Chapter 37
Serafina
“Fi!” Char calls after me, but I’ve already turned away.
“If you want to survive this trial,” I say over my shoulder, fire still exploding from my fingertips, “I suggest you stay the hell away from me.”
I stride toward the center of the arena, where the other contestants wait, their expressions tight and wary.
I let my flames disappear. There’s no sense in tiring my muscles this early.
Char betrayed me.
The thought feels like a dagger twisting in my chest. I want to weep. I want to sink to the ground and never get up again, but I need to be strong. Stay strong.
I need to survive.
“The third trial for Village 28 is about to commence,” a booming voice floods the arena, speaking through a horn to ensure he can be heard by all.
Silence settles over the restless crowd in the stands and the murmurs among the contestants stop completely.
“This trial will consist of two rounds. For round one, each contestant will receive a glass orb. Your goal is simple. Protect your orb. Do not allow it to break, and do not allow another to take it from you. Whoever’s orb is still intact and in their possession by the end of the round will advance to round two.
Contestants, please report to the east side of the arena to collect your orb. ”
I exhale slowly. This sounds easy enough. Protect an orb. I can handle that. No problem.
Shaking out my hands, I do as instructed. I follow the other contestants toward the east side.
“I’d say good luck, but you don’t need it.” Nyxa’s words fill my chest with a calmness that radiates through every part of me.
“Thank you, Nyxa.”
Standing in line, I wait my turn. I keep my gaze low, avoiding eye contact with anyone and everyone. I’m not worried about an attack.
Not yet.
Not with so many eyes now on us. Norin still may want to kill me, he may still want me dead, but he’ll have to wait until the trial has officially begun to make his move.
When it’s my turn at the table, I examine the orbs. They’re delicate, each one a light blue sphere veined with gold, like intricate spiderwebs spun by some celestial artist.
Picking one up, I’m surprised to feel how light it is.
I use my other hand to sign my name on a sheet of paper. An Enforcer glances at it before checking me off the list he holds. The trial won’t begin until everyone aged twenty-one is accounted for. If someone fails to show, the Enforcers will go off in search of them.
And they always find them.
Always.
It’s been years since someone has tried to evade the final trial. The last time it happened, the man was executed publicly in the street outside the arena. His body left to rot for days before his family was allowed to bury him.
No one’s attempted evasion since.
My gaze falls upon the trial coordinators who sit just behind the table. There are ten of them, all holding notepads, ready to score each and every one of us. Ready to decide who lives…and who dies.
It’s not a job I would ever want, but it’s one they chose.
I hold up my chin and move to the center of the arena with my orb in hand, standing as far from the other contestants as I can manage, which isn’t very hard. We all seem to have the same strategy.
“For this round, anything goes,” the announcer says. “Good luck, and remember, you must keep your orb safe. The first round of the third trial for Village 28 has officially begun!”
The horn blares, sharp, loud, and jarring, but no one moves.
I hold my orb to my chest with one hand and extend the other out in front of me. If anyone makes a move in my direction, I won’t hesitate to show them exactly what it is I can do.
I’m not sure how many of them know I’m an Essentari. Char, obviously, and Norin, as well as anyone else who tried to attack me the night Ryjax saved me. Plus those who just saw my flames erupt in the middle of the arena, but with the chaos, I’m not sure how many were paying attention.
But still, no one moves.
No one moves because we all understand what it means if we were to destroy another’s orb.
Death to that person.
We would cause their death.
There’s a lot wrong with our world, but I take a grim sort of comfort knowing that not a single person here, at least for now, wants to become a murderer.
Not even Norin.
My eyes lock on his. He’s standing as far away from me as possible, but he’s looking right at me, too. Almost as if he fears I might target him after everything that’s happened, and honestly, I just might.
I cock my head to the side. A silent challenge, but he only takes a small step back.
Coward.
I release a low laugh.
If nothing happens soon, if no one makes a move, we’ll all be advancing to the second round, earning a similar score in round one, meaning we’d be forced to set ourselves apart in round two.
Someone will do something. Someone will gather the courage and make the first move, the first kill. At any moment, everything will change. It only takes one person to act in order for others to follow.
My heart pounds. Watching. Waiting.
I can feel Char off to the left of me, but I don’t look in his direction, even though I know he’s staring at me. He’s about twenty or so yards away.
And then, I see it. Out of the corner of my eye, a man lunges at a woman in front of him. With his orb held firmly in one hand, he shoves her to the ground with the other.
She screams as her knees hit the dirt. Her orb drops and rolls away. She scrambles on her hands and feet to reach it, and I swear, the entire arena holds their breath as it hits a rock in its path.
The orb cracks, and she screams again. Her screams only grow louder as two of the Enforcers, dressed in all black with sheathed swords, make their way over to her.
By the time they grab her, she’s delirious, and I can’t make out what she’s saying. She’s dragged away, and I swallow, because now…now the final trial has officially begun.
The arena descends into chaos.
Blood splatters across my face, but it’s not mine. It belongs to the man who just sprinted in front of me. Someone slammed a rock against the back of his skull.
Hearing footsteps approaching rapidly from behind, fire forms in my palm, and I spin, throwing the ball into the shoulder of the man who’s about to lay his hands on me.
He howls, an awful, shrieking cry, before running in the opposite direction, and I already have another fireball prepared, tossing it and catching it over and over again.
I am not weak.
But even so…ten men surround me.
Taking out an Essentari…it’s a fast way to earn a lot of points in the eyes of the trial coordinators.
Too bad it’s not that easy.
I recognize some of them as they circle me in slow, steady steps. They still wear the wounds Ryjax caused, and I’m sure they want revenge. They know he can’t help me this time. They know he isn’t allowed to come to my rescue.
Even the prince can’t interfere with the trials.
What they don’t know…is I no longer need him to.
I grin as my fire morphs into a whip, similar to the one I created in the throne room of the palace. Before they can react, before they can flee, I spin in a circle, slashing it across their ankles, and I can hear their skin sizzle.
They each hit the dirt, and they don’t get back up, screaming as they clutch their burning flesh. Some of the orbs shatter as they hit the ground, but I refuse to feel guilty.
I can’t feel guilty.
I catch sight of a man with red hair right as he smashes the orb of the man standing next to him. I recognize them both. Norin has just smashed Tee’s orb. Tee, who was supposed to be his friend. Or at the very least, his ally.
Tee prepares to charge him, nothing but fury in his eyes at the betrayal, but before he can, Enforcers grab him by the shoulders, and he’s dragged away, too.
Norin’s gaze meets mine, a cruel smirk twisting his lips, curling over his teeth and reaching his wicked eyes.
Fuck it.
This ends. Now.
I sprint across the field, eyes locked on his. Fire crackles in my palms as I push forward, faster than I even knew I could move.
His face pales.
I don’t need my flames to take Norin down. I never did. The fire disappears right as I reach him.
He tilts his head, hugging his orb to his chest, and I smirk.
“Ready when you are,” I say, cradling my own orb with my left hand, positioning myself to strike with my right.
“No flames?” His brow lifts, his grin returning.
“Where would be the fun in that?” My smile matches his, but then he bends over, his fingers slipping into the side of his tall boot.
The steel catches the sun as he holds it out in front of him.
My blade.
How the hell did he get that in here? Weapons aren’t allowed unless provided by the trial coordinators. This is against the rules, but when my eyes scan the Enforcers lining the edge of the arena, I realize not a single one of them gives a damn.
I shake my head, refocusing on the man before me and the sheer audacity of him wielding my own weapon against me.
But I still don’t need my flames. I know exactly where I need to strike.
Norin lunges, slashing the blade in a wide arc, but I pivot before dropping low, dodging the strike. His hand hovers above my head for a fraction of a second, but that’s all the time I need.
I drive my fingers into the nerve cluster just above his wrist. A sharp exhale hisses through his teeth, and his grip falters. I twist his hand just enough to send a jolt of pain shooting up his arm, and he stumbles before dropping the blade.
I snatch it from the ground, and satisfaction floods through me as I jam my elbow into his rib cage. Before he can recover, I’m behind him, slamming my foot against the back of his knee.
He drops like a stone. His breath ragged, his orb still clutched to his chest. But it won’t be for long.
I press my blade against the curve of his throat.
“It’s over,” I say, my voice steady and controlled. “Drop the orb.”
His breathing intensifies. We both know what will happen if he complies.
But before he has the chance, a loud creak echoes from the north side of the arena.
I freeze, my blade still at Norin’s throat, but my eyes pinned on the origin of the sound. The iron bars of a massive gate swing open, revealing a pitch-black tunnel, and Norin takes advantage of the distraction, throwing his head back against my chest, sending me flying backward.
He scrambles to his feet before I can fully process and sprints toward the edge of the arena.
I could go after him, but I don’t. I don’t because something’s wrong.
Very wrong.
My eyes stay focused on the dark tunnel, and a growl reverberates through the ground, low and menacing.
My breath catches as the creature emerges, its hulking form covered in rippling muscles. Long, curved claws scrape against the dirt, and its crimson eyes gleam with a predatory hunger.
A stonehide badger.
Shit.
I’ve never actually seen one in person, but I’ve read about them, and looked at countless drawings. Badgers are wild and feral, a force of nature themselves with an insatiable hunger.
It’s far bigger than I ever imagined.
But it’s a badger. I’m sure of it.
The arena is silent, so silent you could hear a pin drop.
And then the creature dives into the sand and disappears.
Double shit.
It’s a Terramancer. It can move the earth, everything we’re standing on. It could be anywhere.
Dropping to a crouch, I slide my blade into my boot before pressing my fingers into the soil, searching for vibrations, for any hint of its location.
And then, suddenly, I can feel it, the slight shaking of the earth, the softest rattle that radiates through my limbs.
A scream pierces the air to my left.
The badger bursts from the ground, rocks and dirt emerging with it, and its sharp claws rip into a man’s chest.
His orb drops.
And so does he.
Dead.
He’s dead.
The badger is in the ground again. Hunting its next victim, and before it even makes another move, a group of three women all drop their orbs and run. The orbs shatter as they sprint to one of the tunnels, desperate to escape.
No badger in sight, but they’re met by four Enforcers, who grab them by the arms and drag them away.
Now, they’ll be dead soon, too.
The badger emerges again, this time in the very center of the arena where five men are standing far too close together, which means they had probably formed an alliance.
Its claws rake across one of them, sending blood spraying in all directions.
His orb cracks as it hits the ground, and he collapses beside it.
The other men scatter, releasing heart-wrenching screams as they cling to their orbs like a lifeline.
A girl near the south wall lets out a sob just before the ground beneath her collapses, and she’s gone, pulled under with a muffled cry.
Some of the contestants remain frozen, too terrified to move, while others dart around in a random pattern, and truthfully, I don’t know which is the better strategy.
Where is it? My eyes scan the ground erratically. Where the fuck is it?
But I don’t need to wonder for much longer. The badger launches from the earth and lands ten yards in front of me.
I burst into flames, but they don’t touch my clothing.
Its red eyes lock on mine, unblinking, unmoving, but it doesn’t attack.
My flames expand, and it just stares at me. My pulse races, sweat drips from my hairline, threatening to sting my eyes.
It cocks its head to the side, as if it’s studying me, as if it’s curious about me.
And then it’s sprinting, its claws tearing into the sand, moving faster and faster. Closer and closer.
The biggest fireball I’ve ever created emerges in my hand, and I take my aim, determined to hit my mark.
Waiting, waiting, waiting.
It lunges, and at the last possible moment, I notice his red eyes aren’t on me. He’s looking right over my shoulder.
My fireball burns out, and I duck. The beast flies over my head, releasing a feral snarl as he hits his mark.
Norin.
Norin, who was just behind me.
Norin, who had been close enough to kill me.
The beast tears into his chest, and Norin’s dead before his head hits the sand.
My heart hammers. The beast…saved me.
I grip my orb tighter, my whole body trembling, but then a horn blares.
“Round one is over!” The announcer’s voice echoes throughout the arena, and everyone releases a collective breath.
The badger looks at me again, its beautiful blazing eyes falling at my feet, and from the sand emerges vibrant green grass. Thick and long, a perfect circle just for me.
I tilt my head.
I don’t understand.
But then the badger disappears into the ground, and I no longer feel any vibrations beneath my feet.
It’s gone, and I drop to my knees, my fingers pulling at the freshly grown grass.
I look around at the remaining contestants. Their faces pale, some more battered than others. I notice Char’s still alive, but I glance away from him.
The arena is silent again, minus the sound of our ragged breathing.
We survived.
For now.