The Challenge has begun.
Three pillarsand four of us. Only two would have to fight it out, and before I even try to guess which two, a sharp pain shoots through my leg, making me stumble. I glance down. My feet are wet, as if I’ve been splashed, except the water bites like fire.
“What’s wrong?” Kaelzar is at my side. I look up. Her pale pink dragon stands at Liona’s side, static humming around its scales like lightning waiting to burst. Of course she wouldn’t go for Seraphina or Zyrel, she thinks I’m the weakest of them all.
Shadows slither around Kaelzar’s feet, thick, spiky coils rising from the ground, pulsing with unnatural life. Something lurches in my stomach at the sight. He cut these shadows from an Origin. But what kind of creature leaves behind a shadow like that?
Liona moves with the effortless grace of water slipping downhill. Her Godbeast prowls beside her, its eyes locked on Kaelzar. He steps between us, every line of his body coiled with restrained violence.
I tilt my chin toward her in warning. “I don’t want to hurt you,” I say.
“As if you could,” she drawls, lips curling with cruel amusement. “Still, I admire the spirit. Is it your Godbeast’s competition experience that’s giving you such bold ideas?”
I glance at Kaelzar. His stance is rigid. Something in her words must have struck deep.
“Oh,” she says, sweetly mocking, her Godbeast thrumming with energy as she begins to circle. “You didn’t know?”
Kaelzar shifts, just barely, but I feel the tremor beneath the surface.
“My Godbeast tells me everything,” she purrs. “Yours, apparently, doesn’t. But he’s quite the legend in Elysium, everyone knows the tragic tale of how his Goddess chained him.”
“We’re not here to talk, Liona,” I snap, mentally stumbling over the fact that her dragon can speak.
I let the whip crack and Decay magic coils along the spiked tip, hissing as it evaporates into the air.
Her grin deepens. “But maybe we should,” she muses. “Considering how close you and your Godbeast have become.”
I feel the weight of unseen eyes pressing in from the arena rails. I know the kingdom is listening through the Divinity Gazes’ projection.
But they don’t deserve Kaelzar’s story, not his past. My grip tightens around the whip’s handle as the memory of our dance in the garden flickers to life. My jaw locks. She saw us growing closer, and now whatever she’s doing is her pathetic attempt to make me what? Doubt him? Look down on him? Get angry?
I consider letting the rot devour her before she says another word, but the urge not to kill snuffs that thought out instantly.
“My Godbeast told me yours once won a tournament,” she says casually, still circling. “Claimed the right to stand beside his goddess as her strongest. Left behind those he grew up with, even the girl who stood by him when he was no one. What was her name again?” Liona pauses, tapping a finger against her chin. Then her eyes widen, as if she’s just remembered, and she hisses the name like a viper. “Mia.”
Kaelzar growls low beside me. The sound reverberates throughme, making my stomach knot.
“Stop.” My voice cracks with fury, with a fierce need to protect Kaelzar’s pain no matter the cost.
“Why?” Liona’s eyes glint with cruel glee. “Did I strike a nerve?” She leans in. “Kaelzar betrayed everyone to serve Calista. You see, even the most loyal beasts will trade devotion for power if the price is right. You think he won’t betray you if the opportunity presents itself?”
Kaelzar doesn’t look at her. He looks at me. Just a flick of his eyes cracks something inside me. Then I understand.
This isn’t a petty cruelty. Liona knows how his chains work. She knows what Calista’s control does to him if he only thinks wrong about her. She wants to activate them so he’s incapacitated and out of her way.
The realization makes my stomach drop, because she’s found his weak spot.Myweak spot. But I won’t give her the satisfaction of exploiting it.
I step forward, whip alive with decay. “You’ve said enough, Liona.”
I strike, aiming short of her shoulder to scare her, the rot-charged tip glinting in the light. But before it snaps, pain explodes in my side.
I scream as a ribbon of water slams into me, and her dragon sends a violent jolt of static surging through the current. My body seizes, my limbs lock. I hit the ground.
Kaelzar lunges, but his movements are stilted, wrong. Chains already flicker over his skin, biting into his flesh. He doubles over with a ragged gasp.
Liona laughs. “Shall I tell you why he really earned those chains, Raylane?” She glances toward the arena rails, lips curving as if she can taste the crowd’s reaction.
“I know why,” I grind through my locked jaw. And for the first time since the Trial began, I realize I might have no choice but to use my magic to hurt someone on purpose. The thought of it paralyzes me even more than Liona’s magic does.
