Chapter Fourteen
Farah
Sweat clung to the bridge of Farah’s nose, dripping from above her brows.
Despite the winter’s chill, the training ring roared with the heat of a bonfire close by.
Other rings were peppered throughout this portion of the mountain range, but this particular one was set high up, perched on the side of the cliff.
If she took only a few steps too far outside the ring, well, Farah didn’t want to imagine what tumbling down the sheer abyss would feel like.
The wraps around her hands were still neatly tied, even with the blood blooming through the linen.
Every muscle in her body ached, throbbing in pulse with the beat of her heart.
She stood, hands placed firmly on her thighs, as a sour tang worked its way along her tongue.
For years, Farah had trained as a spy and an assassin, running miles each day, sparring with men, racing through obstacle courses, but nothing prepared her for what she had gone through this last week.
She wondered if Chloe was going through the same thing.
If Markos was kicking the shit right out of her like Acacius was doing.
That was one thing Avra did not mention at dinner a week before—they were not to see each other until the Eleusinian Ball.
Tradition, or superstition, or some other excuse.
Instead, the majority of Farah’s day was spent in these mountains, with the fire-haired prince who most certainly wanted her dead.
Or at least, severely injured.
“Break,” Farah coughed out through her heaving breaths. “A minute.”
Acacius approached her and slipped his pointer finger under her chin guiding her gaze upward. “Do you have a secret for me?”
“No more secrets.” Her words came out more as a breath than true words at all. “Until you tell me the point.”
“The point, phoinix, is that I still do not trust you. The point is that you have one more to give.”
“I don’t,” Farah said, turning away from the prince.
“Do you love my cousin?” Acacius growled, his palm now wrapped firmly around her arm.
“I have already told you we are to marry. What more do I have to say?” Farah spat by his boots, her saliva mixed with the sanguine tone of blood from her split lip.
“I did not ask if you intend to marry her. I asked if you loved her.” His tone grew deeper with every sentence, like it did each day over the last week.
His power threaded through her, talons ripping seams in the very veins beneath her skin, allowing the venom deep within her to spread. Fire spread along with it, making her keel over once more.
“Would I marry someone I didn’t love?” It was the same thing she repeated to herself at night, a lie that Acacius saw through during each of their training sessions.
“I believe you would say anything to keep your own head, even if that meant pretending to love her.”
Her vision began to blur, the world around her spinning. “I love her. There I said it. Are you happy now?”
“I would be if you were telling me the truth. Should I rip it out from you instead?”
Farah mustered up every last inkling of strength that was left inside, pushing herself up from the ground and lunging at Acacius.
She twisted both her palms up, letting onyx ink snake up from her fingertips to her elbows.
One blow. That was all she had left. Her magic welled in her palms, beginning to spin around each hand like a tornado and she released it on Acacius.
Black flames and smoke hit him square in the chest, sending him backward against the side of the mountain.
Rocks scattered down at the impact and dirt sprayed in all directions.
Her chest heaved as her power dwindled to nothing and Farah collapsed on the ground.
“Break. Now,” she winced, her breathing labored as that acrid tang enveloped her mouth once more.
Acacius palmed his hand down his face, using his other to rub the spot he was hit on his chest. “No more breaks for you, phoinix.”
This gods-damned insolent man was going to kill her before she even had the chance to step into the Mysteries. Did his trainee survival rate remain unaffected if she didn’t enter the first trial?
“I swear to the gods, Acacius,” Farah said through mangled breaths.
“We are done for the day.” He stood, brushed off his leathers and shirt, and walked toward her, extending his hand.
She smacked it away. “I will get up when I am good and ready.” Farah rolled over on the ground, splaying her arms wide as her breathing regulated.
“Suit yourself. There is a whole jug of water and cool cloths in the ice chest back in the cave though, so I know where I’m going to be.” Acacius waved at her and sauntered off toward the flame-lit cavern that eventually led back to the castle.
An ice cold cloth would do wonders for regulating her spike in body temperature.
Even after a week of training with Acacius at this altitude she was still unsure how his power truly worked.
It was winter, the air was always bitter on her skin this high above sea level, and yet it was as if he manipulated her own magic against her.
Every dark flame and boiling smoke would fill her lungs and veins and sear burn marks into her skin despite snow falling around them.
“Ugh, fine.” Groaning, Farah rolled to her side, pushing her body up onto all fours and then to her feet.
Her balance was still weary and despite how much of a pain in the ass Acacius was during their sessions, he still quickly ran back and caught Farah before she could hit the ground once more.
“Maybe we went a little long today,” he said, looping one of her arms around his shoulders so he could help her to the cave.
“You think?”
“Look, I don’t enjoy doing this to you, as much as you might think so.
The Mysteries—they take things from us, things we do not wish to give, truths, memories, pain.
” Acacius turned Farah’s face toward him, and his features softened.
“I don’t want anyone else to die at the hands of such an outdated tradition. ”
Outdated? “Did you not believe in the Mysteries then? Why would you ever enter?”
From what little she learned about these horrid trials, it was an honor to participate, to prove your loyalty to the person you love, the crown, and the Fates.
They halted quickly, right outside of the entrance to the cave. “No one ever enters these trials willingly. I would think you of all people would know that.”
“I only know what you have told me, which is next to nothing, and what little I heard on the winds about my father and your mother.”
His jaw feathered at the comment, but Acacius did not show any other signs of distaste. “My mother is a believer of the olde ways as you might have guessed. She believes that the Fates still control our destiny long past the days of the Olympi. That sacrifice is warranted.”
“And do you not believe that as well? In sacrifice?” It should not have surprised her that Avra leaned into the olde ways in terms of sacrifice, it was something her father believed in as well, but there was a line of how much needed to be given up for the sake of power.
Her father crossed that line more times than she could count.
“I do not, nor do I believe that the Fates hold only one true path for each of us.” Acacius moved closer to her, pushing Farah into a darkened alcove by the caves entrance.
Power flooded the air, filling her lungs, and Farah began to choke on it. Darkness crept off the walls of the cave, acting as a barrier between the small space where they stood—barely large enough for their two bodies—and the world beyond.
“What are you doing?” she hissed.
“I need your help, and these caves, they listen. She has spies everywhere.” Acacius lowered his voice to barely a whisper and although his mouth moved in the words of the Elliniká Glóssa, every sentence entered Farah’s ears in the common tongue.
“My mother hid something many years ago, in the labyrinth of the Mysteries. I do not know where and I do not know what, but it is what fuels the Fates’ magic beneath these mountains since the Olympi fell a century ago.
It is the only reason the Eleusinian Mysteries are able to continue. ”
Farah laughed, her shoulders shaking and chest heaving as tears formed in her eyes. “The only thing hidden beneath this mountain is a trinket Avra and my father left. A token of his affection. I heard my father mutter about it in his sleep a thousand times.”
“Your father lied. I could feel it calling to me in my final trial, begging me to let it out, let it be free.”
Farah smacked Acacius upside the head. “You’ve lost your mind. I’m sure that was just the trial playing tricks on you.”
His jaw feathered and his eyes darkened. “I need you to believe me. Avra is not your ally, nor will she ever be. Even if you survive these trials, she will not send our fleet nor our armies, I know it. Your best weapon is using whatever is down there as a bargaining chip.”
Someone was clearly dehydrated or overtired, because that was the most absurd thing Farah had heard since she left Nexos. “If your mother never intended to give us aid, she would have sent us on our way the moment we set foot on these lands.”
The barrier to the outside of the alcove dissipated and light returned around them. “In time, phoinix. In time you will see.”