by Emily Rose
“No, it’s not. You can’t stop me from doing this.” I pushed him aside, bringing my attention to the King.
“A volunteer? You continue to surprise me, Ruby Castiel.” The King's laugh sent a chill down my spine. “Well let’s not keep the fighters waiting!”
I grabbed Riley’s sword from the ground and prepared myself in the corner of the ring. I looked at Bane’s face. The pure aggression he expressed during the fight with Riley was gone, along with any cheers from the crowd.
The King wanted someone dead. This was going to be a slaughter, and everyone knew it.
I stood my ground, focused on nothing but my opponent. I might not be able to win against this brute, but I could put up a damn good fight.
Taking a step closer to Bane, something deep in my soul shook. I looked into his eyes and saw something dark that I hadn’t seen seconds before. Something evil. Something that wasn’t human. There were no whites in his eyes, just black pits.
He attacked first, shooting his sword in my direction. I deflected it with my own sword, and the impact shot pain through both of my arms. Focus.
I reeled back quickly, sending another jab toward his torso.
He was too slow, the tip of my sword sliced his rib, sending blood down his side.
Bane hardly reacted. He didn't even flinch before storming his large, towering body toward me. I backed up to the edge of the ring, feeling the robe of the edge against my back. I was trapped.
My heart was racing. He disarmed me with a strong flick of his own weapon. I heard the metal clatter on the cement floor below.
I was going to die. Here, in this ring, with Riley and Harvey watching me.
The familiar surge of adrenaline struck my body, but it would not be enough. Bane stalked toward me, his face blank. Where was the hesitation that he was showing before the fight? The pity? Anything?
But I was not going to cower. I was not going to beg. My stomach flipped as Bane threw his own sword to the ground, tightening his fists. He was not done with this fight.
In seconds, his hands were around my neck, throwing me to the ground. He jumped on top of me and squeezed harder, tighter.
The weight of his body crushed my chest. His eyes were nothing but black pits, his face was blank. I clawed at his arms, his hands. I needed oxygen. A scream from Harvey filled the air. Or maybe I had imagined it. I turned my head as much as I could, searching for my friend.
But I met the King's eyes instead, just feet away from the ring. His eyes were filled with the same blackness, the same evil. I blinked once, but my vision didn’t change. This was real. Fear flooded my senses.
I had just begun to accept death for the second time in my life, when the familiar warmth filled my limbs, fueling me with power.
Magic has been extinct for over 300 years. The Prince’s voice slurred through my thoughts. I didn’t care about that, though. Right now, I needed to survive.
My sight of Bane began to darken as the lack of oxygen started to affect me. But I could almost harness it, almost control the flame that was right beneath my skin. I grabbed his arms and willed the heat to my body. The Prince’s voice sliced through the air.
“ENOUGH,” he yelled. Any heat that I had just been feeling disappeared at the interruption. I could have sworn I felt the floor shake.
Bane’s grasp on my neck loosened, and his face was suddenly filled with a different expression. Horror? Confusion? The whites of his eyes returned. He stumbled back off of my body as I grabbed at my neck, struggling to breathe. Each breath of air burned my throat.
I rolled to my side and glanced back at the King. His normal expression of amusement had returned to his face. Was I crazy? Maybe I had just imagined the darkness that I saw.
“We’ll continue with the practice fights tomorrow,” the Prince said. The disinterested voice he was using earlier was gone. The Prince just saved my life. Or Bane’s.
“We certainly will,” King Xavier repeated, staring at his son. The tension in the air was thick, but I hardly noticed. My body heaved as I coughed in oxygen.
Fighters murmured under their breaths, beginning to walk back to the cages.
I felt Riley’s hands on my back before I saw him. “Ruby,” he said, “can you hear me?”
I couldn’t respond, couldn’t move. I could hardly even think. My body was frozen with the realization of what I just saw, the evilness that engulfed the King and my opponent.
The last thing that I remembered before being carried off the fighting ring was Prince Aiden.
His face was full of something familiar. Worry? Regret? Did he know what I was about to do to Bane? I blinked the thought away before letting my heavy eyelids close. My head against Riley’s chest was the last thing I felt before feeling the chill of my own bed.
7 The New Champion
My body felt weightless. Peaceful. I blinked my eyes open to a bright, golden light. “Am I dead?” I asked out loud. My voice seemed to echo off of nothing, traveling on for ages.
“No, Ruby. You are very much alive,” a voice responded. It sounded familiar, comforting me with every soothing word. I closed my eyes as a golden light approached me, feeling the warmth on my skin.
“You have to learn more, Ruby. You’re almost there,” the voice said.
“Ophine?” I asked out. “Is it you again?”
“Yes, but I can’t stay.”
“Why not? Why are you helping me?”
“You will learn, child. In time,” she said as the light slowly disappeared.
A sob escaped me as the golden voice left entirely, replacing itself with a dark, endless abyss. I called out to her again, begging her to stay, but she was already gone.
✽✽✽
I woke up to Harvey’s small hands shaking my shoulders. “Ruby,” she said. “Wake up, we have to train.”
As I blinked my eyes open, a sharp pain shot through my neck. I took a deep, rough breath as I remembered yesterday’s events. Bane almost killed me. At least, I thought it was Bane. I shivered as I remembered the way he looked at me, emotionless with those black eyes.
“Don’t try to talk,” she said, handing me a cup of water. The liquid passed my cracked lips to my neck, and I almost gagged as I swallowed it. My eyes welled with tears. I blinked them back quickly, but not before Harvey noticed.
“It’s okay,” she said again, rubbing a hand down my face. “Riley and I will help you.”
Riley. I had completely forgotten he was here. I sat up and reached for my black boots, pushing Harvey’s hand away. I had to get to him. We needed to talk.
“Hey hey,” Harvey warned, catching my wrists in her hands. She seemed stronger now, more confident. “You need to be careful, Ruby. Riley was here earlier this morning, he’s fine. I’ll take you to meet him. Just move slowly. You really scared us, you know.”
I let a deep breath escape my body, stinging my throat. Riley was okay. I gave Harvey’s hand a small squeeze. She returned the gesture with a smile. We were all okay. For the most part, at least. “You ready?” she asked. No, I wasn’t. But I nodded my head anyway.
Harvey didn’t let go of my hand until we were standing in the Courtyard. I pretended not to notice everyone pausing their daily routines to stare at us while we walked to our usual breakfast table. I lifted my chin. I was not about to let these people think of me as weak. As defeated. I had bigger problems, anyway.
My mind had been mulling over possible reasons Riley would be here. Was he kidnapped like me? Or was he actually dumb enough to volunteer?
I recognized his scrawny figure from the other side of the yard. He slouched at the furthest breakfast table with his head bowed. I quickened my pace with Harvey beside me, my eyes darting around the field, searching for danger. For the King. But nobody interrupted us as we closed the distance to the other side of the Courtyard.
My heart raced. I sat at the table across from Riley, Harvey sliding in next to me. His eyes darted from her to me, then landed on my neck. I could only as
sume it was covered in purple bruises by now.
“I’m fine,” I attempted to say, but my voice came out as a quiet croak.
“No, Ruby. You’re not fine,” he whispered loudly. “Why would you do that? You could have been killed!”
I sent Riley a death glare. I could have been killed? “And what about you, Riley? What the hell! That guy was going to kill you!” It was as much as I could get out before my voice dropped to a coughing fit. Jax would never recover if I let something happen to Riley. Why didn’t he understand that?
My heart dropped. Jax. I opened my mouth to speak, but Riley stopped me before I could say anything.
“I already know what you’re gonna ask, so let me just fill you in. Something bad has happened, Ruby.” He didn’t meet my eyes. Instead, he darted them over the Courtyard behind me. Clearly paranoid. “Jax came back to the camp, freaking out because he said you had been taken. He told the villagers he was putting together a group of people to rescue you. When we heard you had won your first fight in the Ring of Angels, we were all confused. Why would you volunteer to fight? You hate fighting.”
“I-”
“But we were going to rescue you, anyway,” he said, cutting me off. “So we gathered a small group. It was just me, Jax of course, and a few of the other guys that Jax used to fight with. We planned to leave the next night. That’s when they came.”
“Who came?”
“The King's guards! Like 50 of them stormed Sundown and completely raided the place. They said any able-bodied man or woman was to be brought to the Ring of Angels to prove themselves to the King.”
My heart sank. I thought back to the last day I was in Sundown. Everyone was so peaceful, so content. To think of everything being torn apart...
“Wait, Jax is here, too?” I attempted to ask, turning my attention to the crowd of boy fighters.
“No, he was hunting when the raid came. I have no idea where he is. They didn't get everyone, either. Just as many as they could fit on the horses. But I knew you would be here. Something’s going on, Ruby. The King is forcing people to fight.”
“Obviously,” I barked. Riley’s harsh expression softened as he brought his eyes back down to my neck.
“Jesus, that looks like it hurts.”
“I think what you did was really brave,” Harvey said from beside me, breaking the sudden silence. I slid my arm under the table, grasping her hand in mine. Something deep in my soul told me I would do the same for her, given the chance.
“Jax would have killed me if I let you die for me, you know that?” Riley interrupted. A familiar feeling of guilt creeped in my chest. Of course I knew that, but I could never face him again knowing I didn’t do everything in my power to protect his little brother.
“It’s over, Riley,” I said, clearing my throat. “Let’s just forget about it.”
“Okay, fine. Let’s talk about something else, like how the hell we’re supposed to get out of here.”
“You have a plan?” Harvey asked Riley, leaning forward on the table.
“No, but I think it’s about time we make one,” he replied.
So we did. We talked about Sundown, and about everyone who would be coming for us, knowing we were taken against our will. We talked about the castle, and everything we could remember from our different journeys here. We talked about the King, and the daily routine within the cages.
For a moment, I forgot all about my original plan to kill the King. My greatest desire, for once, wasn’t the vengeance of my parents. It was to save these two from a cruel, nasty death. Even if it meant my own death in the process.
Three fighters against substantial odds. But it was a chance.
✽✽✽
“Walk with me, Ruby,” the Prince’s voice said from behind me. We had been so entranced in our conversation for the past few hours, none of us noticed him approaching. Riley and Harvey froze, staring at the man. Harvey’s hand tightened around mine before she quickly released it.
I stood up from the table and walked in the Prince’s direction. His eyes flickered from my face to my neck as I stood up. Something strange registered across his face, something that looked almost sad. Pity, maybe? It wouldn’t surprise me. He looked entirely disgusted with me when I volunteered to fight Bane. I pushed it from my thoughts as I walked beside him, around the perimeter of the Courtyard.
Instead of the usual black cloak he wore, Prince Aiden wore black trousers and a fitting, white t-shirt. He had dark, black hair that contrasted against his pale skin. His eyes were bright green, reflecting the sunlight that was beating down on us. I rubbed my hands together in front of me, wiping the nervous sweat away.
When we were far enough away from the breakfast tables and any other wandering ears, he spoke.
“So I can assume you ignored my warning entirely, then?”
“I don’t know wha-”
“Let’s not waste time with lies, okay? You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
His voice was hushed, yet sharp. I flinched at his reply.
He kept walking forward. I was suddenly aware of all the attention on us, on the Prince. He didn’t seem to notice, though.
“I did what I had to do to survive,” I said through gritted teeth.
Prince Aiden snapped his head toward me. His eyebrows raised in a shocked expression. “So you know how to control it?” he asked.
“No, I… I don’t know.”
He returned his gaze forward, not missing a step. I watched his chest rise as he took a deep breath. “I’m going to help you, Ruby.”
Help me? “Why? And with what?” I stopped walking, turning toward him. He did the same. I didn’t need help, especially not from him.
“I’m going to teach you how to fight so you don’t get yourself killed with that little trick of yours. You can’t do that again. Especially not in front of my father. Follow me,” he said.
I followed him to the center of the Courtyard, where he picked up a sword. “Here,” he said, passing it to me. “You’re clumsy with a weapon. Pick it up.”
So I did. I took the weapon from his hands, my arm jolting when my skin touched his. He took a deep breath and stepped back. Could he feel it, too? I shook my head. There was no way. I focused my attention on the weight of the metal. The length of the blade.
He cleared his throat. “Let me see your fighting stance.”
I spread my feet and bent my knees slightly, lifting the heavy sword over my shoulder. My body ached sharply from yesterday’s fight, and I grimaced against the pain.
“Ruby,” Prince Aiden said quietly, obviously noticing my pain. His eyes fell once again to my neck, lingering there. I looked at him then, seeing a flash of sorrow pass through his face before he quickly blinked it away. “Maybe you need more rest.”
“No,” I said, but my voice was hardly audible. I dropped my eyes to the ground in defeat. It was no use. If the Prince was going to think less of me for it, so be it. I was exhausted. Any training today would be a waste.
He had opened his mouth to speak again when the King walked in. The heavy Courtyard doors slamming behind him. I could almost feel his presence before I saw him.
“Fighters!” he announced. Heads snapped toward him. The sound of weapons hitting the ground echoed against the stone walls.
“Gather around! I have an exciting announcement to make!” King Xavier paraded straight toward Prince Aiden and I, flanked by two guards. His gaze was locked on us. On me.
The Prince stiffened next to me as the King lazily approached. My heart started pounding harshly in my chest. I couldn’t help but remember the way his eyes had looked like black voids, the same as Bane’s. Maybe I was going crazy. When he was just a few feet away, he held his hand out to me. His wrinkly, pale hand. My chest dropped to my stomach. This couldn't be good.
“After talking with the villagers, we have decided to add a new, fearless fighter to the League of Champions!”
No, no, no. This could not be happening.
My body froze, and everything seemed to be playing out in slow motion. I felt trapped. The fighters around me froze too, hesitating in the moment. I was a Champion. I felt claustrophobic from everyone staring at me, waiting for my reaction. Within seconds, the air filled with a wave of applause. Fake applause, obviously.
The Prince leaned forward, whispering something to the King as he let go of my hand. I scanned the crowd, searching for Harvey and Riley. They were my only reminder of home, of who I was just weeks ago. Instead, my eyes paused on Opal’s face. She didn’t clap. She didn’t smile. Instead, she gave me a spiteful glare that promised me only one thing: trouble.
There went my plan to keep my head down.
8 The Mark of Forever
“Congratulations, Ruby. You know what this means, right?” Prince Aiden’s smooth voice pulled me out of my thoughts as I watched the King leave the Courtyard. I shook my head at him, trying to cope with what just happened. His harsh demeanor from just moments ago was gone.
“It means I have to kill more people.” I hated the way my voice shook. The way my hands started to shake.
What would Jax think of this? If anybody hated the League of Champions, it was him. I couldn’t think of that right now, though. I had to think about myself if I was ever going to help Riley and Harvey. I would sell my soul to keep those two safe, and I had a feeling that’s exactly what I was about to do.
“Yes, you will.” The Prince’s voice was soft now, almost a whisper. “You’ll have to get the Champion brand, too.”
The Champion brand. My memory flashed to the dark mark on Opal’s skin, right below her neck. The same mark that every Champion bore. A shiver passed through my body as I let out a deep breath.
“It’s not so bad,” he said. I snapped my head up to look at his face. How could he say that? He’s never been irreparably damaged by the crown. He’s never been forced to forget everything he’s been taught so that he could survive. Yes, this was bad.