by Everly Frost
I scowl at my image before I pull on the fleece and my boots and stride from the room.
The Day Guards have gathered in the wide corridor outside with Nadina at their head. She waits at the Queen’s door. It’s my job to escort the Queen from her room to her podium at the coliseum. Once she’s safely seated, I’ll return to the preparation rooms under the coliseum to wait for the fight.
Nadina opens the Queen’s door as soon as I approach—and promptly closes it behind me once I pass through.
Inside, Imatra sits at the enormous mirrors on the opposite side of the room. Her room is a massive bedroom decorated in silver and gold, with its own sitting area. She places a poppy in her hair. The diamond crown she wears on her head catches the soft winter sunlight, matching the stones that drip down the front of her pearly white dress.
I can see myself in the mirror’s reflection as she rises to her feet and turns to me. She is grace and beauty, a luminous image next to my washed-out form.
“Aura,” she says, holding out her hands for me. “Come here.”
Ever since I became her champion, she has treated me more like a daughter than a warrior.
“Today is about you,” she says. “I’m not allowed to wish you luck, but if I could, I’d tell you that you don’t need it. You are the strongest champion I’ve ever had.”
“I live only to serve,” I say, bowing to her.
“I know you do.” She dips her hand beneath my chin so that I raise my eyes to her. Her lustrous gaze is filled with worry. “But remember that the walls between our rooms are thin.”
I blink at her for a moment before her meaning sinks in.
My stomach drops to the floor.
She heard Nathaniel come into my room—probably each time before and after I slept.
But how much of our conversation did she hear? And what did she think of it?
She clasps my hands in hers. “Nathaniel is powerful and alluring. He’s… magnetic. It’s in his bloodline. But you must remember—please remember—that the Fell are wicked. The most wicked of all creatures to walk this Earth. He wants to destroy you and then destroy my Queendom. Our lives. Our peace.”
I grip her hands. “My Queen… you know me. You pulled me from the building that the Fell burned to ash. I owe you my life. I will never betray you.”
She hurries to press her hand to my cheek. “I trust you, Aura. More than anyone. Never fear that I don’t. I’m only worried for your safety.”
The concern I see in her eyes goes beyond her worry about Nathaniel. She doesn’t want me to fail today. She doesn’t want to go back to sleepless nights, waking with night terrors like she used to. If anyone can defend her, it’s me. If anyone can stop the Fell slaughtering our people like they once did… it’s me.
“The Fell creatures killed my family,” I say. “The fire that was lit in my heart that night will never die. If I speak with Nathaniel, it’s only to gather as much information as I can. I need to know his weaknesses so I can exploit them.”
Her eyebrows rise. A relieved smile relaxes her lips and the tension leaves her eyes. “Of course. I should have known. You have always excelled at battle strategy. If only you were my champion when the Fell attacked us all those years ago.”
I give her a small smile. “I’m not sure that I would have been much use at seven years of age.”
With a sad laugh, she presses a kiss to my cheek. “Please be safe today, Aura.”
I step back. “Are you ready, my queen?”
She gives me a nod.
I stride ahead of her and open the door with a command, “Prepare for the Queen!”
The Day Guards have already formed two rows between which the Queen will walk. They’re dressed in ceremonial armor that glints in the light, their hair loose in honor of the occasion.
I’m surprised to see Nathaniel standing at the back of the line, boxed in on each side by a Day Guard. I guess this is the safest way to escort him to the coliseum. They’re certainly serious about guarding him.
I lead the procession with the Queen walking behind me as we make our way down the stairs and through to one of the external wings.
The coliseum is located on the side of the palace opposite to the Spinning Lake, but it’s a longer walk away. It takes us twenty minutes to pass through the city streets to the enormous structure. The streets along the way are mostly empty. Everyone will have gathered in the coliseum already. They don’t want to miss a minute of the events today.
As the giant stone structure rises above us, the din of voices increases.
I stride toward the private door at the side guarded by more Day Guards. “Open for the Queen!”
They allow us through and we ascend the stairs to the Queen’s podium. It’s placed higher than the other seating areas with a view of the entire coliseum.
As soon as I appear on the podium, a deafening roar rises from the crowd. Many of them chant my name.
Aura Lucidia. Aura, Aura, Aura.
Thousands of fae fill the vast arena, overflowing into the aisles and up behind the seats in the elevated viewing area. It looks like nearly every fae in the Bright Queendom has come to watch me defend my title. They’re packed in so tightly that many have removed their fleece coats despite the winter chill—a chill that won’t reach me in the wide coliseum below.
Sunstream fae have already created the desert environment in which I’ll fight, and the glare off the sand below chills my heart.
“Aura.” Evander never has to shout for me to hear his voice. It helps that as a Frost fae, he can control the wind, carrying his voice directly to me.
He stands with Talsa and a group of Night Guards who have stayed awake for the event. They fill the seats behind and slightly below the podium.
“I’m glad you’re here,” I whisper. The wind he sent to me catches my speech. It will carry my words back to him. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, but I’m worried about what the Fell will do. Please be careful.”
“I will.”
That’s all I have time for before the Queen enters the podium under my watchful eye, taking her seat at the front while Nadina and the guards form a barrier at her back. Nathaniel passes me next, followed by the same group of guards who surrounded him on the walk here.
He catches my eye, but that’s all before they show him his seat on the far righthand side of the podium and take up position around him.
Calida’s family also sits on that side of the podium, in the seats below it, surrounded by other Solstice fae. I already feel the burn of their stares. They will be praying for me to make a mistake today.
The Queen inclines her head at me. “Thank you, Aura. I will watch you fight.”
It’s all she’s allowed to say. I’ve heard her say it six times now. Six times I’ve defended my position since I fought and gained the role when I was only fifteen years old.
I bow low to her, turn, and stride back down the stairs.
There’s no pomp and circumstance for me, not like there will be for Calida. She will prepare in one of the rooms beneath the coliseum with an entourage of helpers, but I shunned all of that during my first year as champion.
Reaching the lower corridor—also lined with guards—I enter my preparation room, remove my fleece and boots, drink another flask of water, and take a deep breath.
A bow and arrow wait for me on the table in the center of the room. I grip them in my hands, test their weight and strength, and then I exit the room into the underpass leading out into the arena.
It’s time to fight.
Chapter 9
Sunlight beats down on my shoulders and back as I exit to the crowd’s jubilant roar.
The heat within the sealed but transparent combat area hits me immediately. Magically-enhanced sand scorches my toes and burns the soles of my feet. The sand dunes stretch from one side of the arena to the other, fine grains shifting with my smallest movement, making my footing uncertain.
Sweat trickles down my fa
ce and between my shoulder blades as I make my way to the center of the arena, but I refuse to reveal how weak the heat makes me.
Calida enters the arena a moment later, taking up position opposite me, planting her bare feet confidently on the uneven ground. Like me, she’s wearing the barest armor—straps across her breasts, thighs, and groin—but unlike me, she’s enjoying the heat.
I turn to face the Queen’s podium high above us as I remind myself why I’m here.
Protecting the Queen is my life. I’ve given up everything—friends, the possibility of love—so that I am single-minded in my task. If Calida wants my job, then she’d better be stronger and faster than me, because she’ll need to be if she thinks she can fight Nathaniel.
The crowd’s roar is insatiable as I take a knee on the sand, but this time I’m not bowing to the Queen. I’m not required to pay respect to Calida, but it’s become my practice to give my opponent one last chance to back out.
The roaring fades as the watching fae lean forward to hear the words I repeat each year, a promise I make to all of my opponents.
When the silence is deathly, expectant, I look up to meet Calida’s sharp gaze.
“My name is Aura of the Lucidia,” I say, using a spark of my power to allow my voice to carry beyond the combat area. “If you do not yield, I will kill you.”
Her fist closes tightly around the bow and arrow she’s holding. It’s identical to mine: One sturdy bow. One arrow. No more, no less.
“You overestimate your strength, Aura Lucidia. You’ve exhausted your usefulness. The Queen deserves a new champion.” Calida tips her chin, looking down her nose at me. Behind her haughty façade, I recognize the hunger in her eyes. She not only wants to stand at the Queen’s right hand. She wants to defeat me, Aura Lucidia, the undefeated champion.
She’s only sixteen. She was only a baby when the Fell attacked and doesn’t realize that we’re not fighting for glamor or glory, but the strength of our defenses. To challenge me is to declare that I’m not fit to protect the Queen, an accusation that I will not tolerate. My position has taught me that the minute I doubt my own abilities, it’s my duty to step down. That time is not today.
“Very well.” Lightly gripping my arrow in my left hand and my bow in my right hand, I return to a standing position and walk thirty paces away from her.
The crowd’s roar rises again as I turn to acknowledge the Queen. Eyes lowered, I press both the bow and arrow lightly to my forehead before extending my arms toward Imatra in a gesture of fealty.
My strength, weapons, and life are hers.
When I stand, she rises from her seat to address the crowd. As soon as she moves, silence falls over the coliseum as quickly as if she’d shouted for it.
“My people,” she says, her voice carrying across the distance. The way she uses her power to be heard is effortless. “The Winter Ascending is a time of aspiration. With my permission, anyone may compete for a higher position in our society, whether it is as Captain of the Harvest or to take charge of the precious books in the royal library. But while it is a time of ascending, it is also a time of moving on. There is no defeat, only change. Through order and acceptance, we remain peaceful.” She pauses with a smile. “And always bright.”
The onlookers break into a cheer. The Queen demands order and obedience in our society, but she is fair, and her decisions are always just.
She continues as soon as the cheering dies down. “Today, on the last day of the Winter Ascending, we are gathered to witness a challenge for the highest position in Bright: the position of my champion. The winner will stand above all others. She will have power to command the Captains of my Day and Night Guards, as well as power over the Border Guards. She will stand at my side as my most trusted protector against the Fell creatures whose wickedness destroys everything they touch.”
She turns to cast a glare at Nathaniel and the hush that has fallen over the crowd takes on a new edge of tension. I force myself to remain where I am. It’s the first reckless action Imatra has taken around Nathaniel. If she’s trying to incite violence against him, she won’t have to say much more to cause a riot.
The podium is too far away to read facial expressions, but Nathaniel remains seated and completely still. He faces forward, not toward the Queen, but in my direction.
Is he watching me when he should be watching her?
It will only make her more angry to be ignored.
Imatra’s voice rises with an edge of fury. “The Fell creatures have challenged us. They seek to destroy everything we are. But we will not let them. We will follow the Law with care and attention. We will allow this Fell creature to walk among us. We will not break the Law by shedding a single drop of his blood until the fight between champions. We will not kill him like he wants to kill us. We are bright! And we will never succumb to darkness!”
She lifts her right arm in my direction, the sleeve of her thick fleece coat falling away from her porcelain white wrist.
She shouts, “May the winner be the brightest of all!”
When she drops her arm, my fight will begin.
I exhale as the moment stretches out, my focus becoming sharp, every grain of sand suddenly visible to me, glittering like tiny stars.
I have to do this fast.
For a moment, I imagine it’s the middle of the night and I’m at my strongest…
The Queen’s arm drops.
So do I.
My bow hits the ground with a whisper as my right hand dives into the sand, scooping up a handful of grit as I break into a sprint, my arrow still clutched in my left hand, my bow left behind.
Calida has already notched her arrow and pulled her bow string taut, trying to follow my movements. She has two seconds to fire a clean shot.
She doesn’t have to kill me to win, but she’s aiming for my heart. Nathaniel said she would take her shot and he was right. If she didn’t intend to kill me, she would have dropped her bow like I did.
I run in a zigzag, making it difficult for her to hit me, but I keep to a predictable enough pattern for her to anticipate my intended path.
My heartbeat slows as the muscles in her forearm tense. Her right hand twitches, the fletching feather at the end of the arrow catches the light, and she looses the arrow—
Energy bursts through my legs as the arrow spins in a perfect curve toward me.
At the last possible moment, I leap out of its path.
The bolt flies to my left, its sharp arrowhead cutting across my bicep before I dive toward the fiery ground, plant my left fist in the sand still clutching the arrow, and flip through the air. I land close enough to Calida that I can see the sudden fear in her eyes.
She’s fired her only arrow.
Now she drops her bow.
Her arms fly up to defend herself, sunlight spearing across her head and shoulders as she prepares to harness her power. Her strength lies in raging heat and flames. She’s strong enough to burn me to ash. If she were smart, she would have started with her magic instead of wasting time trying to use the weapon. She’s lost precious seconds and I don’t intend to give her time to harness her energy to its fullest. My own energy will be sapped soon.
My right hand opens, pitching the full handful of sand into her eyes. She screams and flails, clutching at her face as the sunlight she was calling to herself vanishes.
Not giving her time to recover, I leap forward and spin to gain momentum. My foot connects with her chest so hard that she flies backward, landing with a thud three paces away. Unlike her, I’ve trained in combat every day since I was ten years old. I don’t need magic to fight my battles.
Now that my right hand is free, I snap my arrow in half, drop the blunt end, and leap into the air, the sharp end of the arrow gripped like a dagger.
Crashing onto her before she can get up, I plant one knee on the sand to take the full force of my fall so I don’t break her ribs, while my other knee pins her chest.
Her thrashing stops. She opens her stream
ing, red eyes just in time to see me.
With a fierce scream, I drive the arrowhead at her right eye.
The entire arena is deathly quiet as the weapon hovers a scant hairsbreadth away from her face.
If I wanted to, I could have killed her.
She freezes. A scream dies in her throat. Tears flood her face and drip down her cheeks. I sense her wild heartbeat beneath my knee. She knows I didn’t have to stop.
My gaze hardens. She’s barely more than a child. I was younger than her when I fought in this coliseum, but I’d lived the life of an adult for several years before then. She can try to harness her magic now, but I will kill her before she can gather enough daylight to fight me.
My glare is hotter than our surroundings, sweat dripping from my face as I shout. “Do you yield?”
Her lips press together before an angry, childish shriek emits from her mouth. “You blinded me. That wasn’t fair!”
“Do you think that the Fell creatures will fight fair?” I thump my free hand against her shoulder and raise my voice to a roar. “Do you yield? Or will you lose an eye?”
Hatred fills her face and it makes me want to rage at her. Does she think I wanted this life? Does she think I wanted my family to die so that I would become this way? I have nothing but my job as a protector. I’m doing her a favor.
Her lips quiver. Her pride must be fighting her logic right now.
“I yield,” she finally shouts.
I immediately pitch the arrow into the sand several paces away and rise off her. I give her a short acknowledging nod after she clambers to her feet.
The arena remains quiet as my feet crunch through the sand. Returning to my dropped bow, I stoop to pick it up. The onlookers won’t make a sound until the Queen announces the winner.
I want nothing more than to run out of here and into the winter chill, but I need the outcome to be official first. Our normal summers never affect me this badly because they’re abated by cool breezes and crisp nights; the environment in the coliseum is like an oven.
A glance back at Calida tells me she’s still standing where I left her, her eyes filled with daggers, but there’s nothing she can do now. She lost—and far too fast. No other challenger has been subdued so quickly. I annihilated her reputation, but at least I left her alive.