“No!” Mettius shouted.
Thorne sauntered across the sand as his men began opening throats.
Blinding rage shot through Augustus, and he heaved forward, putting every ounce of strength he had into slipping his captors’ hold. With Nigel’s wrinkled smile giving him strength, he sank a shoulder into a man’s gut and stole his knife. He thought of Lana with his handful of tossed sand into another’s face, and the way she once pushed him into a shallow pool to shut him up.
Augustus twisted and slashed, his list of crew—his family—dying in all directions. And he, only one man, surrounded by too many. Thorne had done his job well, ensuring Augustus was weakenedjust enoughto think himself invincible.
The enemy pirates capsized over him, shoving his chest and face into the sand. Every hand on his injured back a searing agony. Salt and sand sucked into his mouth on every inhale.
And through his narrowed, blurred vision, Thorne paused in front of Edgar. The old man taught Augustus how to bone a fish properly, and now, he barely had the strength to hold his head up.
“My parents were here,” Thorne said to Mettius. “I watchedyoukill them without hesitation.”
Thorne dragged a blade across Edgar’s throat.
The old man gurgled and choked on his own blood, his body convulsing until it went still. Too still.
Thorne inhaled as if taking his first breath in two decades. “Just like that. Like they were nothing.”
“What we did for them was a mercy,” Mettius spat. “You would have had them suffer instead?” Tears ran from his eyes. “What you’ve done here makes you no better than Gallagher.”
“Maybe not.” Thorne returned to stand over Augustus. “But let’s seewhat kind of man you become after I slit your son’s throat. Let’s see who you are when you have nothing left.”
Above them, the Vorash ticked its claws on the wood, head twisting toward Mettius, features in a mockery of a smile.
The air venttick tick ticked—a metallic stutter—then hissed out another gust of air.
Kai spun toward the sound—just in time to see a warrior drop.
Her body hit the floor hard. Legs kicked. Arms spasmed.
And then the mist rolled in. Thick. Heavy. A sickly green cloud sinking low over the ground.
“Get away from that vent!” Kai shouted.
“Cover your mouths,” Poloma ordered. She wrapped her headband around her lower face so that only her dark brown eyes were visible. “This is a poison.”
Kai’s heart struck her sternum like a drum mallet, her mind stumbling over one word:poison. Here, in this arena where she was in control. Where she knew every corner, every dip in rock, every pebble of sand. Her sanctuary.
And someone meant to use it against her. Against those she swore to protect.
Kai’s voice faltered over her next words as she unwound her head wrap. “Do as she says.”
Poloma spun, voice rising. “Get to the observation level! Take as many of your sisters as you can. Leave no one behind!”
Kai and her Stormguard directed everyone off the arena floor with sweeping, hurried gestures. With every fallen warrior, Kai watched the gas pump into the room, the slowest of killing blows.
This wasn’t how they died.Not like this.
All those dreams of a battlefield, all the warnings from the Eternal One and her seer… She kept her warriors late to prepare for a war with thegods. Not barred doors and a poisonous gas. Not at the hands of one man.
Usti.
Kai glanced up and around at her warriors. Hersisters.
Panic stared back.
Anger. Alarm. Suspicion.
