Chapter 55 #2
A metal screech echoes through the arena. The portcullis rises at the far end of the pit, revealing nine demis stepping into flickering torchlight. Skin bared, no armor in sight. To them, I’m no threat at all. Just one more fragile human to slaughter.
Good, Amara’s voice whispers through my memories. Let them underestimate you. Use that arrogance against them.
The demis fan out in a loose semicircle. A mix of males and females, all crackling with magic that warps the surrounding air. A female with electricity jumping between her fingers. A male with fire in his hands.
“Ten gold the human pisses herself before I even touch her.”
“Twenty says she’s begging for mercy inside a minute.”
I drop into a fighting stance—Amara’s drills beaten into me after all those brutal sessions. Muscles coiled and ready to move. Ready to kill.
Amara’s words hammer through me: Get dirty. Get mean. Kill them before they kill you.
Alexios lifts a hand. The crowd goes silent, the sudden absence of sound almost as deafening as the roar had been.
The demis attack.
The lightning demigoddess strikes first, electricity leaping from her splayed fingers. I hit the ground and roll. CRACK! The air at my back explodes, and the sharp stink of ozone burns my nose.
“brEAK THAT BITCH!” the crowd chants.
No time to think. I sense the second assault coming—the crushing pressure of gathering power that makes my ears pop. Instinct has me scrambling behind a large, red-winged warrior.
The blast hits him. The impact reverberates through my bones as his body goes flying. He crashes into the sand twenty yards away, wings crumpled and neck twisted.
One down. Eight to go.
“Thanks for that,” I call out.
“Lucky dodge, little girl,” the demigoddess snarls.
Another female hurls jagged spears of ice longer than my forearm. I throw myself to the side, but I’m not fast enough. Pain radiates through my shoulder, but Zephyr’s armor absorbs the blow.
I shake it off and keep moving.
Keep. Fucking. Moving.
I make my legs pump faster, ducking and weaving between their attacks. Lightning cracks inches from my face. I leap as the ground beneath me explodes—too close. The sand’s cratered with smoking holes, patches melted into glass by the lightning demi’s onslaught. Two more demis fall in the crossfire.
“MAKE HER BLEED!”
My lungs burn. My vision blurs, and my knives are slick in my hands, but stopping means dying. I don’t have the power to meet these demis head-on, so my only chance is to be quicker. Smarter.
Make the bastards kill each other.
Searing cold slams into my hip, and my entire left side goes numb. I stumble, barely managing to roll behind a partially melted pillar.
“Hiding already?” someone shouts. “Get out here, bitch!”
I use the moment of cover to gulp down air. My legs shake as I push myself to my feet.
Create openings. Make them react to you. Amara’s lessons blare in my head.
I glance around the column. Four are still standing, the rest were blasted to pieces by their own side’s attacks.
One male is shooting flames while another female’s hands glow with dark energy that makes shadows burst from the sand in inky vines.
The ice demi is hanging back to wait for a clear shot.
And the last bastard? He’s sucking in power—I can feel the bite of it against my skin.
A massive surge between his upraised palms, glowing blue as pure force magic forms.
I have maybe three seconds before he unleashes it.
I’m moving before I know what the hell I’m doing—just sprinting straight at him, sand flying everywhere. His jaw drops, because what kind of idiot charges to her death? This idiot, apparently.
“What the—”
Right before he lets loose his power, I dive for the ground and slide between his legs. The force wave hurtles over my head…
And slams directly into the ice demi behind me.
Her shriek cuts off as the concussive blast literally turns her inside out.
Lurching upright, I plunge my blade into the force-wielder’s back and wrench it hard. Once, twice more, taking ruthless advantage of his distraction. He tries to shove me off, but I’ve got my second knife ready. I jam it under his chin and let his corpse fall.
Two left.
The remaining demis regroup, trading looks. Reassessing the threat level of one small human who’s managed to survive this long.
“END IT! END IT!”
I bare my teeth in a feral grin. The left side of my body is still partially numb from that previous attack, but I can’t stop. Not now.
The shadow controller strikes first this time. Inky vines explode from the sand to ensnare me, one wrapping around my ankle to yank my feet out from under me. The impact knocks the wind out of me.
More black vines snare my arms and legs, pinning me down.
The demi grins. “Let’s see how pretty you are when we’re done with you.”
The flame-wielder laughs, conjuring fire between his palms. “I say we make the Wolf watch his pet human burn.”
They’re getting cocky. Overconfident.
Use it.
Teeth gritted, I strain against the shadows, scrabbling desperately for another dagger. Darkness digs into my skin, tightening, tightening. There—my fingertips brush metal.
For a heartbeat, Evander is with me. His hand on mine, steadying. When you let the knife fly, it’s not about forcing it to hit the target. It’s about trusting that all that careful preparation and intimate knowledge will guide it.
The flame demi raises his hands, magic building to an inferno—
I throw.
The blade buries itself to the hilt in his neck. His eyes go wide with shock as the flame dies, and he falls to his knees in the sand, choking around the blade.
The shadow controller’s concentration wavers for a fraction of a second, and the dark tendrils loosen their grip. I wrench myself loose just as the last demi’s energy gathers in her hands.
“FINISH HER!”
She unleashes a wave of shadow. I dive behind the flame-wielder where he’s still scrabbling for my dagger lodged in his throat, using his body as a shield. Ice crystals form on my eyelashes. My breath comes out in white puffs.
But the fire demigod takes the brunt of the impact, flesh cracking under the onslaught of icy shadows.
Only the demigoddess is left now.
She’s gathering another blast—fuck that. I launch myself over the frozen corpse and drive my knife up and into her gut.
For a moment, our eyes lock. Her mouth opens and closes as blood spills over my hand.
“Should’ve worn armor,” I snarl as I twist the knife, yank it out, and plunge it right back in. And again, just to watch the light fade from her eyes.
When her corpse drops, I hunch over, breathing hard. Barely able to catch my breath without pain radiating through my ribs. The crowd’s angry roar barely penetrates the ringing in my ears.
I look up at Alexios on his dais.
“I won,” I shout up at him over the din. “I want Evander out of the cuffs. Now.”
He rises from his throne. Those red and black wings spread wide as he descends the steps to the arena floor. A hush falls over the crowd as they all watch their king step into the pit.
“You still have one final challenger,” he says, smiling slowly. “Me.”