Golden Girl by Sarah Zettel Read Free Book Online

and dropped him. Paul rolled over onto his shoulder and came up into his crouch again, hands out, teeth bared in a grin that made him look every bit as fierce as Rougarou.
    Amerda had her attention glued to the fight. A thin trickle of spit ran from the corner of her perfect, smiling mouth. In the ring, Rougarou and Paul circled around, sizing each other up, looking for openings. Rougarou feinted,left then right, fast enough to be a blur in the dark. Amerda laughed.
    This time Paul didn’t wait for Rougarou. He charged, and Rougarou got him by the waist, whirling them both around. He lifted his muzzle high. He was going to bite Paul on the back of his neck. I screamed. But Paul swung those huge fists, and Rougarou hollered. Paul twisted and punched again, and Rougarou’s grip broke. Trying to cover his head, he backed away from Paul, right toward the circle’s edge, Paul’s fists driving him out of bounds.
    Amerda frowned. She lifted her free hand to her mouth, pursed her lips, and blew across the palm. A cloud of dust spiraled up from the ground, straight into Paul’s face. Paul fell back, choking. Rougarou stuck out a foot and caught Paul right behind the ankles. Paul stumbled out of the circle and fell to the ground.
    “You cheated!” I cried. “You’re a cheater!”
    “But I never said I would not.” Amerda straightened up until she was almost as tall as Paul. “Your man was careless, and he lost you, little Callie.” She cupped her hand under my chin and smiled down at me. Her hidden scales scraped against my skin, and she showed me all her crocodile teeth.
    “No, no,” croaked Jack. “It can’t be.”
    “It’s not.” Paul pulled himself up onto his knees and spat dust.
    Amerda swung around, but she didn’t let go of my chin. “What’s that?”
    “As it happens, she’s not my girl.”
    A light came on inside me, like he’d thrown a switch. At the same time, Amerda’s jaw dropped.
    “What?” She hissed out the word, all long and slow and deadly.
    “She’s not my girl.” Paul climbed slowly to his feet. He wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. “She’s nothing to me. I have no power to give her away.”
    “But you said—”
    “I said, what if I told you she was my girl? But I didn’t tell it to you, and you didn’t ask who my girl was. Or if I even had one,” he added with a grin that managed to be cheerful and dangerous at the same time. “You said you would take my girl as our bet. Well, whoever Miss Callie here may be, she’s not my girl and was no part of our bargain.”
    Amerda hissed, long and hard. “You think you’re so very clever. But you do have a girl. You have a wife, you have—”
    “Might be a problem, if …” Paul pivoted on one heel and wrapped his tree-trunk arms around Rougarou’s waist. The monster wasn’t ready for it, and Paul lifted him high. He held him there for a minute silhouetted against the deeper dark, and all I could think of was Samson from the Bible. Then Paul slammed the monster down so hard he bounced.
    “I threw your man.
I
win.”
    “You cheated!” shrieked Amerda.
    “I never said I would not,” Paul replied calmly.
    Amerda swelled up until the sparkly disguise stretchedthin and the crocodile face showed through underneath. She let go and stalked forward, her anger at Paul blinding her to everything else. Jack darted forward and grabbed my hand, ready to run. I tried to latch on to a wish, something, anything, but it was all too heavy and slick and my shoulder hurt too much.
    Paul just stood where he was, letting Amerda come right up to him. She lashed out, claws curled, but her hand stopped two inches from his face like she’d hit an iron wall.
    “You’ve lost, Amerda,” Paul said calmly. “You and your brother. You can’t touch me.”
    Rougarou climbed to his feet and howled.
    “You think you’re so very clever.” Amerda backed away. “The gallant knight riding to the rescue of the pitiful little girl. You have no