She blinks, then looks around as if seeing things for the first time. Her chest heaves and her hands shake. A trembling thatch of prismatic briars breaks through the stone and seizes her.
“Go, Wrenley,” he whispers. “Save yourself.”
She casts one look back at him before the prismatic briars swallow her into the earth.
No time for distractions. I need to knock these two out before Farron has a chance to turn me into kindling like he did Quellos. Surging first at Dayton, I feint to strike Farron.
Farron dodges my blows as easily as if I were moving in slow motion. He laughs as he ducks under each swing. “You’ll have to do better than that, Tin Man.”
I change tactics, leaping and rolling in a clatter of metal across the icy ground before coming up at Dayton’s side. He backflips away from me before twin knives crafted entirely of green flame form in his hands. He smiles, holding up the knives as if for me to admire, then strolls toward me.
My grip tightens on the hammer, and I fall into a defensive posture. Dayton is dangerous. I’ve seen him in the arena, always thinking twice as fast as his opponent. I’ve lost my fair share of spars to him, Green Flame or no.
He runs at me with blinding speed. It’s all I can do to fend off his strikes, blocking hit after hit with the hammer.
Dayton does a devastating thrust, coming at me with his knives in an X. Two hands on the hammer, I bring it up to block. But he’s too damn strong, energy radiating from every pore. “Th-think of your sister,” I groan.
“I already am,” he replies, voice without any strain. “Thinking about how I’ll come for her next. There will be one ruler and one ruler only. Caspian of the Green Flame!”
A cold sweat breaks across my forehead and runs into my eyes. Is there any part of Dayton left?
I feel a presence at my back and know Farron is closing in to flank me.
“No more playing,” Farron growls. “We burn him. Now.”
Dayton steps away, freeing me for a single moment. But I’m stuck still, watching as Dayton’s hands, arms, and shoulders illuminate with flickering emerald flames. His knives are enveloped by the blaze. Heat scorches my skin, and I know Farron is gathering his flames too.
“Kill the metal one,” they say in unison and release their power.
A force slams into my side, knocking me to the ground and rolling me away from Dayton and Farron. The fire rages over me, its residual heat still hot enough to scorch.
Flat on my back, head buzzing from the crash, I look up to see my brother crouched over me. The tops of his horns are blackened from catching the blaze.
“Come on,” he snarls, snatching my arm and yanking me upwith his chained wrists. He shoves me in front of him. “Those pillars.”
Without any other ideas, I listen to him, sprinting across the throne room and then leaping into a pile of rubble. Kairyn follows me, and we crawl behind a collection of smashed pillars.
I lean against one, taking the moment to catch my breath. “You saved me.”
Kairyn rests beside me, head tilted back, staring up at the ceiling. “You need help.”
I stare at his chained wrists. The hands that pointed so condemningly at me. The ones that carved the tips from my ears. The ones that held this hammer to my chest, crushing me beneath his weight.
I pull our mother’s sword out of its scabbard. “Don’t make me regret this.”
Kairyn holds out his wrists, and with a single swing, I cut through the chains. Then I hold the hilt out to him.
“It’s a good sword.”
“I know,” he says. “It’s had good wielders.”
Throwing a look over the pillar, I spy Dayton and Farron stalking forward, their burning green eyes searching the rubble for us.
There’s nothing else to do. I give a signaling nod. Leaping over the pillar, Kairyn and I move in tandem. He arcs the sword down in an elegant swing at Farron’s legs. I wind back and slam the hammer into Dayton’s chest.
“Remember, don’t kill them!” I yell at Kai.
“They certainly don’t agree with you,” he huffs, evading a blast of fire.
