Page 18 of Fae Champion

I was trying to read the shadows of his expressions and failing. “You too. You’re the one who still has to fight today.”

He nodded slowly as if to say my fight for the day wasn’t yet over. I stiffened, glancing over my shoulder as if the walls might reveal their hidden dangers.

“Come on, man. Time to hit it,” West said. “You can visit her later.”

Rush jerked his head toward his friend. “It’s my job to protect her,” he snapped defensively. “The queenandking both ordered me to do it.”

West put his hands up in surrender. “Whoa, Rush. Yeah, okay. I know.”

But I couldn’t shake the feeling that whatever they knew, I didn’t.

Ryder’s hand landed on my shoulder, and Rush glared at him next.

“Sorry, Elowyn,” Ryder said, “but we need to take your weapons too.”

I considered resisting, but what would be the point? The queen hadmagicshe could use against me. Whatever power I had, I still didn’t know exactly, but it surely wouldn’t be a match for her arsenal. Better not to upset her for nothing.

I handed over the throwing stars and knives, sword, morning star, and went to reach for my daggers. But Rush shook his head, stilling my hand with his own.

“Hide them,” he mouthed.

I breathed in my relief. At least I’d have something to protect myself with, even if it was a spindly twig to the queen’s mighty, towering oak.

“I hope you all kick some major ass,” I told them as they filed out. Rush was last to go, studying me as if he were memorizing my features. It sparked a new wave of unease within me.

Before I was ready to be left entirely alone in this little room, Rush drew the door closed behind them, and it snicked shut. No sooner had they left, I tested it. No surprise, it wouldn’t budge.

If it hadn’t been plain I was a prisoner before, it was clear now.

The hours dragged by with agonizing slowness as I wondered how Rush was faring in his fight. How Hiroshi, West, Ryder, and Roan were doing. Had they defeated their opponents to advance to the next round? Had the queen ordered them to behead someone, and if so, had they done it? Worse, had they been the ones to lose, and had they lost more than the competition? Had they lost their lives to the queen’s capricious whims?

I should have been there to observe the weaknesses of my future opponents in the Gladius Probatio. I suspected the queen was intentionally depriving me of every advantage.

After I’d done my best to scrub clean, I longed with true desperation for a great book to distract me from my worries. At that point, I would have settled for anything that would allow me to pretend my life wasn’t in the hands of a madwoman.

As the light beyond my narrow window began to dim, footsteps shuffled outside in the hallway. No one spoke and there were no sounds other than a few opening doors, some rustling. The human slaves rousing from sleep and preparing for another night of work, I guessed.

When twilight fully descended, the single orb in my room brightened enough to reveal the hairline cracks in the damp stone walls and floor. Unlike thegentle lilac satin finish of my bedchamber above ground, this was truly depressing.

My stomach ached with hunger, but still nobody came to check on me. I tried the door again, even the window that was too small for me to climb through, to no avail. All it did was reveal how easily I could be forgotten down here. How I could waste away in secret.

The queen was ever so fond of her secrets…

I paced the ten-by-twelve-foot space until the constant turning made me too aware of my confinement. Then I did whatever strength exercises I could fit into the room, until I had to freshen up again at the sink, all the while longing for the bath in my rooms.

Eventually I lay down in a vain attempt to get my mind to settle, and quiet my complaining, empty stomach—to stop thinking about Rush and his uncertain fate, or whether Xeno and Saffron might be somewhere on the level beneath me, and if I’d ever get the king to confess my mother’s identity. What happened in the arena when I touched the earth? Why did my stab wound close and scab?

I’d fallen into a fitful sleep when the door finally swung open. I reached for the blade beneath my hard pillow while I sprung to sitting.

“Pru,” I breathed, releasing my grip on the blade. The goblin entered hurriedly—but not fast enough. A bloody, severed ear zipped in behind her before she pushed the door closed—but not all the way.

I alternated between looking at her, the ear, the ajar door, and the food she carried in her knobby hands.

Reaching for the plate, I rose from the bed. The simple meal of bread, cheese, and fruit had never looked so delicious. I tore into the thickly sliced, crusty bread while patting the bed beside me. “Oh, my sunshine.” I moaned at that first bite. “Damn, Pru. I’m so freaking glad you came by. I’m so hungry I could eat dragon scales.”

The fruit was ripe, colorful, and shiny—a plum, handful of grapes, and an orange. The cheese was rich, smooth, and creamy, the bread, soft and fresh. I groaned my delight as I sampled everything … before noticing that Pru was standing by my bed, staring at the empty spot beside me.

“What? What is it?” I asked, joining her in studying the threadbare blanket—gray to match the blah theme of the room despite the vibrant colors of the upper floors of the palace.

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