Maze and Hawk both arrived, and I felt myself go numb. I didn’t want to go through with this. It was too hard, too much. I was a healer. I helped save lives. I didn’t kill innocents. Those other guys I fought in the arena were evil, but Pax was good. He was a good person born into a bad family, like Fallon.
“I won’t,” I growled as Hawk opened my cell and dangled the cuffs at his side.
“It’s okay,” Pax said, his voice defeated, as if he was already gone in his mind.
My mind raced trying to think up a scenario in which I didn’t have to fight my friend, but by the time Maze and Hawk brought us into the fighting ring surrounded by screaming crowds, I had thought of nothing. I recognized a few off-duty guards and some Nightlings who had attacked Ayden at my party, but I didn’t care about that right now. All I could think about was the fact that I was going to have to fight someone I cared about and respected. A cold emptiness bloomed in my chest. I would have to succumb to my fate.
TWENTY
FALLON
I landed on the grass in the Realm of Eternity and barely acknowledged the body of the queen’s lover at my feet. Instead, I peered across at the Grim. He leaned casually against a boulder, reading a book.
“Grim!” I called out, and he smiled lightly, looking up at me expectantly. “I challenge you for this man’s soul.”
The Grim set his book down and rolled out his shoulders before taking a few steps closer. His eyes ran the length of my arms and stopped at the tops of my hands. “I see you still carry the power of a Maven healer, and so I grant your request, but I must remind you. Last time, I was going easy on you. This time, I most certainly will not. Some souls are destined to cross over at the appointed time.”
Panic seized me, but I couldn’t give up—I couldn’t do that to Solana, not after everything she had lost in her life. Her brother, her betrothed, her ability to have children; I couldn’t let her lover be taken too.
I sucked in a calm breath and heard Master Hart’s voice in my head, something he had said in one of his lectures.A Maven healer is the only way to avoid certain death.But not everyMaven healer will save every soul they intend to. Some souls, the Grim won’t let go of.
I hoped that this wasn’t one of the souls the Grim didn’t want to let go of, because I really didn’t want to go back and see the queen heartbroken, my promise to her broken.
He tossed me a sword and I caught it, hefting the weight of the blade in my hand as Yanric took to the air.
‘You must be ruthless, Fallon Bane. Go for his eyes, his throat, anything you can gouge out,’Yanric told me.
I winced, holding the sword aloft.‘I don’t want to kill him.’
‘You can’t kill him! He is the Fae of Death!’
With that, the Grim came for me faster than ever before, and by the time I knew what had happened, a cut had formed on my upper arm, blood blooming to the surface.
Bastard!
With a battle cry, I charged forward, faking right but then moving left at the last instant. He didn’t fall for it. He stepped to the left, crouched, and swung for my legs with his sword.
‘Jump!’Yanric coached. I did but too late. The sword crashed into my ankle, and I cried out, falling to the ground.
‘I’ll kill him,’Yanric seethed, and dive-bombed from the sky.
I could feel the murderous thoughts coming from my familiar, but all I could think of were two things.
Save the queen’s lover. Save Ariyon.
The Grim looked up, anticipating Yanric’s attack, and I used the distraction to kick at his knee as hard as I could. My foot made contact, and I pushed with every ounce of strength I had.
With a growl, the Grim went down. First his butt hit the hard-packed dirt, and then his back followed, his sword dropping as he tried to catch himself. I didn’t let up. Leaping on to top of him, I drove my sword right into his chest, hoping it wasn’t possible to actually kill him.
Instead of blood pouring from his wound,lightdid. Bright, buttery shafts of light splintered from his chest and hit me in the eyes, causing me to cry out in surprise. The Grim reached up to grasp my upper arms, seemingly to throw me off him, but Yanric was too quick for that. My familiar landed on his forehead and pecked at the tip of his nose, coming away with a small chunk. More light shot from the opening Yanric had made, and the Grim merely stared up at me, his skin already stitching back together to cover the holes we’d made in him. My sword magically pushed its way out of his chest, and I rolled off him, bleeding and breathless.
That was three, right? Kicking the knee, the sword, and Yanric. That was three!
The Grim announced, “Well done, Fallon Bane. I will grant your request and return this soul to his body.”
“Thank you,” I breathed.
He nodded. “I want you to know that the intensity at which you fight for those you care about is well noted.”
