People cheer as I crawl away under him. I don’t look at him, and somehow, I became the underdog again.
My real first fight is against a boy. The king announces the rules to me and the others.
“If you want to enter the trials, you must win or sit this fight out,” he starts. “If you can fight my son longer than ten minutes, you’re in. If my son taps out, you’re in. If you kill him, you’re in.If you tap out or die, your trial ends here. Let the finals begin.” The boy in front of me doesn’t want to waste a second. He takes his sword from his back, putting his left foot behind, and his right in front. I take my sword out, swing forward, step right and put my sword in front of him. He dunks, stepping under my sword, kicking his knee in my stomach. I don’t cramp together. I focus and drag his sword away from him. My eyes follow the sword as my signet does his work. I don’t want to make it too hard for him, so I put my sword on my back too.
“You don’t have to play soft on me,” the blond boy growls.
“I don’t. I just want to win fair.” I smirk. He slams me onto my shoulder and kicks me on my knee. I fall on the ground.
“You don’t look like a winner,” he hisses, spitting on my face, referring to the fight between me and Zephron. Little does he know I don’t give up easily. He sits on top of me, so I kick my knee up, right in his balls. He falls over and I turn us around. I take his right elbow and press it against the ground, putting my other arm on his throat.
“I’m not going to give up,” he breathes out.
“Then you will die!” I roar. “Are you that dumb?” I push my arm harder on his throat, causing his breathing to go laboring. He exhales slower and sharper each breath, and I feel his heartbeat go slower.
“Give up, you moron!” I scream, my voice raw.
“Never,” he whimpers, closing his eyes. I don’t want to kill him, I really don’t. But I want to lose even less, I already let Zephron win. I hope the time will pass quickly. Anger bubbles up in me. I won’t let him go.
“Time’s up! Let him go, Braxton!” Fintan screams, standing next to the king who is smirking. I am in a trans. I see blurry and it takes me a few seconds before I let him go. I stumble off him, taking a few steps back. Fuck, I promised myself I wouldn’t do this, not again.
Fuck,fuck!
My hands hold my head as I close my eyes. I can’t have killed him, right? No, I need to get out of here. Beads of sweat drip down my back and I feel my hair stick to my face. I feel my heartbeat thunder in my ears. I zone out. I can’t feel anything. Everything feels numb, and the smell of iron fills my nose. Everything around me stops. A girl runs over to the boy.
“Breathe, baby, please,” she whispers in his ear, kissing his forehead softly, a tear rolling over her cheek as I catch his chest going up and down. I take a shuddery breath as one word repeats itself over and over again.
Killer, killer,killer.
Monster.
I am the monster again.
But I didn’t kill him. And my heart starts thundering a bit less when I see the boy come back to live, proving that little voice in my head wrong. I stare at the two people in love a last time, hearing their words, see the girl expressing love like I never experienced.
“You made it, Ethan. Now breathe for me.”
Chapter 5
Eliane
A knock on my window woke me up this morning. Another day, another pigeon. The white pigeon held a letter in his beak instead of a newspaper. This time I stayed wise and sprinted toward Da, before opening and reading it on my own. The preliminary rounds are starting today. Enough people volunteered and are battling in the first rounds. I am not expected at the palace, since I already ‘earned’ my place as a secret trump.
I might be the king’s ‘secret trump,’ but he doesn’t even know my name, and that stings. The words written down in ink still ring in my ears as I reread the letter.
To: The light wielder girl with the power to control the sun and Fintan
Three days ago, I spread the word about the event of the century, the trials of Drimyé. There are plenty of applications already and we closed the registration at midnight to limit the number. There are still too many to let them all enter and compete in the trials. Today, I am going to select the strongest ones by putting them through a preliminary round. You are not expected to compete against the others. You are my secret trump, and you will enter the trials anyway.
Regards,
The King of Drimyé and leader of Ilanos
