Lexa
No one touches me. I’m not locked in chains. The dark hallways running alongside the arena blur, smelling like rusted metal and full of smoke. The air is hotter than it should be, but when I squint through the darkness, I can just see the haze of smoke funneling from the direction of the Glade. My stomach pitches, but I have to keep my head on straight. I have to finish this, and that means an audience with the king.
He’s waiting for me when I step into the bright glare of the arena.
Spectators line the curved benches overhead, but they’re silent. My sandals crunch over the dirt, over old dark bloodstains. No weapons cache rises in the distance. No one else is waiting for me.
I am the champion.
There’s no one else to fight.
I am here for my gift.
I stop in the dead center of the arena and look up at the balcony where the fae king waits, his teal robes lifting in a phantom breeze.
“My champion returns,” he says flatly, his voice deep and cutting in the dead tongue. He doesn’t bother to translate it for the fae watching. They don’t matter right now.
“I am here for my reward. Nothing more.”
“Is that so?” He chuckles, smoothing his hands over the railing.
“It’s in the rules. I won. I am your champion, and I am due a reward of my choosing.”
“And have you decided?”
“Yes.”
He smiles cruelly down at me. “You’re premature, I fear. There’s one Trial left.”
I squint up at him, unsure I heard him correctly. My confusion must show on my face because his smile widens.
“Did he not tell you, my dear?” His laugh is like acid. “I find it hard to believe, seeing as he is your trainer and not only your sponsor, with him in such an incredibly sacrificial position.”
Dread hollows out my stomach. Somewhere behind me, chains clink, metal rattling as an iron, slated door rolls open. I refuse to look.
“There is one more Trial. It’s meant to prove your loyalty to me,” he says so softly I almost miss it. “But Kaleb didn’t tell you that. You didn’t tell you all that he had to do to win, to unite his precious people under one crown so they wouldn’t continue to fight and eat each other when the food ran out!” His tone tapers into a snarl. “No, he didn’t tell you what he risked being your trainer. If he’d simply sponsored you, it would have been one thing. A non-issue. But he wanted you all for himself, didn’t he? Mates… they’re always the downfall of your kind, aren’t they? So possessive.”
“What the fuck?” I whisper to myself. My skin prickles. I can’t feel my wolf anymore. The second I stepped within the palace walls, it was snatched from me by the king, like usual.
“The final Trial of the games,” the king grins, licking his lips, “is a fight to the death against the very person who turned you into my champion.”
No.
No, no, no…
I slowly turn around.
Kaleb is several yards behind me, beaten to a near pulp, his wrists raw and bloody and held in manacles of iron so thick he can’t use his brute strength to bend them away, but he’s tried. His eyes meet mine in the haze, smoke lying low and rolling around our ankles. He shakes his head, saying, “Why did you come back?”
“Kill him, and you get your reward,” the king shouts, and I whirl back, shaking my head.
“No! No, that wasn’t part of the deal!”
“There is no deal for slaves like you. These are the rules. You aren’t the champion yet, shifter. Kill him, and let me guess… you want to free everyone in the Glade? That’s what you were going to ask for, wasn’t it? Do you think I’m stupid, little girl?” His teeth are pointed and jagged when he smiles. I hadn’t noticed before–what a monster he is. I’ve never been close enough to tell.
“I won’t do it,” I cry out, trembling. “You can’t–”
Kaleb’s chains suddenly drop. The sound echoes through the silence, choking me raw, and I turn, horrified as he stands there in the smoke, taking several deep breaths. “Give her twin blades,” he says to the fae guard to his right, who hands him a spear and disappears into the door Kaleb just appeared out of.
“Kaleb, no.”
“They’ll kill us both,” he says, his tone dry, but his eyes are full of regret as he looks at me. “I told them to keep you away.”
“Did you think I’d let you go?” I reply hoarsely, choked by tears. “Kaleb–”
The fae guard extends the blades to me by the hilt. I refuse.
“Take your blades, Lexa,” Kaleb says, his voice dropping.
I shake my head. “We can’t–”
“Take them.”
I realize what he’s doing. It’s like being kicked in the chest. It’s far more painful than any injury I’ve ever had. “You can’t do this to us.”
His eyes meet mine. “You’re the Luna. You’re in charge when I am gone. Get everyone out of the Glade. The Alphas have a plan. Chastan has everything arranged.”
“Don’t do this–”
The fae guard drops the blades at my feet.
“Pick up your blades.”
“I won’t.”
He swings the spear, and my body reacts on instinct. Protect yourself. Remember your training. This man is a threat. My heart and body battle as I bend backward, the spear cutting through the air only inches above me, and when I bend back, I grab the blades, tumbling toward him as he brings the spear down.
“Make it a fair fight,” he says with heartbreaking quiet, and we collide.
It’s the same dance from the last Trial, but I’m in Meg’s position. Kaleb won’t stop. He’s forcing me to react, knowing my body will move, that my instincts are sound, and I’d never just let him hurt me.
He doesn’t want to hurt me. It’s killing him as much as it’s gutting me.
“Please,” I beg, blocking another strike, but my blades sink into his spear. I yank with all my strength, trying to pull the weapon from his hands, but he’s strong. He’s always been so much stronger than I am.
The blades untangle from the spear, and he pulls back, whipping his weapon. My body acts before my mind has a moment to differentiate between my mate and a threat to my life, and suddenly he’s still.
He gave me an opening, and I took it. I didn’t–I didn’t mean to–to take it.
“No!”
The word leaves my lips in a whoosh as the crowd erupts in half-hearted cheers. Kaleb drops his spear, panting in pain as he takes two steps toward me, his hand outstretched, and falls to his knees, one of my blades piercing his chest while the other is lodged in his side.
I catch him before he falls face first into the dirt.
“No, no, no, no, no!” I choke, lowering him onto the ground on his back, my hands fumbling over the blades. I pull one out of his side, and blood gushes. I press my hand to the wound, my body tingling with desperation. “Oh, Goddess, no–Kaleb? Kaleb, please!”
I try to reach for the blade sunk deep in the chest, but he grabs my wrist with the last of his strength and weakly shakes his head. “Look at me. Let me see you.”
“I hate you for this.” The words come out in a strangled moan. “Why did you–I can’t–you lied. You didn’t tell me it would come to this!”
He takes a rattling breath, and I regret my words immediately. He was my shield. The one thing keeping me sane–keeping me in the dark while I fought through an impossible situation. The one thing that was… normal and good.
And he knew it.
He tried to keep that safe for me. For us.
“I was never going to be able to escape,” he says with effort, a trickle of blood wetting his lips. “But you are. You’re going home, Lexa. You’re taking our people with you.” His hand falls from my cheek to rest on my lower belly with a soft sigh. “You’re taking him home, and that’s–that’s enough for me to go into this–this peacefully.”
“Do not die.” I shake him, my voice stern and cutting–a vicious command. “You–you don’t get to do this to us. We have–we have a chance. We just have to–to get through this, and we will. I promise. Kaleb? Kaleb, please, we have to go now. You have to hold on just a moment longer!”
“I love you.”
“No–no, no, no, don’t do this! I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Kaleb! Don’t leave me. Please? Please!” His eyes begin to shut. My heart tears into ribbons, but I can’t even feel the mate bond breaking because I can’t feel my wolf. I can’t feel him slipping through my fingers, dying by my own hand. I scream. It’s a bloody, furious, heart-wrenching scream that soars over the cheering and applause, like the spectators are watching a man–a good man–die with such… glee.
“FUCK YOU ALL!” I screech, heaving a breath between each word as I gather Kaleb in my arms, rocking back and forth. “FUCK ALL OF YOU BASTARDS!”
A sudden sharp pain floods through my body. I drop Kaleb, my arms going numb as the taste of metal–magic–fills my mouth.
“That’s enough,” the king shouts, suddenly only a few yards away, looking so… small and… normal as he stands in the blood-soaked dirt surrounded by his guards. He rips his magical hold, and I’m yanked forward, but I fight it, shielding Kaleb’s body.
“I’m going to fucking kill you,” I seethe. I pull the blade from Kaleb’s heart, gripping it like my life depends on it. “I’M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!”
My legs shake as I try to stand, but the king extends his hand, and a bright, golden glow erupts, striking me in the lower belly.
“I’ll have none of that filth in my kingdom. You and the father were too aggressive, less malleable than I like–”
A sudden burst of dark energy steals the breath from my lungs, and then Blake is standing between me and the king, his shadow falling over Kaleb like he’s the God of Death coming to collect. He lazily raises a hand, and silver light explodes all around us.
I hear a single scream. It’s faint–a soft echo of what I know is death.
My vision clears. I expect to be covered in blood, but I’m whole, and teal fabric flutters in the smoky air, falling onto Kaleb’s body. Golden, beautiful, fully visible threads flicker between us, Blake’s powers weaving them back together.
I meet Blake’s eyes as a terrible, rumbling vibration sends the dirt beneath us into a frenzy. Beyond him, the king and the guards are in tatters, dead.
The king’s shields covering the arena begin to cave, and the arena itself, the ancient, bloody magic holding it together, crumbles.
The entire palace is splitting open.
“Oh, my gods,” I breathe.
“Go. Lexa, GO. The Glade. NOW!” Blake shouts, his power dancing around us full of electricity.
He’s bringing it all down. Every piece. Every lick of power the king stole. He’s releasing it.
“Blake–”
“GO!” he screams, his eyes so bright and violet I can’t see his face. The glow is intense, overwhelming. I feel the chill coming off him. He’s going to deplete before he stops.
I reach for Kaleb, but Blake shouts, “I have him. GO! Get everyone out of the Glade, now!”
I gasp, his words tangling in my ears, as my wolf abruptly returns, the mate bond in tatters tearing my chest open from the inside out before settling.
I feel him.
Kaleb’s still with us–with me.
“I said I have him,” Blake rushes out, gasping as his powers burst again, making my hair rise from my shoulders. “GO.” His voice strains with pain. “But do not shift!”
I rise, shift, and run toward the Glade, which is burning and now… falling with everyone trapped inside.