She could practically feel the burn of her parents’ eyes and she was furious at herself for being wounded. At the exact moment she’dbeen driving in close to try to snatch the jewel from the green ribbon around the Octobear’s neck, she’d felt a shock of fear in her chest.Teddy’sfear.
The split second of distraction was enough for the beast to claw her, but Stella recovered quickly by slicing off its arm. Unfortunately, it appeared to be generating two new tentacled arms in its place. Now it would have nine, and the wound had only made the monster temporarily retreat.
Stella wished her side would heal faster so that it wouldn’t be so distracting. She didn’t need another thing splitting her focus. Her stupid bond had nearly been the end of her in the first few minutes of this task.
She stole a quick glance at the hourglass at the top of their pit. Sand was rapidly pouring into the lower half. They needed to win, and quickly.
She pressed a hand to her side, and it came away bloody.
Fionn grinned at her. “Don’t worry. You look great in red.”
She laughed and winced again. “We have to crowd it. I can try to wound it with my bow from afar, but at least one of us has to get close to swipe the jewel.”
So far, they’d only succeeded in deflecting its arms and making it angry.
All her instincts had her looking for the fastest escape route. Stella wanted to flee this danger. Worse, her magic wanted to join the fun. It swelled and pressed against her skin, making her even warmer under the blazing sun.
Her fire magic had always been like this, as swift and temperamental as flames, roaring to life whenever she was hurt or angry. It took tremendous restraint to stuff it down in a fight. When she was younger, she’d trained on the beach until she could master the fits of fire that overcame her when she was hurt or angry. She’d blow all her fire into the sea, letting it turn to steam, away from anywhere it could hurt someone.
Now with fear so wild in her heart, she could barely contain it.
Only her father’s familiar refrain rooted her.Feel the fear. Do it anyway.
How many times had he encouraged her to try new things with those words? It was okay to be afraid, but she could not let the fear win.
She tried to call up his training. Every opponent had a weakness. The bear’s fur was matted along its left side where she’d caught it with her sword before slicing off one of its tentaclaws. She could try to hit it there again.
Eyeing the wound, Stella drew her bow and aimed. Wisdom meant knowing they did not have to slay the beast to get the prize. Wisdom meant playing to the advantage they both claimed. They had excess luck, but Fionn was already a talented fighter and she was already a goddess-blessed archer. Perhaps there was wisdom in taking a beat to consider that this test was meant not to give them a moment to breathe, because the answer suddenly seemed so obvious.
She loosed an arrow. One of the Octobear’s arms swatted it away.
The monster let out an inhuman growl, and the crowd gasped.
“Well, shit,” Fionn grumbled. “All you did was piss it off.”
“Take out the arms and it will have to regenerate. It took almost a minute for them to regenerate last time,” she said. “We have to go now. We can’t break another charge from that thing.”
Fionn grimaced and nodded. “All right. Let’s see how lucky we really are. You take the arms on the right and I’ll take the arms on the left, but watch out for its shorter, regular bear arms. That’s what got me last time.”
Stella nodded and followed Fionn as he charged across the pit. She took five quick shots as they charged in the hopes of distracting the beast. All it did was make the Octobear angrier. It slammed its arms down and the water erupted in a wave that nearly knocked Stella off balance.
She looped her bow across her body and drew her short swords to slash away one of the arms. She dodged and ducked the rest, forcing herself to get as close to the bear’s body as she dared.
One clawed arm skimmed her shoulder, and another snagged onher wristguard, but she pressed on. She sliced up and out, severing an arm. She crossed her swords and made quick work of the next two.
Three arms down, two more to go. She moved closer to the next arm as it struggled to double back and fight her off. But the beast bucked and growled as a tentaclaw dropped on the other side of its body. Stella’s blade slipped and only sliced into the underside of the tentacled arm.
Dark brown herbal-smelling blood sprayed across her hands. Stella’s stomach heaved, and she ducked under its giant bear paw just in time. One claw scraped over the top of her head. The scratch warmed with blood.
She stumbled behind the bear and watched in horror as it swatted Fionn away like a rag doll. He hit the dirt wall hard and leaned against it, looking woozy. The bear bellowed a ground-rattling roar at him.
Stella wasn’t quite tall enough to reach the green ribbon fastened around the bear’s neck. Another three inches and she could have untied it and snatched the ruby.
Instead, she drove her swords into the wound she’d already made on the bear’s side and thrust them upward. The beast screamed.
She twisted. Searing pain lanced her side and she cried out as claws raked the already angry gash below her ribs. If she hadn’t moved at the last second, she might have been eviscerated. Perhaps she was lucky, after all.
Her magic surged beneath her skin and it took every bit of her self-control not to lash out and burn the beast to ash.
