Walking through the smoky hall, seeing the red-hot steel in a forge. Red hot and malleable.
Could I change this steel back to that state? Not the manacles on my wrist, surely, or I’ll burn my arms off. I follow my gaze to where the chains are bolted to the wall and crawl closer. I hover my hand above them.
My eyes flutter closed, thinking of the change this metal went through to be forged into such a state.Reverse.I think of fire, of heat, of the sun, and daylight. Warmth blooms against my palm, and I open my eyes to see the steel bubbling down the wall in thick red-hot globs.
“Yes!” I shriek and carefully tug my chains away. I’m free! Now, to find the key.
Where would Wrenley have hidden it? I spend a few minutes searching the room before my gaze turns to her vanity. Quickly, I rifle through her makeup before my hand grasps a large silver key.
Within a minute, I’ve freed myself of my shackles and am darting through the Serenus Dusk Chambers. There’s something I’ll need if I’m to win my own fight in the colosseum.
After I secure my precious cargo, I burst into the arena. The sunlight is blinding, and the whole Sun Colosseum is in an uproar. Tilla and the other trapped gladiators wage a battle against soldiers of the Green Rule. The stands are just as chaotic as the arena. The Summer fae are rallying.
Carefully, I search the arena. Something gleams across the way, shining in the Emperor’s Box. The Bow of Radiance.
A familiar voice breaks through all else. Dayton. He stands on a pile of rubble, looking like a true god of the arena. Golden hair flowing, the Lance of Valor in one hand and his Trident of Honor in the other. His voice carries across the expanse, giving commands.
But stalking closer, ignored by the crowd, is an acolyte dressed in white.
Wrenley.
He doesn’t know she’s the Nightingale.
There’s a detached expression on her face. What must she be thinking, as her plans crumble around her like stone? Dayton didn’t give her his Blessing. Kairyn left her.
I need to get to him before she does. The bow will have to wait. No one else can wield it, anyway.
“Dayton, look out!” I scream across the arena, but there are so many voices, he doesn’t hear me. I push past fighters. Green Rule soldiers try to quell the crowds as goblins attack with pikes.
Wrenley stalks closer, and I see the briefest glimpse of thorns stirring beneath the sands.
“Dayton!” I scream again, and then he turns, golden hair blowing.
“Rosie!” His face breaks out in the most glorious smile, and he steps down from the rubble.
Wrenley grabs his arm. Her expression changes to the doe-eyes I know are all fake. “Dayton, wait, as your mate—”
But I see beyond her words, to her hand, reaching for the two tokens around his neck. There’s no way I’ll be able to reach him in time. Not on my feet.
“Stop!” I shout, and they both turn to me. I rip the nautilus shell off my necklace and throw it to the ground. “She’snotyour mate!”
With my heel, I smash the shell. Florescent blue goo and petals spill over the sand. But it’s not enough, not yet. Carefully, I brush aside my hair, where a small will-o’-wisp bobs. The one I asked to follow me from the Serenus Dusk Chambers.
“I need your help now,” I whisper.
The little wisp flutters and lands upon my chest where it melds against my heart. Almost immediately, a golden line shoots from my chest to the smashed shell.
“A trick,” Dayton growls, snatching Wrenley’s wrist as she lurches for the tokens.
She cries out and tries to wiggle free, but he’s too strong.
As I look down, something strange blossoms around my heart. The light no longer appears like a black tangle, as it did back in the Emberwood Forest all those many months ago. The golden light glows bright as more lines—more mate bonds—burst forth.One brilliant bright light shoots to the ground, which must be to Farron and Kel in the Below, and another streams far into the horizon to Ezryn. But one line is brighter than all of them. One that blooms right before me.
Here in the arena.
Even if I didn’t see it, I would feel it, this new light blooming in my chest, warmth flooding my body like the rising of the sun.
Tears flood my eyes as I look across at Dayton, to the light bursting on his chest, not to some necklace, but to his heart.
