This is book 2 in the "Beautiful Destruction" series. You MUST READ "Theirs to Claim" first in order to understand this one.
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When I was ten, my father told me that all of my dreams would one day come true. Naively, I believed him.
I may have gr...
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Chapter 1 : Madelyn Saturday, November 19th, 2022
When I was ten, my father told me that all of my dreams would one day come true. What he forgot to mention was that nightmares are also dreams.
Cotton white shirts with sleeves that end at your forearms. Identical pants that are loose everywhere but the snug elastic of the waist. The meals provided at seven, twelve, and eight that run like clock-work, closing exactly twenty minutes after the doors open.
Order is a consistency at the Keep, and it's a rule I've made a mockery of enough times to be fully responsible for the additional lines that have appeared across the skin of my father's forehead.
Whether he's finally caught on to my opinion about this place or not, it didn't matter to me.
The Keep was complete and utter bullshit, and I had every intention of leaving once I was off the stupid probation I'd "earned" myself.
"You're off your game today, Adams." Lev tuts as I spin away from his strike, the knuckle of his index finger just barely breathing past the curve of my jaw.
I blew out a huff of irritation as the blonde strands of my ponytail moved with me, grazing across my collar bones in the process of avoiding Lev's follow up attack right afterwards.
He shouldn't have even been able to even get close to me to start with, so the fact that he did only made me more frustrated.
"Or maybe I'm just sick of never having a real challenge, Ivankov." I shoot back, adding a lot of emphasis to his last name because he knows it pisses me off when he uses mine. His easy, infuriating smile served as encouragement as I offered no warning, lunging at his knees and predicting his side-step to the left.
I've sparred him enough to know his thoughts now, and as I played the attack off into an easy roll, I spun my leg out on the ground. Even if Lev saw it coming, it was too late to avoid me as I kicked at the backs of his knees, the loud thump of his body being driven to the ground softened only by the padded black mats below us.
"You okay there, tough guy?" I grinned as I fluidly stood back up, not offering my hand because I knew he would use it against me. "You're looking a little flustered."
There was one rule for those on the mats, and it was that any attacks were fair game until either one person resigns, is unconscious, or steps off of the black border entirely.
Lev got back up just as easily, but there was a little bit of pink now to the hard edges of his cheeks, not out of embarrassment, and rather in the need to get even.
Lucky for him, it was the exact kind of distraction I was looking for.
"I'm not flustered." He said as he walked back into position across from me. I already knew a jab was coming at me by the time he opened his mouth, his confident smirk showing me he'd already brushed off his fall. "I just don't like cheats."
