Back at the bar, things had escalated from bad to catastrophic.
Koros had finally decided that if his n couldn't take down one nim girl, he'd have to do it himself. He lunged at lisa with surprising speed, a dagger appearing in his hand seemingly out of nowhere.
lisa sidestepped, but not quite fast enough. The blade caught her arm, slicing through her sleeve and drawing blood.
[Shit, that stings!]
"First blood to ," Koros snarled, his grin feral as he circled her.
"Congrats," lisa replied dryly. "Want a dal?"
She traced another spellsign, faster this ti.
"Ignis, calore, ardeat!"
A jet of fla erupted from her palm, forcing Koros to dive to the side. The fire caught one of his two remaining goons, who hadn't been quick enough to dodge. The man's screams filled the bar as he rolled on the ground, desperately trying to extinguish the flas.
"Oops," lisa said, not sounding sorry at all. "Missed."
The last goon looked at his burning comrade, looked at lisa, and promptly decided that whatever Koros was paying him wasn't nearly enough. He bolted for the door, shoving aside a table in his haste to get away.
"Coward!" Koros shouted after him, but his attention quickly returned to lisa. "It's just you and now, Blackfla."
"Seems that way." lisa's eyes narrowed. "Though I have to wonder... are your people still headed to the Sumr residence? Because if they are, they're in for a nasty surprise."
Koros lunged again, this ti with a roar that might have been intimidating if lisa hadn't spent the last year training with Armia and her darian strength. The dagger slashed through the air where lisa's throat had been a second before.
She ducked under his arm, driving her elbow into his side. He grunted but didn't go down. Instead, he spun, the dagger seeking her flesh again.
[Oh shit.]
lisa could feel her heartbeat accelerating, adrenaline surging through her veins. This wasn't like fighting his goons. Koros actually had so small idea of what he was doing.
[If I can just get enough distance to cast—]
Her thought was cut short as Koros's boot connected with her stomach, sending her stumbling backward into a table. The wind rushed out of her lungs in a pained gasp.
[That's... gonna leave a mark.]
Koros didn't give her ti to recover. He was on her in an instant, dagger raised for what would have been a killing blow if lisa hadn't stepped to the side at the last second. The blade buried itself in the wooden table where her head had been.
As Koros struggled to free the weapon, lisa scrambled to her feet. Her fingers moved through the air, tracing the spellsign for one of the nastier combat spells she'd learned.
"Glacies, acus, penetrare!"
Dozens of icy needles materialized in the air in front of her, then shot forward at Koros like miniature arrows. He finally wrenched his dagger free and turned, but too late. The ice needles slamd into him, so embedding in his flesh, others shattering against the wall behind him.
He howled in pain, staggering backward, blood seeping from a dozen small wounds.
"You fucking bitch!" he spat, but there was fear in his eyes now. Real fear.
"I did warn you," lisa said, advancing on him, already beginning another spellsign. "You should have never attacked the people I care about."
The door to the bar crashed open.
lisa's concentration broke, the half-ford spell misfiring as her head snapped toward the sound. Her arm was pushed by the magical recoil, but she barely registered it, too shocked by who was standing in the doorway.
Her eyes widened.
"Dad?!"
listair stood at the doorfra, heaving. His work clothes were covered in sweat and his face wasn't much drier. He took in the scene. His daughter, bleeding from one arm, surrounded by groaning bodies. And, opposite her, a nim man who he had to have quickly realized was Koros, who happened to look like he'd been through a at grinder.
[What the actual...?] lisa thought, montarily stunned. [Did sobody call him? Is there so kind of "my daughter's kicking ass" psychic nim dad connection I don't know about?]
"lisa," listair's voice was scary-calm. "What's going on here?"
"Just taking out the trash," she replied, turning back to Koros, who was still on the ground, clutching his wounds. "This is the asshole who tried to burn down Javir's manor. With Mom and Hazel inside."
listair's face went dark. Not even taphorically. His purple skin actually darkened a shade, like all the blood in his body suddenly decided to rush to his face at once.
"Is that right?" he asked.
"I've got it under control," lisa said quickly, refocusing on her spellsign. "I'm going to end this. Right now."
She expected her father to object, to tell her to stop, to be the voice of reason. But nope. listair simply nodded.
"Go ahead," he said, his eyes fixed on Koros like he was morizing every detail of the soon-to-be-corpse. "I would."
Koros dragged himself backward, leaving a sar of blood on the floor, his eyes darting between father and daughter like a cornered rat.
"Wait—" he began, but lisa was already halfway through her spell.
"Glacies, acus, penetr—"
A purple blur shot between them.
"Stop!" Vira cried, throwing herself in front of her brother, arms spread wide.
lisa jerked her hand upward at the last second, the spell firing into the ceiling. Shards of ice rained down, harmlessly shattering on the floor around them.
[Are you kidding right now?]
"What the fuck are you doing?" lisa demanded, incredulous.
Vira's eyes were wide with fear, but she didn't budge.
"Trying to protect my dumbass brother."
"Your dumbass brother tried to kill my family!" lisa shot back. "He was planning an attack on my friends!"
Vira swallowed.
"I know," she admitted quietly. "And he's wrong... But he's still my brother."
Behind her, Koros looked shocked, like this was the last thing he expected.
"Vira, get out of the way," he growled.
"Shut the fuck up, Koros," Vira snapped without looking back. "You've done enough." She turned back toward lisa. "Please, please don't do this."
lisa stopped.
She felt conflicted. On one hand, she was absolutely ready to end Koros right then and there. On the other hand... Vira. The girl who'd flirted with her, laughed with her, spent multiple nights with her... The girl who was now putting herself between lisa and her target.
[Damn it. Why couldn't she have been as much of an asshole as her brother?]
She couldn't make her mind up. On one hand, she needed to do this. On the other...
listair stepped forward, putting a hand on lisa's shoulder.
lisa's eyes widened.
"Forget it," he said. "Let the law handle this," he said, his voice softer now. "He's not going anywhere."
lisa looked at her father like he'd just grown a second head.
"You can't be serious. After what he did? After what he was planning to do?"
"I'm not saying let him go," listair clarified. "I'm saying let him face justice." He whispered: "Aria can handle this guy for you, right?"
[... The queen, right.]
lisa looked back at Vira, who was still standing there, a human shield for her piece of shit brother. The conflict must have shown on lisa's face because Vira's expression softened slightly.
"Please," she said quietly. "I know he deserves it. But I'm asking you not to. For , not for him, let him go."
For a long mont, the only sound was the groaning of Koros's fallen comrades and the distant shouting of people outside.
Then, finally, lisa lowered her hand.
"Fine," she said, her voice hard as the barstool she'd broken over soone's head earlier. She fixed her gaze on Koros, who was staring at her with a mixture of hatred and fear. "But let make sothing crystal clear. I will be telling the queen about the shit you've been getting up to. If, after whatever years you spend in a dungeon, you ever co after my family or friends again, if you ever so much as look at soone I care about the wrong way, my father won't be here to stop next ti."
She took a step closer, ignoring Vira's presence between them, staring directly into Koros's eyes.
"And trust , what I'll do to you will make today look like a friendly tavern chat. Got it?"
Koros didn't answer, but the fear in his eyes was answer enough.
listair squeezed lisa's shoulder.
"Co on," he said. "Let's go ho before your mother decides to co looking for both of us."
lisa nodded, suddenly feeling the adrenaline crash hitting her.
Her arm stung where Koros had cut her, and various other parts of her body were beginning to register complaints about the fight.
[Great. Tomorrow I'm gonna be one big purple bruise. Sexy.]
As they turned to leave, Vira called after her.
"la-... lisa?"
She paused, looking back over her shoulder.
Vira's expression was conflicted but mostly sad.
"I'm sorry. About all of this. He shouldn't have done any of that stuff."
lisa nodded once, not trusting herself to say anything that wouldn't co out bitter or angry.
It wasn't Vira's fault, not really. But right now, with the taste of unfinished business sour in her mouth, it was hard to be all "hey, no problem that your brother's a murderous dickhead."
[Shit.] lisa looked down at herself. [Mom's going to kill .]
"You know," lisa mused as they walked, "for a minute there, I thought you were going to let kill him."
listair was quiet for a long mont. When he finally spoke, his voice was heavy.
"I'm not going to pretend I don't understand the impulse. But... It looked to like it was sothing you'd regret. If you had been more confident about it, I would have let you shoot. But, the look on your face when you stared back at Vira... It said a lot."
lisa huffed. Vira's panicked face flashed before her.
It stung, the fact that this relationship was probably dead in the water now. Vira was a great girl, with an awful sibling.
lanie's ti had co to an end, and with it, so too did lisa's ti with that bright, loveable woman.
They walked in silence after that, lisa turning his words over in her mind.
She'd been so ready to end Koros, to simply remove him from the equation. Would she have regretted it later? Maybe. Maybe not.
For now, though, she was just eager to get her mind off it all.
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