The Rings Fighter by JC Andrijeski Read Free Book Online Page B

glanced at her, looking her over in her barely-there clothing and coiling his tail more tightly around the lean fighting girl at his side. His voice, when he addressed Trazen, sounded more genuinely polite, if wary.
    “...I am sorry about that,” he said to Trazen. “I am sure you will find another suitable candidate, however.”
    Trazen’s eyes grew colder as they flicked over Chloe herself. She could see him in that look, but wondered if she would have, if he wasn’t touching her skin.
    “Don’t be sorry,” he said, his voice as cold as his obsidian eyes. “She has other... talents. And as you say, we will find another female for that purpose.” Giving the girl Rings fighter another heavy-handed stare, he added, “A pity you are guarding this one so jealously. Not that I blame you. Still, if you change your mind, let me know. I may be able to ensure her safety in other ways. If you were feeling so generous...”
    Chloe bit her lip, again fighting the urge to smack him for being such an ass.
    As for the girl Rings fighter herself, she’d gone back to staring at Chloe.
    That sympathy in the girl’s eyes was on the surface now, mixed with an obvious frustration at her own powerlessness as to Chloe’s situation. When the girl went back to staring at Trazen a few seconds later, Chloe saw the open disgust she aimed at Trazen himself.
    Chloe wondered if the girl had any idea what a risk she would be taking by doing that, if Trazen truly was what he pretended to be.
    Somehow, the thought brought her mind and heart back to Kiji, intensely enough that she closed her eyes, fighting to shut out the pain, the image of her sister’s cut throat.
    Next to her, she felt Trazen flinch.
    Then a flood of reassurance and warmth reached her through the venom, along with an enveloping kind of support that felt almost physical.
    You should let her see who you really are, Chloe admonished him, fighting another urge to smack him. Her thoughts sharpened, borderline angry. Whatever your reasons, you are being stupid, Trazen... really stupid. She’s got a good heart... can’t you see that?
    All that answered her was silence.

THE RENEGOTIATION

    THEY REMAINED AT that restaurant for a long time.
    Too long, from her perspective.
    By the end of several hours of aimless-feeling wandering, watching Trazen talk to vacuous Nirreth who leered at her and flattered him and told stupid jokes, Chloe was having trouble feigning interest. It didn’t help that Trazen’s venom had more or less worn off. Its absence left her tired and having to fight harder not to think about Kiji and wishing Trazen would just take her home so she could sit by the pool and watch the birds again.
    Trazen seemed to feel this on her in some way from the pulses of sympathy she got off his skin, but he also seemed to be waiting for something.
    By then, the girl Rings fighter and her Nirreth companion were long gone.
    Still, Trazen lingered.
    She caught him glancing surreptitiously at the door and felt that waiting on him even more strongly as his eyes scanned the room. She felt impatience on him as well, as if he would rather not be there, either. She didn’t pick up specifics about what he waited for however, apart from what he’d already told her.
    It occurred to her somewhere in that, that Trazen may have actually broken Nirreth law, taking her from Agnon the way he did. Technically there were rules about human companions and ownership. She didn’t know those rules in detail, but she knew the Nirreth respected them enough to sue one another on occasion to see them enforced. It was the same reason Trazen couldn’t take the Rings fighter home without her Nirreth’s permission, even if her companion was of lower status.
    Not that Trazen would do that.
    Well... Chloe hoped he wouldn’t.
    Realizing that the venom really had worn off when doubt crept over her mind in relation to that point, as well as the reminder that she hadn’t known Trazen for twenty-four hours