Page 159 of A Game of Veils

I haven’t won yet.

A wider path lies ahead of us, the reddish-brown dirt split by darker lines. Gold gleams at the far end: a dais where Marclinus is standing, watching us approach.

Victory is in sight.

For both of us. Leonette dashes toward the path at the same instant I do—and draws up short at a sudden whoosh of fire.

Very real flames spurt from the lines drawn in the dirt, searing up to lick at the air above our heads. Their scorching heat prickles over my face.

Leonette is closer to the left and notices the gap there first. Yanking up her sopping skirts so they don’t hinder her legs, she dashes around the wall of fire.

I race after her, veering sharply to the right in the face of another crackling wall. The roar fills my ears from all around me.

Leonette has already gotten the lead. If we have to keep weaving back and forth so narrowly to avoid being burned, I can’t see how I’ll pull ahead of her.

With our next sharp turn, a dribble of water from my drenched hair streaks a line across my cheek. It cuts cool through the burning heat.

My breath catches in my throat. If I’m brave enough to walk into the fire…

Certainty condenses around my heart.

I duck my head so the wet strands fall forward to shield my face. My hand sketches hastily down my front in divine appeal.

Elox protect me, so I might do your will when this is done.

Wrapping my hands in the folds of my soaked shirt, I pull deep into the center of calm inside me.

Then I run.

I sprint in a straight line, directly toward my goal. One wall of flame and another hisses with the droplets of water that fly off my clothes and hair.

Searing heat and open air, searing heat and open air. The sweltering warble floods my head.

Patches of my sleeves start to sizzle with a biting sting. I hold myself distant from the pain, pushing my feet harder. The sodden silk slaps against my legs?—

And I burst out of the last wall of fire onto firmer ground.

Marclinus stares down at me from the dais, his lips parted with what looks like shock. As I dash the last few steps to reach him, his eyebrows arch.

A typical chuckle is already tumbling from his lips as I hop onto the platform and grasp his hand.

His fingers tighten their grip as he turns toward me. With my free hand, I rake my still-damp hair away from my face.

The imperial heir’s gray eyes glint down at me. “So you’re willing to set yourself on fire just to have me, Princess Aurelia?”

The scalded spots on my arms throb, but I barely notice over the thrum of my pulse.

I did it. I’m here. I won the man I crossed the empire to marry.

The thought of all the corpses strewn in my wake, the dreams I shattered just minutes ago, turns my smile achingly bittersweet. But Marclinus won’t be able to tell.

I beam up at him with all the resolve I have in me. “I’m willing to do anything for you, Your Imperial Highness.”

Emperor Tarquin begins to clap, his smile nothing but self-satisfaction. The audience I barely noticed around the glade takes up the applause.

Marclinus grins and tugs my chin up to claim a kiss.

The brazen press of his lips leaves me cold, but I kiss him back all the same.

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