Isola moves to put her hand on the one he’d just tried to hit her with, but the hand disappears as her fingers try to grasp it. Then he throws the belt knife. Right before it looks like it’s going to strike her squarely in the chest, itchanges shape.
It becomes a net made of gleaming steel. The strands cover her body, and I know exactly why that matters. She’s Godforged, and that much steel will effectively limit her ability to protect herself with magic. It’s a trick my father used to deal with small groups of the Godforged.
But how did he change the belt knife into a net? I’ve never heard of anything like that.
“Get this off me,” she growls.
Rhion turns away from her, leaving the netting on her as he looks at the rest of us. “As Isola so correctly stated, I’m no one. Just Ainslee’shusband. There’s not a bit of any god’s magic in me, and yet I just took down one of you in seconds. You are not the strongest team in a fight. Understand that right now. You will not win this trial if you decide to go into this as if you were a soldier. Youarecleverer than they are. Your skills will help you win if you’re smart. Remember, Echo was devious in battle. That’s what you need.”
Then he turns to Isola, who’s still snarling and trying to pull the webbing off her with very little success. Rhion reaches out and touches the net. In an instant, it becomes a belt knife again.
“What was that for?” Isola asks. “You could have just…”
“He did what was needed,” Darian says as he stands up. “Look, you all know Rhion and me. You all agreed that you wanted to be a part of the team I was organizing. Why? Was it because I was the best warrior on the field, and you wanted to ride my coat tails? Doubtful.”
He looks around at the group of people who, at any other time, would have been terrifying. Instead, they all look nervous. “You joined me because you trust me and Rhion to be honest with you. You know I’m not insane like so many of the others, and I won’t convince you to go die so I can win.”
Erik stands up. “Then, if you’re being honest with us all, tell us why you’ve brought a human onto the team. A human who cheated her way through the last trial.”
Darian smiles at him and his brother. “That’s exactly why I want her on our team. She’s clever. She, a simple human, has survived two trials that ended half of our competitors. No, she won’t be the best fighter, but that’s not what Nyxthos is going to be looking for in a champion. That should be obvious at this point. No one else escaped a night of torture. No one, myself included, killed their questioner.”
Everyone looks at me again before turning back to Darian. “I don’t know how to survive this. I don’t even know what we should expect. Draeven’s trials had each team fight as a unit, and that’s probably not a bad idea to practice. More than anything, we need to understand how we can work together.”
Jorren says, “You’re right. Nyxthos won’t be pitting us against each other. On the surface, Echo wasn’t nearly as strong as some of the other champions. It was her ability to identify weaknesses and exploit them that made her so terrifying. If you saw her, youknewyou were the weak point, and you were dead.”
Rurik nods emphatically. “That cunt always knew when our pants were down. Even if we didn’t know it.”
Isola’s expression is grim as she talks about the dead champion, but it’s not fear in her eyes. It’s respect. “It’s because she could shadow walk. She could linger in the Void and see everything. Just yesterday, Azric told me that was how she did it. He also admitted she was far better at it than he is.”
Rhioncalmly explains, “She was the Queen of Shadows first. Then she was given power by Nyxthos. But what does that mean for us?”
Isola glares at him for even talking, but no one else speaks.
Finally, I sit up a little taller now that the room isn’t spinning so fast. “We learn how to feign weakness. If Echo was so good at identifying it, then I’m sure that’s how Azric caught her. He would have had a hard time fighting her in the Void, right? It was more her element than his. He’d have drawn her into a fight she thought she could win. And then he’d take away her ability to shadow walk with fire.”
Everyone in the room stares at me. “That’s…” Erik stammers.
“…exactly what happened,” Darian says softly. “He convinced Inni to take a glancing blow from a shadow lance, and they fell from the sky, something that’s never happened before. Echo was there in an instant. They both looked barely alive from the fall, but Inni had controlled her descent, and though it’d hurt them both, neither of them was truly incapacitated.”
Darian pauses for a moment as he looks around the room, proving his point about me. “Then, once she was on the ground in front of them, Inni and Azric both fought with flames, eliminating her chance to get into the shadows. The fight was… short lived. While she was a very competent warrior, she couldn’t match Azric by himself, much less with Inni at his side.”
The room falls silent, but they’re all nodding their heads. It’s Isola who speaks. “This feigned weakness sounds as good a plan as any. So how do we put it into practice?”
Strangely enough, all eyes turn toward me. A room full of people I should be terrified of is looking at me for advice, and all I can do is shrug. “We have to know our strengths and abilities first. That means we need to train together in typical combat drills. But when we leave this room, when we see other competitors, we need to act as if we’re furious with our group. Manipulate them starting now. We have a month to get rumors spread of each of our feigned weaknesses.”
I brush a few loose strands of hair away from my face. “Tell them I’m completely worthless, that I don’t even know how to hold a blade. Tell them Darian spends his days playing cards and making jokes rather than training. Each of the lies should be something they would easily believe. I don’t know any of you well enough to decide what they’d believe about you, but I assume the rest of you can come up with some ideas.”
Rurik laughs. “If I thought being on a team with a human was going to be the strangest thing I’d do all day, I’d be wrong. My father would tell me I was a blithering idiot if he heard I was going to make myself look weak, but I can’t argue with the plan.”
The rest of the group continues to talk, and I let go of the conversation. I close my eyes and feel the exhaustion overtake me once again. I did the thing I needed to do. They’ll make plans and tell me all about them now, but they won’t look at me like I’m worthless, like I’m disposable.
And as sleep threatens to take me, memories of those last seconds that Azric had me pinned against the wall come back to me. The way he’d burned so hot, the way he’d pressed himself against me.
Now I know why everyone’s terrified of the Prince of Bones. If he could do that with a single kiss. What could he do with more?
Chapter 22
The House of Earth was given its powers by Kasan the Lifegiver. These include the power to see through and manipulate stone, to become stronger than any other Fae, to force a terrible poison into another as well as to draw it out, and to find that which you seek. My House’s powers were the most varied and hidden of all the Houses.
