Page 156 of The Amber Sunburst

“You’re a good leader. But I’m better,” she says. “I cannot surrender the victory to you just because you won the vote years ago in a room full of men.”

Now he remembers. Theokleia campaigned for the Cohort Leader position right along with him. He hadn’t even considered her a threat.

He considers her one now.

He opens his mouth to say something—anything—but what comes out is not what he expects it to be.

It’s the truth.

“Look, you don’t have to do this. Just come here, take my taser, and pretend to shock me so they think I’m out.” He nods subtly toward a camera, silently thanking the Forms that the final Trial is voiced over by commentators and no one is listening in. “I wasn’t planning to win anyway. I just need to be taken to the Priestesses’ room while still conscious.”

Theokleia’s face hardens. “You think I’m dumb enough to buy that?”

“I’m not lying, I promise.” He stretches out his hand with the taser. “Take it.”

Theokleia contemplates the taser for a moment, then knocks it to the floor.

“Kleia, please listen to me.”

She does not. Instead, she throws a punch. Lazarus just manages to dodge, all of his extra training and reflex drills before bed finally paying off.

She swings again and again, but he ducks or shoves her aside. He doesn’t throw anything back—it probably wouldn’t land, fast as she is.

But eventually—as always—Lazarus fails.

A pebble. He is undone by a pebble.

When he falls to the floor, Theokleia follows him down, pinning his legs and holding tight to his shirt. He struggles and kicks, but it’s no use.

She’s going to knock him out. And what happens then? What if it takes him hours to wake, leaving Arete stranded and the others desperate to know what happened to them both? What if she just pummels him until he’s dead?

“If you knock me out, I’ll never be able to leave.”

She hesitates with her fist cocked, ready to strike. “Leave?” she asks. “Leave where?”

“This place is killing me,” he whispers. “And I’m not strong like you. I can’t stand it. So, I’m leaving. I’m not a threat. You will be on the Council, I’m sure of it. Just don’t hit me hard enough to knock me out, I’ll play dead, the Priestesses will come get me, and I’ll be gone forever.”

She glares down at him like she’s considering it, but then she shakes her head. “I’m sorry, but that’s a risk I can’t take.”

She draws back her fist, and Lazarus can’t tell if he’s dissociating, but something in her face doesn’t match the knuckles she’s bringing down.

49

ALEXANDER

“Oh, Forms, not again,” Kallias groans as fog rolls in from both sides of the path they’re on.

Alexander whines, still catching his breath from the last three booby traps they’ve faced, not to mention the two people they’ve had to knock out.

“Do you think everyone is getting it this hard or does someone have it out for us specifically?”

Kallias just lifts his crossbow in the direction they came from and Alexander turns so they’re back to back.

“Is that… a mirror?” Kallias asks, and Alexander cautiously glances over his shoulder to see what he’s looking at. “But why are you in it and not me?”

He turns all the way around and gasps.

“Dad?”