I lit him on fire. First his clothes, then his hair, definitely his eyebrows. Callie was on hand, after all. She could fix him right up.
He took a running leap at me, ignoring the pain. Ignoring the burns. He would heal, and he knew it. He also knew I wouldn’t actually kill him.
He did not know, however, how far I was willing to go to press the issue.
I pushed up higher into the air so he couldn’t reach me, then encased him in a bonfire. The heat was reduced, so it wouldn’t kill him nearly as quickly as real fire, but it would hurt more than the beejeebus.
He screeched, and I called that a huge win. I wished I’d recorded it. I had never heard that sound from his mouth.
A moment later, a wolf on fire jumped from the flames, big, burly, and mad as hell.
“Now.” I lowered to the ground as he rolled around to douse the flames. I sent a shower of ice to put them out and ease the pain while he healed. I took off my pouch and tossed it aside, then took off my throwing knives, daggers, sword—all of it. It would be his wolf, and Lucifer’s heir. These fae would get a taste for what real fighting was. If they planned on lasting any time at all in a war, they’d need to up their game. Or at least start to fight dirty. Roger and I would set the bar quite high. It would help us all.
“Wait.” A familiar voice rang out across the practice field.
“Dang it,” I murmured as Roger got to his paws, his head a little lowered, his eyes on me. He wanted blood. I cocked my head, my focus sliding back toward him. “Come at me, bro.”
“Wait, please,” Romulus said, and clearly the trial wasn’t happening right now. Pity.
I clenched my jaw. I did not need Romulus’s politeness to distract me.
“Alpha.” Romulus put a hand on his heart as he stepped to the side, making a triangle out of our group with lots of space between the points. “Your control is incredible. We are all amazed. Very few could resist going against their word under such conditions.”
A thick line of fae stood at the edge of the grass, watching. Everyone had stopped what they were doing to look our way. Cole lay on his back some ways off, his arms and legs spread wide, making a star with his body. Penny and someone else crouched beside him, probably trying to patch him up.
“I must side with Reagan on this, however.” Romulus bowed. “You should be fighting in your animal forms. Had I known you’d decided against it, I would have raised the issue myself. Fighting beside shifters in their animal form is a joy few here have experienced. I would ask that you give them a taste. A real taste. Stage a battle with your shifters against these custodes.” I knew custodes meant warrior fae. It was what they called themselves. I had no idea why. “Seeing your pack work together will open a few eyes.”
Roger lowered his head just a bit, but he didn’t change back into his human form. Given his fur was still smoking in places, it was probably because he wanted to use all his energy to heal.
“Now.” Romulus turned to me. And bowed.
“Hi,” I said awkwardly. “Nice to see you again. Kinda.”
“I realize I am interrupting a practice session, but I wonder if Roger would do me the great honor of stepping aside so that I might try my hand at Lucifer’s heir?”
I took a deep breath. “I’d really rather not. Do you heal quickly? No, I’d rather not.”
Though I kind of did, if only so I could punch him in the mouth for always making me feel so freaking socially defunct. Vampires might be equally debonair and polite, but most of them were morally bankrupt, and they all changed into horrible monsters. That evened the scales a little. This fae was just…lovely. Attractive, pleasant without being sickly sweet, polite, and morally sound—he was really tough to be around, if I was being honest. Total goody two shoes.
“Please, come. We will make a show of it.” He motioned behind him. “Half the village has assembled to watch your fighting. They’ve already heard rumors of you from our journey here. They wish to see what you can do.”
“I’ll gladly show them…with Roger. He has it coming.”
“Yes, of course. Only”—he smiled—“he does not have the capability to use hellfire.”
I turned my head to the side and squinted one eye just a little, thinking, trying to confuse him with my body movements. If I didn’t know what it meant, he surely wouldn’t, yet he’d think he was missing something.
“Yeah, but that doesn’t actually work on me,” I said.
“Correct. And I’d like everyone to see it.” He clasped his hands behind his back. “In case they doubt.”