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Not a soul dared to follow me tonight, as the stench of gobbelin blood wafted through the city on the edge of a winter’s wind.
I passed right by the guards and into the palace, step after step after step.
None of them moved to stop me, though they all noticed. Nobody can stop the snow rushing down the mountain.
I made my way to the main banquet hall with measured, echoing steps, my boots thudding through empty corridors. Icy fog trailed after me like a cloak as I entered the candle-lit hall.
My aunt - the false queen of Saori Sang - was holding court on her throne with my father, the whore who had helped murder his wife, so her sister could become Queen.
Nobles scattered around the hall at tables, unconscious blood slaves by their sides.
My fellow competitors lined the space below the throne, and their names came to me easily - Luca, Kassian, and Blaise first, then Jillian and Darnell. Janus and Collette on their left, and Rainier with Selene at the end.
I knew them, but then again, I didn’t. I loved some of them. I might crush all of them under the icy weight of what I’d been tasked to do. It was the way of the avalanche.
“Twelve entered the labyrinth, and only nine returned,” Merden was calling to her court. “Nineve and Jove died twice in the labyrinth, and the mist took them home. Kana tried to escape, effecting surrender and therefore elimination!”
The crowd gasped with gossip, and I frowned, looking down at myself. I was here, wasn’t I?
“I haven’t been eliminated,” I called, my voice cold and flat.
The hot rage that spread across Merden’s face as I stepped toward the throne was... comical.
I wasn’t sure I remembered what to do with my face to show that emotion, though. Khione had a lot to remember about being Kana
Then my eyes connected with Kassian’s - the thief turned king. My thief. Turning into my King. My lips tried to curve. I thought that was the correct response.
I moved my eyes to Luca, the mountain of muscle with golden-brown eyes. The wolf, once half breed, now ice. My ice wolf. My lips tried a little harder.
“Kana,” Kassian breathed, and I stepped closer. “Your eyes,” he managed, staring deep into them.
“Khione,” I said, and the name rippled like a slap across Merden’s pinched face. Did she remember who I was? “I am also Khione.”
Kassian reached for my hand, pulling me in line with them as the mist snaked around our ankles. I remembered this used to be terrifying, but I couldn’t recall why. I’d seen death. Kassian had, too. I remembered that now. But we were both here. Death wasn’t permanent.
That thought made my heart squeeze, and I’d forgotten why.
“The mist will now choose who is eliminated!” Merden cried, and I wondered if she was having memory problems, too. Had she already forgotten I was there? The mist wasn’t going to choose me, not when I was Khione.
Selene screamed as the mist crawled up her body, taking her home.
Rainier did not make a sound when the mist came for him. He closed his eyes and surrendered. That wasn’t what I’d done. I was a warrior.
I looked at Luca. His face was grim, but I wasn’t sure why.
“Going home is nice,” I said, trying to remember why I wanted to make him feel better. His forehead wrinkled together in worry, but I didn’t have time to ask him why.
The mist wasn’t done.
It came for Collette, and Jillian wailed.
I frowned, observing her. She wasn’t Collette. She didn’t like Collette. Why was she upset?
Then the mist came for Janus, and I remembered. The ice in my veins felt Jillian’s mind break as her brother was dissolved into the mist, his soul sucked out of the palace and hidden away home. She collapsed on the floor of the banquet hall, her voice rising into a primal scream of rage and pain.
My lips curved, and I remembered how to smile.
Was this something I should smile at?
