Chapter 26
Iarrive at elimination alone. I told Caelus to get there on his own too but he insisted on following at a distance. I have to find a way to pass this by sharing meaningful affection with someone who could be my match.
I’ve picked Kade. It has to be Kade.
But I haven’t even talked to him.
Lira is out of the way. She’s strolling through the gardens with Orrick, refusing to engage Kade.
She’s actually laughing with real creases around her eyes, playing with Orrick’s hair.
I don’t know if she feels bad for him or finds him interesting.
I hope it’s the latter. I don’t think Orrick expected to make it past today.
“What’s your plan, Axira?” Caelus joins my side.
My mind claws for an answer. I don’t have words. I don’t know.
“You and I can try to—” Caelus says, words tumbling out with none of the polish of his noble position.
“We aren’t supposed to even hint that we could be seriously involved,” I say. “That would blow our cover.”
I walk away from him, making a show of giving him the cold shoulder, to make it clear I’m not into him.
I want Kade. As we wait for elimination to start, the contestants mingle.
Skyborn watch from the perimeter of the park, shouting insults about how we don’t deserve the grass we are standing on.
I find Kade, who’s standing alone. He’s clearly perturbed Lira is now giggling loudly with Orrick.
“I think we got off on the wrong foot,” I tell him, my heart pounding.
But he turns his back to me.
“Kade, I know what you were trying to do at the tea shop. You want to protect the freedoms the Benevolent gives.”
Kade turns with a brow quirked.
“But someone is scheming.” I leave out that Rhythe is behind this. “Doesn’t protecting freedom mean finding that person? Dorian doesn’t have a mean bone in his body.”
“The most effective treason happens right under the nose. You can’t put it past anyone.” He says it with a smugness. The same smugness he showed when Orrick attacked Finn incensed with rage.
“I hadn’t considered that. You’re right,” I lie.
He shrugs as if he suddenly doesn’t care. As if his arguing back there was performance and not passion. “Dorian’s not in my way,” he says.
As frontrunners—the ones most obviously in true love—aren’t they in everyone’s way? I wait for him to say more. But he doesn’t. It’s puzzling. But I move on. I need him to believe I want him to match with me.
“I think you’re smart,” I say. Sucking up to him is the worst. But he eats it up, unable to hide his smirk at the flattery.
“I’ve always thought the same about you,” he says.
“But we really haven’t had time to get to know each other.”
“You don’t like blond hair,” he mocks me playfully. It’s working.
“Yeah, well, I’m realizing what I thought I wanted and what I really want aren’t the same.
” The truth stings. But it sails right past him.
I catch Caelus from the corner of my eye.
A group of contestants huddles nearby, casting glances at him.
He pulls one of the girls aside and picks her a rose from a bush.
“Gather around,” someone shouts.
I promptly look away from Caelus and the girl to Dreth, lining us up. My heart thunders. We stand in a circle shoulder to shoulder as the other guards join his flank with restraints in hand.
“When your name is called, perform your act of meaningful affection. It must mean something to at least one of you. If it is clear that it does, you will advance to the second trial.”
I can’t stop grabbing bunches of my clothes. The girl Caelus gave a rose to still holds it, and I realize it’s the girl with the brown hair and mousy voice—Callie—who was supposed to choose to eliminate Orrick or Finn. She sways side to side as if she might shatter.
“Dorian and Mae have been cleared to proceed to Trial Two.” Dreth gestures at Mae to stand on his right. Then he nods to the rest of the group. “Orrick, start us off.”
Orrick steps forward, and Kade tenses next to me.
“Lira, could I have a—” Orrick breaks off. His chin hits his chest and tears fall from his face, still heavy with regret. “I can’t. It’s not right after what I’ve done.” He’s grieving what he did to Finn.
“Yes, you can, Orrick,” Lira says, and Rhythe flinches.
Orrick reaches for her, and she twists her finger around his. Then he pulls her to him and timidly nestles against her in a hug. Lira smiles tightly, and I can’t tell if it’s real.
“Pass,” Dreth huffs. “To my right. Talia, up next.”
Lira exhales, and she and Orrick race to Mae’s side.
Talia and Jace are already beside one another with locked lips and bodies touching. He folds her backward, one arm hooked behind her and the other hand cradling the back of her head. She holds on to him as their mouths taste and pull at each other, making audible sounds.
I stare at the ground until it’s over. A couple of others go, and I wait with bated breath.
When Dreth says, “Prince Caelus,” my heart stops.
Caelus’s eyes lock with mine. He doesn’t move, gazing at me, letting the awkward silence hang there.
His lips are poised, and I swallow, realizing I’m staring at them.
Would it be easy to cross this distance and kiss him?
A curl low in my stomach answers the question.
Kade is my choice. Kade is the one I will betray.
Caelus steps forward, and I hold breath in my lungs, hoping he has a plan that does not involve me.
Then, he reaches for Callie.
He runs a delicate touch along her jaw, beckoning her. She leans forward on her tiptoes, unsteady, bringing her face up closer to his.
His mouth presses to hers.
But his eyes lock on mine.
As he kisses her, barely dusting their lips together, his stare slices through me, and it feels like a blade cutting to the bone, leaving me raw and exposed. She whimpers like a wounded animal. He holds her against him, keeping his focus, his gaze, his interest still on me.
“Alright, alright, enough.” Dreth waves Callie back to where she was. “Everything comes easy to prince boy.”
Callie can barely stand, she’s so smitten. Dreth waves Caelus and Callie to the group that’s passed, and she gushes about kissing a prince to Lira, who doesn’t even entertain her with a glance.
The next pair is disqualified for a side hug.
I’m not sure of their names. Only Rhythe, Ivy, Kade, and I are left.
I glare at Rhythe, still furious with him for setting me up to betray Dorian.
I walked right into that trap. To think I was foolish enough to think we were the same.
There is something else Saltblood know—loyalty.
He glares back. We have to stop Rhythe before he tries to hurt Dorian again, or anyone else he decides to target. Kade has to go too.
When my name is called, I am frozen.
Ready? Caelus mouths.
I nod, unable to stomach actual words. This isn’t a game.
This is destroy or be destroyed. I turn to Kade, replaying the mannerisms of the other kisses I’ve seen in my mind on repeat, trying to remember where they put their hands, how they stared deeply in the other’s eyes, how tightly they held them.
Kade’s eyes darken. He starts to speak. “Axir—”
I shove him backward against a lamppost and press my lips to his. It is the worst thing I’ve ever tasted or felt. He tries to force his tongue inside my mouth, and I clamp my teeth shut, refusing it, but holding our lips together a beat longer so there is no denial that we kissed.
When I peel us apart, he wears a stupid smirk. “I knew you’d come around,” he says.
Dreth clears us, and I spit when he’s not looking. We join the group who will start the Trial of Loyalty. Tomorrow.