CHAPTER TWELVE
Dirt coated my tongue and teeth as I hit the ground face-first.
The void spat me out of its entity like I tasted rotten, just as quickly as it had swallowed me.
I lifted my head just enough to take in my surroundings. I was still in the Dome, but back on the ground below. Light had found its way back inside, illuminating the thousands of faces above.
Strong hands snaked under my shoulders. I tore myself away immediately, shooting up to my feet, fists already clenched and ready to swing. The blaring pain along my thigh threatened to take me down again, but I held firm, centering my weight on my uninjured leg instead.
Jade eyes stared up at me, shining with a faint tint of amusement.
Kodhan knelt where he’d presumably tried to help me up, hands still hovering where my body had been.
Theia crouched next to him, her sharp features lined with distress.
Brannon was the only one of us also standing, pacing in a slow circle as he studied the crowd above our heads.
All around us, other competitors were being spat out of the same void, one by one.
“Dirt isn’t made for eating, little viper,” Kodhan scolded as he pushed to his feet. He swiped his thumb over my bottom lip, then flipped it over to show me the dirt now coating his skin.
I shoved his hand away. Swiped the back of my hand over my mouth. Over the tingling sensation on my bottom lip.
“Missed a spot,” he mouthed, his pointer finger making a circular motion around his jaw.
“Only one rule is stopping me from ripping your head from your shoulders.” I needed him far more than he needed me.
“If it weren’t for that one rule, I’d show you what eating dirt really looks like,” I hissed.
“Without your magic to hide behind, you are nothing. I’d have you on the ground faster than you could take your next breath, coward. ”
He bent slightly at the waist, bringing our noses mere inches apart.
His breath fanned my lips as he spoke lowly, as if it were just the two of us in a secluded room, and not of under the scrutiny of thousands of spectators.
“Rules. So many of them exist, and yet I adhere to none. That means there’s nothing stopping you from taking me to the ground, is there?
” He cocked his head. “A curious proposal indeed. But I’ll accept.
Especially since you seem to enjoy getting rather…
” A pause. A long look pointed towards my lower lip. “Dirty.”
My mouth opened, then snapped shut. The heat that fanned my cheeks made me wish I’d hit the ground harder. At least the bruising would’ve hid any scarlet hue.
His body suddenly careened to the side, bringing the rest of the world back into focus.
“We all know it would do you some good to have some time back on the ground. Your head is filled with nothing but tiny pebbles, after all. Tumbling around and around, without any purpose,” Theia crooned, looking ready to shove him again.
“Harsh,” Kodhan protested half-heartedly.
“Hardly,” she replied with the same indifference. “Find a shred of decency, and perhaps I’ll be nicer.” She looped an arm through mine. “Or maybe I’ll help her gut you next time.”
“Two against one is hardly fair.”
“Who said anything about fair?” she countered, then said to me in a mock whisper, “It’s the pebbles, you see. Small, indeed, but they make quite a ruckus up there. It’s rather difficult for him to think properly with all that clamoring.”
Kodhan’s frown returned. “I think you’ve made your point.”
“I think I can decide for myself when my point has been made.”
“Stop bickering and focus,” Brannon snapped, his back to us. “Especially you, Kodhan. I can hear your mind rattling from here.”
Theia cackled, a contagious thing that had me covering my own laugh behind my hand.
Gradually, the crowd above our heads went preternaturally silent, much like a forest would in the presence of a deadly predator. Their eerie lack of chaos sobered me in an instant.
The deadliest predator here was still situated in the same place, amongst members of court.
Though instead of being seated, Maverick stood a short way from his chair, as though he’d been pacing the aisle.
“Well done,” his voice boomed. Kodhan’s father, forever the loyal Second, remained stoic in his own seat.
“All of you have proven just how strong you can be when faced with obstacles designed for the sole purpose of proving the opposite. You should be proud of yourselves. You have done well.”
His smile was off. Instead of the full, captivating thing that carved the barest of dimples into each cheek, this smile did not reach his eyes. I would know that smile anywhere. Had seen it on him too many times to count.
It was the same one he sported in a room full of adversaries. When he’d already gripped the strings above their heads, and was ready to play.
Maverick took a long, unhurried drink of his cup filled to the brim with what looked to be a white wine. I pitied whoever had served him. He hated anything that wasn’t red or didn’t burn on the way down.
His words were a rumble of thunder. “But there are too many of you.”
Behind me, someone whined in dismay.
“I don’t care who it is. How it is done.
In one final display of strength, you must eliminate the weak.
” Maverick handed off his now-empty cup to the servant standing near him.
Nothing but pure malice was written across his face.
“I will officially end your trial when I find your numbers are sufficient. Begin.”
There were sixteen of us left. Sufficient numbers could mean anything.
Fool. I’d been a fool to think that orb truly represented the end of Strength.
I palmed Kodhan’s dagger, spreading my feet shoulder-width apart. By the constant, steady trickle of warmth blazing down the rest of my leg, I knew I was leaving a bloody trail for all to see. But a wounded leg paled in comparison to the fact that I was irrevocably outmatched.
I’d hoped for anything but this.
Kodhan shifted to put himself between me and the other competitors, fire slowly licking up his fingers and wrists.
But nothing could prepare either of us for the vine that snapped around my ankle and yanked. Air wheezed out of my lungs as I landed on my stomach, chin smashing into the dirt yet again.
In a handful of seconds, I crossed nearly half the length of the Dome. My efforts to anchor myself were futile, fingers digging into the dirt, skin splitting on loose rocks. The dagger merely left a thin trail behind me.
I had half a mind to flip onto my back to spot the vine’s owner.
With a flick of her wrist, the woman who’d manipulated the vines while crossing the swinging axes and stone wall dragged me towards her. A hungry smile played across her face.
Stars, she worked fast.
But Kodhan was faster.
Flames engulfed her before I could reach her feet.
I could only watch, with a strange sensation of wonder blooming from the stems of mortification taking root in my chest, as her pained screams filled the air. Filled my head. And yet, I couldn’t find it in myself to pair it with remorse. She would have killed me. Would have found joy in killing me.
This was what the Starlight Trials thrived on. Proof of it lay in the crowd who cheered at deafening levels once again.
A foreign smile graced my lips. “Too slow.”
I didn’t need to raise my voice. By the sheer look of hatred she sported before collapsing, she heard me perfectly fine.
She was no longer a threat. As the vines around my ankles loosened, I pushed onto my hands and knees, expecting Kodhan’s boots to appear in my periphery. But they didn’t. He wasn’t where I’d seen him last, either.
I found Theia first, locked in a physical hand-to-hand with another girl, magic completely forlorn.
Even drenched in violence, she was mesmerizing.
Lips peeled back into a deep snarl, she reminded me of portraits long forgotten in the darkest corners of the library, depicting those who fought against the very enemies that spurred Maverick into creating the Veil.
Warrior princesses abandoning their crowns of gold and silver for cloaks of gore and battlefields filled with nightmares.
Brannon fought against three others, though still had the upper hand with his wind. A sheer force to be reckoned with. He easily parried each of his opponents’ attacks, shielding himself against both pressurized water and physical blows.
I turned in a slow circle. “Where are you?” I muttered. There.
Time crawled to a near standstill.
He grasped for his throat; face blotched with red. And he wasn’t alone. One of the two competitors from the platform of shadow-beasts stood just out of reaching distance, one arm outstretched, fingers twitching as if he was squeezing something I couldn’t see.
Kodhan’s lungs. He was strangling him without even touching him.
Two thoughts occurred at once.
I had more than enough reasons to let him die.
The satisfaction of letting his threats die with him would be more than worth it.
But he’d also saved my life, and more than once.
He’d taken hits meant for me. Had put me in a position where I’d been protected long enough to get this far. Kodhan was the reason I still lived.
I could make out the slightest sheen on his forehead. Everyone who wielded magic had their limits. I’d made sure to study them enough to know when a person met theirs.
To know the enemy.
And Kodhan was approaching his.
His short grunt of pain was soft, but it reached my ears anyway.
A familiar calm washed over me then. Filling my limbs with the same fluid sureness I honed night after night. Name after name. My heart slowed into a steady rhythm, each beat hammering a thick wax seal over fate.
The surrounding cacophony of discord eddied until the only sound encasing me was the pounding in my ears, steadying every step I took towards the man whose fingers continued to squeeze mid-air.
He didn’t notice Kodhan’s eyes settle on me over his shoulder, too focused and pleased at the idea that he would eliminate one of the strongest competitors—the Second’s son.
If I’d learned one thing after taking so many lives, it was that if played correctly, death would sing to its bearer. And, stars, did it sing beautifully.
My next movements were precise, rehearsed so many times that my body acted of its own accord.
Metal sang against flesh, tearing along the base of the man’s throat. His surprised intake of breath wavered—warped by his torn windpipe. Blood splashed, raining onto the dirt in a soft pitter-patter.
A dark tide kept coming. Continued to wash away every thought threatening swallow me whole. Just as I’d practiced. Just as I’d ordered it, time and time again.
It crashed and raged against my ribcage while the man slumped to the ground at my feet. The final note.
Kodhan swallowed heavy mouthfuls of air, running a hand across his chest as if to make sure his lungs were still in place. He cleared his throat to speak, but I held up a hand, stopping him.
“Save your breath.” Taking one step back, a small line of blood followed me in small rivulets dripping from his blade. “Now we’re almost even.” The words were as hollow as I felt.
“Enough.”
Chaos stilled at the order. Grunts of effort hesitantly ceased, while the heavy crackle of magic in the air faded, parting like grey clouds after heavy rain.
Bodies slumped to the ground in exhaustion. Pain. Resignation. Some faces carried all three.
Two of them would never rise. A third lay at the feet of another man adjacent to Kodhan and I, their neck twisted at an awkward angle. At least their death had been quick.
I repressed a shudder at the morbid look of satisfaction their killer wore. One of the first few competitors to make it through the obstacles.
And Kodhan had just flayed one of his allies.
The man noticed quickly enough. And the promise of death written across his face as his eyes settled on me accusingly left a lump of lead lodged within my stomach.
I forced my expression into neutrality. Lifted my chin.
It was up to her not to attack me. There were others to choose from—all without a flame-wielding Second’s son bent on having the privilege of killing me at their backs. She had it coming.
Maverick gestured widely to the lot of us, his smile a lot more promising than the one he’d worn a few moments ago. “Congratulations to all thirteen of you. You have successfully completed Strength.”
The breath that escaped from my lips loosened the tension wracking my shoulders.
Banners dropped from above, peppered with confetti and streamers of blue, white, and gold. The audience had gotten the entertainment they came for. Reveled in our bloodshed. Wagers on who would die first would be cashed out, and more would be made for the second trial.
“You will all be escorted back to your rooms. Rest will be needed, I’m sure.” With a flick of Maverick’s wrist, a handful of guards appeared to lead us back to the tower.
A frantic search for Gideon proved unfruitful. Of course, Diana would do her best to keep him from any task that would allow him to come near me.
And if it wasn’t him, I didn’t need any of them. Turning on my heel, I made to traverse the long walk across the Dome.
“Not you, Eloise.” My muscles locked tightly on themselves. “You are to come with me.”