Chapter 36 #3
I smiled, too, though I’m not sure how I looked when I said, “Nice.” What the hell else was I supposed to say?
Sorry you’re pretending to be dead and you can’t comment on the upcoming slaughter that’s going to happen right in front of our eyes?
Because it would be slaughter. Pippa was right, this was not a sport, no matter who called it that.
“Look—there they are!”
Lyall turned to the arena. All the others who were sitting on the chairs with me, including the queen, stood up to get closer to the railing, to look at whoever was going to be fighting a fucking giant.
Meanwhile, I gripped the armrests with all my strength, allowed myself to close my eyes and focus on breathing until I got my heartbeat under control.
I could still leave. The three guards who always watched me, and five others who were no doubt here with the queen and the prince stayed back, behind the chairs and the table, and they wouldn’t stop me.
I’d just tell Lyall that I had a headache or something—I could just go. I didn’t need to see, damn it.
I wasn’t going to see.
Then the voice echoed in the open air over the arena— the sharp voice of a woman, no doubt amplified by magic, because the sound of her was crystal clear, like it was coming from invisible speakers.
Focus on Rune, I told myself, and I kept my eyes on him no matter how hard I wanted to close them.
It was Rune and he was right there, barely ten feet away from me.
It was okay. We were both okay, and as soon as Lyall sat down again, I was going to tell him I didn’t feel well—which was the truth.
All I had to do was focus on Rune and calm down until the roaring stopped and that woman stopped cheering with the crowd, stopped listing all those names of people who were about to die.
So far she’d said six, and if six people were in that arena with that giant, I wasn’t going to just feel not well, I’d be sick for real.
It worked, if only halfway. I focused on Rune, the width of his shoulders, the way he moved so little, the way he rested his hands on the pale stone in front of him, the way his profile looked when he turned his head to the side.
His hair was a mess, and I could almost feel how smooth and thick it was between my fingers, and slowly, the voices around me disappeared to leave way for the ones coming straight out of the memory of two nights ago.
The throne room and the chair he’d put me in, the way he’d fucked me, slow and rough at the same time. Desperate.
Then my eyes locked on Lyall’s.
My heart stood perfectly still. He was right there by Rune’s side, and he was looking at me, a corner of his lips curled up, his golden eyes wide and…full.
“Your Highness, if I may.”
Thank God.
A soldier had spoken—another soldier who’d come from the other side of the box, and I hadn’t even noticed. But now everyone was looking at him, and Lyall was no longer smiling at me but waving for him to approach.
The soldier did. He bowed to the queen, then went to Lyall and whispered something in his ear while the giant roared. Thankfully I couldn’t see him from the chair. I could only see Rune, who looked at me for only a second, and then he smiled.
I could have sworn that he smiled at me—just a ghost of a smile, but I felt it all the way to my soul.
The soldier moved back, and Lyall had his eyes closed and his head down for a moment.
“What is it, son?” the queen asked, her voice light as a breeze, and Lyall waved a hand.
“Some trouble with the Hollow downstairs. Nothing to worry about, Mother.” He turned to Rune. “I need you down there to make sure everything’s in order.”
Rune paused for only a split second. My heart almost jumped out of my ribcage. Please, don’t go…
“Of course,” Rune said with a nod.
“Come back soon. I don’t want to watch the game without you,” Lyall said and stepped back to let him through.
“You won’t notice me gone,” Rune said, bowing his head at the queen as he passed to get to the other side, and the soldier who’d whispered in Lyall’s ear followed close behind.
There went every bit of calm I had managed to gather in the last few minutes, disappeared down whatever door there was in the floor beyond that table, together with Rune.
“Nilah, come closer. Come see,” Lyall said, and he came for me with his hand raised.
On the inside, I screamed at him to get away from me, reminded him how utterly cruel he and every person in this arena was for even allowing such a thing to happen, let alone to label it a sport.
Instead, I put my hand on his and I stood up, went closer to the edge right where Rune had been standing because I needed to see him, needed to know when he’d be back.
“Comfortable?” Lyall asked.
“Very,” I said through gritted teeth, but if he noticed he didn’t comment.
Folding his hands in front of him, he looked ahead at the arena, at the giant and the six men and women who were in there with him, waving at the crowd, screaming and cheering like they had no clue what the hell was going to happen next.
Lyall sighed loudly. “I have a feeling this is going to be the best match we’ve seen in a long time,” he said, and he definitely believed it.