My mouth falls open.
“Seraph?” I call out. She lives. I have wondered about her, hoping she was all right. But of course she was. When I look at Vann, I see him watching me, half smiling.
I think of him flying—how much he hated it. He must’ve flown her to be with me. My heart swells.
A rippling gasp cuts through the stands as her large claws drop an entire boulder from the sky. It sinks through the air, crashing into the wooden seats. Screams fill the arena moments before a shadow begins to billow out from the gaping hole. It moves across the seating, and people begin to run.
“The fires,” Vann calls to me. “I told her to come when she saw fire from the city!”
They scramble like ants in the rain. The guards on the dais shoutwarnings. A few even jump down into the arena to run toward us, but Vann is ready.
“What is this?” I hear Arion’s amplified voice call, and the collar at my throat burns. I feel a drain as he uses Cursed One’s magic through me.
I fall to my knees.
“Arlet!”
That bright black-and-white magic shoots out into the sky after Seraph. He’s trying to kill her, too.
“No!” I scream.
It’s just her and us. No one else comes for us.
Mrath was supposed to arrive—was supposed to kill Arion before this. And yet…we are alone.
Seraph crosses overhead once more, bringing another boulder to drop on another section of the stands.
“Go! Hide!” I shout after her as the first wave of arrows flies into the sky. The guards who had run into the arena now come after us.
“Arlet—” Vann begins, but the chaos swallows his words.
Those who were armed knock back more arrows, and they fly at us. Without protection, I am left to nothing but Vann.
And Vann… That stupid, self-righteous bastard throws me to the ground and covers my body with his. I feel the exact moment the first arrow hits his chest, piercing his flesh. And then the second.
I feel his lips against my hair.
“So…beautiful…Firelocks.”
I scream. I try to push him off so I can fix this somehow. He groans in pain. Our story is messy, but this can’t be the end. Even if I had considered it, thiscannot be the end.
I don’t even know exactly what our future would look like, but every part of me yearns to find out. I want to have the life I dreamed of. I can’t let that go now, not when we’re so close.
Help, I beg the spirit within me.Cursed One, please.
I summon the shadowflame, trying to stop the guards, but it is meager. Too small. A candle before a storm. I can’t save him with this.
Please, I beg again.
Castien told me there would come a time when she would share her name with me, and that our magic could be bound. If I wish to make such a deal, then there will be no retracting it.
But now I know who she is. I know her character—she is my friend.
Please.
And then the world slows. The roar fades. Everything around me dims until all I see is shadow and the faint shimmer of blood on the sand.
In that silence, a voice rises—not from without, but within. Cold. Endless.