She wasn’t wrong.
"Your family lies. Your family kills. You only seek power. You sit on a throne built on silence." She screamed, her tone full of hate.
“You don’t know anything about me.” I spat. “You all think you have me all figured out.”
Shakari shouted for me to focus, but her voice was distant, drowned by my crashing emotions. Every wall I’d built inside was rubble now. The eyes that watched felt like knives; everyone was craving my collapse.
Then, I lunged, finally landing a hit. My fist connected with her cheek. She stepped back.
Wiped her mouth.
Smiled.
And punched me straight in the nose. I dropped to my knees out of pain. The pain was white-hot. My ears rang. I was disoriented.
Still, I didn’t tap.
“You’re barely strong with your fire,” she said, standing over me. “Without magic, you are nothing.”
“I am not weak,” I whispered, blood on my lips.
“Then prove it.”
I tried to stand and run to her, but she hooked me twice, sending me to the floor again. She lifted me by the arm, threw me across the mat, and kicked me twice in the stomach. I couldn’t breathe. My head spun. My vision blurred.
I heard Soehl shout. Shakari’s voice. The twins.
“Tap!” Shakari shouted like everyone else, shoving through the crowd. “She hasn’t tapped,” Professor Hog said. “She stays in.”
“She’ll pass out! Stop the fight!” Soehl screamed in panic.
Then I saw Lorik.
He stood at the edge of the mat. Still watching. His jaw clenched, fist curled tight with restrained fury.
He didn’t move.
He didn’t blink.
He’d agreed to this.
He watched Rory, eyes glinting with calculation, then looked down at me again. That’s when it hit me.
Maybe this is how he kills me.
An accident in training.
No magic. No interference. No blood on his hands.
Just silence.
My chest locked up. Panic clawed its way up my throat, burning. Everything around me warped, edges pulsed, color draining, my breath snagged in terror. I was slipping, sinking, pride unraveling into raw, and choking fear.
I was going to die, not because I was weak, but because I was too proud, too blinded by stubbornness to save myself. That pride felt toxic now, eating me alive. Too emotional. Too stubborn. And Rory and Lorik saw this in me already. They were expecting it.
And as Rory raised her hand again, I looked straight at Lorik.
Then slowly my hand met the stone.