She stills. The bow lowers, dipping into the water.
“They left me,” she whispers. “All of them. Kairyn chose his brother. Caspian chose you. It’s so easy for them.”
“I’m choosing you,” I say into her shoulder. “I choose you, Wrenley. You’re my sister by blood, but more than that, I want to know you.”
“Why?” she breathes. “I … I hate you.”
“I know. But trust me, you’re not the first person I’ve had to win over.”
She shakes slightly in my arms, and I wonder if it’s the beginning of a laugh.
“Come with me,” I say.
“I can’t.”
“Youcan. I know it’s hard, but—”
Wrenley growls, then tears free of my grip. Her words are a pained shriek: “I CAN’T!”
I back up, afraid of the pure anger in her voice.
The colosseum groans around us.
“Rosalina, we have to go now!” Dayton calls, hand in a fist above his head: the signal for our steed to retrieve us.We’ll have to find another way to get the bow. She’s damaged the integrity of the structure. This whole place is going to come down in a minute,he says in my mind.
No, no, I wassoclose to getting through to her. I just need another moment, another piece of connection—
But it’s as if she’s descended back into that darkness, hands wringing around the glowing grip of the bow. “I need to kill you,” she whispers. “It’s the only way to fix this.”
Rosalina!Dayton shouts in my mind at the same time as another voice echoes out across the arena: “Wrenley!”
I look behind me to see a dark silhouette peering out from the Emperor’s Box above the arena. Kairyn’s hand is outstretched, as if reaching for her.
Wrenley looks up at him, pain melting off her face. “Kai. You came back.”
“Fucking great,” Dayton groans. “Just what we need. Him.”
But I don’t think he even notices Dayton or me. His visor’s gaze is entirely on Wrenley. Tendrils of seagrass spurt up from the water and wrap around his arms, carrying him down into the arena. The water has now drained in so deeply, it’s up to his chest. He doesn’t seem to care, wading toward her.
“I just got back to Hadria,” he calls. “Are you all right? What’s happened?”
Wrenley only manages a pathetic sob. “Kai!” She turns away from us and starts pushing through the water toward him, slinging the bow across her body.
“Now’s our chance to escape!” Dayton calls. Our winged steed rushes down, and Dayton grabs its neck, hauling himself onto its back. I turn to move closer to them—
A thunderous roar shakes the arena as my feet go out from under me. I’m swept into the water, which is suddenly rushing. Kicking to the surface, I look in horror to see part of the arena has completely collapsed. The stands have fallen inward, and a yawning abyss has opened in the ground. Water and broken stone pour into the massive hole.
“Kairyn!” Wrenley screams, and I watch as his black armordrags him down under the water. All I see is his cape rising to the surface as he spills down into the hole.
My sister fights for purchase, but the current is too strong, the hole acting like a drain. With a panicked cry, she shoots an iridescent briar upward. It wraps around a pillar, but it’s too weak from the explosion, crumbling under the force.
Her face breaks. “Mother! Help me!”
“Rosalina!” Dayton cries. His steed beats its powerful wings above me, and Dayton reaches down. I fling my arm up, and he snags me by the wrist.
“Mother!” Wrenley screams again.
Dark shadows materialize into the form of a woman: she has no features, only a shadowy, floating thing, but I recognize the Queen of the Below from feel alone. “Pity. You turned out to be such a disappointment, daughter,” she says softly, but reaches her shadow hand down toward Wrenley, who surges closer to the hole.
