Page 84 of Fae Champion

“How can Azariah announce the tie if he can’t breathe?” I asked Rush urgently under my breath.

But the ear picked up my question anyway. A moment later, the queen’s voice hissed, “He doesn’t. Rules are rules. We can’t defy the magic.”

“Youaredefying the magic,” I grumbled across a breath, panting with frustration. “That’s the problem.” Youare the freaking problem.

Rush leaned into Azariah and braced his legs as he prepared to take on more weight than I imagined he could hold. Azariah wobbled, his eyes glassy and nowempty of that earlier terror. His tail and mane drooped; his front legs buckled, bending at the knee, and he roughly fell onto them, Rush nearly crushed as he backed his legs out of the way and then immediately pressed his weight into Azariah’s side to keep him from toppling.

The crowd was breathless. Even the orchestra stopped its squeaks and discordant tuning.

In my desperation for something to do, any way to save the beautiful creature, I looked blankly toward the dugout, searching within my harried thoughts for some solution.

Roan Drum perched anxiously against a column, and he caught my eye. Those limpid green irises of his brightened as he nodded his encouragement.

But to do what, I had no idea.

“He’s dying,” Rush grumbled. “I’m going into his mind to see if I can get it to force his body to breathe.” His eyes lost focus, but Azariah was already going limp beneath him.

“Do it, lassie,” the dwarf shouted. “Don’t wait. Do it now.”

Whateveritmight be, I still wasn’t sure, so I didn’t think, didn’t second-guess whatever might come out of me. I felt into whatever power was heating me and making my skin glow like one of Pru’s orbs, sprinted to the other side of Azariah’s body to leave Rush to do his thing, and smacked both hands to the unisus’ furry coat.

It was damp and matted with his sweat.

I sucked in a deep breath and shouted, “The magic of the Fae Heir Trials has determined that there are two winners of the Gladius Probatio.”

Shocked gasps floated toward me from the dancers and orchestra.

“Don’t you dare—” the queen’s voice began.

I didn’t so much as look up at her as I yelled, “The Gladius Probatio has ended in a tie. The two winners are Drake Rush Vega of Amarantos, and me, Elowyn Xiomara Ashira of Embermere.”

My hands heated, their luminescence spreading across Azariah’s side, quickly coating his prone body in that identical golden yellow.

“Xiomara?” I heard someone whisper in amazement, that I shared a name with the queen’s mother, but I strained my ears for Azariah’s breath.

The glow finished its circuit around him and began to fade.

“Oh no, it’s not working,” I groaned, unsure why I’d thought it would in the first place. “Rush, get him to breathe!”

“I’m trying,” Rush muttered, his face pinched with effort.

Azariah’s body went slack and he rolled toward me. I leapt out of the way, snatching my hands away. Rush nearly toppled on top of the unisus as he knelt next to him, pushing his power into his mind.

I stared at Azariah’s chest with fierce intensity.Come on, breathe,dammit, breathe.

“No,” a dancer uttered while another let out a garbled cry.

Stunned silence swept around the arena like a harsh, unforgiving winter gale.

Then—

Azariah sucked in a breath that sounded like he was dragging it across an eternity of rough stones.

His eyes popped open—and seared into mine.

24.A WILD HORSE WHO’S GLIMPSED THE INSIDE OF A CAGE

Chests heaving as if we’d been the ones starved of breath, Rush and I stared at each other across Azariah’s prone body until aides sprinted out onto the field, cloud cover scattering in their wake. We stepped back to make room for the full-sized fairies when they slid to a stop next to the unisus and began examining him from head to hoof, pretending they had no idea what had caused him to go down, that they hadn’t noticed their queen was so very willing to put her petulant wishes above the survival of her subjects.

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