The Rejected True Heiress (Liora and Callum) novel Chapter 495

Chapter 495 

She caught me on the third exchange. Her hand closed around my forearm mid-dodge and she yanked hard, throwing me off balance. I went sideways and caught myself on one knee, and her fist came down across my shoulder blade before I could roll clear. The pain flared white and immediate, radiating down my arm. 

The crowd roared. 

I rolled backwards, springing up to my feet, and ignored the pain. 

From somewhere in the stands to my left, I heard Amy’s voice cut through the noise. “Come on, Liora! You’ve got this!” 

A chorus of voices followed. The wolfless, all of them, were shouting my name. I didn’t look, even as the noise bolstered my spirits. I kept my eyes on Daisy, who had already reset and was coming again. 

She grabbed for my collar this time. I ducked under it and drove my elbow back into her ribs. 

She didn’t react. 

I hit her again, same spot, putting all of my weight behind it this time. Nothing. She turned into it like she hadn’t felt it at all, and her arm came around and caught me across the side of my head. 

My vision went white at the edges. I staggered, ears ringing, with just enough presence of mind to duck before her next swing cleared the air where my head had been a half second earlier. 

Amy shrieked, then shouted a string of curse words directed at Daisy. Daisy, for her part, didn’t seem to hear them 

at all. 

I circled wide, buying myself time to breathe. My shoulder was screaming. My ears were still ringing from the hit. The cut above my eyebrow had opened again, and I could feel blood running down toward the corner of my eye. 

I knew, in that moment, that she was going to keep coming. She would not get tired, would not slow down, and would not make mistake. The only way I was going to get through this was to stop trying to hurt her and start trying to use her. 

Her weight. Her momentum. The way she only moved in straight lines, like a tank. Or rather, like a rugby player whose body only knew one direction, forward, and the person commanding her from the dais above us hadn’t thought of that before she chose Daisy as her tool. 

I took that information and waited for the right moment. 

On the far side of the stands, past the rows of screaming students, two royal soldiers had Mia by the arms. She was fighting them, blood trailing down her face. They were dragging her toward the back of the stands while the people around her did nothing. 

My stomach dropped, and in that moment, I lost focus. 

One second. That was all it took. 

Daisy exploded out from under me with a force that sent me flying. I landed hard on my back, the mat knocking the air from my lungs, and before I could even think about moving she was on top of me, her full weight pinning me flat, one hand pressing my shoulder down and the other already pulling back. 

I saw it coming and couldn’t do a single thing about it. 

Her fist connected with my face. 

The world cracked open, white and ringing and enormous, and then it went very small and very dark, and then it went away entirely.