AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She bandaged her arm and looks not at all phased by the wound. “Oops, sorry. I didn’t see you,” she says and bats her eyelashes.
I roll my eyes, then catch sight of the girl next to her.Sera, I remember, the woman having been gossiping about Cristen in the streets.Makes sense these two would be peas in a pod. They’re both annoying as fuck.
“Not that you care, but I’m Harmony,” the woman introduces herself. Then she gestures to Sera. “This is my younger sister, Sera. We’reEvercoresisters.”
I narrow my eyes.Why is she saying her surname as if it’s supposed to mean literally anything to me?“You’re right,” I respond, “I don’t care.”
Harmony bristles and her fists clench.
Meanwhile, Sera stays silent, which is a considerable upgrade for her. She seems keen to let her older sister take the reins of the conversation.
Harmony grits her teeth. “Despite yourblatantdisrespect, you have skill, guts. We’re going to need that on our side for this tournament.”
I lift a brow.Was that a Gods-damned compliment?
“Must I spell it out for you?” Harmony asks, noting my confusion. She scoffs. “We want you to join our alliance.”
A snort of laughter escapes me, thinking she’s joking. Then I straighten at her anger. “The point is to win over Cristen, is it not? Why would you want me?”
Harmony and Sera exchange a confused look.
“What?” I ask.
Sera finally piques up. “No one cares about winning Cristen’s favor. Do you not understand the tournament?”
I clear my throat, uncomfortable. Heat travels up to my cheeks in embarrassment.
Harmony balks. “How could you not, at the very least, know thepurposebehind the tournament yousigned your lifeto?”
“I’m sorry, say that again,” I blurt.
The Evercore sisters share another look, this time of concern.
“This tournament is a fight to the death,” Harmony says slowly.
Sera grimaces. “We’re forming an alliance to get us through until the end. But then, well…” she averts her gaze from her sister.
“We all have to kill each other?” I ask. Panic builds in my chest. I knew the tournament would require battling each other, but I thought it would simply be until the other person conceded, not until they were dead. “What’s the point of that?” I look between them, then glance around at all the other warriors in the room.
“It makes perfect sense if you think about it,” Harmony explains. “The Heir of Fate needs a protector. A Queen who can also be a bodyguard. That way, he can step into the public light and begin his reign.”
“The tournament finds the strongest of us, while it eliminates every future threat to the throne,” Sera continues for her sister. “Only Royalist families like ours have the ability to challenge the throne, but there is no challenge if the families’ sole heirs have all been picked off by one another.”
“That’s…” I begin.That’s actually crazy smart. I press my lips together in contemplation. “So you two have trained your entire life to die?”
“No,” Harmony immediately insists, her tone deadly. “We’ve trained our entire lives to diefor the throne.”
“It will be Harmony or me,” Sera says, so sure of herself I almost believe it. “There are no better warriors here. We’ve had the best instructors – not just in the Kingdom but in the entirety of Mirror.”
“We are offering you a free ride until the end, and then a peaceful death of your choosing,” Harmony explains.
I stare at their leathers, their capes.They certainly dress the part.
“We expect you to carry your weight, though,” Sera adds. “We only want the strongest in our alliance.” Her nose wrinkles in distaste as she adds, “After you told me in the street you were competing, I did my research on you.”
“While we don’t want a non-Royalist, we admire your…scrappiness.” Harmony extends to me what I think is supposed to be a smile, but really it’s too dishonest to be anything but a grimace.
“I’m not the ‘team’ type of person.” I tuck my bloodied hair behind my ears. “I work alone.”
