If not lovers.
Isabel takes measured steps around the tower's square edge, forcing Aura to mirror her progress carefully.
“Can you imagine,” Isabel sneers, “the pride on my father’s face when I slay the daughter of Sigvid?”
Aura shivers at the coldness in her threat. “What is this about?”
What went wrong?
How did she miss the signs that Isabel wanted her dead?
The snarl on Isabel’s face nearly jolts Aura off the side of the tower. “So predictable, Princess. Believing it’s all about you. You are a means to an end!” Isabel launches herself into the air, her axe glinting menacingly in the light as she swings it downwards. Just in time, she manages to block the incoming strike, sending her opponent reeling backward with a powerful force.
What the fuck is happening?
Her body shakes in confusion and fear. What if she could not bring herself to kill Isabel?
Isabel snarls as she slams her axe head at Aura, who blocks with her own.
“Why are you doing this?”
Isabel initiated the first kiss and insisted we spend hours training. How am I the one at fault?
“Your parents have enough enemies. Figure it out, daughter of Avina.” She spits at her feet with such venom that the Princess recoils in horror.
“What did befriending me serve you?” Aura cannot decide if she wishes to scream, cry, or attack.
Isabel shrugs. “I needed to get close to you, Aurie, to ensure you arrived at this exact moment. In your final Drengr Trial. Ready to accept a Death Match.”
A burst of deception shudders down Aura’s spine, and she tears across the tower with an axe raised at Isabel. They meet each other in the center. The steel of their blades clangs off one another. Yet, that does little to ease the pain in her throat or the increasingly unsteady tears, threatening to distract her. Aura attacks recklessly, embracing the agony coursing through her veins.
Isabel laughs as she bounces Aura off her shield. “After I kill you, I will shove a stake through your pretty head and set it outside of Toftlund. Imagine your father’s expression. He will know that my family will avenge their own, even in death.”
Who the fuck is her family? Oh, gods, please do not let it be Uncle Thrain.
“Still haven’t figured me out?” Isabel slams her shield again into Aura, who stumbles backward, nearly falling off the side.
Aura throws up her axe to catch Isabel’s attack, but her weapon tumbles off the side of the tower. Before she can scramble away, Isabel cackles as her blade slices into Aura’s upper arm. She clutches her wound with a scream, using the shield to protect herself against Isabel’s continued assault.
There is no way she will succeed. Her damn overwhelming emotions are compromising everything.
And Isabel knew that.
Aura glances over her shoulder at the mud below and takes a deep breath to steady herself.
“So many ways I can watch the life leave your eyes.” Isabel toys with the axe in her hand.
Aura crawls further to the side, peering over the edge. Suddenly, Isabel stomps on her hand, wrecking out cries of shock. A boot strikes her side, and her shield yanks from her grip.
“My plans are much bigger than you, Princess.”
Aura glances over the side, and before Isabel can embed her axe into her heart, she rolls off the side and catches herself on the wooden rungs halfway down, straining her arms. She lowers herself to the ground and bolts across the field, heading for the gate.
If this is bigger than me, then I must go to my parents.
But her opponent is faster.
Aura stands just inches from the gate, her fingers gripping the rusted iron. She wants nothing more than to push through, but the weight of her wounds keeps her rooted in place, a painful reminder of her struggle.
