In one swift sweep, Zara pulls it back out and Grenda’s body crumples to the ground. Blood pours onto the pristine white snow as the air rushes from my lungs. Moryal covers his mouth in shock as Benny and Jonas both look on in horror. We’ve all seen death before in this competition. But like this? It was an assassination, pure and simple.
‘I needed to get there before that bitch had a chance to freeze us all and win this thing,’ Zara snarls. ‘There’s a new top dog, people, and soon’—she smirks—‘I’ll be the only dog.’
‘You area fucking bitch!’ I agree.
‘Rose!’ Jonas screams at me, but Zara isn’t coming for me yet. Instead,she’s sunk her powers into Moryal, and his leg collapses beneath him. He must have broken his leg at some point in one of the trials, and now he’s suffering all that pain again.
‘Del!’ he yells out. ‘Help me!’
The other Galreckian turns his head and purses his lips, but he doesn’t move.
‘Del! We’re a team. You promised! I literally just helped you!’
‘Side with me and I’ll let you survive this,’ Zara barks at Del. He doesn’t need to think for long. Rather than helping his friend, he turns on his heel and starts to walk away.
‘What the fuck!’ Moryal sweeps out with his power. Even in his pained state, he pummels the air with a wind that knocks us off our feet, though from the way Del flies six feet across the plateau, he definitely got the worst of it.
‘We need to get out of here,’ Benny says, grabbing my hand. In the fracas, I didn’t even realise he’d closed the distance between us. ‘There’s a cave over there. That’s where we need to go.’
I assumed we needed to climb the outside of the mountain, but I trust Benny’s magical sight way more than my random guesses. He was right about the j?tnar, and he’ll be right about this. Together, we pound the ground towards the cave.
Jonas is hot on our heels, though when I cast a glance backward, my attention shifts to Del. He’s back on his feet, fighting off Moryal who is having to split his powers between fending off Zara and trying to knock his former friend off the edge of the plateau.
‘Shit!’ Zara shrieks. The only way she’s going to stop Moryal is by getting up close with a blade the way she did with Grenda. But with the strength of that wind, she doesn’t stand a chance. ‘Fuck it. You’re not going to beat me now,’ she says, leaving the two Galreckians to fight among themselves and chasing after us instead.
‘Tell me you and Jonas didn’t get any crazy injuries in the last trial that I don’t know about,’ I gasp between panting breaths as I follow Benny into the cave.
‘I didn’t. But I don’t know about?—’
‘Fuck!’ Jonas yells behind us.
I stop in my tracks and turn to find him clutching his ribs. As he casts his gaze into the cave, his eyes catch mine.
‘I’m fine. You worry about yourself. Go.’
I know I should do what he tells me to, and after the way he’s spokento me over the last few days – or rather not spoken to me – I’d be well within my rights to leave him to Zara. But I can’t do that. With my heart racing so fast I can barely draw breath, I look at Benny.
‘It’ll be three against one,’ I say to him.
Benny’s jaw juts outwards. ‘Really?’
‘I have to,’ I tell him. A moment later, I change direction and head out of the cave, back towards Jonas and Zara.
‘Why haven’t you blinded her!’ My voice catches with incredulity as Zara continues to stride towards us, clear-eyed with perfect vision.
‘I-I can’t …’ Jonas stutters. ‘I mean, I haven’t … I haven’t since, since …’
Since Kestria. That’s what he can’t say. He hasn’t used his powers since he blinded her in the third trial. No wonder he’s been so focused on training in the yard these last few weeks. He’s afraid to use his magic.
‘Jonas, if you can’t do this, we’re fucked. Zara will rip our old injuries open, and she’ll easily kill Benny and me while we’re in agony.’
‘Run,’ Jonas tells me miserably. ‘At least if you run, you’ll stand a chance. Rose, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry?—’
He gasps then lets out an agonised moan. Another broken rib, perhaps? I’m not going to waste time asking. Not when Zara is less than ten feet away. Yet before I can even draw my dagger, a welcome voice speaks behind me.
‘Did someone say three against one?’ Benny! If it wasn’t such an inappropriate time for it, I swear I’d hug him.
‘Llin would never have forgiven me if I’d left you,’ he says by way of explanation, and my desire to hug him only grows. But Zara’s got her sword out and is rolling her shoulders, limbering up.
