Forbidden Honor (Dragon Royals #1)(31)

Jaik snorted as he looked at me. “Lucien is not ready for me yet.”

“He’s not ready for any of us,” Branok pointed out.

“Lynx, you take him,” Jaik ordered. “But go easy.”

Lynx looked at me and cracked his knuckles. I had a feeling going easy didn’t mean the same thing to him that maybe Jaik intended.

Jaik must have realized the same thing because he amended, “Only humiliate him a little bit.”

Wow. He was an absolute saint.

Lynx and I squared off. For the first few seconds, I thought I was kind of holding my own. He feinted left. I avoided the right hook that followed, expecting it to come.

And then the next second, he followed up with a fierce volley of blows that sent me flying halfway across the training yard onto my ass.

“That was unsuccessful,” Jaik observed helpfully.

“Stop observing and start training,” Damyn told him sternly. “Training maneuvers are coming soon.”

“And I am so concerned about them,” Jaik said. “Definitely taking them very seriously.”

“I know that you’ve been facing the Scourge since you were ten, even without being able to fly,” Damyn told him, “But this will be different. You’re responsible for other lives out there. You need to take every training maneuver as seriously as you take your time in the field.”

Jaik hesitated, then nodded. “You’re right, Damyn. We’ll stay focused.”

I’d never expected to hear those words come out of Jaik’s mouth. Damyn seemed to have a lot more respect from them than anyone else I’d seen so far, including their own fathers, given the way they called them the Olds.

But I didn’t have time to wonder about the family dynamics within the royal families because Lynx was coming at me again. His fists were quick and brutal. I managed to snap his first few punches to the side, blocking each movement with my forearm and pushing his fists away, but he was relentless.

He quickly hooked one foot around my heel, as I tried to dance out of the way. Before I knew it, I was flat on my back, trying to find my breath again.

He landed a brutal kick in my side as I was still going down, and I rolled halfway across the training yard.

I’d thought Lynx was the sweet dorky one. He was the only one who hadn’t joined in the sex festival that the rest of them had staged in the library. But maybe he wasn’t the nice one. Maybe he was just scared of librarians. Everyone should probably be a little bit scared of librarians anyway.

I started to scramble to my feet, but I didn’t get the chance to get up before Lynx slammed a fist across my jaw, and I hit the ground hard. I rolled into a ball protecting my most important parts, because I suddenly realized he was never going to let me up.

But my attempt to turn into a hedgehog did not stop Lynx. He dropped on top of me, pinning me down.

One of his hands forced my shoulder down to the earth. I lashed out at him and I got in a good punch across his jaw that whipped his head back. If he was going to trap me, he wasn’t going to like what he found in the cage.

Lynx’s eyes flashed at me furiously and I bucked my hips, trying to throw him. He was heavier than he looked though because as lean as he was, he was ropey with muscle, and he drove his hips down into me, knocking me down into the ground harder.

“Alina says hi, by the way,” he snarled. Then he was driving his fist into my face over and over again.

My nose shattered under the onslaught, blood flooding my face, and I started to choke, gagging on it. I was drowning in my blood. I couldn’t get myself off the ground. And I couldn’t get my airway clear when he was forcing me to the ground, continuing to punch me over and over again.

“Stop,” Damyn called, but even Damyn couldn’t make Lynx’s unexpected temper tantrum stop. The world went red, washing out Lynx’s furious face.

Jaik was closer, and it was Jaik who hauled him off me. Lynx struggled in his arms as Jaik lifted him off.

Jaik put a controlling hand on his jaw, muttering into his ear. Whatever he said caused Lynx to finally stop fighting. Jaik let go of Lynx and Lynx paused, folding his arms across his chest, glaring down at me as I tried to draw a breath. Blood was still streaming all over my clothes. Well, Lucien Finn’s clothes.

Damyn demanded, “What the hell was that?”

“We never go easy on each other,” Lynx said, “Didn’t you teach us that, didn’t you break my nose, two years ago?”

“I’ll break it a second time if you ever fail to fucking listen like that again,” Damyn said. “You know this was different. You’ve got a grudge against the kid and you want them to know it.”

“Oh, I’m sure Lucien knows it,” Branok said. “I’m sure Lucien remembers why we don’t feel too fondly about him.”

“Gods,” Jaik said, “You made me be the good guy, and you know how much I hate that.”

Even though he was talking to Lynx, he strode past him and offered me a hand up. I grabbed his wrist and let him haul me to my feet. The world was blurry. I only caught glimpses of his handsome face at the center of my discombobulation.

“Don’t worry,” I said, “I doubt you’re ever much of a good guy. I won’t be confused.”

Jaik kept his grip on my wrist, as he kicked my legs out from underneath me. For the second time in as many minutes, I hit the ground hard on my back.