Page 36 of The Shadow Heir

“Run!” the creatures in the stands were shouting. “We want to see you run!”

But I wasn’t going to give them what they wanted. The tiger eyed me with curiosity, its shoulders rolling back and forth as it stalked closer and closer. Ivy began to breathe heavily, but she didn’t move either. The tiger flicked its attention toward her. On instinct, I kicked sand toward the animal’s face. It flinched and turned aside, loping after someone else.

“Thank you,” Ivy whispered, clasping her hands over her mouth as she heaved.

One tiger swatted at Eudoria, then flinched and scampered away when its claws met the tinkling piano keys. Internally, I cheered at the stupid fae’s outfit. After the tigers chased Tomas and Samuel a little longer, they lazily walked back down the tunnel they had entered. My posture drooped as a relieved breath whooshed from my lungs.

Pressing my palm to my sore nose, I managed to slow the bleeding, but my face ached from the impact of the plum. I might have black eyes tomorrow. I stepped on the plum with my heel and squished it into the sand.

“Thank you,” Ivy said, stepping toward me. “I…owe you for that.”

“You don’t owe me for anything,” I said, shaking my head.

“I know you don’t want to bow to them,” she whispered, leaning closer. “I don’t either, not when I might die in a couple of days. What if…would you want to work together? We could help each other in the next trial and buy each other another month?”

It sounded like a reasonable idea, so I offered a faint nod, simultaneously sensing that I’d pay for helping Ivy today. The fae in the stands were angry, their frustration palpable in the air as they jeered at us, hurling insults I’d never heard before.

The tigers had attacked Adán and Samuel and Tomas, leaving each of the men bleeding from scratches of varying severity, but Adán had received the worst injury. He lay in the sand, moaning. Tomas rushed past me.

“Help me get him up,” he called to all of us.

Samuel moved to help, but his left arm was bleeding, and he kept his right hand pressed to the wound. I moved toward the man sprawled in the sand. Tomas glanced up at me and nodded, then his attention dropped back to Adán. Together, we lifted him into a sitting position, and Tomas slid his arms under the man’s wide chest, helping him stand. With Tomas’s help, Adán was able to shuffle toward the stone steps leading from the arena. Samuel followed close behind, blood dripping from between his fingers.

As I watched them mount the steps into the stands, my attention snagged on a familiar face. At some point during the commotion, Casimiro had appeared. He was sitting in a shaded throne carved from the mountain wall in the center of the stone benches, lounged back with his legs angled wide. He lifted a glass when he noticed me staring.

I grunted and turned aside.

“I thought they couldn’t kill us except in the trials,” I said to Ivy, who was visibly shaking. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the heir stand and walk not up, but down the stone steps, into the arena.

Ivy scurried to my side. “They’ll heal the injuries. They always do. They want us to love them, remember? It’s best to just leave now.”

I watched the prince slip into one of the darkened tunnels where the tigers had disappeared.

Ivy tugged my arm. “Never linger here,” she warned. “They might get bored and release something else.”

I walked toward the stairs, my eyes following the prince’s outline as he sank into the shadows of the tunnel leading off the arena floor. Curiosity halted my steps, despite Ivy’s rapid protests.

“What’s he doing in there?” I asked.

Ivy shook her head and pulled on my arm. “I’m not sure, but he goes in there a lot. Come on, let’s go.”

My brows shot up. “You aren’t curious?” At Ivy’s repeated head shake, I said, “Well, I am. The more I know about him, the less power he has over me.”

At that, Ivy blinked and let go of my arm, her face pale. “If you’re that curious, come back later,” Ivy begged, “when he’s gone. You could go when the sun slants into the tunnel. It’ll be safer.”

Her words had a ring of wisdom. I backed up, nodding. “The sun dampens their power, doesn’t it?”

She nodded back. “They are not one of the original four fae courts. They created this court by stealing power from both daylight and darkness. They are hated by three of the other four courts, so they hide in this mountain, outside the border of Rivenmark.”

“We’re not in the fae lands?”

Ivy shook her head. “This mountain is in Avencia.”

“I’ve never seen these mountains on any Avencian maps,” I replied.

“That’s because this place has always been hidden by their magic. It exists only in shadow.”

I pondered this as I collected my shoes, then rejoined Ivy at the foot of the stairs.

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