“Nai khirith, mash n’tel,”she whispers.
Her voice wobbles, and Malach snaps. He yanks her into his body and kisses her fiercely. Green eyes wide open, he watches her as if he can’t bear to lose a single second.
My stomach churns.
“Enough,” I say. “It’s time to go.”
Celine pulls away from Malach, all emotion leeching from her expression as she studies me. “Let’s get this over with,” she says.
I nod. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
This ends tonight.
It must.
TWENTY-FOUR
Monster Realm Survival Tip #8:
Kill or be killed.
CELINE
It’s bitterly cold.
I order my body not to shiver. It’s a weakness. And I can’t afford any weaknesses.
Riven is silent as we cross the bridge.
He’s silent in the corridors under the arena too, never once looking at me. It’s a bad sign.
He unlocks the holding room, gestures for me to go in, and I see the writing on the wall. He’ll leave me alone here, locked in and friendless, surrounded by thousands of people who want to watch me die.
“I want to make a deal,” I say.
“You have nothing to bargain with.” There’s a rasp in Riven’s voice I’m not used to hearing.Uncertainty?I’m being silly. He could have a cold, for all I know.
“Maybe not,” I admit. “But I’d like to ask, anyway.”
“What?” He hisses the word through clenched teeth, and his face warps. He doesn’t meet my eyes, and a chill rolls down my spine. In all our interactions—no matter how hostile—he’s always faced me head-on.
Call it paranoia or intuition, but I’m suddenly confident that Riven doesn’t plan for me to survive this fight. It changes nothing about my approach. I’m not ready to die. I’ll give it my all, but if I don’t have what it takes...
“If I fall tonight.” I swallow around the lump in my throat. “If my father gets what he wants, let them go. He doesn’t care about them, not really. He wants to hurt me.”
Riven laughs bitterly. “Why should I protect them? They aren’t my responsibility.”
“Because if you do this for me, I’ll forgive you.”
“You’ll be dead,” he says. “Why would I care about that?”
I wrap my arms around myself. “I don’t know, but something tells me you do.”
“You’re absurd.” Riven’s knuckles turn white around the door handle. He still won’t meet my eyes.
“Please.” I take a step toward him and clear my throat. “I’m begging you, Riven. Search your heart and let them live. S’lach poisons everything I love. He killed my mother, cost me years with Malach, and I couldn’t do anything to stop him.”
Familiar pain steals the air from my lungs, and my voice cracks as I mourn the future I had only just begun to believe in.
