A Strider.
He rematerialized directly behind the first and jumped onto his back. They thrashed around the stage. The first one gripped the second boy’s forearm and sent a beam of light into his skin. The Strider jumped down with a yelp, cradling his burned arm.
“What do you mean, youmadehim?” I asked Scarven slowly, my attention still on the fight.
“Magic is in the blood, Selena,” he responded. “A mere tool at our disposal. If you can figure out how to bend it to your will, you can do anything. It’s just like healing an illness. You take ingredients and mix them together to create medicine that heals the body. I combined this boy’s magic with that of another, and made him into a Lightbender. One stronger than we could have anticipated.”
At those words, the Shadow Wielder and Lightbender hybrid shot out both hands toward the other boy. Shadows and lightcollided in a brilliant beam of power, lighting the entire dome with enough force that I had to shield my eyes. The two coils twisted together in an arc, then dove straight for the second boy.
He opened his mouth in a scream, and they shot down his throat.
His arms flung out wide, his entire body shaking as a glow emitted from his pale, bruised skin. Then he went still, slumped to his knees, and landed face-first on the ground. The shadows and slivers of light snaked away from his body, back into the long-haired victor.
Cheers enveloped me from all sides. But the one left standing didn’t appearvictorious. He wasn’t beating his chest in triumph. He slumped his shoulders, retreating back down the steps of the stage as workers came up to clear the dead body.
It was disgusting. It was heartbreaking. It was the worst thing I’d ever seen in my life. And I couldn’t so much as show ahintof my true feelings.
“Ah,” Scarven said, his features lifting. “My prized possession.”
I tried to get a better view of the next fighter being brought to the stage. It was a girl—a woman, maybe a couple years younger than me, although with how pale and emaciated they all looked, it was hard to tell. Her hair was braided down one side, with streaks of dirt and red intertwined with the blonde strands. It highlighted her sharp cheekbones and even sharper jaw.
There was something familiar in the look on her face. The way she held her chin slightly raised despite the jeers from the crowd, the way her eyes glinted when they swiveled my way.
Dark gold, burning eyes.
But still, there wassomething…
The second fighter made his way onto the stage. He washuge. Easily three times her size, with his bare chest and arms shredded in muscles. A necklace of teeth hung from his neck. But the most terrifying part was his head—as he lumbered into the arena, it shifted from human to bear, his wide maw roaring and exposing sharp teeth.
“Is she supposed to fighthim?” I asked in disbelief.
Scarven shot me a smirk. “Just wait, love.”
The woman didn’t even look scared. She didn’t look much of anything. She stared at her opponent with a blank expression. He roared again—to the delight of the crowd—and cracked his knuckles, but she merely shifted on her feet.
When the announcer yelled for the fight to begin, I was actuallynervous. I chewed on the edge of my fingernail, anxiety twisting in my gut for this woman I didn’t even know.
The bear Shifter lunged, and I flinched.
But the woman evaporated into thin air. She must be a Strider.
Scarven glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, then tugged on my waist to reposition me in front of him. “Do you feel that?” he murmured in my ear. “The excitement, the anticipation, the hint of danger?”
I shivered against my will. I kept my attention focused on the fight, and not his hands hovering at my waist.
The woman was quicker than I gave her credit for. She moved out of reach of the Shifter’s attacks with ease, and after the fourth time, the bear Shifter pounded on the floor with his fists. Spit flew from his mouth as he roared, but she looked as bored as ever.
He was getting smarter, though. Instead of hurling his entire body at her, he tried little jabs here and there, using both hands and feet to distract her. When he landed his first kick to her ribs, the crowd cheered. He aimed a punch to her other side when she turned, but right before he made contact, she sank into a cloud of shadows billowing at her feet.
My own shadows pulsed in my chest as my eyes widened. “Did she just?—”
Darkness swirled at the base of the bear Shifter’s shadow, and suddenly, a crack of lightning boomed in the air. From his shadow came a bright whip that snapped at his ankles. He whirled around with a yelp, and the woman emerged from the swath of shadows, holding a lightning whip.
Iblinked. Was that possible? Could she be a Strider, Shadow Wielder,andLightbender?
The Shifter grabbed the whip around his ankles, yanking it from her grip. Blood trickled from his hands where the light had cut his skin, but they healed within seconds. He staggered backward before finding his balance and squaring up to face her again.
I sucked in a breath as she darted forward, but…she didn’t attack him. She leaned down and dipped her fingers into the trail of his blood.
