Page 130 of Feralheart

“I don’t fucking care,” he snapped.

She reached for his arm, but he stepped back.

Her hand fell, her expression cycling through shock, fury, and grief-tinged calculation. “You’ve ruined everything.”

She turned away, her posture rigid. He’d destroyed something between them that couldn’t be rebuilt. Whatever alliance they’d had, political, personal, or both, he’d chosen Aristus over it.

The gap between us felt smaller than it ever had.

Lady Severine angled her path to pass close to where I sat huddled against Selira’s side. As she drew level with my left leg, a sharp charge filled the air—the localized, prickling heat of an elite magic spike. She didn’t even look at me, but the malice landed with a physical weight. She was aiming for my burned boot, intending to make the blisters from the fire maze deliver fresh agony.

I braced myself, my muscles locking as I waited for the sear.

It never arrived. Instead, a wave of biting, glacial cold washed over my ankle. I gasped, looking down as a dusting of blue-tinted frost erupted across the black sand, encircling my foot in a protective ring.

The lady’s boot hit the slick surface and her foot slid sideways. She let out a cry, her arms spiraling before she managed to steady herself. Her face went from pale to crimson as she hurried toward the elite area without looking back.

Fenian glared her way while the scent of his magic hung in the air.

“We’re not crossing that.” Lady Severine pointed at the second lake, hovering on her toes, ready to bolt. “It’s suicide.”

“She can stay here by herself, then,” Reece said, a touch of humor in his eyes. “We’ll take her dragon with us, though. She seems nice enough.”

My snort rang out, but I muffled it with a hand over my mouth.

Selira rose onto her haunches. She wasn’t asking if we’d fly. She was confirming when.

An official’s voice boomed across the cavern, magically amplified. “Ten-minute rest period. Then the first trial resumes.”

Ten minutes before we flew into death again.

Fenian glanced my way.

Staying with Selira would be wisest. I could check my supplies. Do literally anything that wasn’t walking toward the crown prince in front of everyone.

My feet moved anyway.

The sand crunched under my boots, each step taking me farther from smart choices and closer to whatever this was between us. Elite riders tracked my movement, their whispers starting before I’d made it halfway.

I didn’t care.

Fenian’s jaw was still tight when I stopped in front of him. That tell I’d learned to read. Except now I knew it meant he was fighting something he wanted to say.

“You dropped your reins,” I said.

“You led your team through a death trap.” His voice rasped. “We’re both doing things we shouldn’t.”

The space between us vibrated with everything we couldn’t say in front of the crowd.

“Your mother’s going to kill you,” I said.

“Probably.” Something that wasn’t quite a smile pulled at his mouth. “It’s worth it.”

Aristus shifted behind him, and Selira’s attention sharpened through the bond. The two dragons were watching each other the way Fenian and I were.

“The second lake’s bigger,” I said, because one of us had to remember we were about to die.

“I noticed.”