where the thorns grow

CHAPTER ONE,

CHAPTER ONE | WHERE THE THORNS GROW

ZHANG DAREN SIDESTEPPED to dodge Rhys' slashing war fans and sighed. "I will never understand why you insist on these ridiculous, ridiculous weapons."

Rhys grinned. 'They're extraordinarily fun, shifu. Give them a try sometimes, you'll like them."

"In a real fight, you'd have died twelve times by now."

"Good thing, then, that this isn't a real fight."

From the side of the room, a large snort sounded. Rhys didn't have to glance over to know the source of the sound. Dominic Lang, of course, being an unnecessary nuisance and asshole as usual. After six years of working as partners, though, she'd more or less gotten used to it. The thing with dealing with Dominic was simple: if you had the time, banter and joke with him; if not, ignore him. It was as easy as that.

Right now he was in his default state: "Shifu, she's Rhysa Jiang, the Briar. If she can make a statement while fighting, even if it makes her extremely inefficient and heightens her chances of dying greatly, she doesn't care. She'll do it anyway."

She snarled, "Bizhui, Dominic." Telling him to shut up wouldn't work, she'd tried enough times to know, but part of her had never stopped hoping that it would. She didn't glance over at him to gouge his expression, mainly because Zhang daren would quickly knock her onto the ground for that and then reprimand her for getting distracted, but also because looking at Dominic would mean having to resist the urge to punch him in the face.

"Oh, let down your hair a bit, Rhys," Dominic drawled. "It's almost time for the engagement party. Allow in some more festive spirits."

Zhang daren raised a brow as he dodged another slash, lashing out to catch Rhys' arm. She reacted fast, though, slashing upwards in an arc at his arm, causing him to release her and fall back. The man said, "Actually, I was hoping both of you rein in your wild side for the time being. The Meliqueans will be sending ambassadors. Us Iron Wolves will need to be on our best behaviour."

"We know," Rhys said quietly. It's been six years, it'll be fine, probably. If not, she'll just run. She'd spent a while in her life doing that.

Dominic said with a clear frown, "They won't try anything, would they?"

Zhang daren just sighed. "They're the Meliqueans, Dominic. We both know what they're capable of. Sure, Caba might not be as tyrannical as most people believe, but Contreras? Contreras is the real menace. And he's our problem. The Iron Wolves' problem."

After all, their team of wiccai had been put together specifically to counter Contreras' Meliquean Falcons. It had been a risky move—wiccai and humans hadn't gotten along for centuries, and the wiccai had mostly lived in self-imposed exile on a group of islands off the coast of Wheldrake for many, many years. For a government to not only obviously accept wiccai but to also hire them?

But it also gave people like her and Dominic and even Zhang daren a home in this world where they'd otherwise be freaks of nature.

And Rhys knew exactly what kind of rat-ass bastard Anthony Contreras was.

She stayed quiet, since the Captain of the Iron Wolves wasn't speaking to her anyways. Instead she focused on parrying his attacks, using her fans to bat his sword away and slashing forward in response. This was a practice within itself, still having awareness of your environment while in the middle of a fight. She'd failed at it miserably when she first started, but now she liked to think she'd mastered it, more or less.