Page 74 of A Queen Of Broken Realms
I sheathe my sword and start to cross.
The first steps are easy, a row of narrow panels that shift and bump into one another. I hold the frayed ropes and make a mental note to add little hidden thumb tacks to them next time.Ifthere’s a next time. Maybe I can see some of the merits in this gladiatorial battle if I can throw in irritating mini booby traps. I’m thinking about a paper-cut obstacle when my foot slips on one of the larger platforms, causing it to twist a few degrees back and forth. The platform pitches forward and I grasp the ropes to regain my balance without issue, but it must look worse than it is, because I feel a surge of worry in my mark from Ashen. He’s managed to keep his anxiety as a steady hum, but now it burns in my skin.
I jump to the next platform.
Pyrrhus calls my name.
The crowd drowns anything else he tries to say.
A heavy weight crashes against my back and I slam down on my belly on the platform. My breath flees my lungs. The board twists and sways violently, dropping a few inches on one side as part of the rope snaps. I manage to keep my grip on the wooden edge with one hand as I clutch the base of the rope next to my hip with the other.
The weight lifts a fraction from my back as the platform steadies. I feel a tug on the strap that holds my sword to my back. Someone is trying to take my weapon. Mypoisonedweapon. The one that could kill me too.Permanently.
This is a risk I knew I had to take. I had to make the stakes high enough. I can’t win this realm with half measures. I’ll never believe I’m worthy otherwise.
Except… I didn’t say I’d playcompletelyfair. Though I feel a rough tug at my back as my opponent tries to free the handle from thesaya, it doesn’t budge.
Ediye spelled the weapon to only release with my touch.
“Fucking vampire slut,” Joash sneers as I thrash beneath him, unsteadying the platform as he tries again to tug the sword free.
“Fucking demon douchebag.” An inferno of heat burns beneath my mark and I grit my teeth against the pain. I guess Ashen’s just realized I also had Ediye use her magic to bind him to his chair. “Though I guess I should thank you for coaxing the wings out again.”
I whip mykaikenfrom the sheath strapped to my leg and cut the rope beside my hip with a single slice.
The left side of the board falls but I stay gripped to its edge. Joash manages to clutch mysayaand we both sway with the broken bridge as it swings above the acid.
I’m not strong enough to hold us both.
A determined growl rumbles in my throat as I sheathe my dagger and grip on to the edge of the platform with both hands. I kick my legs, trying to dislodge the demon on my back.
“Get off,” I hiss. “You’ll only go back to the Resurrection Chamber.”
“If I go, I’m taking you with me,” he grits out behind me. I glance over my shoulder with narrowed eyes as he laughs. “How do you know there’s not a guard there willing to give you an everlasting death, even at the expense of their own? The archer nearly succeeded inImha, didn’t he. He was part of theShub Lugal.”
Shit. He’s got a point. Joash laughs again as uncertainty and fear twist in my guts. Ashen feels it, his own panic and fury molten in my skin.
I firm up my grasp on the edge of the platform and thrash again, but Joash holds on. The rope creaks as we twist and swing. Fibers snap.
“Just let go, little slut,” Joash goads. The scent of acid burns my nostrils with every breath. “I promise it will only be agonizing for a few moments…this time.”
“She’s got other plans, wretch.”
I look up and Pyrrhus is there, clutching a broken board he must have pulled free from the railing at the landing. He smashes the splintered end into Joash’s face, hitting him over and over until finally he must damage something painful enough that Joash’s grip falters. His weight is suddenly free from my back and there’s a splash beneath me. I look down as he thrashes in gurgling agony, his flesh melting, slipping from his bones like heated wax. The scent of rendering skin bursts in hot bubbles.
“Reach, your grace,” Pyrrhus says above me, drawing my attention away as Joash sinks deeper into the smoky yellow liquid. Pyrrhus is lying on the next platform, his body hanging off the edge with the arm of his broken hand braced around its rope. His other is extended for me to take. “I will not let you fall.”
It’s the most unexpected thing that I feel the sting of tears in this moment when I look at Pyrrhus. It’s the determination on his face. The promise in his voice. Even if I’ve changed no one else’s mind about me, maybe I’ve changed his. He could still take my hand and let me go, but I trust myself enough to trust in him.
I reach for Pyrrhus’s hand. He hauls me up.
When we stand, hearts pounding and lungs burning, we look at one another for a moment that feels captured in a bubble of time. There’s a ghost of a smile in Pyrrhus’s face. A look of pride.
I surge forward and wrap him in a tight hug. The bubble bursts in the glory of the crowd as their cheers cascade into the pit. They chant his name. They chant mine. But he still hears me when I saythank you. He nods against my shoulder, his chest a little bigger than before.
We part and cross the last of the bridge, then descend the stairs on the other side. Ashen’s relief cools the edges of my mark. There’s pride as well, and gratitude. And still plenty of rage, presumably for being magically strapped to a chair.
There are only two more turns and a final booby trap before we reach the far wall of the maze. I let Pyrrhus climb the small pedestal first, and he reaches for me to join him. We keep our hands clasped as we look across the audience. The demons are on their feet for us. They wave their hands. They shout. Three words bound through the chamber, echoing from the black stone.
