Page 74 of Once the Skies Fade

The thought hadn’t occurred to me, and I began scanning the edges of the forest for any sign of more survivors. I was still searching when Graham bounded up the steps, barely out of breath, and handed a gold medallion to Isa.

“Forty points,” Isa said, marking the amount next to his name on her roster. “Five more minutes and it would have been less. Good job, Graham.”

He started to walk toward me, but Isa stopped him with a hand on her chest and a slight shake of her head.

“Not tonight. Competitors will get to speak to Her Majesty tomorrow.”

“But—” he started to protest, swinging his gaze to me, though I avoided it, still staring at the forest.

“Those are the rules for tonight,” Isa said, sternly. She pointed to a crate beside her feet. “Return your daggers and stand aside, please.” Graham immediately obliged, pulling two blades from his belt and dropping them noisily into the bin.

I caught Isa’s attention and mouthed my gratitude. If I hadn’t had such a friend, I didn’t know how I would survive any of this.

Graham’s disappointed groan floated up to us. Two more fae—one notably larger than the other—were racing toward the castle. Isa checked her pocket watch as they reached the bottom stairs, both doubling over and panting.

“Korben. Beck,” Isa said. “Thirty points to each of you. Daggers in the bin, please.”

The smaller one—Beck—started to protest, but Korben elbowed him hard in the ribs before Isa could even lift a hand to stop him.

He looked down at his companion. “We’re late, it’s fine. We at least beat the general. He’s probably dead by now anyway.”

My stomach hollowed out, and I stepped up alongside Isa, already blurting out my question. “What do you mean? What happened to him?”

Isa rounded on me, her eyes wide and silently screaming at me to shut up and let her handle this.

Shit.

I retreated, refusing to look at any of the males gawking at me. Any attempt to explain my reaction would go ignored, no doubt. They would see it—no matter how truthful it was—as nothing but a poor excuse for my obvious favor for the stars-damned general.

“No daggers, Korben?” Isa asked, scratching away at her paper.

“Lost ’em,” he said, his eyes roving over me as he answered, sending a shudder of pinpricks up my back.

Looking back to the tree line, I pretended to be searching for more survivors, but in truth I was frantically considering what possibly could have happened to Matthias and Asher in there. Had they killed each other? I swallowed hard when I remembered Asher hadn’t been wearing a pendant. He had declined, insisting he didn’t need one as he was staying out of the trees. Had the forest caught him? How would I explain to his brothers if anything happened to him?

Vaguely I noticed the arrival of two more fae, Isa’s voice sounding muffled and far away as she noted their names: Seb and Phillip. Time passed, the skies fading into a deeper and deeper blue as we continued to wait. It was Graham’s voice that finally snapped me back to the present.

“Fifteen more minutes and he’ll have zero points, general,” he said. Isa didn’t respond. “Longer than that and he’s disqualified.”

Isa shifted her eyes to him. “Yes, I’m aware.”

The five males swiveled their heads toward the main road again, but it was empty. I swallowed hard, cursing the damned Emeryn general in my head. If he hadn’t been such a prick, he wouldn’t have had Asher trying to kill him…and seemingly succeeding.

I couldn’t wait and watch any longer. Dropping my hand to Isa’s shoulder, I gestured toward the door and she nodded in understanding. My presence here had no bearing on the outcome of the trial, and I didn’t want to deal with the inevitable gloating from the other males when Matthias failed.

As soon as my fingers touched the door’s handle, though, a loud gasp brought my head spinning back around. Two of the males were pointing, but I couldn’t see around everyone. Isa lifted her hand to her mouth. Quickly I came up beside her.

“What is it?”

“Asher,” she whispered, lifting one finger away from her lips to point toward our friend.

Stepping forward, I pushed past the others—ignoring Graham’s feeble attempt to reach out and stop me. Asher, still in dragon form, lumbered up to me. His eyes were glassy from exhaustion as they shifted up toward his back. Lowering his body to the ground, he dropped the wing closest to me to reveal Matthias lying there, motionless. Even in the dim light, I could see the pulse at his neck, but it seemed much too slow and weak.

Somewhere behind me Isa called for guards to come quickly and take the general to the healers.

“What happened?” I asked, though I knew neither of them could answer me in their current states.

Asher let out a slight rumbling sound as he nudged my hands with his front foot. Lifting it higher, he held it over my hands, and it took me a moment to realize he was trying to hand me something. I opened my palms and nearly choked when from his grasp fell a heavy gold medallion.

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