“I’m not in a place to have doubts.”
“But what if my suspicions are founded and he is alive?”
“Don’t go there,” Ducot cautioned.
“What if he’s out there? I—” Eira stopped short, thinking back to the voices she’d heard earlier and Deneya’s confessions tied tightly with warnings.
“You what?”
“I have a feeling is all,” she murmured. “I’m worried he’s not as dead as she thinks.”
“If he is alive…” Ducot sighed heavily. His hands wrapped around the railing so tightly his knuckles turned paper-white. “If he is then all the better. Then I’ll get to kill him myself.”
“Don’t do anything rash.”
“You’re one to talk.” Ducot snorted. Eira should be embarrassed, but she ended up smirking, an expression Ducot shared briefly before turning serious. “If he is alive, I want to hunt him down.”
“I think all of us do.”
Ducot shifted to face her. “You owe me. Because of me you got to the man you were hunting. If you know anything about my mark, then you tell me. Deal?”
“Deal,” Eira said easily. Keeping Ducot as her ally had far more perks than downsides.
“Good.” He yawned and stretched. “I think I’m going to try and head back to bed. You should do the same. Another big day of training tomorrow. The competition is less than two weeks away now and we have to survive whatever games both Lumeria and the Pillars will have us playing.”
“Yeah, I think I’ll go in, too,” Eira said, following behind him.
She went back to her room, but couldn’t seem to quite find a position she was comfortable enough in to fall asleep. Instead, she spent most of the night thinking about the golden dagger that was in the hands of the Specters, unable to shake the nagging feeling that there was more to it than any of them suspected.
* * *
Three long, sweaty days passed.
Levit took turns with the senators in overseeing their drills. Only competitors were allowed in the arena. But their overseers could perch on the lowest row of seats above them, barking orders.
Eira had never run, jumped, or swung a sword so much in her life. If she thought the training she’d done with Alyss for the trials had been bad, this was worse times a thousand. She was stiff and everything ached on the second morning. By the third morning she could hardly sit without every muscle in her body nearly giving up in agony.
Alyss helped her that night—she helped all of them—using her healing abilities. Eira woke up on the morning of the fourth day and could actually sit in bed without collapsing. She could stand without her knees wobbling. Progress.
“It’s not like me to be up before you,” Alyss said when Eira emerged from her room. Her friend was seated on one of the chairs by the hearth, working on a sculpture of a noru cat—Cullen’s favorite animal, apparently. “You’ve been sleeping in later these days. Something…or should I say,someonekeeping you up at night?” Alyss cackled as Eira sank heavily into the chair opposite her.
“Oh, by the Mother, Alyss,” Eira groaned. “As if I’ve had the energy to eventhinkabout anything other than sleep.” Her relationship with Cullen had been put on an unspoken and hopefully temporary hold as they focused on surviving their new training regimens. But if there was one blessing that came of being so tired, it was that Eira couldn’t keep herself up with endless worrying at night.
Alyss laughed. “I figured, I’m just teasing you.” She set the small statue down on the table next to her. The bits of clay and dust floated magically off her fingers, collecting in a small pile by the statuette. Alyss motioned to the floor in front of her chair. “Sit.”
Knowing what Alyss was about to do, Eira was eager to allow it. She sat on the floor in front of her friend as Alyss sank her fingers into the muscles of Eira’s shoulders. Pulses of magic rippled through her, teasing out the knots of her muscles, mending the small tears brought on by training the day before. Alyss always had a detailed explanation for how her magical healing worked. All Eira needed to know was that she always felt amazing when Alyss was done.
“I’m next,” Noelle declared. Eira cracked open her eyes; she hadn’t even realized she’d shut them.
“I’m almost done,” Alyss said, finishing up with a light squeeze and three ripples of magic. “All right, your turn.”
Eira and Noelle swapped places. Leaning forward, Eira rested her elbows on her knees. It was strange to think she was here with Noelle—that they had somehow becomefriends. Despite her better judgment, Eira tried to remember the details of Noelle’s face that night with Adam. How she looked when she sneered and threw her verbal jabs. But the memory had become somewhat hazy. It was hard to imagine Noelle was the same person now as the girl that night. They’d all grown.
“What?” Noelle asked, forcing Eira to realize she’d been staring at the woman.
“Oh, nothing. I was thinking about how far we’ve come.”
“Indeed…to a whole new land.” Noelle glanced out the windows thoughtfully. “Do either of you ever miss home?”
