“If you take a Dreg rat with a sponsor mark and throw her in the mines, there will be a rebellion the likes of which you’ve never seen. They’ll say she wasn’t given a fair chance, they’ll say we never give them anything…”
They didn’t give us anything.
She raised one eyebrow. “You’re suggesting I allowher to bond a wolfkin and choose one of our most sacred weapons and enter the trial?”
“Are you actually afraid she’ll win?” he asked and chuckled. “She won’t. She’ll be a martyr, her people will chant her name in the streets, and it will go down in history as the time the magistrate was just and allowed one of their own to try to win the trials.”
She gave him a half-lidded, flirty smile. “Are you trying to fluff my ego?”
“Does it need fluffing?” he flirted back, and I felt sick to my stomach. She was old enough to be his mother.
“My lady, he’s right,” the lead Watcher said. “If her people know about the sponsor mark and we don’t allow her to enter, it could start a war.”
The magistrate peered at me. “Can she hear me?” she asked.
Cassian snapped his fingers. “Now she can.” He gave me a look I couldn’t interpret, and I wondered if he knew I could hear him almost the whole time.
She peered at my chest. “How many people know you have this mark?”
Thank the Creator, I’d just been privy to the last half of the conversation.
“Everyone,” I lied. “I shouted it from the rooftops before I left. The entire Dregs is rooting for me.” Cassian’s nostrils flaredslightly.
The magistrate peered at Cassian, and he nodded. “Truth.”
She growled.
And now I was one hundred percent certain that Cassian was… on my side? It was hard to believe. But he was definitely lying for me.
“Alright. The little sewer rats want a magicless to compete in the Arcane Trials, we will let them have their fun.” She grinned, but it didn’t reach her eyes.
I swallowed hard. “So I can enter the trial?”
She reached out and grasped my shoulder, icy coldness going down my arm and settling into my fingers to the point of pain. “You can, and when you are ripped to pieces by a wolfkin, I will make sure your head hangs in the town square.”
I swallowed hard as she gripped my upper arm so hard I thought it might fall off, and then led me into the building.
Creator be with me.
Chapter Four
When we stepped inside the Hall of Binding, I wasn’t sure what I expected to see, but over a hundred wolves in the center of the arena, with two dozen glowing weapons in a crescent moon shape encircling them, was not it.
The harsh mixture of noises as I entered the Hall of Binding jarred my senses. There was animalistic snarling, which seemed quiet compared to the murmurs as onlookers pointed to the different wolfkin spread out in the center of the arena. To the left and right of the stadium were seating that went all the way up to the ceiling, and it was filled with Elites. My gaze flicked to the right, where half a dozen Arcane Trials initiates stood at the base of a podium. I could tell they were initiates because they all wore the same black jumpsuit, which had a cutoutto proudly display their sponsor mark. Only the heir of the house could sponsor, and that meant I was the only House of Draven sponsored person here. If an Elite wasn’t one of the seven royal houses, they’d have to try to buy the mark off an heir or stick with whatever magic they inherited in their non-royal bloodline.
Every eye began to move in my direction as we neared the stage, and it became painfully clear that I was an outsider. From my torn and dirty clothes to the grease under my fingernails, I’d never really felt dirty until surrounded by such cleanliness. I’d bathed this morning, but grease from sorting old nuts and bolts at the factory had stained my nails perpetually.
Slowly, a hush fell over the crowd as people gawked at me. The magistrate stepped up to the podium, smiling hugely, and Cassian stepped into line beside me.
I peered up at him. “Thanks for?—”
“Don’t speak to me.” He cut me off, and my head reeled back in shock.
Wow, jerk.
I was just going to thank him for helping me. I crossed my arms, glaring at him as the magistrate pulled an amplifier to her lips and spoke.
“It seems that before Regalis Draven died, he left us with a little gift.” She tossed a grin my way. “For thepurposes of your entertainment, I am allowing a magicless to compete in the Arcane Trials.”
