Page 88 of Terragnata and the Heir of the Earth

“I smell something,” it whispered hurriedly, Ezren’s eyes wider than I’d ever seen them.

“Okay?”

“Talpa can smell nothing, nothing at all—unless death is near.” It released me and paced.

“So you smell death, then?” I asked, pushing myself up and raising a brow.

“No, no. I don’t smell actual death. I smell ‘something.’ Anything. But only when death is near.”

I rolled my eyes. “Well, what do you smell?”

“Iron. Metallic. It is hard on the tongue.” It squirmed—an unnatural action to see on Ezren’s form.

I squinted at the Talpa. “You smell iron? I expected ‘something tangy’or ‘something cooling,’ but how do you know what iron smells like, or anything for that matter—” I was cut off mid-sentence by a dead Talpa flying through the cave’s opening, landing at the foot of our fire.

The Ezren impersonator shrieked at the limp creature, mangled in its true form. It howled and sobbed, and I wondered if they had known each other. But the thought did not stop me from leaping up, drawing my broadsword from where I’d kept it strapped to my back.

Tey sauntered in.

“Tey,” I said, nodding casually, noting the ring of gold on her wrist. She had won the second event. “What can we help you with?”

I angled my body to block my Talpa as I spoke. It stood a few feet back from me, and I knew if I let one of the other competitors kill the creature, it would disqualify me. Three, maybe four steps back, and I could grab it and portal.

Before I could launch backward, Tey spoke. “If you eventhinkabout portaling, she dies.”

I froze as Brita appeared, dragging Xinlan into the cave, a blade stuck in her thigh.

Xinlan fought the grip, but Brita snickered and pressed a knife to her throat. Blood soaked Cas’s lover’s leg, dripping down her ankle. To her credit, she did not whimper. But she didn’t meet my gaze. She looked defiantly past me, as if she wouldn’t acknowledge the situation at hand.

I stared. A heartbeat passed. I was tempted,so tempted,to let Xinlan face her fate. I’d already saved her life once, what more could I owe her? But Tey’s blades hovered in the air, and I knew what the threat implied. The two seconds it would take me to turn, grab the Talpa, and envision the portal could be enough for one of Tey’s flying blades to sink into the soft spot of my back. And more than that, something inside me couldn’t leave Xinlan alone in the cold, dripping cave with no hope for a way out.

Half a breath had me drawing a large semi-circle in the cave’s dirt floor with the tip of my boot, and whispering “clypeus” to it. In an instant, an iridescent green flame erupted in a shield from where the line lay on the ground.

Tey lost her composure, and the blades from her armor flung themselves in our direction. Fury marred her face as they bounced harmlessly off the shield and fell at my feet.

“Come out and fight us, you coward half-breed!” Tey shouted, midnight hair swirling around her. Brita’s knife pressed harder into Xinlan’s throat, blood beading at the sharp edge. “Or I swear to thegodsI’ll have Brita gut this whore in front of your eyes!”

Xinlan shook her head slightly, despite the deepening of the wound it caused. Maybe she didn’t feel worthy of a second rescue. I swallowed, weighing my options. “There’s no reason toinvolve Xinlan in this,” I said, fighting to keep the calm in my voice. “We can work this out, the two of us.”

“Oh, the saint act again—what bullshit,” Brita said, venom dripping from her words. “How do you plan to win the Skøl? Does the princess see herself above the rest of us? Clean hands, unlike your dirty competitors?”

“Can’t you just speak a spell to stop their hearts or something?” the Talpa whispered behind me. I shook my head. Even if I could, I wouldn’t have wanted to.

Tey launched another attack, attempting to curve her flying weapons around my half-tower, but the flames licked them away, snaking and extending where needed. She growled in fury. “You have three seconds before my knife sinks into her neck. Drop the shield,now.”

“I’ll make you a deal.” I narrowed my gaze on the black-haired female shrouded in sharp points. “Hand-to-hand combat. No magic. No Brita. Just you and me and our swords.”

A sneer crossed her face, and I did what I could to remain unaffected. “A fight to the death then, eh?”

“You could say that,” I replied.

“Deal,” she said.

I smirked, unsurprised at her agreement. Above all else, she wanted my life.

The Talpa moaned behind me in quiet protest. Xinlan’s eyes were dull as she slumped to the ground, Brita no longer holding her up. Blood trickled down her leg, staining the dusty floor.

“Lower your shield,” Tey said, stepping towards us.

---