Page 220 of The Fifth Heir

Heat forced its way out of me.

It struck the gate, raced through the floor, and entered the red runes surrounding Talia.

She doubled over.

“Stop!” I pulled against the torc. “I’m not doing this.”

The metal burned hotter.

Words ignited above my gate.

BREAK THE FROST SEAL. CLAIM THE CROWN.

A red target appeared on the wall of Leander’s passage.

His gate bore different words in ice-blue light.

EXTINGUISH THE FLAME. CLAIM THE CROWN.

The Final Trial had not placed four rivals in separate tests.

It had given each of us another man to defeat.

Rafe swore from across the chamber. Lightning snapped around him, drawn from his body by his torc. Sebastian’s shadows climbed his gate like living smoke.

“Don’t touch anything,” Talia called. “The channels are linked.”

“Not touching isn’t an option,” Rafe shouted back. “This thing is pulling power out of me.”

Silver light shot from beneath his gate and crossed the central floor.

It struck Sebastian’s passage.

The shadow wall buckled inward.

Sebastian braced both hands against it. Darkness spread from his palms, reinforcing the stone, but his response activated the violet channels beneath him.

Shadow raced toward Leander.

A black band wrapped around Leander’s chest and dragged him against his gate.

Frost exploded from Leander’s body.

It traveled into my passage.

Ice covered the floor beneath my boots and climbed my legs before I could move. I summoned fire instinctively.

The ice shattered.

My answering power entered the red channels and surged toward Rafe.

He threw himself aside as flames burst through the wall where his head had been.

The chamber was turning every defense into another attack.

“Talia!” I shouted. “Tell us how to stop it.”

She had pulled the folded section of Camilla’s map from her coat. It shook in her hands as she compared it with the floor beneath her.