Chapter 9
My body shook, clammy hands and trembling limbs making it difficult to remain standing.
I backed away slowly from the beasts, but when I looked around, they were behind me as well. My breathing turned ragged, sweat trickling down my forehead despite the cold. For some reason, they hadn’t attacked me yet.
Just beyond the encroaching circle, I saw a gunmetal tyger spring toward Ire, but to my surprise, the creature was met with a resounding clang as it collided with him. The man rolled underneath the tyger and came up unharmed. His skin glinted, as if a sheen of metal lay over the surface.
This must have been his magic.
Twisting around, the tyger sank its jaws into Ire’s arm.
My skin prickled with goose bumps, heart pounding in my chest. Still, Ire gave no sign of pain. Instead, he wrenched his arm free, the cloth tearing, and with a mighty thrust threw the beast off him. No blood. His arm seemed to be perfectly fine.
Ire stood motionless, a hulking figure of shadow and muscle, his expression unreadable as the gunmetal tyger approached him again. Ire held up his hand.
For a moment, they simply stared at each other. Then, with a slow, deliberate motion, the tyger raised a massive paw and pressed it against Ire’s palm, where his yang Mark was.
A light flared between them, crackling like wildfire as Ire threw his head back, a guttural sound ripping from his throat. The tyger roared in answer, the sound sharp.
After Ire staggered to his feet, he started stalking toward me, chest unharmed beneath his shredded tunic. He stood at the edge of the circle, his monstrous tyger behind him, glowing eyes unblinking.
“The weaklings must be eliminated.” He sneered before shocking us all by grabbing the brass-haired young man and throwing him into the center of the circle with me.
“Stop!” the man cried in terror as he staggered. “I thought we were friends.”
“I am helping you realize your dream, friend,” Ire said with an unpleasant smile. “Bond away.”
A blur of teeth and claw swept toward me as a tyger lunged at the man.
“Watch out!” Without thinking, I yanked him behind me so that we were back-to-back.
I could feel his heaving breaths. One tyger snapped its jaw at us, just missing. I shoved the man hard, out of the way of razor-sharp claws that just missed me.
Then the tyger’s paw tore through the air again, faster than I could react. I felt searing pain as claws sliced across my chest, and for a heartbeat, time seemed to stop.
I screamed. A single high piercing note filled with agony, the pain flaming red-hot across my ribs. My vision blurred. The world tilted, the clamor of the crowd fading to a distant buzz as I stumbled backward.
I hit the ground, bracing myself with my hands. My blood soaked through my cloak and into the sand.
In the distance, a roar tore through the air.
My body screamed in agony as I staggered to my feet, not wanting to appear weak before the tyger even as my blood dripped. I fought to stay upright, my senses swimming in and out of focus. The beast’s eyes were wild, primal, and I knew I wouldn’t survive its next attack.
I wasn’t aware I was making a sound until I felt it vibrate through my ribs. A low hum, broken and breathless, rose from my throat. I wasn’t trying to do it, as I’m sure Blake Axefire—wherever he might be now—believed. My body was doing it instinctually. Like it was singing for me, without me.
The tyger paused.
The hum deepened, slid into something softer, hypnotic. My voice wavered with every breath, barely more than a whisper, but the air around me changed. Thicker. Warmer. The tyger let out a low growl but didn’t come closer.
Again, that roar in the distance. Closer now, echoing through the compound. What was that?
My legs gave out. I hit the dirt hard. Still humming. Still alive.
Not for much longer. My eyes tracked the blood around me, soaking my dress, the sand.
The crowd thundered, oblivious to the invisible battle happening with the beast. It shook its head, as if confused.
I rolled to a half-kneeling position, huddled against the pain, to see another tyger’s jaws descend upon the throat of the brass-haired man.
He gurgled, his blood bubbling up like a fountain.
My heart sank as I watched him being dragged away. I could scarcely breathe through the pain. I smelled the musk all around me. All the blood had inflamed the other tygers. Saliva dripped. Tails flicked. I was surrounded.
The pain was so great now it had started to fade to numbness. I closed my eyes.
Distantly, I swore I heard the crowd murmuring, gasping.
Another roar burst against my ears, somehow familiar.
My eyes flickered open to see the copper-and-black coat I recognized.
Flame stood in front of me, snarling at the other tygers.
Was I hallucinating?
They had locked her up. This isn’t real. I’ve lost too much blood.
She roared again. The tygers encircling us took a step backward.
Flame was bleeding, her shoulders were torn, and a thick rope was still tied around her neck, as if she had broken free from her restraints.
An unearthly vibration, something between a hum and a purr, filled the Arena.
It was coming from the other tygers, in the presence of their queen.
She whirled on me, her golden eyes half mad. Suddenly, they flared completely silver.
I gasped, then doubled over as a sharp jab of pain hit my gut.
Time seemed to slow. A growl went through her torso, making the air vibrate as she lowered her head, gathering her haunches.
My heartbeat was as loud as thunder in my ears.
Flame pounced toward me. The crowd roared.
Her powerful body arched in the air—beautiful and majestic—before her enormous paws hit me squarely in the chest.