Chapter 30
Chapter thirty
We saw the intruder at the same time, their shadowy outline framed in white swirls of snow.
Atlas was faster, ripping a dagger out of his boot and shifting his torso to shield me from any incoming attacks.
I jumped up after him, grabbing a rock while reaching for my dress’s sash to fashion a quick sling.
My head cursed me for moving so quickly, but my survival instincts kept me upright.
I had to brace myself against the chilly wall, my hand nearly slipping on a layer of frost that coated the stone.
The shadow morphed into two, one figure stepping forward enough that we could see the faintest outline of their features in the firelight. Atlas lowered his dagger, his shoulders sinking with a sigh as his younger brother raised his hands in surrender.
“Uh, sorry,” Cedric said, his hair dusted with so much snow it looked bleached. “We didn’t realize this cave was already spoken for.”
I lowered my newly fashioned sling, letting my aching body relax once I realized the intruder was no threat. But the relief was short-lived when the second figure stepped into the light, reminding me exactly who Cedric was accompanying on this challenge.
“You can’t claim a cave unless your bones mark it as their tomb.” Avalyn pointed a slim pine tree branch at us, the tip sharpened into a wicked point that could easily take out an eye. “We will be taking this cave, unless you’d prefer a burial ceremony in it?”
My wrist struggled to hold up the loaded sling, my body far too weak to fight off Avalyn. Her magic earrings glinted in the firelight, her earlobes painfully red where the metal had frozen against her skin. With her enhanced strength, she would have no trouble kicking us out of our shelter.
But Atlas didn’t seem to care.
“Go ahead and try,” he growled, shifting back on his heel to prepare for the first strike. He adjusted the grip on his blade, holding it differently than how he carried his sword but with just as much precision. “It’s too cold to sit still anyway; I wouldn’t mind a good warm-up.”
“The flames of the underworld will warm you well, then.” Avalyn stepped forward, pushing Cedric aside like he was a mere child in her path.
She gripped her spear with both hands, her confidence almost more threatening than the point.
“You’re the prized sword of Aemastia, aren’t you?
” She looked Atlas up and down, her dark brows knitting before nodding in satisfaction.
“I suppose you’re a worthy challenger. Give me your worst.”
She let out a battle cry, running forward with her spear aimed straight at Atlas’s throat. Atlas was quick to react, his speed startling me as he raced forward to parry her attack. I waited for the first drops of blood to stain the snow but found myself gasping when both attackers froze.
Cedric had jumped in front of the battle, fearlessly standing in the crossfire with a sharp eye meeting Atlas. Avalyn gritted her teeth, her hands nearly shaking with rage as she fought the urge to strike the nuisance in her path down.
But she can’t hurt him…the rules state that any companions have to return unharmed in order to claim the points.
It was a foolish move by Cedric, but also a clever one. Atlas cared enough about his brother not to attack him, while Avalyn was restrained by the rules of the game.
“Enough of this, the cave is big enough for everyone,” Cedric said, his voice echoing off the walls. “This is a game of survival, not a battle. There’s no reason we can’t share a shelter.”
“Everything is a battle within this kingdom’s borders,” Avalyn hissed, still gripping her weapon in preparation to strike. “And I refuse to share the same air as her.” She gnashed her teeth at me, probably wishing she could have taken a bite of my flesh.
Everyone’s focus shifted to me, and the sick feeling in my stomach worsened as I realized I now needed to become the peacekeeper if I didn’t want to get kicked out into the snow.
“Avalyn,” I breathed, my throat still hoarse as I tried to stand without the assistance of the wall. “I didn’t want this competition to happen any more than you did.”
“But you’re still the reason it happened!” she barked. She pulled her spear back and, with a flick of her wrist, sent it flying toward me.
I couldn’t have run from it if I’d tried, but fortunately, Atlas had no trouble plucking the weapon straight out of the air. He snapped it like a toothpick and tossed it into the fire, earning a fierce growl from Avalyn.
“You’re protecting that weakling?” Avalyn glowered at Atlas, her arms flexing with her rage. “Why? I heard the stories of what happened before we all arrived. If you truly cared for her life, you would have married her when you had the chance.”
Atlas stiffened but didn’t respond, his silence only agitating Avalyn further. Cedric still stood in front of her, but if he didn’t step aside soon, I could imagine him ending up snapped like her spear.
“You’re protecting a nuisance who can barely stand!” Avalyn shouted, her voice resonating deep into the unexplored depths of the cave. “She ripped me from my home; I should have every right to claim her life. Step aside! You already had an opportunity to spare her and refused!”
“Don’t remind me!” Atlas shouted back at her, his voice like the roar of a lion who had just broken out of its muzzle.
“I’m angry enough that I made such a mistake.
” He tightened his grip around his dagger, his purple-tinged finger looking almost black in the dim light.
“Don’t speak to me of my failures, Princess, and don’t you dare thwart my attempts to remedy them.
I swear I’ll slit the throat of anyone who tries to stand in my way. ”
The cave fell silent. Even the flames seemed to die down to make space for Atlas’s declaration. I couldn’t feel the poison running through me at that moment; my heart was beating too fast to let it simmer in my veins.
He…regretted not marrying me?
Was it because he knew I was a princess now? Because he wanted to defy his father? There had to be a political reason for his regret, yet…I felt like it ran so much deeper than that.
Avalyn’s eyes narrowed, confusion clouding her bright-green gaze as she tried to decipher Atlas’s loyalty to the girl he’d once abandoned.
Cedric seemed to be the only one who truly understood what was happening, perhaps even more so than me.
He nodded toward his brother, the subtle gesture surprisingly heavy as he stepped back from Avalyn.
“Go ahead and try me, Princess,” Atlas said, his voice a low rasp as he raised his dagger toward Avalyn. “See how much strength regret has given me. I may have ignored her before, but never again.”
“Atlas…” I whispered, my voice too small to be heard.
Avalyn stepped back, lowering her fists despite the fire in her eyes never burning out. “Then keep the runt,” she hissed. “Keep any woman you want. I don’t want to marry any of you either way.”
She crouched down in front of the fire, holding her palms up to the flames to warm herself.
She didn’t officially admit defeat, nor did she agree to stop trying to kill anyone, but Cedric seemed to take her submission as an invitation to warm himself as well.
Everyone had moved past Atlas’s confession so quickly, but my heart still clung to his words, promising to resurface them later.
“I just want to go back to my island,” Avalyn said, her tone taking on an almost childlike longing as she stared into the flames.
I took a seat a few paces back from the fire, my body begging me to relax a bit more while it continued to fight off the illness.
I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of horrors Avalyn had gone through to get here.
Aemastia wasn’t typically the type of kingdom to send out cordial invitations to its castle.
“Then why do you bother to participate?” Atlas asked, taking a seat by the fire but still positioning himself in front of me. “Are you afraid of getting last place?”
“I’m afraid of displeasing your king,” Avalyn said, her voice cold enough to freeze the flames.
“He won’t settle for any type of disobedience; he made that clear when my family tried to refuse his request to send me.
” She gripped her knees close to her chest, making her look smaller than I had ever thought possible for the tall, powerful woman.
“He sent an army of soldiers to the beaches of my island. Hundreds of men, both Aemastian”—she met my eyes—“and Ivalonian.”
I gasped, my chest tightening. The remaining Ivalonian prisoners…
“They burned down a third of our jungle,” Avalyn continued, “only stopping the flames before they could spread enough to destroy everything. They told my father that if I failed to participate, they would return to finish off the jungle and send poachers for our animals.”
How awful.
It was no wonder she hated me. How was she supposed to know that the Ivalonians attacking her home were being forced to work for Aemastia?
“Ah, what a great impression to leave on your sons’ potential pride,” Atlas said, kicking a stone into the fire. “Sounds just like Father.”
“I didn’t even get to say goodbye,” Avalyn said, her long nails clawing at her skirt as she clenched her teeth.
“Then they tell us that whoever gets last place will perish? It’s all so ridiculous.
We have no choice but to perform at our best and pray that we’re insignificant enough to be sent home. ”
Her anger was all too familiar, her description of the fires engulfing her home flashing my mind back to the night of the invasion. The memory warmed the soles of my feet, reminding me of the fateful moments I ran barefoot across the burning castle floors in a heavy dress.
If I had been in her shoes, I would want to kill me too.
“I was also pulled from my home,” I said, catching Avalyn’s eye through the tips of the dancing flames.
She didn’t look too interested in considering my story, but she didn’t shun me yet either.
“But they didn’t give us an option to stop the fires.
Everything burned—the people, my family, and the only home I ever knew. ”
Avalyn didn’t respond, but she did look back at me, her eyes alight with the same fire that plagued us both.
“I did, however, get to say goodbye to my mother.” I twisted the ring on my finger, my heart aching. “Right before she was shot through the heart with an arrow and died in my arms.”
I swallowed back the tears, letting the smoke burn them away before any could fall. Avalyn’s expression shifted, her lips parted in a silent gasp as she loosened her grip on her skirts.
“I’m sorry, Avalyn,” I said earnestly. “My failure to marry brought the same suffering upon you that I never would have wished on anyone. I don’t expect you to forgive me, but I hope you’ll believe me when I say that I never wanted any of this, either.
And like you, I certainly didn’t want to marry a prince when I first arrived…
” I turned to look at Atlas. He couldn’t look away from me, his eyes diving into my very soul as he clung to my next words.
“But, just like us, they’re not so bad once you get to know them. ”
I didn’t know what compelled my hand to move, but I couldn’t stop it from reaching toward Atlas. He placed his hand on mine, his echo ring sitting squarely on top of mine, sending a whole different type of buzzing up my arm.
“Tell me, then.” Avalyn straightened, her tone rigid. “Do you intend to survive, or to win?”
I glanced back at Atlas, his hand lightly squeezing my fingers as I faced Avalyn with the confidence of a future queen. “Win.”
“I see.” She nodded, processing my answer with slitted eyes. “Then what does being a princess truly mean to you?”
What does it mean?
That was a question my father could have easily answered. Being a princess meant you were weak. It meant inferiority. It meant that your worth was determined by others and not yourself.
But what did it mean to me?
“I want it to mean something different than what I’ve been told,” I said.
“My mother thought that being a princess meant needing to rely on a prince. My father thought it made you worthless. But I’m not worthless, and a prince doesn’t complete me any more than anyone else could.
” I felt my hand warm under Atlas’s touch, his calm presence taking on a new meaning as I dissected the purpose behind my crown.
“To me, being a princess means accepting that I’m strong, but also knowing that there are times it’s okay to be weak and rely on others.
It takes a kingdom to make a princess, and I need the entire kingdom to support the weight of a crown. ”
Avalyn stood, stirring Atlas to jump to his feet and block her path.
She didn’t seem fazed by his defense maneuver as she calmly and boldly walked around the fire to face me.
I stood too, my head displeased but my muscles reacting to the oncoming princess in case I needed to run.
Atlas held up a hand to stop her, but she waved him off, shooting him a quick glare before reaching forward to snatch my hand.
Her sudden touch startled me, but it didn’t feel threatening. Her grip was too tight to be friendly but too loose to strike fear. I met her vibrant green eyes, squeezing her hand back.
“Then forge a crown you can bear,” she said. “Your kingdom will follow.”