Chapter Thirty-Three
The sun rises just a few hours later, red and bloody on the horizon as if someone had slit the throat of the sky. I still haven’t heard from Daemon, which is adding anxiety to my already frayed nerves. Dread gnaws at my bones.
But I push it down, and I don my boots and my leather vest and my daggers, and I step out to meet the day.
Cillian and the guards flank me as we head up into the peaks over the valley, opposite the side Daemon and I have been using for practice.
There’s a steady stream of people winding their way into the hills.
I look for Daemon, but I don’t see him anywhere.
When we reach the glen nestled between the peaks, I see that it’s much bigger than the one on the other side.
Almost another whole valley sitting above the one below.
The tournament council members are already there, standing in the midst of the green.
And perched on a peak above it all, on the highest green point jutting into the sky, sits the Queen on her nightmare, watching over us.
The royal houses are spread out around the perimeter of the valley.
I catch sight of my grandparents beneath the House Harkyn banner on the far side, sitting with Kildari and Quelan beneath a red awning.
Toryn’s house is there, too, and I see him standing alongside his second.
His eyes lock on mine as soon as I enter the field, and the look he gives me sends a shiver up my spine.
Further down the valley is House Aeternas, the Court of Onyx flag flying above them.
I see Daemon’s aunt and uncle sitting with Trianne, and finally I catch a glimpse of Daemon, standing off to the side.
He’s too far away to catch his expression.
I bite my lip, my stomach feeling leaden.
Maybe he’d decided to follow Trianne’s advice.
Spending time with a human is a liability, after all.
Especially me, being as how I’m hated by all.
One of the council members blows a horn to summon the champions. Cillian gives me a pat on the shoulder. “You’ve got this, cousin.”
I walk to the center of the field, along with the other champions, and we fan out around the council. Toryn is still shooting me daggers with his gaze. Daemon meets my eyes, but I can’t read his expression.
“Champions! Welcome to the second challenge of the Erys Lumena tournament. To win this contest, you must obtain the heart stone, but you cannot obtain it through death. Any harm to the bearer of the heart stone will lead to immediate forfeiture of the tournament.”
My mind spins the words in my head. Bearer of the heart stone? Cannot be obtained through death? I have no idea what any of that means. But as I turn the words over again, trying to figure them out, the council turns and walks off the field, and the valley begins to shake.
I turn toward the vibration, which is coming opposite the direction of the ocean.
In the distance, I can see something moving, something that shimmers and catches the early morning sun.
It almost looks like a fast-moving cloud, grayish-silver.
As it approaches, the peaks tremble, and then a sharp sound splits the sky. My heart climbs into my throat.
A howl.
It’s a pack of wolves.
Wolves the size of horses, with silvery scales like dragons instead of fur.
They break over us like a storm, swarming around the champions, snarling and snapping.
I pull one of my daggers, and in my other palm, I summon a ball of fire.
The council may have prohibited us from killing them, but I have no intention of standing here defenseless.
I catch Daemon’s eyes across the chaos, his expression grim, lips drawn tight, and then there is a wolf leaping for my throat.
I throw a ball of fire and catch the thing in the face.
It growls and shakes its head in fury, spinning to the side.
With its metallic scales, the fire doesn’t seem to harm it much, but it does seem to slow it down.
I have another orb palmed before it can recover, and it circles me, growling, but it doesn’t pounce.
My eyes move over its body. I don’t see anything that resembles a heart stone, or any stone at all.
The thing notices my moment of distraction and lunges again.
Its jaws snap right past my ear as I duck to the side, but then it swings its head into me, sending me flying.
I land hard on the ground a few feet away, the air whooshing out of my lungs.
It’s on me in an instant. Glistening teeth, foul breath, red tongue.
I drive upwards with my dagger into its throat, and the thing yelps and bursts into ash.
A cloud of it falls over me, coating my face and body.
I go still for a moment in shock, and then I climb to my knees and survey the scene before me.
All across the small valley, there are champions locked in battle with wolves.
Several bodies already litter the ground, and glittery ash swirls in the air, telling me there have been casualties on both sides.
As I sweep my gaze back and forth, something catches my eye.
A glimmer of deep blue-purple. I narrow my gaze as one of the wolves whips by a couple dozen feet away, dodging through the mass of fighting bodies.
There, in the center of its chest, sits a large gemstone. The heart stone.
But then something else catches my attention beyond the heart stone wolf. Daemon, locked in battle with three wolves, fighting for his life.
I don’t hesitate. I break into a sprint, weaving in and out of the maelstrom.
Growls and screams fill the air. A spray of blood hits my face.
I sidestep a charging wolf, and then a moment later another snaps at my face before spinning to attack another champion.
My ash-coated dagger is in one fist, a ball of flame in the other.
I hear a snarl behind me and I spin, hurling a fireball at a wolf.
It shakes its head and then runs off to find an easier target.
I hear a yell, and all I can think about is whether it was Daemon.
But when I spin back around, it’s not Daemon I see. It’s Toryn.
He’s covered in blood, his axe dripping crimson, which makes me think it isn’t just wolves he’s been killing.
Two other fae flank him, the same he’d paired up with in the first tournament challenge.
All three sets of eyes are pinned on mine, and it’s clear they aren’t searching for the heart stone wolf.
They’re here to finish what Toryn started.
I search for a way to skirt around them, but we’re locked tight within the nucleus of the battle. There’s no way forward but through.
“You lasted longer than I thought you would, Embyr,” Toryn says. “I’ll give you that.”
“I’m not here to win any prizes,” I growl. “The tournament wasn’t exactly my idea.”
“Oh, I don’t just mean the tournament.” He rotates his axe menacingly, spinning it in his grip. “I mean at Shadow’s Keep. With Commander Thornne trying to kill you at every turn. The poison, the fire…”
Surprise ripples through me. I knew he hated me, but still…as head of the Guardians, I can’t believe he’d stoop to murdering a human. But I guess I’d overestimated his sense of honor and underestimated his sense of duty. He’d clearly viewed me as a threat, despite Julian’s insistence otherwise.
Toryn laughs. “I see you didn’t know.” A shrug. “Well, he’s certainly not the only one who wanted you dead, so it makes sense you couldn’t figure it out.”
He’s not wrong there. And after eight years of running from one enemy or another, I’m done.
“You know, I’m getting really tired of apologizing for being born human.” I crouch, pushing all of my rage and frustration into the flames in my hands. “So if you’re going to try to kill me, then fucking do it.”
“Try?” Toryn smirks, and then he lunges.
The other two come at me at the same time.
I throw balls of fire and stab outward with my dagger, but I’m no expert fighter, and it’s three against one.
I whirl back and forth, feeling the bite of a blade here and there, but my flames can only protect me so much.
They don’t stop steel. I get in a couple hits of my own, sending one of the men sprawling backward, covered in flames, and slicing my dagger across the shoulder of another, but then Toryn knocks me off my feet and I hit the ground hard.
He leers down at me. “I guess you can test your theory on the afterlife. Don’t wait for me, though… I’ll live a hundred lives longer than you ever would.”
And he swings his axe for my head.
Mid-arc, his arm is yanked backward by a cyclone of shadow.
Toryn’s axe falls to the ground. My eyes widen and he looks over his shoulder.
Daemon is stalking toward us, shadows spinning out around him, dark wings stretched out to either side.
He yanks Toryn around and sends another cyclone of shadows around his chest, crushing him inside the darkness.
Toryn gasps, his skin going purple almost instantly.
“Embyr is under my protection,” Daemon growls, his voice shaking with fury. “You will not touch her again.”
Toryn’s companion turns and runs, a moment later getting trampled by one of the wolves.
The other is still smoldering on the ground from my flames, a raw, burning mess.
Daemon’s gaze remains fixed on Toryn, watching the light fade from his eyes as he gasps for air.
Toryn tries to talk, but he can’t get words out.
At that moment, one of the wolves bowls into Daemon from the side, sending both him and Toryn flying through the air.
A small scream escapes my lips, and I run to where Daemon landed a few feet away.
I can’t see Toryn anywhere in the midst of all the fighting.
Crouching by Daemon, my hands flutter over his still body.
But then he groans and opens his eyes. “It’ll take more than that to end me,” he says, slowly climbing to his feet.
He runs a finger down the side of my cheek.
“Now, we need to find that heart stone.”
“I could care less about the damn stone,” I gasp.
“It’s important,” Daemon says, his eyes searching mine, somber and with almost an edge of…fear? “I’ll explain later.”
I nod. “Okay. I saw the wolf with the stone a few minutes ago. It’s a bright blueish-purple. Embedded in its chest.”
Another wolf charges us and Daemon blasts it with shadows, pulling me behind him. “We’ll find it together.”
We rotate slowly, facing opposite directions, searching for the heart stone wolf.
When a wolf charges from my side, I put up my shield of flame and it skirts around with a howl of anger.
Another one comes at Daemon, but he quickly dispatches it into a cloud of ash with his magic.
Back-to-back, we move through the chaos, looking for the gemstone.
And then I see it, that flash like the color of the ocean, or the night sky. “There!”
Daemon spins and follows the line of my pointed arm. “Can you distract it for me?”
I nod. “Yeah.”
“Follow me!”
We take off running, following the beast as it zig-zags through the crowd. Daemon pulls ahead of me, his fae speed and endurance far superior to mine. He catches up to the wolf and runs alongside it before leaping up onto its back.
The creature lets out a furious howl and spins like a wild horse, trying to throw him off. I run as fast as I can, heart pumping, lungs about to burst, afraid I’m not going to make it in time. If Daemon is killed by this thing, I’ll never forgive myself…
I reach the wolf and throw a wall of fire at its face.
The tournament council had said we couldn’t kill the heart stone wolf.
They didn’t say anything about injuring it.
Not that my flames seem to do much harm to its metallic scales.
But it does distract the thing, making it cease its wild leaps while it shakes fire out of its eyes.
And in that moment it goes still, Daemon slides his hand around its neck and down its chest, and he yanks the heart stone free and leaps clear of the beast.
Instantly, all the wolves stop fighting, as if the stone had entranced them. The heart stone wolf turns to Daemon and bows its head slightly in deference. Then it lets out another sky-shattering howl, and all the wolves go thundering down the valley again, disappearing in a matter of moments.
I turn to Daemon in excitement, but he holds up a hand in warning. “We’re being watched,” he says. “I’ll find you later.”
I step away from him as the crowd of champions moves in around us. The council makes its way back out into the field, and they announce Daemon’s name to the crowd. A roar of applause erupts through the valley.
We did it. We survived another challenge. I survived.
But I’m not the only one. As I make my way off the field, in the distance I see several fae helping Toryn limp off as well.
My heart sinks. I know he won’t stop trying to kill me, even with Daemon’s warning.
He’s just going to wait until I’m alone.
It’s only a matter of time before he finds me and makes good on his threat.
He’s not the only one, either. As I step onto the path leading down to the valley below, a prickle at the back of my neck makes me turn. Trianne is standing a dozen feet away, her eyes burning into me with hatred. I hear Daemon’s voice from a few minutes before. We’re being watched.
I don’t know what it is that Daemon’s family did to his human friend in the past, but it clearly has him rattled. And now, I have yet another target on my back.