Magic Trials (Half-Blood Academy #1)(44)

I heard a crack.

His face was his weakest spot.

I wasn’t useless after all. Accustomed to his combat style, I was getting better.

But I was too wounded. I believed that I had internal bleeding as well.

I straddled him, and jammed my fist into his eye socket. He caught my wrist, twisting it, and at the same time he pushed up with a stupid yell and threw me off.

I ended up beneath him.

I kicked out right away. And just like before, my kicks and punches didn’t have much effect on his person.

His heavy fist docked on my face again and again, shredding my skin and breaking bones. Blood flowed hot and free from my torn skin.

I was going to look really ugly if I survived this.

“Beg, bitch,” he hissed in my ear. He straddled me with his knees digging into my chest, sadistic pleasure written all over his face. His hands gripped my wrists, bruising my skin, and he pinned them to my sides. “Beg and I’ll consider not breaking another weak bone of yours. I might even let you live. Admit you’re my bitch now, and I’ll go easy on you.”

He’d broken my body, just as his master, the Demigod of Sea, wanted.

I struggled to throw him off me, but his weight felt like a thousand pounds.

“Want to be on top?” He leered at me.

“Hi, Jackie,” I said.

He blinked at his nickname.

Taking advantage of his diversion, I butted my head into his nose, crushing it into a grotesque mess. Two trails of blood streamed down from his nostrils. As I’d discovered, his face was his only weakness.

“You don’t look that pretty anymore,” I chuckled.

“Bitch! You don’t deserve mercy,” he said, pounding a fist into my teeth.

My tongue tasted a mouthful of salty blood. Pain radiated in every corner of my head as if a thousand horses had kicked my skull. It was a wonder I hadn’t passed out or died already, but then I was Marigold, the most stubborn hunter in Crack before they’d dragged me here.

I hadn’t groaned once, despite that I could no longer block out the pain as it filled my every bone marrow.

I laughed, mocking my opponent when he rammed his fist into me again.

What else could he do to me?

He cursed when I bit into him and tore a chunk of flesh from his thick arm.

“Stop, please.” Yelena stated crying and knelt before the demigod for me. “Please just ask him to stop. He’s killing her. She won’t last long.”

“Yield, Marigold. Now,” Paxton command.

“Fuck you, pig!” I answered.

I knew that insult to the demigod would do me in. Who the fuck cared? I’d call him whatever I wanted.

“We should call off Jack, sir,” Cameron said urgently. “That stupid, bull-headed girl will never yield.”

“Please, sir,” Marie said. “I don’t think it’s in your best interest to kill her off so soon. I believe she’s learned her lesson.”

“Jack,” Paxton called, a regretful note in his voice, “you can—”

His mercy was the last fucking shit I’d take. And hearing the emotion in his voice only sent me right to the edge.

Something primal and savage in me was suddenly set loose.

I roared my black rage.

A wave of energy blasted out of me in light and shadow, tearing Jack away from me and tossing him to the arched ceiling, as if he were a rag doll.

The concrete dented at the impact.

Jack screamed before he plummeted to the ground in a corner. He didn’t move again.

One strike and he was out.

“What a pussy,” I murmured.

“What the hell was that?” someone asked in alarm.

I struggled to rise to my feet. Once I got there, I swayed but I remained upright. “That’s called never surrender, bitches,” I said, spitting out a broken tooth along with a flow of blood.

Then I flipped both middle fingers at the Demigod of Sea as my stare fixed on him. “You’ll never bend me. You’ll never break me. And you’ll never get the best of me. So why don’t you get your demigod head out of your ass, since all you’ll ever get is the nightmare version of me, dickhead.”

“No one has ever called me that many nasty names,” he growled. “I can squash you like a bug with a snap of my fingers.”

I chuckled to deride him.

Damn! It hurt to move any piece of any muscle.

“Whatever,” I said. “I’m not afraid of you. I’m not afraid of death.”

“There are worse things than death, Princesa.” His tone was dark, but there was weariness to it, as if he knew what he was talking about. Like I gave a shit at this point.

“Bring it on, motherfucker,” I said. “You marked me as your enemy, and today I also marked you as my foe.”

“We’ll see about that,” he said, muscles twisting in his jaw and storms wheeling in his purple eyes. “We’ll see how you make me your enemy.”

I spat. I wished he was closer so I could spit my blood into his cruel fucking face.

“Even if I can’t strike you down,” I smirked at him, “I pray that Lucifer will do it for me one day.”

That was the ultimate blasphemy. But I wanted to defy him down to my every bone, and I wanted him to know it before he impaled me, murdering me with his power. He could easily summon an ice spear from the air and pierce my heart.