Page 49 of The King of Frost and Shadows

The eight men jerked their attention to me and realized I’d attacked them.

“It’s the sunscorched!” the blue-haired man shouted as if no one else was aware.

Okay, I hadn’t quite thought this through.

Two men climbed onto the platform with the swinging axes as I bent down and picked up two more exploding rocks to fling at them.

“Bran, we need to get down!” a dusky-haired woman said loudly. “She’s going to knock the tower down.”

The blue-haired man turned to her and scowled. “She can’t possibly hit it again.”

Wanting them to see I meant business, I slipped another rock into the slingshot. I aimed for Bran again. This time, I hit the tower platform right at his feet, causing the side closest to me to tremble.

“We got it!” someone exclaimed.

I turned toward the axes. The taller man was holding the feet of a dark-green-haired man and lowering him from the upper platform to grab a similar bundle of weapons as those on the spring platform. Once the dark-green-haired man had the weapons in his hands, he tossed them five feet away to a woman with the same color of hair as him. She caught the weapons and removed a bow and arrow then turned to shoot at three men barreling toward her. She fired in rapid succession, and the men thumped lifelessly to the ground.

Once the dark-green-haired man was back up on the platform, he patted the other man’s back and laughed before giving the guy a huge shove. The bigger man tried offsetting the push but couldn’t, and he fell into the quicksand below.

The woman with matching hair laughed so hard she hunched over.

These people were worse than I’d expected.

I had to get away from them now that they had weapons, so I turned to go back to the other side of the arena near the spring platform, but the man using the two bodies as his shields had gotten his own weapons.

My heart thundered so loudly that I couldn’t hear the cries. Now that all the weapons had been claimed, they were all focused on me.

There was only one thing I could do, get to the platform and figure out a way to remain on it as it sprang up. Maybe I could use my slingshot to hold on to the edge or tie it to whatever it was that secured the rope that had bound the weapons.

I ran toward the rising platform, keeping close to the edge of the coliseum. As I rounded the spot where the spiked ice and platform were, ahisscame from beside me.

My feet dug into the dirt, and gray gas rose from a vent in the ground.

What the hell wasthis?

The gas funneled quickly, swirling around me, and my body did something that terrified me.

16

LIRA

Each breath burned my lungs, and my legs quivered like Jell-O. The same tightening sensation I had during my nightmares dominated my body.

I needed to get out of here. If the gas was causing this reaction, it would get worse the longer I stayed in it.

Gritting my teeth, I forced my legs to move, and I could’ve sworn I was treading in water with the air resisting like waves and holding me back. But this wasn’t comforting like water.Thiswas me struggling to control my own body.

When my right foot touched the ground and I put weight on it, I crumpled. I landed with a thud, dropping the quiver of arrows as pieces of rock and dirt flew into my eyes.

I sucked in a breath, trying to get my bearings, and my lungs caught fire. The pain intensified so that even shallow breaths hurt. Images of dark shadows crept into my mind.

My body tensed, and my heart rate skyrocketed. I searched for signs of Eldrin hiding in the shadows. I didn’t doubt he’d use the gas to blend in and attack me, even in front of an audience. With the ruthlessness of the Unseelie fae, I suspected the others would urge him on.

The gas thickened, and I couldn’t see my hands in front of me. My lungs stopped expanding, and everything inside felt as if it were on fire. This was worse than any nightmare I’d ever had. If Eldrin wanted to attack me, I’d never see him coming.

Remaining here wasn’t an option. I could die if I didn’t find a way out of the gas.

Not wanting to leave empty-handed, I clutched the slingshot and felt around for the quiver of arrows. My hand touched only rock and dirt until something pricked my finger.

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