Page 27 of The Shadow Heir

“We’ll be ready.”

12

Zara

“May I sit?” I asked as I reappeared at the entertainers’ table tucked away in a damp recess of the cavern. As the other humans scooted over to make room for me, my nose twitched at the smell of wet rock. I glanced down to see that the carved space where we rested our feet was slick with water. If this counted astreating us betterthan the servants, I hated to think how they dined. The dragon overhead shifted its weight and huffed, a puff of smoke curling out through the iron bars of the cage.

“I know how you feel,” I said to the dragon as I settled my large, ruffled dress around my ankles. The fabric was still damp, and I smirked to think that I’d likely left a small puddle at the prince’s table where I’d sat.

Everyone at the table stared at me. The oldest woman, who wore her graying hair up in a neat bun, held her fork halfway to her open mouth, stunned into silence by something I’d done.

The young woman who’d first offered me a seat was looking at me like I’d grown a third arm as she leaned over and whispered, “We don’t speak to the dragon.”

I made a noncommittal shrug. “Can’t see what harm it does. He’s as trapped as we are.”

The two other women exchanged a wide-eyed glance.

My eyes darted back toward the prince’s table briefly, and I saw that he and his sister were engaged in conversation. The fact that he had a sister, and that she clearly annoyed him with her chatter, contrasted so blindingly with his persona of bloodthirsty monster intent on destroying all happiness in the world.

I turned my attention back to my fellow mortals. “I’m Zara, by the way. Zara Valencia Calderon.”

“Ivy Quinn,” the younger woman replied.

“Eudoria Armond.” The older woman spoke next, her voice and posture evidence of wealth.

“Neither of you are from Avencia?” I asked, surprised by their accents.

“We’re from Cavaria,” Eudoria answered. “Different provinces.”

My face brightened then fell. “I was to marry a man from Cavaria. Lord Montrose.”

Eudoria did a subtle double take. “Lord Montrosewas your betrothed?”

I shrugged. “Was. Yes. For about a minute.” I explained that my father and I had hoped love, or at the very least, a wedding, might break the bargain. We’d both been wrong.

Silence hung over the table for a moment. The dragon’s jerking movements were my only distraction.

“I’m sorry,” Ivy said. Eudoria slowly turned her eyes away and didn’t look at me again, as if I’d offended her.

“I’m Tomas.” The bearded, broad-chested man explained that he was from the island nation of Irdan, but his parents were Avencian, hence his Avencian name. His melodic accent was mesmerizing.

There was Adán from Ruvell, a tiny country beside Cavaria, and his Avencian was less precise. He had gray peppered through his dark hair and the kind of severe expression I’d seen on men who worked out in the sun all day, so perhaps he’d been a farmer before coming here. And a sandy-haired man named Samuel, from Lithera, a country across the sea from Avencia.

I’d never met people from so many countries at once. Excitement bubbled up until I remembered where we were and what we were facing.

As my shoulders sank, Ivy patted my back. “We all feel the same way. It’s a terrible place to meet, but I’m…I’m pleased to meet you nonetheless.”

I tried to smile, but my stomach had twisted into a tight knot, and my face scrunched into a grimace instead.

After an awkward moment of me staring at the other entertainers, it occurred to me: they all survived their first trial, too. I wondered how many othermortal gamesthey’d endured, but if the goal was to kill the humans involved, these people had likely all seen death up close, and I didn’t want to dredge up those painful memories for them.

Despite Eudoria’s gray hair and prim manners or Ivy’s small stature, these women had endured in this nightmarish place. I could learn much from these people.

Nibbling the corner of a chocolate-coated wafer, I considered all the ways I could broach the subject of survival in a polite way. But no matter the words I tested in my head, there wasn’t a nice way to discuss the fact that we were all on a collision course with death.

The meal progressed in relative silence, as the others only spoke about the food or the unusual dress of the fae in attendance. Samuel asked what I spoke to the heir about, but after that, we exchanged few words. The other humans trapped here weren’t in a talking mood, and I didn’t blame them.

Finally, I could hold in my curiosity no longer. “How did you do it?” I blurted, looking quickly at each of them. “How did you stay alive?”

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