He was as godsawful as Faun at the hollow pool. Made sense; the two of them were rotspawn of the same court.
I sat in the grass, breathing hard, and found my legs too wobblyto stand. But I’d rather eat dirt than let him know. “Tell me about the Killing Fields.”
He took another bite, watching me with those coal-dark eyes. "What do you want to know?"
"Everything." I wiped rain from my face. "How it works. How champions die."
"Four courts, four pieces of land." He gestured with the apple, carving the air into quarters. "Each god’s magic is strongest in their own territory. The moment you step into the wrong part of the Killing Fields, you give up your advantage."
"Dividing lines?"
"Exactly that. You’ll feel it if you cross one—like a wall of water."
I pulled my knees up, catching my breath. "Why would anyone step into another court’s land?"
His smile was grim. “Either hubris… or because they were forced.”
“Forced?”
“Every champion is strongest on their own ground. So…”
“The goal is to get the other champions to step outside their land.”
“By one means or another.” Something flickered across his face—memory, maybe. "Some magics have an easier time of it than others.”
“Feralis and viridine,” I said. "They can both manipulate earth, right?”
He inclined his head, something like approval in his gaze. “Yes. Light and shadow can’t push or pull, but they can cross boundaries in their own way.”
“Light can blind.”
“As can shadow.” He took another bite. “Blinded, you’re nearly useless. So many champions have fallen to light and shadow.”
I pushed myself to my feet, legs burning. “So I’ll need to fight blind.”
“You’ll need to fight through anything. But whatever you do,avoid the Convergence.”
The Convergence. “Why?”
“It’s a soupy hell of magic at the center of our kingdom. Everything’s amplified and it all runs together.”
His jaw had tightened, gaze going faraway. I lowered my brows. “That’s where Carys killed the other queens, isn’t it?”
Dorian’s attention jerked to me. Hesitation—then a nod. “But your goal isn’t to kill them, Eury. Just to survive.”
That was what Dorian, Haskel, and I had decided in the darkness of the gardens.Just surviveunder my acid rain until the other queens were sapped or cowed.
He tossed the apple core aside. “And if you can’t even call on your magic in this field, then…”
I ran at him again, boots sliding across the grass. I threw blows at his sides, his face, but the wind deflected and I swung at air.
I just wanted one hit. One good hit.
The base of my spine cried out when I was thrown once again onto the earth, and I was done. Done, done, done.
I grabbed at the grass with my fingers as though squeezing it could make him suffer. “And what emotion haveyoubeen tapping into for the past hour?”
“Surely you can guess.”