After a quick breakfast, Tess, Ayden and Matt headed for Oraunt. Wanting to get there as quickly as possible, they decided to cut across the rolling countryside between Applewood and Rosewall, instead of using the main road. They spent most of the day riding through vineyards, which stretched as far as the eye could see. Near midday, they rode quickly through the most notable of them all: Lornwest. Its large, cream-and-brown-painted manor house sat on top of a hill, overlooking the grounds. All the other vineyards around it paled in comparison; not in that they weren’t as big—some were more so—but they weren’t nearly as grand.

Matt asked if they had heard the stories about people going missing there, and of the extremely pale people who lived in the manor and fed off the living. Tess wanted the stories to be true, like a child hearing a ghost story, but Ayden just rolled his eyes, not believing him.

Their brisk pace helped get them to the city just before sunset. Oraunt, the capital of Kelstone, was a huge place filled with gray stone buildings, many of which were two story, with clay-tiled roofs. They stabled their horses at Brana’s Stable, just a mile from the city center, and walked the rest of the way.

In the middle of the plaza stood an eighteen-foot statue of Eolys, the God of Magic. The proud figure with a slightly crooked nose looked down on the passersby and held out a hand that had several stone butterflies on it, symbolizing the mana—energy needed to cast spells—the god bestowed upon mages.

On the north side of the bustling square was Oraunt Castle, which was the main government building and the meeting place of the Kelstone Council. Taking up the whole eastern block, directly across from the Fighters Guild, were the Mages Guild and the Arcane Library, and behind that was the Arcane University, which took up several blocks.

When they were standing in front of the heavy wooden doors of the library, Ayden asked, “Where do I meet you?”

Tess gave him an offended huff. “You think I’d leave you to do the research all alone?”

“Yes. Just like you did for all the reports we had in school,” he reminded her.

She grinned. “Yeah, ‘cause you’re awesome.”

He shook his head, but smiled affectionately. “Where are you gonna be?”

She shrugged. “I might look around the shops a bit and then go hunting. Let’s meet in the forest, about a mile outside the city, straight west.” She pointed down the main street out from the plaza that led in that direction. “We can camp there for the night.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll go with you,” Matt decided, coming to stand next to her.

Ayden frowned, but said nothing as Tess nodded neutrally.

“You’re sure touchy with each other,” Matt remarked to Tess, once Ayden had gone inside.

“I wasn’t even touching him.”

“I mean usually.”

She shrugged. “We’re friends,” she said, turning and heading west down the street.

“So?”

“Friends are like that,” she told him. “I’m that way with Sera, too.”

“I thought she was your cousin,” he said.

“She’s both, friend and family,” Tess returned. “And Ayd and I have been best friends since we were six; he’s just as much family as she is, really. We’re all just close. Don’t you have friends?” she asked, glancing sideways at him as they walked.

“Not like that,” he said, looking over at her, seeming to find her odd.

She shrugged. “Well, maybe you should get some friendlier friends.”

“So... why not stay in town?” he asked, changing the subject.

They paused to let a small wagon pass before crossing to the other side of the street. “Weather’s nice, and it saves on money,” Tess explained, raising her voice a bit to be heard over the hooves clapping against the cobblestone.

Matt waited until they had walked a few more paces, and the noise was gone before he offered, “I’ll pay.”

“Thanks, but we just like camping too. Where do you get your money, anyway? You have a job?”

He gave her a look that called her nosy. “Inheritance. You?”

“Dad for now, but we try not to spend too much, and Ayd and I plan on checking with the Fighters Guilds as we pass through towns—pick up odd jobs here and there.”

“Mercenary work?”

“Yeah. Oh!” she exclaimed as they turned north down another street. At the end of it was a huge circular building with a domed roof. “Have you ever been to the arena?” she asked, pointing.

“Yeah.”

“Ever fight a match there?”

“Yeah.”

“Tournament?”

“No, just the one match. Someone bet me,” he said casually. “It was against a full orc.” He paused for effect, then added, “Without weapons.”

“Who won?”

He shot her a cocky grin. “Who do you think?”

She rolled her eyes, though she was smiling. “You’re so arrogant.”

“No, I’m confident. And look who’s talking.”

“True,” she conceded. “So, why not do a tournament?” she wondered, looking at the arena again, then added teasingly, “Afraid you wouldn’t get very far?”

“Much farther than you,” he shot back with a smirk. “But I’m not one for rules.”

“I thought the only rule was to not kill your opponent,” she said as they continued walking.

“You also have to stop when the referee rings the bell, and you’re not allowed to do any unnecessary damage.”

She shook her head. “And that’s too many rules? Maybe I shouldn’t spar with you,” she joked.

“There’s no rules when we’re sparring. I could kill you, but I don’t want to,” he said simply. “The arena was better before they changed it, when it was to the death or anything-goes submission matches.”

“Way before you were born,” she pointed out.

He nodded. “Mostly, I just have a problem with people telling me what to do.”

“Yeah, you seem used to being in charge,” she noted. “There a reason for that?”

He shrugged. “Just my nature, I guess. I take after my mother.”

“Yeah, me too. Not mom though. I take after my uncle really... in that at least. He’s always in charge. So, have you always been an adventurer?”

“Guess you could call me that.”

“That’s me and Ayd.” She hopped onto a low stone wall around a row of small trees and walked along it. “We’ve been wanting to do this since we were kids. I couldn’t stand a regular job. This is the only life I want—always off to find the next challenge, never settling down, no one telling us what to do or how to do it.”

He chuckled as he took out his silver case and lit a cigarette. “And you’re giving me a hard time about rules?”

She smirked and hopped down as the wall ended. “Didn’t say I liked them any better.”

“I heard your father was with the guard. Isn’t he all about rules?”

“He’s the captain of the guard,” she said proudly. “And yeah, he’s about upholding the law. But so am I. Killing the bad guys, helping the good, and all that.”

“Ah, so you like rules when they suit you?”

She chuckled. “Yeah, guess so.”

He smiled. “Me too.”

“So, you wanna go see a match?”

“Sure.”

“How much is it, anyway? Do you know?”

“I’ll pay.”

“Okay, thanks.”

But when they got to the arena, they were told they had just missed the last match of the day. They decided to walk around a bit and ended up in a nearby weapons shop. Something about these places always made Tess feel happy. All the girls she ever knew wanted to check out clothes, shoes, and jewelry, but she liked weapons.

As they looked around, they agreed that neither of them would want to use anything other than a regular blade like a sword or dagger. “I’ve never tried a mace,” Tess commented, picking one up and looking it over. “I just think that with the spikes it’s gonna stick and it wouldn’t just pull out easy, like my daggers. Seems kind of awkward,” she said, putting it back in the weapons rack.

“I don’t like axes, either,” he told her, glancing at a small one being displayed on a countertop, but not touching it, unlike Tess who had to touch everything. “They’re good for chopping wood, but it’s not like your opponent’s just going to lay there like a log.”

She laughed. “And they probably don’t burn well.”

“No,” he agreed with a chuckle. “Generally don’t smell so great either. Burnt goblin is really nasty. It’s the combination of their really oily skin and the fact that they never bathe, I think.”

“Probably. My mom said minotaur was gag-worthy.”

“Sure, but that’s just the hair. They actually taste good if cooked properly.”

She laughed again. “Ew.”

He shrugged. “You eat cow, right?”

“Yeah, but I couldn’t eat minotaur, it’s just... ew.”

He smirked. “How do you know if you don’t try?”

“Maybe there’s some meat that just shouldn’t be tried,” she said, giving him a pointed look. He just chuckled. “Speaking of meat, though...” She set down the dagger she was looking at and headed for the door. “Let’s go kill something for dinner.”

“I’m all for that.”

On their way out of the city, while they were going through the temple district, Tess stopped, seeing two skinny guys being harassed by Malluk’s temple guards. The two large men were wearing red and black armor with a black hellhound’s head on their chests—the dark god’s colors and symbol. They held the gangly-looking pair by the fronts of their black shirts, shaking them roughly.

“Does it make you feel manly to treat people half your size like that?” Tess asked. “I hardly think it’s necessary.”

“They were caught vandalizing,” one of the guards growled.

“So fine them and let them go,” she demanded, though she knew full well she wasn’t supposed to be interfering. Unless a person was in the service of a particular god, they were not allowed to interfere with anything that happened on that god’s temple grounds. Not even government officials interfered—city guards didn’t even patrol this section of town. Some clergy of different gods worked together, like death clerics and healing clerics, and others, like the justice clerics, worked with the government, but it was all by mutual consent.

“We were just making it better,” one of the dark-haired guys said.

“Vinius?” Tess asked incredulously, recognizing them now. “Danis?”

“Hey, Tess,” Vinius said casually. “We were just helping the statue.”

“Eyeliner,” Danis said, trying not to smile.

“Didn’t help though,” Vinius told her.

“Malluk’s too ugly,” Danis finished.

“You know them?” Matt asked.

“Yeah, sort of,” she answered.

“Hey,” one of the guards said, noticing Matt. They let the twins go and stepped closer. “We’ve been looking for you. Priest Julian wants to see you.”

Tess turned to frown at Matt, but he didn’t take his gaze off the men. “You can’t prove I killed that dark cleric,” he reminded them.

“Sure,” the taller of the two replied, taking another step forward. “Well, why don’t you just step inside for a moment, and you can talk to him about it.”

Matt responded by punching him. The guard was knocked to the ground, and Matt quickly grabbed the other man by the hair and slammed the guard’s face into his knee, then threw him back, so that he collided with the first man. “I think that maybe you’re mistaken about my identity,” Matt suggested.

They hesitated as they stared at Matt, the second with a bloody nose, then glanced over at Tess, apparently sizing them both up. Finally, the first man nodded. “Yeah, sure.”

Matt gave them a growl of contempt, then turned and walked off down the street.

“Guys?” Tess looked around, but the twins were nowhere to be seen. She shook her head. “They’re so weird,” she mumbled, then hurried to catch up with Matt. “What was that about?”

He just shrugged.

“You really killed a dark cleric?”

“Sure.”

“Why?”

“Got on my nerves,” he said simply.

“Anything to do with your mom?” she asked, knowing that if Malluk’s people had been the cause of her mother’s death, she would want to take out her anger on a few of them, too.

He glanced over at her for a moment, and then took out his silver case. “Yeah,” he said shortly and lit a cigarette.

__________

A while later, Tess and Matt stood in a clearing with two brown rabbits at their feet. “That was too easy,” she complained.

“Too much energy?”

“Always.”

“Want to pick up where we left off?” he asked. She eyed him and he smirked, back to his normal light mood now. “I mean our fight.”

“Okay.” She reached for her daggers.

“No weapons.”

“Fine, we’ll finish that first fight we started,” she said as she dropped her weapons to the ground. “No one to interrupt us this time.”

“That’s the idea.” He set down his sword and shrugged out of his jacket.

“No one to stop me from beating you.”

He chuckled—a deep confident rumble. “No one beats me.”

“Yet,” she corrected, unable to help her grin of anticipation. She had fought for most of her life, but no one who was really good had ever truly cut loose with her before. People like her father and her uncle never fought with any intention to actually hurt her, but Matt did. And he was a good fighter, which excited her. He was a challenge, and she relished challenges. It was only fun for her to win if her opponent gave their all, and she knew Matt held nothing back. He wasn’t afraid to injure her, which was good since she felt the same about him.

“Sure you don’t want to wait until your puppy gets back with his healing spell?” he offered.

“Wanting to piss me off?”

“Is it working?”

“Yeah,” she shot back. “But then you have a talent for rubbing me the wrong way.”

He smirked. “Didn’t seem like that last night.”

Her eyes narrowed. “That won’t happen again.”

“Yes, it will,” he promised smoothly, “and much more.”

She suppressed a shiver. “Here.” She smiled sweetly. “You can kiss this.”

She took a swing at him, but he blocked and then immediately kicked out at her. She ducked, rolled to the side, and stood. She put her arms above her head, then bent backwards until her hands touched the ground behind her and kicked her feet over swiftly in back flip. She flipped two more times until she was standing next to a cedar tree. Taking hold of a low branch, she pulled herself up and disappeared from sight.

Matt laughed. “That won’t help you.”

Suddenly she flipped down from directly above him and her boot connected with his upper back, knocking him forward. She immediately bent over backwards, pushed off him, did a handspring, then flipped over onto her feet. She moved to crouch over him, then leaned close and whispered in his ear, “Maybe a little.”

He rolled onto his back, grabbed her arm, and pulled her over. She landed on her back beside him, but hurriedly moved away and headed, once again, for the trees. He stood, still smiling as his eyes darted around. He walked around for a bit, seeming to wander, then abruptly reached up and caught her ankle. He tugged and she fell to the ground in front of him. She kicked his legs out from under him and jimmy-flipped back to her feet. He did the same and immediately threw a punch. She blocked and was quick to come back with a kick to his ribs.

They continued for while, each with a fairly equal share of hits and misses. Then he slammed his fist into her stomach, making her double over. He grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled her up so she was standing straight again. But then their eyes met and they both hesitated. The look in Matt’s eyes caused a swirl of desire inside her. It grew stronger as she watched his tongue glide across the thin cut on his bottom lip, and she had the insane urge to do it for him.

She wasn’t sure who started it, wasn’t sure how his mouth was suddenly devouring hers, how his strong arms were crushing her against the sweaty muscles of his upper body, how her hand was clenched in his hair, greedily pulling him to her. All she knew was that he was fire and she wanted to be consumed by him.

The waves of heat blurred the world around them until she couldn’t remember anything that existed beyond his touch, beyond his deep and fierce kiss and the feeling of need that burned inside her. But somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew this was wrong, even if it felt like bliss, even if she wanted to burn.

Somehow, she found the will to shove him away. They stood there, several feet apart, their scorching gazes locked on each other. More than anything, she wanted to reach for him again, to feel him, to taste him. She hungered for him. No, she told herself. It was wrong. She didn’t love him, she barely even knew him, and she really shouldn’t be attracted to him. It just could not, would not happen again. So she did the next best thing and kicked him, starting the fight again.

The ferocity of their passion fueled them after that and their stubborn wills wouldn’t allow either of them to surrender. But the fight ended abruptly when Ayden came into the clearing and Tess was knocked to the ground before him. She was panting, her mouth was bleeding, and her hair, falling out of its braid, was tangled, with twigs and leaves in it.

He gasped when he saw her and immediately turned to glower at Matt, who stood a couple of yards away. He raised his hand, but Tess jumped up and caught his wrist. “It’s fine.”

“Saved again,” Matt murmured, panting himself.

“Yeah, ‘cause you were so close to winning,” she said sarcastically.

“Exactly.”

“Dream on.”

He smiled as he walked closer. “Guess we’ll call it a tie again.”

“For now.”

Matt nodded as he rubbed his ribs absentmindedly. He reached down for his sleeveless jacket and pulled out his silver case.

Ayden frowned at Tess and sighed. “You know, some people have hobbies that don’t make them bleed,” he told her as he held her face in his hands and healed her.

“What fun would that be?” she asked. “And you’ve never complained about my fighting before. Why now?”

He shot a dirty look at Matt, who was lighting a cigarette, before answering. “Because no one ever wanted to hurt you before.”

When Ayden took his hands away, the few cuts were gone, but his spell didn’t take away the fingerprint bruises that were appearing on her upper arm. He took a deep breath, looking furious at the sight of them. Tess didn’t bruise easily.

“It’s nothing,” she said lightly. “At least he’s not trying to kill me like the monsters do.”

Matt huffed a smoky laugh as he sat down, looking nonchalant. “Don’t want to... yet,” he said, smirking at her.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ayden asked heatedly.

Tess smiled at Matt and shook her head. “Ayd, he’s joking. Plus, if I died he’d lose the challenge of sparing with someone like me.”

“True,” Matt said. “Funny how a woman lasts longer against me than a lot of men I’ve fought.”

She grinned at that, then took Ayden’s hands in hers. “Don’t worry. Please?”

He sighed heavily. “Can you at least only fight when I’m around?”

“Okay, but no magic other than healing and not until the fight’s over. Deal?”

“Deal,” he reluctantly agreed.

“Good. Heal him now,” she ordered.

“It’s nothing,” Matt said dismissively.

“Heal him anyway.”

“I’m fine.”

“Oh, shut up,” she told him. “You’re so stupidly macho.”

Matt sighed and rolled his eyes, then finally allowed Ayden to grudgingly heal him.

They were quiet while Ayden made dinner. Then they ate the rabbits, along with some fried potatoes, in silence. Matt seemed as lost in thought as Tess was. She tried to keep her gaze fixed on her food or the fire, but she couldn’t help looking over at him now and then. Each time she did, she found him watching her, and his eyes were still smoldering with desire. It really didn’t help with the feelings she was trying not to have.

After Ayden finished cleaning up, he sat down next to her. “Look at me.”

“What?”

He touched a damp rag to the side of her mouth. “Magic doesn’t clean off blood,” he griped.

“Or help with achy muscles,” she added.

“You know what helps that?”

“Not fighting in the first place?”

“Exactly... at least not with certain people,” he muttered, then added quietly, “Your dad would be upset if he saw this.”

She felt her face flush and turned her head away from him. “My dad’s not here,” she said angrily. “Now stop making a big fuss over it. You know how I am, just leave it.”

Ayden just sighed as he set down the rag and got her brush.

Matt gave a short laugh. “Why would she need daddy around when she has you?” When Tess shot him a warning glare, he smirked. “Just saying.”

“Tess...” Ayden complained when she took her brush from him.

“I can brush my own damn hair!” she snapped, then rolled her eyes at his wounded expression. “Stop!”

He took the rag and said nothing as he walked a few yards away to a small stream where he washed out the blood.

She sighed heavily as she pulled her long hair over her shoulder and began yanking the brush through it, while Matt watched with an amused smile. She made a low snarling sound at him, something she had picked up from Tikki.

He chuckled, then took a final drag of his cigarette and flicked it into the fire before getting up. “I’ll be back in the morning.”

“Where are you going?” she wanted to know.

“Town,” he said simply. “Not tired.”

“After all that?” Ayden asked incredulously.

“Quite the opposite. I’m all worked up,” he said, giving Tess a meaningful half-smile. “Could use some fun.”

Ayden watched him disappear into the forest and shook his head. “I think he might like fighting even more than you do.”

“He’s not looking for that kind of fun, Ayd,” she said irritably. “He’s going after women, not fighting.” She ran her tongue over her bottom lip and held in a sigh.