Page 43 of Once the Skies Fade

Nodding, I answered his earlier question. “I did, yes.”

“Why?” another male asked, one of the Arenysen five.

I didn’t bother to ask his name before answering. “It was the right thing to do.”

A bark of a laugh came from the window. Korben’s stare intensified. He shoved his hands into his pockets and lifted his chin. “Right or not, what happened to warrant such an act?”

Whispers filled the room as the others insisted on knowing the answer to that too.

I recounted the situation just as I had to the general, and when I finished, some of the males shrugged and turned away. I guess my story wasn’t as deliciously scandalous as they had hoped.

“You’re lucky,” one of the Arenysen five said, shaking his head of blond curls, his baby blue eyes wide.

“What do you mean?” I asked, though I had a decent guess.

One of his companions—a tall, slim male with a hooked nose like a hawk—spoke first. “You know what her shadows are capable of, right?”

Slowly, I nodded, looking around the room at the males who still studied me. “So?” I asked, but even as I uttered the word, that damned image snapped into my head of Gabriel being cut down on that old battlefield by a different Shadow Keeper’s magic.

Silence answered my question, and I angled my head quizzically at the gathered males. “If you’re all so afraid of her shadows, why enter this tournament?”

I certainly didn’t expect honest responses from them all—stars, I couldn’t give a truthful reason myself—but I wasn’t prepared for what each male said.

The five from Arenysen shared a quick glance before answering in unison, “The Assembly made us.”

Seb and Rhett, on the other hand, both viewed this as an opportunity they couldn’t pass up, while Beck entered to save his family who struggled to make enough to live on. Winning the Arenysen crown would keep them fed for the rest of their lives.

Oryn merely shrugged, as if he’d entered out of boredom.

Korben snorted out a laugh—he seemed to do that a lot—before sharing how he’d been selected by his hometown as punishment for all the trouble he’d caused. Something in theback of my mind clicked as I recalled the mayor of Linley requesting royal aid to keep some uncouth rascal from pursuing his daughter.

Only one male remained unmoved from his original spot by the dais, silently staring at the rest of us as if we were muck he had just wiped from his boot. He seemed less a warrior than even the small-framed Beck, and from the paleness of his skin, I imagined he rarely stepped foot outside. I couldn’t fathom how he expected to fare well in the upcoming trials; though again, I had no idea what they had in store for us. The hint of cockiness in this male’s slight smile piqued my curiosity. He was obviously from Arenysen, as he too had silver ivy leaves adorning his sleeves, and he was quite comfortable assuming a position so close to the royal thrones. Whoever he was, he acted as though he held an advantage over the rest of us.

I lifted my chin as I eyed him. “And what of you? What’s your name? Where are you from?”

The male blinked slowly like my questions exhausted him, but his dark, steely eyes remained fixed on me. His suspicion was almost palpable, but when he finally spoke, his voice was cordial, sweet even.

I didn’t like it.

“Graham Harrison, advisor to the royal family of Arenysen.”

Seb angled himself around Rhett and asked, “So are you here as an advisor or—” He stopped short when Graham shook his head.

“No, I will be competing, same as you,” he answered, his lips curling up into a half-yet-genuine-enough smile.

“How is that fair?” Korben asked bitterly. Several around me nodded along as they watched Graham.

But it wasn’t Graham who answered. Instead a confident voice—light yet commanding—pulled our attention to the doorbehind me where General Isa now stood, her hand resting lightly on her sword’s pommel.

“I assure you all that Mr. Harrison will be receiving no preferential treatment in these games.” She paused to land her stern glare on the advisor-turned-suitor, as if she were silently scolding him. “As you may have noticed, our thirteenth entrant has not arrived by the deadline, leaving us with you dozen. If there are no further questions, we are ready to complete the official registration. Follow me.”

Korben moved first and the others all fell into line behind him. Graham and I brought up the rear, and I gestured graciously for him to go ahead of me, but he stopped short and angled his head.

“I don’t trust you,” he said quietly, his tone uncomfortably casual for his words.

I shrugged. “It would be odd if you did.”

He dropped a heavy hand to my shoulder, and I frowned down at it.

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