Chapter 18
VALANCE
The gates opened. First onto the sand was the famous Bones. A huge bronze-skinned beast of muscle. There were several bones piercing his skin, through his nose and ears, and even a necklace below his collarbone.
A terrifying adversary indeed. Clad only in boots and a loincloth—regular dress for fighters.
The crowd loved him. Screamed his name repeatedly. Somewhere close by, a woman declared she’d take him to bed one day. I frowned, unable to consider the prospect of that monster pounding me.
Each to their own desire.
He roared and flexed his muscles, held his two swords aloft. Paraded the perimeter, stoked the embers.
Kormac didn’t stand a chance.
He came next. I sat forward, leaning on the balcony.
Goodness. His olive skin glistened in the sun, his hair swept back from a good combing, his body… That body of power. Big but not overbearing like Bones, those calf muscles, the loincloth hinting at what lay beneath it.
To run my fingers through that hair… To be under him… I felt myself weaken under his masculine radiance, ready to change my mind.
I recovered quickly. Kormac didn’t parade himself for the crowd. Knew his place, kept back at the gate he’d come through. Always looking back.
Soon, Ren stepped out of the dark hole and into the glare of the arena. Slowly, refusing any help from his human friend. A stinking mess of decay. He looked as good as dead already.
I smiled. “And there he is, Maeve. Ready to die.”
“An excellent sight, Your Highness,” she replied.
On the other side of the arena, opposite the royal box, the official games master spoke. Talking of bets being closed for this opening round, of the fighters, all of those important statistics I didn’t listen to.
My attention was on the human.
Kormac…
A bell tolled, and it began. Bones moved in on Kormac, who parried a strike. He dashed across the sand, even performed a forward roll as Bones went after him.
Bones roared and came in hard, Kormac avoiding the brute’s downward cut that should have cleaved his head in half. I even gasped at the expected horror. But Kormac had moved just that bit quicker than Bones.
My hands gripped the balcony as the dance continued. So many close calls for Kormac. He never got to attack his opponent but always got out of the way. And what a show he put on. The audience loved the suspense of it, the pure drama.
“Stay still and fucking die!” Bones bellowed.
The crowd laughed.
I didn’t. A faint wave of dizziness struck me again. I grit my teeth against it, concentrating on Kormac, who still avoided death.
Could he do it? Could he live and become my champion?
Did I want him to?
Bones spat and charged away from Kormac, stomping toward Ren.
“No!” the human cried.
Because he’d got to the other side of the arena, well out of Bone’s current position, he’d left too much distance between him and his fae friend.
A pleasing sight.
If Bones failed to kill Ren, which I doubted, there were elves on standby to execute him before the poison in his veins wore off.
Though there would be no need for that. Bones was on the sorcerer, who’d collapsed to his knees.
Not begging for mercy. Not whimpering. In fact, he appeared stronger. Facing his end with bravery.
I got to my feet. Those around me did the same. The crowd fell silent as Bones readied his sword.
Kormac slowed down to a walk, then stopped.
Puzzling? Had he given up on his friend?
Ren turned his head to face my direction.
Was he smiling?
“For you, Your Highness!” Bones roared and brought down his sword.
As the blade cut through Ren’s skull, I staggered to the side. Maeve moved to steady me. Waves and waves of dizziness smashed into me. My stomach flipped, my head shrieked with terrific agony.
“Your Highness!”
I lost my sight, shadows smothering my vision in nightmares. The ones from last night. Fresh horrors within my blindness. I clawed at them, these blurred terrors as if they were real. They weren’t real.
Ren! He’d done something.
I wanted to be sick.
Kill… A whisper in my head. My voice. My hungry voice. Kill them all…
Screaming, wet sounds, wet things in my face. I clawed and drew my weapon to fight in this place, trapped in a shadow magic spell. A mistake to have waited to kill him.
My ears ached with the screams, my heart hammering against my chest. I moved fast, breaking and tearing and drinking… drinking…
…blood?
Kill them all! I struck solid forms again and again.
Kill them all!
Oh, Danu! These screams! This heaviness in my hands, the wetness, these things… Soft things and dripping and… and…
I roared as Bones did, surfacing from the strange and violent place.
There were screams still out in the arena. I blinked through liquid running down my face. Rubbed at it. It came away red in my hands.
Blood. All over me, in my mouth. In my belly.
I looked out to the crowd, terrified eyes on the royal box. The two fighters below stood aghast, staring up at me.
Ren’s corpse, head in half, bled into the sand.
But it wasn’t the time to rejoice. Not when covered in blood and confused, sword in hand, bits of flesh caught in my fingernails.
Slowly, I turned to Maeve. Trembling.
It was my turn to scream.
Her body was slumped in the chair next to mine. But her head sat on the other side of the room, along with the mayor’s corpse.
My screams burned my throat, my sword slipping from my bloody grip.
Blood painted the walls, body parts scattered across the carpet. I went to run for my friend, not understanding, not knowing which part of her to go to. So I didn’t run. I screamed and screamed and screamed as the arena screamed around me.