The gust of Shadow’s wingbeats snatched at loose strands of her hair. She didn’t look. Didn’t dare take her eyes off the commandant. All she had time for was a silent prayer, begging the Old One to get them safely out.
Jarek raised his hands to signal his soldats. But he never finished the command, because Asha charged him first—disregardingevery rule Safire ever drilled into her.
He caught her blades easily. But when he tried to cast her off, Asha held her ground. She didn’t have to beat him in combat. All she had to do was hold him back.
“Out of my way, Iskari. Or I will make you regret it.”
Asha gritted her teeth, holding off the strength and weight of his saber. Her body screamed. Her legs buckled. Jarek roared in her face.
Asha roared right back. Screaming out her fury.
Holding fast.
When he looked up over her head, whatever he saw made his mouth contort with rage. The force of him lifted as he stepped back, casting his saber into the sand.
Asha turned and looked skyward just as the bars clanked closed. Beyond the crisscrossed bars, the empty sky stretched cloudless and blue above her.
They’re gone.
And with that thought came a loneliness so sharp and cruel, it felt like an axe cleaving her heart in two.
Twenty-Nine
Above the bars, the crowd hissed at Asha, cursing her name. Shame crept around her heart like a poisonous vine.
She didn’t resist when Jarek took her slayers, then gave the order to empty the arena. She didn’t meet the gazes of the soldats pulling arrows from their fallen comrades’ chests, all of them looking like they wanted to put a dozen arrows inher.
Under the weight of what she’d done, Asha sank to her knees in the sand.
Somewhere in the arena above, her father was making his way down to the pit. She should be thinking about what she needed to tell him.
Instead, she thought of Torwin saying her name.
Asha.The name her mother gave her. NotIskari, the name of a corrupted god.
What if I never see him again?
It shouldn’t have mattered.
At the sound of Safire’s moan, Asha looked to find twosoldats dragging her into the pit. Asha went to rise, but three soldats moved toward her at once, and the look of pure hatred on their faces stopped her.
Jarek dragged Safire to Asha, throwing her into the sand, where she collapsed in a battered heap.
“Asha!” Her father’s roar rumbled through the empty arena as he entered the pit. Sand scattered as he walked toward his Iskari. “You’ve made me into a fool!”
Asha kept her eyes lowered as he closed the distance between them.
“Look at me.”
Obediently, her gaze trailed up his golden robe, past his royal crest, and settled on his stormy face.
“For years, I believed in you.For years, I’ve been on your side when no one else was. And in a single morning, you have undone all of it.All our hard work.Why?”
A voice rose from behind the king.
“Leave her alone.”
Dax stepped casually through the gate, tossing a knife, undecorated and roughly forged, from one hand to the other. As if it were a ball. His gaze locked on their father, and in her brother’s eyes Asha caught a glimpse of something dangerous.
