The natural instinct when someone big and angry comes toward you is to back up. I didn't have that luxury. Instead, I tried to think of what I could do to stretch things out; the longer this took, the better.

I'd never been this much smaller than an opponent before. Hell, I'm a lot bigger than Jo, and she's the one I practice with the most. She does it all the time, though; she has no problem taking down bigger guys. I can do it too.

Trying to get myself psyched up, I bounced up on my toes and moved one foot forward. Bringing my hands up into position, I kept my eyes on the giant. He looked surprised I was still there; I guess he thought I should be running.

When I caught his eye, I borrowed a little of Tate's swagger and gave him a wink. He did not like that. His eyes widened as his lips pressed into a hard line, and I smiled. I didn't look away from him, but I could hear the crowd around me, and they were ready for the fight to start.

I felt like I was on the right track. Jo always says the best way to knock someone out is to knock them off their game first. So I gave him a little come-and-get-it wave. The crowd gasped in surprise, and he looked pissed.

He started toward me, and I held my ground, no need to rush. It'd only been maybe ten minutes since we left the cage; I wanted to give them more time to get away. I decided to go for his knees and soft spots as soon as he got close enough, no messing around.

The giant came at me way faster than I thought he could move, with his right arm up and his giant fist swinging at my head. I was almost too slow when I ducked; I felt him brush over the top of my hair. That was OK, I was in the perfect position for a quick jab to the groin, and I hit him hard.

He grunted as he doubled over, and I gave him an uppercut to the nose as I stood. It made a really satisfying crunch sound, and blood started to drip almost instantly. My adrenaline was pumping so hard I was already sweating, and I felt like I might actually have a chance. Hell, I could win this fight.

The Queen's champion was hunched over, breathing heavily through his mouth and trying to decide if he wanted to hold his crotch or his nose. I got the impression he wasn't used to getting hit. I took the opportunity to try to take him down with a hard kick to the knee.

My kick didn't connect. He grabbed my ankle right before it hit, and without letting go, he stood. My back and then my head slammed into the ground as he lifted me. My vision swam, and I tried to focus.

He kept me there, dangling in front of him. Holding me up didn't seem to be any strain for him either; he was smiling. Shit.

The crowd was cheering. Apparently, they're not big on underdog stories. His laugh was a big booming sound as he turned in a slow circle giving everyone a good look. It felt like my foot was going to pop off where he was squeezing my ankle.

I needed to get down. While he was playing to the crowd, I aimed my fist for his solar plexus and swung as hard as I could.

The air came out of him in a rush, and he dropped me. I curled up in time to avoid landing directly on my head, but I hit the ground hard. It took me a second before I could move.

I tried to sit up, but my giant friend wasn't ready for me to leave. He wasn't standing up straight, but that didn't stop him from putting his ginormous freaking foot on my chest to hold me down.

He was trying to catch his breath, and I was trying to push his foot off. It wasn't going well, and he was making it really hard to breathe. There was nothing for me to grab, all I could do was push on his foot, and it wasn't budging; he was too freaking heavy.

I was running out of air, and my head was starting to pound. This was it; this was how I'd die, squashed under a giant's foot. What bullshit.

I heard a new sound coming from the crowd, and for the first time since the fight started, I looked at them. I expect to see them cheering at my impending death, but they weren't even looking at us. Half of them were turned around facing the other way, and the other half was staring open-mouthed at the Queen.

A couple of guards flew in front of her talking excitedly, and I noticed that one of them was Citrine. If she was here, then they got away; it worked! I'd held out long enough.

The little breath I had came out in a relieved laugh. The giant looked down at me like I was crazy, but I didn't care. My friends escaped; I did everything I could.

Through the floating dark spots in my vision, I watched the Queen fly away angrily, and all the guards follow her. Only Citrine stayed, and as soon as the Queen was out of sight, she took her seat in the tree.

Some of the crowd sat, and some of them left. I guess Tate was right. A lot of them only pretend to like the things the Queen likes. Most shocking of all, the pressure on my chest let up.

I sucked in as much air as possible, and the spots started to clear. My head was still pounding, but this was a huge improvement. He didn't get completely off, I couldn't get up or move, but I could breathe.

I looked at him with surprise, and he shrugged, "You fight well for a human. I'm almost sorry I'll be killing you when she gets back," his voice was deep and matter of fact.

"You could always just let me go," it was hard to get the words out. My voice was raspy and weak.

He laughed, "You're funny too. That's a shame, but I never liked Tate, and the Queen will be happy when I kill you."

"I'd be happy if you'd..." I was cut off when a black blur flew through the air and slammed into the giant knocking him off me. I heard him hit the ground with a thud, and I took a deep breath. Even though it hurt my chest, it felt great.

"I never liked you either, Sarsen."

Tate! He came back, and he sounded pissed. I'd never been so glad to hear someone so angry.

I tried to sit up, but it was a lot harder than I expected. My chest hurt, my back hurt, and trying to move set off a fresh wave of pounding in my head. Rolling to my side, I used my hands to push myself up to sitting. Embarrassingly, sharp pain in my ankle caused me to yelp before I could stop myself.

Looking over, I saw the giant, Sarsen, was on the ground with Tate's foot on his chest. That made me smile. Tate was studying me with wide eyes, and he looked as pissed as he sounded.

I wanted to stand up so we could go, but when I moved my foot, the pain in my ankle made me hiss and take my weight back off of it. At my movement, Tate grew even angrier and kicked Sarsen in the side hard enough to move his entire body.

"You don't have a problem with fighting humans in the trials?" He bent over and pulled Sarsen up with his hair. "That doesn't seem unfair to you?" Letting go of him, he took a step back and said, "Stand up."

Sarsen laughed, "What do the trials have to do with fair?" He stood quickly. "I'll fight who she tells me to fight, and if that means getting to kill your little human, then I guess it's my lucky day."

That was the wrong thing to say. Tate let loose a string of punches so fast his arms were a blur. I thought I was fast, but I was a sloth compared to him. Sarsen fell to his knees with his shoulders hunched over and more blood pouring from his face.

"It doesn't look like your lucky day anymore." Tate wasn't even breathing heavily; he sounded like he'd just been standing there.

I heard gasping and murmuring, and I remembered that we still had an audience. Some of the faeries were standing to get a better view of the fight, but most of them looked like they were backing away, trying not to be noticed. In the Queen's tree, Citrine was leaning back, watching, but she seemed totally unconcerned.

"Tate," I waited for him to look at me, "We need to get out of here. Let's go."

He watched me as I tried to stand without moving my chest too much and without putting any weight on my right ankle. It wasn't working out very well, and the look on his face told me seeing my injuries wasn't helping anything, so I stopped trying.

"He hurt you," his voice was flat and off, not like the Tate I'd spent the last couple of days with.

"Yeah," I nodded, "but I hurt him too, and now you've hurt him. So it's OK, we're even."

Shaking his head, he said, "No. He was going to kill you, that's not OK."

"Yeah, it's pretty messed up, but you got here in time. Let's just go."

He was staring at me like he couldn't decide what to do.

"Please, Tate, let's go." I held my hand out, "Can you help me up?"

He looked from me to Sarsen. With one quick swing, Sarsen's head jerked back, and he hit the ground like a ton of bricks. I watched him for movement and saw he was still breathing, good. He was a jerk, but I didn't want Tate to kill him.

Walking over to me, Tate ignored my outstretched hand and lifted me in his arms.

"Seriously? I'm not an invalid."

"I know, but you are injured, and it'll be easier to carry you this way and fly."

Without waiting for a response, he took off in the air. Remembering the last time we tried to fly out of here, I watched the ground for faeries trying to stop us.

"Where is everyone? Why aren't we being followed?"

"Ash and Jolie made a false trail back toward the tunnel for them to follow, so I imagine that's where they are."

"Isn't that a bad thing? Why would you want them to go toward the exit?"

He smiled tightly, and I noticed he wouldn't look at me. "Don't worry. We're not planning to use that one anymore. They're headed toward a different crossing now, but they're going to spend tonight hiding, and so are we. We'll meet up with them in the morning and go the rest of the way together."

"Why can't we just go to the exit now?"

"They're laying other trails for them to follow to give us time to get away. We'll still have some distance to travel in the morning. Tonight they'll be searching for us, and the exits are too far. We need to hide."

"OK. It sounds like you guys have a better plan this time." I meant it as a joke, but the pain on his face told me it wasn't funny. I decided to be quiet for a while.

Thank you for reading!! 💜