The Bastard Queen (Viciously Yours #2)

Chapter Seventeen: Oops.

My mouth snapped closed with a click as soon as the words left my lips. That. Did not. Just leave my mouth. Silence hovered thickly over the entire area, the only thing that could be heard was my screamed words echoing off the rock walls. Raw embarrassment smothered my anger and caused my cheeks to turn icy for a second. I could only stare right back into his slowly widening eyes as my entire body turned to stone. Blanking my expression, I felt one of my eyes twitch at the ever growing look of understanding coming over his usually inexpressive face.

"Macha-"

"I don't care."

He took a small step forward, "Macha, I didn't-"

"I said, I don't care." I replied, feeling my embarrassment turn into anger from being embarrassed. Everyone heard that.

The bridge shook underneath us again and that deep female voice interrupted again, "Did you come here just to have your little domestic dispute or did you come for some other reason, Crit-"

Twisting the battle axes in my hands, I spun around and buried the sharp blades directly into the side of her thick thigh. The fragile bridge jerked harshly as she fell to one knee and released a roar of pain. Flipping the hovering metal to point at the Troll, I stared down into her furious brown eyes. Keeping my expression neutral, I yanked the axes from her flesh and didn't blink when a few droplets of blood hit my clothing.

Smiling politely as she released another agonized roar, I began whipping the bloody blades on her tan tunic. Holding eye contact, I gave her a fake smile and pitched my voice to sound cheery, "I swear to all the Divines above. If you call me a critter one more time, I'm going to hack into that tree trunk you call a neck and rip your vocal cords right out with my bare hands."

The woman glared but otherwise kept her mouth shut. Perfect.

Tossing the axes over my shoulders, I dusted my hands on my thighs and offered her one. "Now that we understand each other, let me help you up. That looks like it hurts. You really should be more careful these days, some Fae are just lunatics."

"Yea," She growled, while slipping her meaty paw into my hand. "I'm starting to see that."

Bracing my feet and tensing my arm, I helped the thickly muscled woman to her feet. My lips twitched in humor as she took a few steps back to look at me without hurting her neck. The female's head barely reached my chest but she looked like she could snap me in half with her pinky finger. Short and muscle bound the Trolls were but they made up for it with their architectural intelligence. Proven by the mere fact that this bridge was still holding up underneath the weight of three of them.

With the sun now high in the sky, I squinted to see them better beneath it's bright glare. The woman in front of me wasn't Caoimhe but the female behind her was. Brown hair piled high up on the top of her head, she crossed her tan arms and mumbled something incoherent to the male at her side. There really was no polite way to describe male Trolls, they all looked like short walking walls. At least underneath all those muscles the women had some shape. But the males...yeahhhh.

"Caoimhe! Long time no see!" I called out to her with a friendly grin.

Brown eyes rolled as she took heavy steps towards the rest of us, "I told you not to interfere, Sadhbh. The blue one is strange, not like the rest of her kind."

Pressing a hand to my heart, I gave her a pout, "Aww, thanks. I thought everyone would be pissed when I show'd up."

"Oh, we were. Very pissed. But then I caught a glimpse of your face during your domestic fight and changed my orders. Besides, it's a very aggressive time in Tir Na Nog. We've had to resort to asking questions before attacking Fae now." She responded, coming to a stop behind Sadhbh.