Page 125 of Bloodguard

I know what’s happening. But she can’t leave me. Not after everyone I lost today.

“He took me in and fed me my first real meal.” Large tears zigzag down her face. “It was terrible. Burned fish and half-cooked potatoes.” She sniffs. “I couldn’t tell him, though. I couldn’t offend him. I ate every last bite like it was the best. And because my friend made it for me, it was.”

“Neela,don’t,” I beg.

Her tears run faster, coloring her face as her blood drains out of her. “My dear child. I must join him in death. Who else will take care of him if I don’t? It was my time long ago. I only stayed for him. Now…now it’s time for me to go.”

And she does.

I’m numb, unable to feel anything.

Empty space is all that remains.

They’re gone. They’reallgone.

And they’re never coming home.

My arms are brutally wrenched behind me and shackled, and then I’m thrown without care into a different wagon. It jerks forward, the squeak from the old wheels growing to a shriek as the guards force the horses to a gallop.

The last thing I see is Aisling unleashing her rage and her magic…and what’s left of my home crumbling to dust.

chapter 45

Leith

The arena isn’t that far. Today, though, the ride there seems to take hours.

Once we arrive, Gunther hurries forward to take the reins. I don’t have to see him to know he’s beaming. The boy is always happy to see me. I look regardless, wanting to assure myself that no fresh wounds mar him.

“Bloodguard. Bloodguard!”

I squeeze his shoulder and ask Caelen to buy him a good meal. I shouldn’t invest so much in his well-being. There’s nothing I can do about it, not right now. And yet, whether I mean to or not, I’m bonded to this kid in mutual torment. He may be young, but like me, he’s known suffering. If I can help him, I have to. For both our sakes.

I’m going to talk to Maeve about approaching his family, if he really has one. There’s nothing he deserves more than a home with us and my sisters and mother. Dahlia will insist they become best friends. I smile despite myself, hoping Gunther will agree. They can play in the woods and just be children for once.

My boots hit the muddy ground as I dismount, and the guards pull me away before I can bid Caelen a proper farewell.

I glance back, but he’s already gone.

Instead of taking me around to the livestock entrance and leaving me in an iron cage under the audience seating like they have every day this week, they lead me toward the pens where the gladiators are held. It appears I will fight today.

I crack my neck from side to side. I stomp through the mud, kicking the muck back and onto the guards. “Beggin’ your pardon, great sirs. I really should be more careful.”

The guard in my line of fire curses and shoves me, then snarls when I keep my feet and shoves me again. We’re almost to the pens where the other gladiators await. I steel myself, wondering after all this time—and all Giselle and Maeve’s interventions—who’s still alive.

The stench of unwashed bodies and swine hits me hard. I’m spoiled by the aroma of the forest and gardens that surround the cottage. And it’s not only that. My belly is full, my wounds are healed, and I’ve had a full week of rest.

A large roach skitters along the boards between the pens. A gladiator snags it, shoving it into his mouth before another can insist he share it.

He’s not alone. A cyclops, his knees crooked from malnourishment, sifts through the mud, plucking kernels from pieces of half-eaten corn flung from the swine pens.

Shame weighs me down. I’ve returned in optimal condition—more bulk to my frame from good meals, more strength from training, and more endurance from the distances I’ve traveled while hunting for herbs and mushrooms in the forest with Maeve.

Another whiff of this ripe aroma knocks me across the nose. I try not to grimace. I haven’t wallowed in filth in a long time. I’m not judging them.

I stillamthem.

They will no doubt judge me. I’ll spare them the good stuff—the wardrobe full of new clothes and my daily showers beneath the falls with my princess—and hope that the good we’ve done for them is returned with neutrality at least.

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