King Elion rose from his throne across the Dome and someone with a sound projection Token amplified his speech for everyone to hear.
“Welcome to day three of the Vargothi,” he broadcasted, then went into a long rant regarding drakin history. Half listening to his speech, my gaze kept drifting toward Arrik. When he left me on the lower levels, I had no idea where he went. But now I could see him standing behind King Elion. His expression was hard, like it always was, and his back was straight and rigid.
“Doesn’t the Drakin Leader watch the tournament?” I whispered to Cash, because at this point, it was abnormal tonotsee him.
Cash smirked. “And you want to keep telling yourself you’re not interested in riders?”
My cheeks heated, and I was about to lay into him, when a hidden doorway opened up beneath the pit. The Dome became eerily quiet as the door groaned and a single rider walked out.
He gestured toward the tunneled opening, giving me an inquisitive look. “How else did you think riders were getting into the pit?”
I never thought about it. The first two days of the Vargothi, all the initiates were already waiting below. I looked down at the pit with my own eyes, ignoring the projection. I couldn’t see any steps leading into it, only stands, which was about a two level drop.
“Where does it lead?” I asked.
“It’s an underground tunnel,” Cash said, confirming my suspicion. “It’s one of the ways riders get to MonClem.”
“One of the ways?” I repeated. “How many are there?”
“No idea,” he shrugged. “Like I told you yesterday, riders are secretive.”
I nodded. At least, if I didn’t find Hael, I knew how I’d break into MonClem.
The single rider walked toward the center of the pit as Elion started talking.
“The winner of this year’s Vargothi is Nolan Brinson,” Elion’s voice echoed across the Dome. “No matter the outcome today, he will have a place within the Drakin Army. May a dragon find you worthy.”
The rider’s face was blown up on the projection. His expression was smug as he looked up toward the sky and I realized he was staring at the dragons.
“Now what?” I whispered because forty seconds had passed and no one did anything. The rider just stood there, surprisingly straight-backed while everyone in the stands seemed just as frozen, like we were all collectively waiting for something magical to happen.
“Just shut up and watch,” Cash snapped back, his voice still managed to sound harsh, despite being just as subdued as mine. Iswore I would have been able to hear a pin drop from anywhere within the arena by how quiet it was.
Ten seconds later heat swarmed the top of the Dome as a dragon roared. The next second, it launched itself off the edge and flew toward the bottom of the pit.
It was huge—red scales, long talons, three identical thorns spaced out at the tip of its wings, and a glimmer to its scales that made it seem like it was on fire.
The balcony shook as the dragon landed on the pit. I wasn’t sure what I thought was going to happen as the rider extended his right arm, but I definitely wasn’t expecting the dragon to open its mouth and burn him?—
Literally burn him.
I gasped, which caused Cash to step behind me, forcing his hand over my mouth.
“Shut up or you’re going to get us all killed.”
I nodded, but I didn’t feel the press of his hand against my mouth anymore. I was transparent. My Token manifested on its own. I drifted through his hand before stepping a good foot away from him. I tried to hide the fact that I was trembling, but it was too late.
Cash’s eyes widened as he took me in, as he realized I made absolutely no progress on my Token.
My gaze snapped across the arena to where Arrik was standing, only now, he wasn’t watching the tournament, he was staring directly at me.
I didn’t have time to process it as the fire stopped down below and the rider was,mercifully, still standing.
His leather sleeve was burned, and in its place, the worddrakinwas burned down his forearm in a vertical line.
“How—” I gasped, trying to make sense of it because there was no way in the Suns that a dragon was able to burn a freakingwordonto his skin without catching him on fire.
Cash seemed to notice my shock. Whatever he thought of me using my Token was gone. He stepped back toward the railing and leaned forward, murmuring, “It’s not the dragon that’s doing it. Wielders gettheir gifts bestowed on them from the two Sun Goddesses, but drakins originate from the Moons—one for each breed of dragon.”
