Page 70 of The Blood Traitor

Kiva’s heart stopped as Naari stumbled and barely managed to raise her arm in time, her prosthetic hand taking the brunt of the spiked weapon’s attack. Another tug of the chain and, unbalanced, she was forced down to her knees, leaving her in a dangerous position — one that, while her sole focus was on protecting herself from the freckled woman’s follow-up blow, meant she was wide open for the golden warrior to slash her sword straight toward her unguarded back.

It was a lethal strike.

But it never made contact, because Kiva arrived just in time to intercept the attack, blocking the woman’s blade. Acting on instinct, she thrust her dagger upward, intending to force the warrior back in order to give Naari a chance to regain her feet and take over again.

But the golden warrior misinterpreted Kiva’s move and dashed forward rather than away, twisting to the wrong side —

And causing the upward trajectory of Kiva’s dagger to plunge straight into her chest.

The warrior’s crystal blue eyes widened with shock, mirroring Kiva’s own horrified gaze, the two of them looking slowly down together to see the blade protruding from her torso.

Time stopped, and then the woman was falling, her blood spilling onto the sand to pool beneath where her body came to rest.

A choked sound left Kiva as she gaped down at the golden warrior, her now-blank eyes staring into nothing.

Kiva was no stranger to death. Whether from illness, injury, or undue violence, she’d witnessed far more than her share of people fading into the everworld, especially during her time at Zalindov. Butcausingsomeone’s death?

Kiva had never killed anyone before.

Slick, warm blood covered her hands. They weren’t trembling now — they were frozen.Shewas frozen.

Peripherally, she was aware of the roaring crowd, of Naari still fighting the freckled woman, of Ashlyn and Cresta pushing forward in their magical battle, with the wind anomaly downed and only the ginger-haired anomaly and her flames remaining. But try as she might, Kiva couldn’t take her eyes off the blood-soaked sand and the warrior with a dagger buried in her chest —Kiva’sdagger.

Everything that happened next was a blur. Naari finally dispatched her opponent and hurried over with dread in her eyes, before she patted Kiva down and realized the blood didn’t belong to her.

Shock, Kiva realized — she was in shock.

Naari soon figured out the same and gave Kiva a rough shake that did little good.

But then Cresta was there, with her and Ashlyn having succeeded against the fire anomaly, their final opponent. The ex-quarrier didn’t hesitate to repeat her action from earlier and slap Kiva across the face.

“Snap out of it,” she ordered. “You’ve seen worse than this, a thousand times over.”

Kiva had.

But she’d never been responsible for it.

“Cresta,” Ashlyn barked when the ex-quarrier raised her hand to slap Kiva again. “Leave her.”

Naari was standing close enough that Kiva could hear her labored breaths. She was also swaying slightly, and that was what finally pulled Kiva’s gaze away from the golden warrior. Seeing all the wounds Naarihad sustained, Kiva unconsciously reached out to heal her, but the guard saw what she intended and scrambled backwards.

For one second, Kiva was blinded by hurt. She’d justkilled someoneto save Naari, and still the guard hated her enough to reject her touch. But then Kiva pushed through the haze of her shock and remembered Naari’s warning — that if the kings witnessed her magic, they’d never allow her to leave.

Quickly, Kiva fisted her hands, burying the power she’d instinctively begun to summon. Naari would have to wait to be healed — as would Ashlyn and Cresta, both of whom were covered in burns and minor lacerations, along with raw grazes from wind-whipped sand.

They were hurt, but alive.

All of them.

Kiva didn’t let her eyes drop to the ground, where the six warrior-women lay.

Kill or be killed, Naari had said.

They’d done what was needed to survive.

But even so, Kiva couldn’t ignore the guilt she felt — nor could she forget the stunned look of horror on the golden warrior’s face as the life had drained from her.

Bile burned the back of Kiva’s throat, but she swallowed it down, knowing she couldn’t reveal what she was feeling — not here, with thousands of people watching. She had to remain strong, just for a few more minutes.

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