Page 40 of No Greater Sorrow

“Aleja, give me the heart. You want to get out of here as much as I do, don’t you?” Violet said softly.

“I’m sorry, Vi. I can’t do that.”

Garm clicked his teeth in warning, and Violet’s eyes shot to him. Aleja couldn’t tell if her wide-eyed confusion was genuine or another careful façade. For one horrible moment, Aleja’s leg muscles tensed as if Violet was about to attack her. If it were anyone else, it would have been suicide to lunge at someone who could effortlessly summon fire from her hands, but perhaps Violetknewthat Aleja wouldn’t try to burn her—even in the face of betrayal.

“Listen, I need to be the one to—” Violet began. Her gaze returned to Aleja, but she held her left arm slightly away from her body, as if she’d be able to fend Garm off should he lunge.

“Don’t,” Aleja snapped. “If you speak about the Trial, we fail.”

“I don’t want to have to do this, Al.Pleasegive me the heart.”

Aleja opened her mouth, ready to tell Violet to shut up and let them figure this out another way, but a blow came low, hard, and unexpected. It was Garm, driving into Aleja’s back. She stumbled, the glass heart flying from her hands. Even with the shock of pain, Aleja was overwhelmed with a single thought: Violet hadn’t been pleading with her. She’d beendistractingAleja, and Garm too.

“Shit,” Aleja spat, catching a glimpse of what had forced Garm into motion. The Second’s statue shattered, and the creature that’d burst forth from it was easily recognizable in her peripheral vision.

An Avisai.

Garm was moving before Aleja could command him. When he pounced on the dragon, he was no longer in the form of a young Doberman. She hadn’t seen him like this since the first night they’d met—a fully grown hellhound with blazing eyes. The Avisai screamed as Garm collided with its torso.

The heart. Aleja had to get the heart.

Violet dove for it too.

Aleja let out a spit of flame, forcing Violet to the side. It bought Aleja enough time to close the distance between them and snatch the heart for herself, but Violet was on her in an instant.

The glass was heated from the fire; it must have burned Violet’s hands, but she struggled against Aleja with surprising force. With the Second’s well water in her veins, Violet was the physically stronger of the two of them.

“You have to let me—” Violet groaned, as she attempted to wrench the heart away.

Aleja’s palms heated again, and she tried to channel the temperature into the glass. The magic didn’t hurt Aleja, but Violet…

“Fuck,” she hissed, forced to draw her hands back.

The first Avisai—kept at bay by Garm—was no longer their only problem. The Third’s statue creaked to life with jerky twitches. As it burst open, another dragon shook its way out of the marble like a hatchling from an egg. Except this hatchling was fully grown and steady on its legs, both of which were tipped with vicious claws. Garm might be able to hold one off, but not two. The second Avisai took to the sky, but Aleja knew it wouldn’t remain there for long.

It was such a distraction that she didn’t have the chance to flinch when Violet punched her in the face. A yelp left Aleja as her nose erupted with blood, but she couldn’t stop moving, not when Violet had the heart. This time, Aleja didn’t hold back with her flames. She aimed for the ground at Violet’s side and let out a torrent that would be enough to blister her skin from the proximity alone. Violet stumbled with a gasp of pain.

Blood ran into her mouth as she tackled Violet again. “Don’t make me do it, Vi.Don’t make me hurt you.”

“You don’t understand. It has to be me,” Violet sputtered as she struggled beneath Aleja’s weight.

The second dragon swooped down on them, veering off course at the last second when Aleja sent a burst of fire in its direction.

Don’t give in, her inner self whispered.Play the game.It’s what the Second wanted.

But what game was it? Aleja thought frantically. It couldn’t be… this betrayal. The Second would want the Dark Saints to work together. He would want them to trust each other. “Here. I’ll distract them,” she spat, pressing the glass heart against Violet’s chest.

Fool. You’re going to get yourself killed.

Violet’s face was unreadable. “Wait, Al...”

But Aleja’s mind was made up. Fire roared to life around her left hand, briefly reflected in Violet’s green eyes. Aleja aimed it at the circling dragon. Violet scrambled away with the glass heart pressed tightly against her chest as she used her free hand to pull herself up the First’s body.

Aleja heard the click of the heart locking into place. Garm hulked in her peripheral vision, but as soon as the heart was in place, both Avisai collapsed. There was a deep rumble from the First’s statue and its pedestal opened like a pair of cellar doors, revealing a roughhewn passage descending into the ground.

Garm was back at Aleja’s side in an instant, still in his hellhound form. His furious gaze was locked on Violet, who stared at the singed grass at her feet as if hoping the earth would swallow her. A small piece of paper trembled in her hands as she held it toward Aleja without making eye contact. “I’m sorry. I can explain everything,” she whispered.

“Shut up. You can’t say anything without breaking the rules, and I don’t want to hear it anyway. You did what you needed to do. Let’s just go into the fucking tunnel and get it over with.”

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