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“Something tells me you won’t have to,” I admitted, looking up at the pale pink streaks in the morning sky. They reminded me of blood spreading thinly across ice.
“You think it will be you and Merden,” Kas guessed, and it was my turn to sigh.
“Somehow, I don’t think the mist cares if I can beat you or Luca. So, yeah. I’m expecting to face her.”
“You’ll win. You know you will,” Kas said, his tone showing he believed it absolutely.
I wasn’t sure I did anymore. I wanted to be cocky and confident, but we didn’t live in a perfect world. Just in case, I had already prepared a plan that required more gambling and faith than strength and skill.
Unfortunately, that plan had to stay in my mind, locked tightly away from the man I’d just claimed. If he knew, he would stop me, and everything could fall to pieces.
I’d worked for so long toward a single goal, only to find myself standing before it, staring into emptiness. Revenge on Merden wasn’t all I wanted anymore. I’d found more to life, and I wasn’t going to give up on getting everything.
It would look to everyone else like I was playing the martyr - the role I’d promised I’d never play.
They wouldn’t know until the end that I was being just as fucking selfish as Merden, and I didn’t care one bit.
“Let’s begin so we can end this, princess.Aima,” Kas added, smiling as he reached a hand down to me and pulled me up against his chest, sweetly oblivious to everything barreling toward us like an avalanche thundering down the side of the mountain.
We walked slowly up through the silent forest and overgrown gardens, back into the Vault and toward my rooms.
Rush greeted me with a soft kiss, indicating that Cade was in the bath. “The next match begins after breakfast,” he said, his voice clipped with worry.
“It will be me,” I said to him, even though I was really just telling myself to be ready.
“You smell like snow and blood - the strength of Khione.” Rush’s gaze flicked to Kassian in approval.
“I’ve taken anotheraima,” I said needlessly. He knew what we’d done, and there was no jealousy in his smile. “Actually, I do feel stronger. Maybe not with the Goddess’s magic, though. Yours. Ours,” I said, turning to Kas.
It was a quiet power, assured and deep like the still water under the surface of Ice Clover Lake.
“I want to watch her die,” Cade said from the doorway, a towel slung low on his hips as water dripped from his pale hair. It ran in rivulets down his torso, and I couldn’t resist him.
“You will. Rush can glamor you. You can stay hidden.”
Cade’s face split in a ruthless grin, and Rush chuckled, pleased with the idea.
“Go get ready, then, sugar. As much as I want to check all over your body for fresh bite marks, you need to look like a Queen today.” Cade gestured toward the bathroom, and I headed inside to bathe and dress in my battle armor.
CHAPTER THIRTY
KANA
When I stepped into the ballroom with Kassian on my arm, I was already in the killing calm.
With Darnell, Jillian, and Blaise out of the Trials, there were only four of us left. As I’d expected, the mist chose me, then Merden, and the match began.
Kassian’s blood ran like liquid motivation through my veins as I charged Merden with my sword, knocking away her hastily fired arrows like feathers. I’d never been more on top of my training, and my body moved with the practiced, efficient grace born from thousands of days spent surrounded by steel and blood.
Kas was right. Even before Merden took my family and stole the crown from Saori Sang, I’d been made for this moment. I was a warrior.
I drew blood from her forearm, then her thigh. My knives tore into the bodice of her leather vest like it was paper. My sword swept her feet from under her, and she toppled to the dirt floor. I was on her in an instant, the tip of my blade half an inch into her skin before the mist swirled in, tossing me to the side.
I cursed at the ancestors as they followed the spectacle of the Trials, even now when I could have killed her so easily. But they wanted something more from me.
The guards collected our weapons and Merden swiped at the blood on her neck, cooing something to me that sounded more like insanity than words. Pulling apart the pieces of her ruined vest, she withdrew three vials of blood from an inside pocket.
Grinning like a maniac, she opened the first one. The smell of stale blood wafted toward me, oddly familiar in its scent of steel and salt but hazy in my memory.
