Page 231 of What Lies Within Blood & Heirs

Alora clasped a palm over her bleeding death mark and gestured toward the bloody wasteland. The mounds of bodies, some dismembered by what Alora guessed was from the wolf, and others cut down by weapons sheathed on Jade’s back; a Saxon-like structure, only instead of steel, it was griffin claws, talons, and a broken beak.

Green eyes darkened as Jade frowned, but Alora gripped her good hand, squeezed, and offered, “Thank you for killing them for me.”

“Couldn’t let you have all the fun.”

Alora scoffed; her fingers scraped over the thick blood on Jade’s knuckles?—

“Two remain,” Ladomyr’s voice boomed. “By our traditions, only one shall live.” He swept his gaze over the crowd, the side of his mouth curling with malice as faeries exchanged currency, others edged their seats while most screamed for their wagered victor.

Ladomyr raked an expectant eye over them, arching a brow half as menacing as Garrik’s and tenfold less terrifying.

Alora bit her cheek to keep from laughing. Perhaps the king knew, because when they didn’t move, Ladomyr snapped his fingers twice and the sound of countless armed High Guardsmen stormed the crystal walkways.

Silas stiffened as he was surrounded. Their bows drawn and taut.

Aiming the blunt edges of their arrows at Alora and Jade, the guards awaited their king’s next order.

“It makes little difference which of you lives. Though if I had my choice”—Ladomyr gestured and an arrow flew, embeddinginto Alora’s shoulder and eliciting a scream—“it would be the red-haired. Either make your choice or I will.”

Sweat gleamed down the column of Alora’s filthy neck, melding with blood spurting around the wooden shaft as she sank to her knees.

Jade lurched forward but cried out, grabbed her collar, and sank to the dirt when a blond male broke through the guardsmen, twisting an emerald ring before settling beside Silas.

Growling rumbled from the wolf. Footsteps vibrated the earth. Calculated. Lethal. Then fur eclipsed the sun, standing between them, their masters, and the guards.

Ladomyr’s sigh was devastating. “I’ve hadenoughof your defiance,” he decided loudly and with as much poison as that in Alora’s veins.

The wolf bared its teeth?—

Roots burst from the ground.

Alora didn’t have time to act as vine-like blades pierced its belly and thighs. A soul-shattering wail ripped from its throat as those roots began coiling around it, tightening and tightening with each spiral they made.

Alora started shaking. But there was nothing she could do as the wolf was hurled into the tree and stilled inside its wooden cage.

She’d forgotten … forgotten that incredible magic of Kadamar. Forgotten it was the king who commanded it.

Terror-filled sapphires spurted to Jade, who wore an expression much like hers. Both with silent questions about who would be next.

“Do it,” Jade snarled, her canines glistening in the sunlight. “Do it, Alora.” And unsheathed the griffin-made Saxon-like axe from her back. Jade gritted her teeth as her collar glowed. Through the pain, she managed to toss the weapon at Alora’s knees.

No,Alora’s mind protested so loudly it burst from her lips. “No.”

Jade’s lips quivered. “I willkillyou.”

Alora didn’t have to argue—she knew it was true. Jade was a pit-trained warrior born of blood-drenched battlefields. Spent decades fighting. Decades as Magnelis’s Raven and Garrik’s Dragon. A general of her own legion who had slaughtered eight faeries with her bare hands. “You’re High Pr?—”

“Don’t youdarefinish that sentence.” Something sharpened in her voice, edging on that lethal fury she’d need to send Ladomyr to the fiery depths. “You’re mysister.Your life is as important as mine.”

“But Garrik?—”

“Loves usboth. We’rebothreturning to him.” To them all. To Aiden and Thalon and Eldacar.

Above, darkness flickered in the cold eyes of Jade’s master. He glowered—a male of little patience. His fingers lightly brushed along his emerald ring.

Silas narrowed his attention at Jade. On the slow movement of her hand, on the starfire ring that glinted as Jade unwillingly curled her nails in the dirt.

“Alora, I can’t stop it.” The movement. The push of her bleeding legs, straightening her upright. The way her bloody fists balled at her sides as she took a fighting stance and the bloodthirsty roar of the stadium as she advanced. “Please.”

---