hit him first, and he realized what she meant to do. She squeezed with her legs and crushed him with her thighs.

Damn it. He was enjoying himself entirely too much to let go yet. He croaked through the tension, “Impressive.”

Her eyes flared as four of his ribs cracked simultaneously.

Nox let go with a cry.

While he gasped for air around the pain, she uncoiled a ribbon and deftly tied it around his throat. Low, angry, she said, “You keep making jokes because you still can’t understand.” The ribbon acted as leverage for her to slam her head into his.

Nox’s vision swirled until the shining nacres in the chamber swam like stars in his eyes.

“If I could make you live through it—Make you understand what you did to me. What you took from me!!!”

She headbutt him. Over and over. Until the sound changed from a crack to a pulpy wet mush. After the fifth time, she mercifully rested against his bleeding face. Nox laid still, remembering how to breathe without the urge to vomit.

Absolutely out of character, she licked the blood from his temple. The wet warmth left him dizzy again. Her words drove him crazy, “I always wondered what your blood tasted like. What it would do to me… to have you inside me.”

Coming to his senses, Nox threw Rayne off before she tasted more than she bargained for. He rolled to standing. The healing process slowed with each near-death experience, leaving him weakened by her creative endeavors. Her gorgeous lethality only rendered more disarming by her vulnerability.

Rayne’s tears cut red rivers through the blue ocean coating her face. Still on her knees, she looked up at him and confessed, “I can’t touch her now because of you. Then you go and hurt her, too. She needs me, Nox.”

Almost restored, he assured, “You can’t touch her because of the Tritans.”

“They did this to me because of you. Because they needed someone to fight you.” Atramentous fading, her voice channeled down to one tone. Her natural voice choked in despair, “Is this finally enough for you?”