Page 140 of The Heart Trials

Then the air shifts.

And the sky explodes.

47

A roar splits the sky. A shrieking thunder overhead.

Something massive crashes into the edge of the arena. Fire erupts against the steel barriers. Smoke billows, dark and fast, swallowing the sunlight.

People scream.

The crowd surges like a tide, panic fracturing every corner of the stands.

A second explosion hits the wall behind the ceremony seats, flinging dust and rubble in the air.

“Rebels!” someone screams. Then there is the faint roar of chanting in the distance.

I spin, coughing, my eyes burning. Caelus still stares at his chest. Still lost. Mercyenforcers shout over the chaos, pushing through the crowd toward the stage, toward us. The Benevolent vanishes behind a wall of armored guards.

And Rhythe—Rhythe—is gone.

But I close the distance between me and Caelus. His expression is wrecked, stricken with something worse than pain: doubt.

I reach for his hand. “It’s wrong, it’s a lie. I don’t know how. I don’t understand the magic. But somehow, this is wrong. My heart chooses you. I love you, Caelus!”

But Caelus doesn’t speak. Just watches me with stormy eyes. I feel the space between us stretch wider, and it feels like being pushed off a cliff a second time. I take his hand.

“We have to run, Caelus. We have to go. Now.”

It takes a beat—but he nods. A single, small nod. Then we move.

We bolt from the stage. A column crashes to the floor behind us, sparks skittering across the stone. People in dark clothes with red veils over their heads pour into the arena, blades drawn. Mercyenforcers step forward to meet them. We dodge around and past them all, ducking under an archway that leads toward the royal escape tunnel.

Then—Rhythe.

He steps into our path with a scathing glare at Caelus. It softens just slightly when he looks at me. “Axira, you know in your bones you should come with me,” he says. “Your father—”

Caelus lunges and knocks him off balance with a savage shoulder-check. Rhythe stumbles.

“I’m not going with you anywhere,” I snap, grabbing Caelus’s hand, dragging him past before Rhythe can recover. Mercyenforcers flood the arena behind him.

We sprint.

Stone corridors blur around us, smoke curling through the cracks. We’re nearly to the exit tunnel when—

“Wait!”

I spin and see Ivy racing after us—out of breath, face streaked with sweat.

“I knew,” she pants. “I knew the rebels were coming—I’m sorry. Please—take me with you. I can’t go with them.”

Caelus hesitates, but I don’t.

I grab her hand. “Run.”

She does. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch a glimpse of a familiar pair of stern eyes at the tunnel entrance.

Syra.