Page 43 of Trial of the Thunder Moon

“If anyone gets to kill her, it should be me,” Blaise said over my shoulder, stepping between Darnell and me.

“If I remember correctly, you failed at that yesterday. Twice,” he hissed.

Blaise only smirked at him, toying with one of her knives. But when she turned back to me, I could see the fury sparking in her eyes.

“How’s Val?” I said, keeping my voice low.

“Fucking pissed. But not hurt,” Blaise added, and I smiled. That sounded about right. I kind of missed that bitchy bleach-blond vampire, and I was so rooting for her and Blaise to be together.

Before we could say anything else, Merden shooed away her noble pets and stood, clapping her hands for quiet. I tuned out as she rambled on and recapped the rules - like we could forget them in less than twenty-four hours. When the mist began to move, I fastened my attention on it.

It swirled past Kassian without stopping, pausing for a long, breathless moment in front of Luca. Then it inched along the length of the table, finally settling around Darnell’s shoulders like a cape. He grinned and stood tall, striding toward the pit as the mist trailed behind him, keeping the effect.

“Like he’s the fucking chosen one,” Jillian griped.

The crowd was restless with gossip and speculation as the mist slowly drifted back to the table. It never did stop on another competitor, though. Instead, the mist gathered and swirled in the direction of Merden’s throne.

Her smile was tense and forced as she stood, flourishing her arms at the crowd while stepping carefully down from the raised dais and motioning for the crowd to part down the middle for her. I saw my father shuffling nervously toward the pit, flanked by a pair of armed guards.

“It’s like she somehow expected to be exempt from all of this.” My excitement mounted as we all made our way to a better vantage point. It was tiresome, really, to have to sit on display for the crowd while Merden talked to herself, then haul ass through them all just to see what would happen in the pit. But I was readyto see Merden fight and learn anything I could use later, when I faced her.

Kas stepped up to the chains on my left, and Rush pressed tightly against my right until I nudged him with my elbow, raising an eyebrow at him when he tried to look surprised.

“Fine. Going home to check on the puppy,” he said with a sigh, vanishing into the crowd.

Kas chuckled. “You should let the poor guy watch the match.”

“No,” I snapped, giving him a wicked side-eye. Even with Merden right down in the pit where I could see her, I didn’t trust Cade alone. For all I knew, he’d go wandering and give me a heart attack. Now that he wasn’t comatose, I was starting to remember just how much of a troublemaker he could be. Hot. But trouble.

Blaise took Rush’s spot next to me just as the mist slithered down the walls of the pit and the guards rolled out the same rack of weapons we’d seen yesterday.

Darnell already had his own weapons strapped to his waist and back, but he also selected a slick pair of half-moon blades. Merden reached behind her back and untied something, pulling off her voluminous skirt to reveal leather battle gear underneath and proving she wasn’t completely oblivious to the workings of this Trial. She crossed a pair of short swords behind her back, adding a crossbow at the last minute.

“She’s surprisingly fit,” Kas observed, and I smacked his stomach. He snickered at me, not taking his eyes off the pit.

One of the guards shouted for them to begin, and Merden fired her crossbow immediately, the arrow going about a foot wide when Darnell dodged. He prowled closer as she reloaded, his fingers wrapped around the half-moon blades.

Merden fired another arrow, and he blocked it with the blade, splitting it into two pieces that fell neatly onto the dirt.

“Things look a little different up here, but that was wicked,” Blaise remarked, humming to herself.

None of us said another word as Darnell sprang into motion. He charged her like a storm cloud racing across the sky, striking lightning and pummeling Merden with thunderous blows. Merden ducked, parried, and blocked with her swords, but she seemed pitifully outmatched. Only intermittent lucky blocks were keeping her on her feet, and I didn’t see her land a single blow on Darnell’s dark skin.

“I really thought she was better than this,” I said slowly, something settling wrong in my stomach. Her Queen’s training certainly would have made her better, unless she’d been completely slacking. Darnell heaved a knife at her, and she failed to block it, taking the blow squarely in her shoulder.

She charged him with a yell, swords out, but he was just too fast. My eyes were practiced enough to follow the movement, but the crowd gasped in shock as he leaped and spun, pinning her to the dirt. His half-moon blades crossed directly over her neck, digging deep into her pale skin, and a thin trickle of blood leaked onto the dirt.

“Take a deep breath,” Blaise yelled at Merden, and I barked out a laugh as the guards rushed in to separate the two, even though the mist had begun to make its way to them.

“Darnell wins this match,” the head guard called out, and there was an even mix of boos and cheers as the citizens chose sides.

Both competitors handed over their weapons and faced each other for the magical round. Merden was favoring her shoulder, but that shouldn’t impact her magic at all. I was interested to see her blood magic in action.

The room grew quiet as a chill rose from the pit, ice magic swirling between them.

Normal ice magic couldn’t move objects - it simply wasn’t physical. But I’d accessed a higher, more potent level once before, when I’d first seen Cade was alive and Merden had bitten him in front of me. I’d assumed then that some of the Ancient Magic sleeping in my royal blood had been awakened by desperation.

She’d done the same, though blood magic had powered her force. Both of us had cracked stone that day.

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