by Everly Frost
I turn away from her to take another knee, this time to honor the Queen.
A second after I touch the ground, the rapidly approaching sound of crunching sand fills my hearing. At the same time, a shout from the podium makes my head snap up.
Nathaniel is on his feet. “Aura!” he shouts, pointing behind me.
Surely, Calida wouldn’t—?
I twist, my eyes shooting wide as she leaps at me, the broken arrowhead gripped in her hand.
I drop and roll to the side, narrowly avoiding the fatal stabbing blow she aims at the back of my neck. A coward’s attack. Missing her target, she lurches forward, landing on her hands and knees before she attempts to jump away from me, but my battle instincts are in full swing.
Sand sparkles around us, flying into the air with my movement as the handle of my sturdy bow crashes against her throat.
I hurl us forward, driving her into the sand as she chokes against the force across her neck. My left hand snaps out to grab her wrist and stop her from stabbing me in the side.
I have a split second to make a decision.
I should kill her. She’s proven that she’ll fight dishonorably. She has chosen to become my enemy.
All it would take to end her now is for me to drop my knees on either side of the bow. The pressure would break her neck.
But… damn the stars… Nathaniel shouted a warning to me.
If I kill her, it will look like he influenced my decision. I can already hear the whispers that will start… I haven’t killed an opponent since I became champion. They will say that the Fell’s wickedness made me more violent… made me darker… made me kill her. Then they’ll ask if I’m still loyal.
I have only one choice.
My right palm flattens, pressing to either side of the bow rammed against her throat. I draw on the tiniest spark of starlight power left inside of me, the smallest shot of light.
The bright spark shoots from my fingers into her body and she can’t do more than gasp before she goes limp beneath me, her unconscious eyes closing.
I struggle to breathe, my chest heaving.
That was the last of my strength.
Blood drips from the cut across my bicep. Until the Queen breaks the desert spell over the arena, I’m in danger of collapsing, which will make the outcome unclear.
I have to remain upright.
I release the bow and shuffle off Calida, staying on my knees as I turn to face the Queen again. A drop of sweat falls from my forehead, sizzling on the scorching sand as I bow my head over my raised knee. Lifting my face, I wait for her verdict.
The silence around the coliseum feels like glass. Not only did Calida try to stab me in the back after she yielded, but Nathaniel warned me about it.
A fae tried to kill me.
A Fell tried to help me.
It’s hard enough for me to process what happened, let alone for the watching fae.
Up on the podium, Imatra rises to her feet. Even from this distance, she looks very pale. Her hand might be shaking as she lifts it, but I’m not sure.
The desert scene vanishes from the coliseum, and the heat breaks, a soft carpet of grass appearing beneath my feet. I inhale my first clear breath since entering the arena.
Fresh air. Thank the stars. My energy returns. Not much, but enough to keep me alert.
I breathe deeply, remaining on one knee as a strong wind grows nearby, swooshing around Calida’s unconscious body and lifting her into the air before gliding her toward the underpass and out of sight. It’s the Queen’s magic. She will place Calida in her preparation room where the healers are waiting. Then Calida’s family will come to collect her. After that… who knows what will happen to her after what she attempted to do to me.
As for me, as soon as the Queen announces me as the official winner, I will return to my room, pick up my fleece, and… not go on with my life. Unlike every other battle to defend my position, my next fight is far more terrifying.
The Queen’s verdict begins as a soft murmur. “The fight is over. The winner is clear. My champion is…”
Her voice swells as she speaks, growing in volume, until it cracks across the arena, a violent shout not like her at all. My eyes widen as the sound washes toward me in an unexpected wave. This has never happened before. Is she angry?
“Aura of the Lucidia!” she screams. She grips the railing as if she’s not in control, her pale face turned toward the distant mountains.
She screams my name again, but it’s like the scream is being ripped out of her. “Aura Lucidia is my champion!”
Lightning spears across the far mountains and a hundred distant dots rise into the air, cracking wings casting sharp electricity across the mountain peaks. More thunderbirds than I’ve ever seen rise at the same time.
From the middle of them, a much larger form shoots into the air, its enormous wings sweeping the creature high above the others. At the same time, a violent wind grows around me, plucking at my body and flinging me to the grass.
I don’t have the strength left to fight it.
“Aura!” the Queen screams, reaching out across the railing as if she wants to fly to me. “Prepare yourself. The Vanem Dragon comes to seal the Law.”
Chapter 10
I attempt to push myself up with my arms, but the wind presses down on me, forcing me to faceplant into the grass. Oomph. I hate how powerless I feel right now. I should be stronger than this! Normally, I would be, but my strength is sapped.
Up on the podium, the Day Guards have quickly moved into a protective formation around the Queen, drawing her away from the railing, while the scared fae around the arena cower and cling to each other in the increasingly freezing wind.
It’s like my dream.
Freezing air spins around me, playing havoc with my balance, squeezing the breath from my chest.
“Aura!” Evander’s voice reaches me on the wind, but I can’t pinpoint where he is. “It’s old magic,” he shouts. “We’re trying to control it. If you can hear me, stay close to the ground!”
It’s not like I can do anything else. Managing only to raise my head, I finally locate Evander and a group of other Frost fae who stand with their arms outstretched beside the podium. They’ve worked their way toward the front and must be trying to tame the wind, but the way their arms are buffeted around tells me it’s no use. If it’s old magic… well, who knows how old magic works?
Another shout reaches me and at first I think it’s Evander, but it’s a deeper roar. I squint through the wind and the now swirling dust and snow—an odd combination of sand and ice.
I gasp as Nathaniel darts between the guards. They try to grab him, but he leaps right off the podium into the swirling wind.
He soars downward and lands safely on both feet with a thud that vibrates through the ground beneath my prone body. He said that old magic was the only magic that applied to the Fell. Somehow, it’s not affecting him the way it’s affecting everyone else. In fact, he looks… stronger.
He runs toward me at a speed that takes my breath away. If that’s how fast he can move…
Well, I wanted to discover his weaknesses. I guess it’s just as important to discover his strengths.
“Aura.” He pushes through the wind and debris to crouch at my side. He exhales with what sounds like relief as he focuses on me. “You’re okay.”
He actually sounds worried. He reaches for me as if he’s going to help me up, but I recoil from him, afraid of the inevitable glow when we touch. Especially in front of thousands of watching fae. “Don’t touch me!”
He jolts to a stop, retracts his hands, and lays himself carefully down on the ground so he’s facing me. My teeth are chattering now because of the cold, my jaw practically bouncing on the ground, and I hate how vulnerable I must look.
“You’re afraid of glowing,” he says, “but nobody can see you right now. The space around you went dark. That’s why the Queen was screaming for you. Evander’s going crazy trying to stop the wind.�
�� He glances back at them. “You can see out, but we can’t see in.”
I force sound through my chattering teeth. “If you touch me and I glow, they might see through the dark.”
He considers me for a moment. “I see your point. If that happens, they’ll jump to conclusions and think you’re attacking me—or that I’m hurting you.” His muscles flex as he sits up and slips off his fleece coat. It’s the only thing keeping him warm. He might be resistant to old magic, but he’s not immune to the cold. Goosebumps rise and his muscles shiver beneath his skin as soon as he takes it off.
He wraps the fleece around me and tugs me into his arms, lifting me back to my feet. It’s warm inside the coat. Even warmer inside the circle of his arms. I tip my head back to see him, knowing I’ll have to give the fleece back soon.
His dark eyes meet mine. “Keep it on,” he says, rubbing my arms through the thick material as if reading my mind. “The wind will stop soon enough.”
“Will we be visible again when it does?”
He shrugs. “Probably.”
“Then I need to give it back before that happens. Imagine the uproar if they saw us like this.”
His chest vibrates with laughter as he breaks into a smile. “Drama.”
My smile fades. He doesn’t look at me as if he hates me. In fact, if I think back to the moment he stepped out of the mist this morning, even then he didn’t look at me with loathing. My first impression was bravery. Determination. He had a plan and he was resolute about carrying through with it.
And just now… he jumped off a platform and raced into darkness to find out if I was okay.
I’m filled with intense confusion. It’s impossible to figure him out, to understand his motives. He chose a path that could lead to my death, but now he’s looking at me as if he’s worried about my safety.
“Why do you want to kill me?” I whisper.
The laughter in his eyes disappears. “Maybe I don’t.”
“But you invoked the Law—”
Lightning cracks overhead, drowning out my voice as it strikes the ground only a few paces away. Nathaniel flinches and pulls me closer to his chest, but I struggle against him with a sharp rebuke. “Thunderbird lightning can break through any darkness!”
He jolts away from me, immediately placing distance between us. I don’t have time to give back his coat, but at least I’m not standing in his arms anymore.
Seven thunderbirds circle overhead, including Treble, whose blue-gray feathers are lit up with lightning that crackles across the stadium.
A deep thudding sound reaches me through the howling wind and a new shadow looms over us.
The Vanem Dragon dwarfs the thunderbirds circling around him. His ruby red wings extend half of the width of the combat area, his powerful legs and claws thumping onto the grass as he lands with a roar. “The old magic is awake!”
Fire smolders inside his mouth as he throws back his head, the light in his eyes more alive than a flame. His brown eyes latch on to me as he folds away his wings, a creature of pure power and wisdom.
He thuds toward me, an enormous, scaly, breathtaking beast.
Breathe, Aura.
With every step he takes, the fire smoking around his mouth and nostrils calms and the wind dies down around us until it’s nothing more than a whisper. But at the same time, a sort of cocoon forms around us. The tunnel of wind merely expands so that it swirls farther out, raging even faster around the combat area. The fae in the stadium cling to each other while we are left in the quiet center.
Stopping directly in front of me, the dragon’s shadow drops me into darkness. Lowering his head, he says, “Rise, Bright One.”
I stare at him in confusion. I’m already standing.
The dragon swings his head across to Nathaniel, who has taken a knee, his head bowed.
My eyes widen in surprise as the Vanem Dragon nudges Nathaniel’s shoulder with the tip of his enormous snout and speaks again, softly. “Rise, Bright Heart.”
I’m in shock. The Vanem Dragon is calling a Fell bright.
As Nathaniel rises to his feet, finally lifting his head, the Vanem Dragon considers him carefully and calmly. “You have your father’s courage, Nathaniel Shield.”
Nathaniel remains silent, more subdued than I’ve ever seen him.
“You can speak freely,” the dragon says, his eyes glowing again. “We can’t be heard over the wind.”
Nathaniel meets the dragon’s gaze. “You told my father to seek peace.”
The dragon nods. “I did.”
“Instead, he found death.”
I gape from Nathaniel to the dragon, my surprise deepening, but at the same time, my chest hurts right around my heart. Nathaniel told me that his father died in the final battle between our two races and now it sounds like the dragon was involved in that. I’ve never heard of any instance where a dragon deigned to speak with a Fell, but then… I don’t suppose my people would admit it—assuming they knew. The dragon is our wise one, not the Fell’s.
A deep sadness fills the dragon’s eyes, the kind of sadness that makes me feel like a hole just opened inside myself.
“You think I betrayed your father,” the dragon says to Nathaniel.
“Did you?”
The dragon shakes his head. “Your father summoned me to the Spire on the border between Bright and Fell. He asked me if peace would ever be possible between the fae and the humans. I told him that only great courage would bring an end to war. I thought he could be the one to create that peace.”
“He rode out at the head of the human army that night,” Nathaniel says, his lips turning down at the corners, his voice bleak. “His horse dragged his body back… in time for him to gasp his last words.” Nathaniel meets the dragon’s eyes, his own filled with greater fire than the dragon’s. “What happened in the fight? I have a right to know.”
“You need answers, but I have none.” The Dragon hangs his head. “My sight was dark that night. From the moment the sun sank behind the horizon, I couldn’t see anything. I couldn’t lift my wings, couldn’t move. All of the dragons and thunderbirds on the mountain were grounded and sightless. A dark magic took hold of us and didn’t release us until an explosion of light split the horizon—the brightest light I’ve ever seen…
“By the time I flew to the border, Queen Imatra sat weeping in the middle of the glitter fields—glitter fields that weren’t there before that night. Blood ran down her arms. She was surrounded by hundreds of humans and a squadron of fae, all dead. She was in shock and wouldn’t speak about what had happened.
“Days after, she told me that the Fell—the humans—tried to use dark magic to kill her. They created an explosion that filled the horizon with fire. She fought back by creating the glitter field and it cut down the human army.”
The dragon sighs. “I’m sorry. That’s all I know.”
Nathaniel shakes his head in denial. “My father never used dark magic. There has to be another explanation.”
“I’m sorry, Nathaniel—”
“That’s not all,” I whisper. “Not entirely.” My heart is bleeding. Everything I’ve heard has struck through me with painful stabs. Nathaniel’s father followed the Vanem Dragon’s advice only to die because of it. Now Nathaniel needs answers about his father the same way I need answers about my own parents.
Nathaniel turns sharply to me. The dragon’s eyes glow with a sad fire as it swivels to face me.
“Aura…” the dragon begins. “You don’t have to relive it.”
“Queen Imatra was holding me,” I say to Nathaniel before I can’t get the words out. “She was holding me in the middle of the glitter fields. I survived too.”
When the dragon nudges forward as if it’s going to try to soothe me, I step back. “I can’t relive what I don’t remember. I have nothing before that moment. All I know is what I was told: My mother was leading the squadron of Border Guards who were killed. My father and I were inside the outpost that burned to ash in the
explosion. Whatever the explosion was… it left me alive to crawl…” I close my eyes and force myself to breathe. “To crawl through the ash to the Queen.”
I try to see the dragon through the hot tears burning at the back of my eyes. I’ve pushed away my emotions for so long. I want to believe that I can handle anything, but it turns out I have a breaking point.
I’m tired. I’ve fought two battles today that have left me drained. Nathaniel and I don’t have much in common, but we’ve both lost family to the war between our people.
I let the tears fall because I can’t stop them and I’ve given up trying. “I remember seeing you fly toward us, Vanem Dragon,” I say. “You wanted to land, but the Queen screamed at you that the glitter field would hurt you too, so you flew away. I don’t know anything else—even though I wish I did. I don’t even remember my mother.”
When I look at him, Nathaniel is quiet. He nods slowly. “We’ve both had people we loved taken from us.”
“We both want answers,” I whisper.
“Aura.” The dragon’s suddenly sharp command makes me jolt upright. He towers over me, his expression a stern mix of fire and steam. “You must take Nathaniel to the burn site. Perhaps you will find answers there.”
A bleak laugh leaves my lips. I’ve been back to the burn site before and I’ve come away no wiser. “If there were answers in that place, I would have found them already.”
The dragon lowers his head. His eyes up close are like endless pools of fire. “You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.”
I frown as he pulls away from me.
“And now,” the dragon says. “I must do what I came here to do. Beware. When the wind drops, you will be seen and heard once more.”
He inhales slowly, the scales along his neck burning brighter, fire glowing in his throat as it builds inside his mouth. Heat increases around us and the Vanem Dragon’s eyes crinkle with a smile before he lowers his head and begins to walk, carefully blowing a plume of fire at the edge of the circling wind. He strides through his own fire until he has created a wall of flames circling inside the wind that rises up around us.