Chapter 366

[ 1,112 words ]

Meredith.

Draven didn’t counter or even bother to strike. He didn’t even sweat. He just stood there like a damn statue, deflecting every blow without so much as blinking.

I swung again, harder this time—a right hook he caught midair without even looking.

His hand wrapped around my wrist, firm but not cruel, his head tilting just slightly as if to say, ’That’s all you’ve got?’

I yanked my hand back and stepped away, frustration boiling in my veins. “This is boring,” I snapped, wiping a bead of sweat from my temple.

His lips quirked. “Is it?”

“Yes.” I glared at him. “You promised a duel, not… whatever this is. You are just standing there, blocking me like a damn training dummy.”

Draven’s smirk didn’t fade. If anything, it deepened.

“This is supposed to be a duel,” I pressed, taking a step closer. “That means treating me like an equal, not humoring me.”

The silence that followed was taut, charged. Then, finally, he tilted his head. “Are you certain that is what you want?”

I lifted my chin. “Yes.”

The air changed, and just like that everything else changed.

The warmth in his eyes hardened into focus. The calm became something else, something lethal.

I could feel the pressure rolling off him like a wave. My instincts screamed at me to step back, to rethink my decision, but my pride kept me rooted.

Then, from behind us, a familiar voice cut through the tension.

“Oh, I couldn’t miss this for anything.”

I turned to see Dennis striding toward us, grin plastered across his face, Jeffery just behind him, shaking his head like he already regretted tagging along.

Dennis’s grin widened when his gaze met mine. “Don’t mind me. I just came to make sure my dear sister-in-law doesn’t end up breaking my brother’s pretty face.”

I gave him a flat look. “You should worry about your brother, not me.”

Jeffery sighed, his tone dry. “Or maybe we should worry about both of you.”

Draven didn’t acknowledge them. Instead, he said quietly to me, “Very well, Meredith. You wanted a duel…”

Then his voice dropped into something low and dark. “Now you will have one.”

The moment he spoke those words, I felt it ripple through my skin, and before I even saw him move, he was gone.

No, not that kind of gone. Draven was too fast for my eyes to follow. The next second, I felt the rush of wind behind me.

My instinct screamed, and I dropped low just in time for his leg to slice past where my head had been a heartbeat ago.

My pulse thundered as I understood one thing now. My husband was serious now.

I hardly had time to think before he was on me again. His movements were a blur—precise, deadly, yet controlled.

Every strike came close enough to make me feel the air split against my skin, but never quite hit. I countered, blocked, and barely dodged. My arms stung from the impact of his deflections.

He was holding back, I knew it. But even holding back, he was terrifying.

I leapt back to gain some distance, gasping. My boots slid against the sanded earth of the training ground, and I looked up to find him standing just a few feet away, chest rising slowly, calm as if he had merely taken a stroll.

“You said you wanted a duel,” he said with a smooth, deep voice, the kind of voice that could command storms. “Show me. Fight me like you mean it.”

I clenched my fists. His words struck deeper than they should.

Fine. This was what I wanted.

I rushed him again. My movements were faster and sharper this time, my strikes fueled by the heat in my chest.

Draven blocked one hit with his arm, sidestepped the next, and caught my leg mid-kick — then, with effortless power, twisted and threw me off balance.

I hit the ground and rolled, breath knocked from my lungs.

Before I could recover, he was there, crouched in front of me, eyes gleaming faintly gold under the setting sun.

“Already tired?” he teased.

I swung at him. He caught my wrist again. This time, I used my other hand and slammed it against his chest, pushing with all the strength I had. It didn’t even budge him.

He smirked. “Better.”

I could hear Dennis laughing somewhere behind us. “Careful, brother, she is getting feisty!”

I ignored him and went for another strike, this time sweeping low. Draven jumped, landed behind me, and before I could spin, his arm snaked around my waist, pulling me against him.

I froze, my breath catching. His heartbeat was steady, while mine was erratic.

“Don’t hesitate in a fight,” he murmured close to my ear. His breath was warm. “Hesitation gets you killed.”

I snarled and drove my elbow back into his ribs. He grunted just slightly, and I took the chance to spin free, twisting to face him again.

“Lesson noted,” I hissed, wiping the sweat from my brow.

He smiled faintly, the kind of smile that made me both want to kiss and strangle him.

Then, he came at me again.

Our movements blurred—strikes, counters, dodges, a dance of violence and heat. The ground shifted beneath our feet, the rhythm of our fight punctuated by the sharp sound of impacts and the steady hum of our breathing.

At some point, I stopped thinking. My body just moved . My instincts, Valmora’s instincts took over. My eyes sharpened, my reflexes quicker than they had ever been.

For the first time since this started, Draven had to actually block me with both hands.

That single victory, small as it was, sent a fierce thrill through me.

Draven noticed it, too. His eyes gleamed with pride, and something else—something dangerous and intimate.

“Now you are fighting me,” he murmured.

Our gazes locked. For a heartbeat, it didn’t feel like training. It felt like something deeper, older—as if our souls were speaking through the clash of our movements.

And then, just as suddenly, he stepped back and caught my next strike, twisting my wrist and pinning me to his chest again.

The world went still.

I could feel the steady rise and fall of his breathing, the faint brush of his lips near my temple.

“You have improved,” he whispered. “But not enough to beat me.”

“Yet,” I corrected, panting hard.

He chuckled low, the sound vibrating against my back. “We will see about that.”

Dennis clapped loudly from the sidelines. “I think I just witnessed foreplay disguised as combat!”

Jeffery groaned. “Dennis, for once, just shut up.”

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