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As prince, it was my duty to have a vision for the future of my peoples, to be willing to sacrifice myself to preserve that vision.
If I had had time to prepare, I would have run through the jungles of my planet one more time, defeated beasts to hone my body. Now, when I turned to face Vorian, it was as a warrior freshly off a ship, soft from weeks of travel.
No part of my brother had ever been soft. Not now, not at the tournament, not when he was only the height of his father’s knee, traveling in Crux’s footsteps, his tiny, hard-eyed shadow.
The space at the center of the room had been cleared for this. Vorian’s bright blue gaze was trained on me, but I looked past him to his father.
Vorian had always been Crux’s creature. He could fight alone, but this moment was of Crux’s design.
“Fight well, brother,” I said.
Vorian gave me a narrow-eyed look, but then he began to move.
We circled each other in a horrible mimicry of our tournament battle. Then, he had only been trying to bring me down. Now, any misstep I made might mean my death.
Vorian had seven marks, and I did not even know what they all did. There was the healing of broken bones, his plasma spikes, his phasing, and his damnable ability to slow down his opponents when they neared him, so that he seemed even faster, but there were more, and I had never seen them all.
I had only three—my plasma sword, the forcefield to block my opponents, and the ability to call to beasts.
Here, in a room with an even floor, no tricks to draw on, I would lose. But the wall opened up over the jungle, columns leading to bright green treetops and down, terrapads scaling the walls of the sheer cliff to carry our people.
Alone, I would not win, but if I could get out—
Without thought, I rushed, sprinting away and to the side. The first time my foot hit one of the spectators’ seats, I leapt up, far, and over, climbing to the very top.
“The prince is a coward!” Crux shouted. “He flees battle. He has lost!”
But there, keeping pace with me on the other side of the rows of Thorzi come to watch, Vorian climbed parallel to me, his eyes narrowed, the purple spikes gleaming from his palms like he would catch me still.
He twisted, running down the length behind the stands, but I threw myself over.
For a horrible second, it was like I was dropping out over nothing, destined to impale myself on branches beneath, my body broken on the jungle floor.
With a slash of my arm, I sent my plasma sword out. It cut through the nearest terrapad with a cacophonous screech, tipping the thing dangerously on its side.
Miraculously, I hung on, and the spectators flew out of their seats as Vorian dropped down.
I looked up, and there he was, terrapads away. He landed gracefully on the balls of his feet, and his disk descended after mine, toward the jungle beneath us.
Perhaps he’d landed lighter, and my arms strained to hold me to that floating surface as it rushed downward, but I was hanging on, and I was not defeated yet.
CHAPTER31
LUCAS
Everyone stared after Kaelum and Vorian, shocked, as Crux insisted that the prince was a coward. “He must be disavowed immediately, and a new heir named.”
His voice was grating, and I wanted to smack him, but even with him being a non-warrior I couldn’t take down a guy two feet taller than me. He’d hoisted Ree around like she was a pillow, and I wasn’t stronger than her.
So instead of starting a fistfight I couldn’t win, I stood behind the big warrior who’d offered to second Kaelum, and glared at Crux. “There’s a coward here all right, but it’s you. You’re the one who imprisoned and abused people who couldn’t defend themselves against you. The one who’s not even willing to fight his own battles but sends his son to do his dirty work. Political scheming, and using your kid to do it. If anyone should be disavowed, it’s you.”
Crux snarled at me. “Do you deny that your precious prince ran from battle?”
“I do deny it.” I motioned to where Kaelum and Vorian had disappeared. “Kaelum is a warrior, and he means to act like one. He knew he couldn’t beat Vorian here, where he has two working star marks and Vorian has fuckingseven. So he took it to the jungle, where he can use his third. Because he’s not just a strong warrior, but a smart one.”
Warriors all around nodded to each other, muttering quietly, and the few words I caught were “clever” and “true warrior thinking,” so I grinned fiercely at Crux.
“My Kaelum is exactly the kind of warrior Thorzan needs. One who not only has strength and power, but an intellect to match.”
