Free The Rings Fighter by JC Andrijeski Page B

when he woke her up. They’d been talking about this for the last week. Talking and having sex and eating between his bouts of work as he prepared for the next Rings match and did the rounds he had to do in order to smooth over Agnon’s death.
    The Queen had pardoned him once she heard the details, but still cautioned him to lay low for a few weeks.
    Other, more intense events had happened that night anyway... events which completely overshadowed the incident in the restaurant between Agnon and Trazen. Chloe saw on the news the next morning that an attack had occurred against the Royal Palace that same night, that a new First Son had been named. All of that pretty much overshadowed the death of a petty warlord over a disputed slave... even apart from the witnesses who backed Trazen’s story.
    Such regime changes happened fairly frequently in Nirreth society, Chloe knew.
    Even so, the swiftness of this one startled her. She also wondered about the implications for the girl Rings fighter, Jet Tetsuo, given who owned her.
    She hadn’t bothered to ask Trazen how he felt about any of that.
    Not because she didn’t care... more because she could feel it on him.
    He’d asked her for sex every night since that first night they’d been together. She understood why he wanted it, but it quickly became clear that their liaison could only be temporary, regardless of how good the sex.
    Trazen got sadder each time, for one thing.
    By the last night, Chloe almost couldn’t bear his sadness through the venom, even with what he’d done to her physically. She’d almost been relieved when he told her he’d found a new living situation for her, one that would force them to end this thing.
    With Agnon gone, he said, there was no reason for her to stay a slave at all.
    So Trazen wrote her a certificate for her freedom that very morning, right before he drove her up to one of the free settlements of humans in the hills above old Albuquerque.
    It turned out Trazen did a lot of this kind of thing.
    Buying humans. Setting them free on the outskirts of the Nirreth settlement when no Nirreth were watching. The only stipulation he gave her was never to return to the Center, where someone might recognize her from the confrontation with Agnon.
    It wasn’t exactly a hard promise to give.
    Now Chloe watched him as he paced the grass-covered hillside below, his long fingers clasped at his back as he watched the sun rise in the sky. The muscles in his dark blue arms stood out in the morning light, giving her a slight shiver of desire in spite of herself.
    She wasn’t touching him, but felt she could read his mind anyway.
    “Stop it,” she chided him, smiling when he turned. “Just cut it out.”
    “Cut what out, most honorable Chloe?” he smiled back.
    “Feeling guilty,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You’re being ridiculous. You’re not abandoning me. You set me free... remember?”
    He looked like he was about to argue with her, then exhaled in a rumbling growl. Walking up to her in a few strides, he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her against him.
    “I’ve never done it like this,” he confessed.
    She smiled. “Are you asking me for goodbye sex, Ringmaster?”
    He rumbled a Nirreth laugh. “No! You know what I mean! Confounding human!”
    She saw sadness touch his expression and nudged him with an arm.
    “I do know, dummy,” she said, dropping the teasing tone. “But I seduced you, remember? And I know how much you hate gratitude, but I am grateful... so deal with it.”
    He gave her a mock puzzled look. “For the sex?”
    She smacked his broad chest, laughing. “No, jerkface! For this. I’m grateful for this ... so stop feeling guilty for giving me a new life. I’m happy about it, okay?” Letting a smile quirk her lips, she shrugged. “And, okay... maybe a little grateful for the sex,” she added, making him laugh. “I don’t suppose you do house calls up here? The occasional drive by?”
    He grunted,