Laughter started around us, but I didn’t care anymore.
“Do you think her father never trained her?”
“Why would she need it? She can just use her magic and take him down.”
“I’m so glad I wasn’t chosen as her second. Can you imagine trying to survive having to deal with her?”
Kilia and Ilse stood by the rope, and while I was counting on the triumphant look on Kilia’s face, Ilse’s soft shake of the head before she turned and left cut into me worse than Darcke’s next strike.
I should have been happy. I’d succeeded in convincing the Hird that I was too entitled to fight anyone—that Icouldn’t be bothered.
Even Viljan had given up on me. Asking if I had anything to do with my brother’s death?
A strangled chuckle escaped me.
Darcke shoved me backward. “Snap out of it.” His jaw slid against my temple as he reached an arm around me. “Whatever it is, snap out of it and fight back.”
I let him slam me into the ground again. I fell forward this time, and one of my hands involuntarily flew to my nose when it took the brunt of the force, causing blood to pool in the dirt. Darcke’s knee cut into my back, his hands wrapping around my arm, pulling on it until the bones screamed.
“I will break this arm,” he warned. “I will.”
“I know,” I said. “Go ahead.”
He let out an exasperated breath. “Why? I can feel your anger. I can feel your pain. Why not let it out? I can take it.”
I only laughed louder.
Darcke’s mouth landed by my ear. “What is it you think that I can’t take?”
“Break it,” I said.
“Tell me,” Darcke ordered.
“Break it.”
“Tell me!” he whispered furiously.
I didn’t bother responding.
I could feel how he debated breaking my arm, twisting to see if that would loosen my tongue, but at the last second, the pressure on my back disappeared. Darcke spun me in the dirt, and whatever he felt through the bond or saw in my face made him shake his.
“Disappointing.” He clicked his tongue. “So fucking disappointing.”
Darcke whirled as if he was leaving, and I closed my eyes to listen to the echoing thrum of mockery rising from the crowd, waiting for his footsteps to disappear.
“She’s an embarrassment to Vikings.”
“Can you believe her father made her his heir?”
“The gods are going to judge her, and then A’lian will take her stuck-up place.”
“There is no honor in holding back. If she won’t even teach her second, what will she do for her people?”
Each word struck my chest like a sword, digging further and further in until the edge of the phantom blade pierced my heart, making me draw a shaky breath to quell the sound of pain that wanted to fly past my lips.
“That was the worst thing I’ve ever seen. What are you doing, A’lian? Make her fight you,” Guner barked somewhere ahead. “Or are you frightened of her? Has the mighty Darcke A’lian met his match in a spoiled little girl?”
Bone crunched, but before I could open my eyes, I was in the air. My chest thudded against Darcke’s back as he carried me past a bleeding Guner. Despite my vow not to risk anyone understanding that my strength was gone, I struck a fist against Darcke’s back.
