Page 8 of Knight’s Dominion

Chaya had kept Grace’s identity secret, and if Chaos hadn’t seen her face, she wouldn’t even consider revealing herself to the mate of a knight. But he had, and it was only a matter of time before Chaos found her, anyway. May as well go for it. And it wasn’t like she was trying to recruit Mia, no way would Zenon let her fight.

But thankfully, she’d found her way back to Grace’s classes here at Deluca Gym, and she’d brought two of her extremely skilled friends with her.

“Yep, I train most days.” Mia motioned to her friends. “This is Eve and Meredith."

Grace shook their hands. “Where do you both train? You’re amazing.”

Eve smiled. “With my…husband.”

Meredith nodded. “Me too. I mean, with mine. My ah…husband.”

The three friends smiled, like they were having trouble controlling their amusement. Grace had never had that kind of friendship with anyone, too busy killing demons for close girlfriends and in-jokes. Whatever had them so entertained didn't have anything to do with her. These females could fight, and that’s all she cared about.

"Would you mind sticking around for a bit? There's something I'd like to discuss with you."

Mia frowned. "Yeah, sure."

Grace led them to the small office at the back of the gym and shut the door behind her. She didn't waste time with chitchat. Eve and Meredith were either up for it or they weren’t. “Did you tell your friends that I’m a demi?” Grace asked Mia.

Mia nodded, frowning a little.

Eve crossed her arms. "I'm usually pretty good at sensing it. But if Mia hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t have known." All three females’ postures had changed, now defensive. And that just confirmed to Grace that she'd picked correctly. It was a damned shame Mia was mated to a knight. She could have been extremely useful.

Grace allowed her guard to drop. "I'm good at blocking. Excellent, in fact.” Which was the truth. She’d had to be. These females didn't need to know that she didn’t possess an actual power, that being proficient with a crossbow and being able to kick ass was all she brought to the war.

Grace leaned forward, resting her forearms on her knees. “Look, what I'm about to tell you is going to sound crazy. But will you hear me out before you run off or make an offhand decision?"

Mia did some more frowning. “Of course."

Eve and Meredith studied her for a few seconds, then both nodded.

Right. Here goes. "I'm part of a select group of demi from all over the city. We have different reasons for why we came together, but we all want the same thing, have the same goal. We hunt and kill the demons invading our city and I’d like Eve and Meredith to join us.”

Mia’s gaze sliced to her friends, and they all did that eye-widening thing again.

"You don’t have to decide right now, of course. But this fight is going to get a lot worse before it gets better, and we need all the help we can get. You can both fight, and I can sense whatever your powers are, they're impressive. You're exactly the kind of demi we need in this war." She glanced at Mia. “Obviously, you’re out. I can’t imagine Zenon would want you fighting, but maybe Eve and Meredith are interested?”

Mia's lips tipped up on one side. "It's you. You're the one, huh?"

Grace said nothing. She didn’t need to.

"Look, since you told us who you are. I think it's only fair we do the same,” Eve said and glanced at Meredith.

Meredith nodded.

Eve winced. "We don’t have husbands. We have mates."

Fuck.

"My mate’s name is Lazarus.”

“And I’m mated to Kryos,” Meredith said. “I think you’ve met them?”

I’m dead.

Yep, Lazarus, Kryos, and probably Zenon as well, were going to make mincemeat out of her.

"Right." What the hell could she say? She'd just propositioned the females of two of the deadliest and frankly unstable males she'd ever come across. Several seconds ticked by, but she didn't miss the emotions that flashed across their faces.