“Yes, that’s him!”
At least two of Emmeline’s devotees were right behind me now. I could practically feel them breathing down my neck. The ground trembled underfoot, cracks appearing in the neatly paved path. I stumbled, catching myself on a wall of thorns and coming away bleeding.
“Make him have an accident. Now. Please,”I practically begged.
“Deadly accidents are my specialty!”
His voice faded from my head and not a moment too soon. I reached the central courtyard, where Emmeline stood waiting beside the marble fountain. Bloody clots of colored water slapped the basin from the goddess posing in victory, Aetherius’s heart squeezed in her palm.
Emmeline turned my way, her lips already twisted in a victorious smile. “There’s nowhere else to go. Come claim the fate you’ve been courting.”
From the shadows, her devotees emerged. Together, they blocked every direction I could flee. I’d fought with thisgroup in the first trial. Bled and watched one of their number die so Emmeline and these three males could live.
“You’ll die a liar, Ilyana,” the vampiress purred. “And a coward as well. That will be your only legacy when I am queen.”
“Coward? No. I’m just not stupid.” I still needed time, especially with my back against a wall of thorns. “And if survival makes me a coward, what do you call needing three others to fight me?”
Her lean devotee, who I’d taken to calling Spear, glanced over at Emmeline and jerked his chin in a silent question. He had a fast, needling fighting style with his namesake weapon. His magic created brutal explosions. Devastating but draining, and his palm would glow as silver as the moon before setting off the blast.
Emmeline shook her head and gestured to her other devotees. My attention veered to them, narrowing in calculation. Telekinetic and Earth, who usually worked in tandem. Earth would break apart stone and ground to make chunks that Telekinetic would launch with the power of his mind.
Three pieces of cobblestone were balanced over Telekinetic’s head, bobbing like ships at sea. She was going to have him launch those at me first, hoping she didn’t have to get her hands dirty.
“Hey, Emmeline.” I met her golden gaze and offered her what she wanted, a bit of truth. “I didn’t kill Genevieve.”
She wasn’t using her truth-seeking magic on me. That smile turned into a smirk. It didn’t matter anymore, not when there could only be one queen. I was a competitor to be eliminated, and she had every advantage.
“Only the guilty run,” she replied evenly.
“Aren’t we all guilty of something?” I pointed toward Earth. “I slept with him,” I lied.
Emmeline’s eyes blazed. Her head snapped toward him so fast I heard her neck crack. “Is that true?”
Earth went perfectly still, and his face drained of color. He put his hands up, and he barely got out, “What—no!” before I threw my head back and shrieked, “Ash! I need you!”
Spear was the one who cursed first. “Shit! That’s what they called the tytoursus.”
With a sneer, she addressed her devotees. “Kill her.”
I slammed Telekinetic with my null at the same moment he pointed at me. His prepared projectiles crashed to the ground, one of them clipping his shoulder. He fell to his knees with a grunt of pain.
Silver magic erupted from Spear’s palm. There was no time to redirect my null, so I dove straight at Emmeline. It put the fountain between me and him. Silver light struck marble in a deafening explosion. I skidded and threw myself to the ground, curled into a shivering ball, and covered my neck as chunks of stone rained to the ground.
The ringing in my ears warped the smashing sound. The marble head of Eona shattered nearby, studding my side with sharp fragments.That’s got to be some kind of blasphemy.
Emmeline, who’d also ducked, rose to her feet. She lunged at me, and I rolled away clumsily, only dodging her swing by sheer luck. Her sword struck the base of the fountain hard enough that it rang.
I only had my daggers and stake to fight her directly, which gave me a huge disadvantage in reach. I drew my weapons, crossing their blades to catch the edge of her sword as it descended toward me. Pieces of the formerfountain whizzed by us, courtesy of Telekinetic. Most pelted my back and legs, sure to bruise, but a few clipped Emmeline before we disengaged.
The sharp end of a spear stabbed into my right armpit while my attention was split. I was thinking of Emmeline’s next strike, hand extended toward Telekinetic to direct another blast of null. Blood splashed, and the nerves in my arm deadened. I dropped the dagger from my right hand as my fingers spasmed. Emmeline and Spear pushed me backward with the tips of their weapons until I felt the prick of thorns at my back. I clenched the dagger in my left hand. I could let it fly and take one of them down. But they had me cornered—a sword at my neck, a spear at my heart, and another heavy chunk of rock floating, pointed toward my head.
It couldn’t end this way. And yet, it was over.
I’d come to the House of the Sanguine intending to do it all alone. Kill my targets, ascend the throne, and wet the cobblestones of every borough with vampire blood.
Two weeks ago, I’d submitted to this impossible mission. I’d acknowledged that only one vampiress would survive the trials. And not one person in the Temple of Aetherius tried to stop me. None of them cared that they were sending me into the maw of certain death.
And when they heard whispers of my death here, between the second and third trial… None of them would mourn me. I came to terms with it with a single resigned nod.
