Page 10 of A Fate of Wings

He cracked his knuckles. “And I’ll use your wings as a blanket to sleep the night away knowing I’d bested a demon.”

“High hopes there for an ogre.”

He lunged for me, his large hands, hairs on the knuckles, extended ready to wrap around my throat, but I flew into the sky with an instant flare of my wings. Before I could land, two siren guards had slapped a set of manacles around his wrists and were hauling him down the stairs. Another pair of siren guards flew up to me.

“I did nothing,” I said. There was no way I’d let them haul me off to wherever they were taking the ogre. I had a competition to win and a siren to claim.

“We saw. The queen won’t punish or banish you like the ogre,” she said, flapping her feathered wings in a hover motion.

“You kicked him out of the trials?”

“Yes. The queen’s orders are explicit that no contestant is to be killed during the trials. As such, if a contestant threatens another contestant, then their actions will have consequences.”

One less contestant to beat off the list. I’d beat them all.

“Return to your seat now. The day’s battles are almost at an end.”

“Then what? We sit in our cells until tomorrow’s battles?”

“Yes, tomorrow you will pit your skills with the bow and arrow against each other.” She waved her hand at the stadium.

I flew back down to my seat, but instead of sitting, I stood and stared at the beauty of my fated mate.

The next day, they led three of us into the colosseum at a time. No one ever came back, so I assumed the winners could once again sit and watch the following matches. A cool sweat slicked my skin. I wasn’t the best archer. My brother was ten times better than me and I’d have to focus on all he’d taught me to pass this next trial. Otherwise, I’d have to make a snatch-and-grab for the siren queen and convince her in other ways she was my mate. Those ways would be preferable, but so would winning her against all these other immortal men.

Guards led me, the wolf shifter, and a pixie to the arena. A cheer rippled through the crowd of sirens. The wolf shifter, in human form today, was an attractive male. So was the pixie. Each waved to the crowd as though they were waving to their adoring fans. I rolled my eyes. Stupid. The sirens weren’t cheering because they were fans. No, the women were cheering because they loved the battle.

I selected a bow and arrow and tested the air. A slight breeze blew across the arena. On the other side stood three of the other contestants, a bowl balanced on their heads. I kept my shock from showing on my face. An interesting turn of events putting the winners in harm’s way. A test of not only our skills as archers, but a way to test our resolve to not kill our competition.

If I’d wanted to annihilate everyone, I would have already, but my soon-to-be mate wanted to test me, so I’d let her. Well, as far as I could if it didn’t put us in any jeopardy.

The pixie cursed under his breath. In front of him stood the man who I’d heard heckling from the cell beside his last night. Opposite the wolf shifter stood a mage. His palms flickered with luminous power as he held the bowl over his head. Across from me stood a tiny woodland gnome.

“Are you shitting me?” I muttered.

The gnome was so small, he barely reached my knees. For me to shoot arrows at him, I’d be shooting downward, making it almost impossible to not kill him. Maybe I’d got on the wrong side of the guards yesterday taunting the ogre. Either way, I’d never know.

I notched my arrow.

One guard leading us spoke. “If it isn’t obvious, then you need to shoot the fruit from the bowls. First one to shoot all the fruit without killing their target wins.”

Shit. It was a timed competition, too. I sucked in a steadying breath and raised the bow and arrow.

“Ready, aim, fire,” she yelled.

I snapped an arrow off. It sailed through the air, but I didn’t have time to wait and see if the arrow landed true. I reloaded and fired at the next piece of fruit. Three pieces sat in the bowls. A grunt came from the heckler. An arrow protruded from his arm, but it wouldn’t kill him. The pixie was good for now, but if his aim got worse than he’d kill the other man.

Not my problem. My first two arrows sunk true, knocking the fruit from the bowl and tumbling onto the dusty earth. The wolf shifter spun to face the other direction and shot an arrow at the queen.

I reacted in an instant. Wings erupted from my back, and I dove after the arrow. I was fast, but I wouldn’t catch it in time. The queen’s eyes widened as both the arrow and I headed straight for her. She dove to the side. My fingers brushed the quivers, sending the arrow off course. Not that it mattered withthe queen no longer on her throne. A guard stepped in her place, lifted a shield, and stopped the spinning arrow mid-flight. I wouldn’t be able to stop that fast. Instead, I summoned my portal power and dove first through a portal back to the Winter Court.

End over end, I tumbled on my bedroom floor.

Without stopping to recover, I summoned another portal and rushed back to the Autumn Court.

During the bare minutes I’d been absent, the guards had captured the wolf shifter and placed so many chains on him, he couldn’t move from the ground. It also meant he couldn’t shift.

I stormed over to him and growled, “You’ll pay for that.”

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