Page 222 of Glow of the Everflame

A hushed gasp sounded from the spectators. Rhon paused, then chuckled as he mistook it for a clue that he had found my hiding place.

“If you want that Crown, you’re going to have to fight me eventually,” he taunted.

I stopped behind him, then unfolded my palm and held it to my lips.

“I already have the Crown.”

Rhon whipped to face me, and with one strong puff of air, I sent a cloud of the sand I’d been hiding flying into his bulging eyes.

He screamed and doubled over, clutching at his face. “You’ll pay for that! I’ll make you suffer before I let you die.”

Somewhere, my father nodded and smiled.

I froze as Rhon’s shield flickered, then vanished around him. He was too distracted with the painful grit of sand under his eyelids to keep it intact.

This was it. He was completely vulnerable—I could kill him now, walk away with my throne, and live to fight another day.

The audience was riotous, screaming for me to finish him, despite having egged him on to do the same to me mere moments ago.

I looked over at Luther and saw the hope in his eyes. He pointed at Rhon and mouthed, “Now! Do it now!”

The thunder of my pulse in my ears drowned out the crowd as I thrust my hands out toward Rhon.

And still, nothing happened.

“Come on,” I whispered, shaking my hands as if the magic might come tumbling out. “Do something.”

Rhon cracked an eye open and saw me towering above him. He launched into me before I could run, tackling me to the ground. I rolled with his momentum and managed to pin him beneath me, but when shadows began to leak from his palms, I let him go and scrambled backward.

Panic took form like a weight in my chest. All the tricks and strategy in the world wouldn’t win this fight if I couldn’t summon an attack to kill him.

I threw my shield up and took off sprinting. Tiny explosions of sand burst into the air at my feet. I ducked behind barrier after barrier, but Rhon’s onslaught never relented. One at a time, each of them shattered into pieces.

I dove behind a pile of thick branches, knowing it would only win me a few seconds’ reprieve.

Answer me, I begged thevoice.I need you.

No answer came.

A pool of hazy shadows crept beneath the logs and launched them into the air, leaving me fully exposed with no other barricade nearby. I darted to one side, then another, penned in by dark tendrils that whipped around me until I was completely surrounded.

Rhon’s thin lips twisted into a sinister grin. The fog of his magic coated my shield and beat against it with a horde of swinging fists. Though my barrier held strong, I felt every punch pummeling me deeper into the ground.

I was trapped. If I didn’t move, my only hope was that he would run out his magic before I did—and I would pay with my life if I was wrong.

His dark magic grew so thick that it blotted out the sky around me, and soon I was in a dome of pitch black. I sank to my knees, my mind racing for a solution.

I reached inside myself and fumbled for some scrap of power that would answer my call. I couldfeelit waiting, listening, watching, like it had still not yet seen enough to warrant its presence.

Every other time I had been in true distress, it had come to me like a guardian angel—or perhaps a vengeful demon.

It had risen, on its own, to call me to the fight, demanding that I surrender myself to its power. And now, here I was, ready to wave a white flag and give myself over to it completely—but this time, it would not come.

“You’re supposed to protect me,” I hissed. “Why won’t you answer me?”

The shadows dissipated from the top of my shield until I was once more visible to the crowd, though still ensnared within a ring of inky, walloping fists.

Rhon watched me with narrowed eyes and a creased brow. “Why aren’t you attacking?”

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