Tiana’s jaw clenched, fist curled, ready to swing.

Isabel caught her arm, leaned in. “Don’t.”

“Let go-”

“Sage will be furious if you start something,” Isabel hissed, grip tightening. “Don’t.”

Tiana eased, exhaling.

“That’s right,” Thurio said. Smugly. “Keep to your leash like a good little pet.”

Tiana punched.

He wasn’t expecting it, and she caught his chin. He stumbled back more than a few steps.

Then he got himself together and charged her.

Tiana danced out of the way by a hairbreadth, peripherally aware of Isabel swearing as others got involved.

Someone else lunged for Tiana. She might have recognized him if he’d been dressed in his uniform, medals pinned and shoes shined, but Tiana wasn’t focusing on the identities of her attackers. She spun out with a kick, and he collided with her foot with a loud crack that made Tiana wince. But then there was no time to think as others poured into the room and the fray.

Kick, punch, block. Duck, tackle, swing, block, punch. Kick. Tiana grabbed the hair of a girl who had been about to bite Isabel’s arm, wrenched to the ground. It gave her a respite to scan the room. There were easily forty people in the room, probably more. No one was trying to stop the fighting, only join the chaos.

A blow to her head from behind cut off her thoughts and had her reeling back, almost tripping over the other girl.

The room was a symphony of screams and shouts. Thurio lunged for Tiana, and this time, no one was there to stop either of them from escalating. Tiana went for her enemy’s legs first, going low and striking the back of his knees. The blow threw him off balance, but even as Thurio fell, he struck, grabbing Tiana’s braid and yanking. She went down.

Then they were grappling. Thurio’s bigger size and mass gave him a distinct advantage, but Tiana fought like a demon. Her fist connected with his right eye, snapping his head back. She flipped them so she wasn’t crushed under his greater weight and scrambled back to her feet.

Thurio was on his feet mere seconds after she was. “You’re going to die at my hands,” the general snarled at her. “Your precious sister can’t protect you now, brat.”

“I don’t need her protection,” Tiana spat back. Though she couldn’t help but think how nice it would’ve been to have Sage with her right then and there.

Thurio came at her again in a whirlwind of blows. Tiana blocked and responded with hits of her own, but she couldn’t directly compete with his greater muscle mass one-on-one, and she was getting tired fast. Tiana was forced backwards, step by step. She was running out of room when the room went black.

“That is enough,” a male voice boomed out. “Next person who raises a hand against another gets hung up by their ankles.”

Tiana couldn’t see a thing, the difference between her eyes closed and opened nonexistent. Her chest heaved, her adrenaline still high and heart racing, Tiana was in no shape to go after Thurio when she couldn’t even see him. She stayed where she was. But when she heard several screams, she guessed the man’s threat had teeth.

When the dark lifted, the man sent them out of the ballroom, one by one. By the time he let Tiana out, Sage was waiting outside the doors. Tiana’s eldest sister marched her to her office and sat her down. She didn’t return for several hours, but Tiana knew better than to leave.

Later, when Sage came back, Tiana insisted that she hadn’t expected it would turn into a brawl. Sage hadn’t bothered responding to the lie. Instead, Tiana’s sister continued flipping through some report.

“Why?” Sage finally asked.

Tiana jumped, having gotten used to the silence. “Thurio was saying stuff.”

“Stuff?”

“About the war, like we shouldn’t have to help out people who didn’t take sides but were still hurt by it. That they deserved whatever the consequences were, no matter what or how violating they were. And he started mocking me when I told him to stop, and when I kept arguing, he started threatening me and Isabel.”

Sage stopped looking at her papers. “He threatened you?” Ice in every word.

“He said he’d kill me twice.”

Sage got to her feet and walked around her desk to embrace Tiana. “Thurio won’t touch you. I’ll take care of him.”