Page 134 of A City of Flames

“Frey-Frey in all honesty, I’m shitting myself but if I show that I’m shitting myself then that would mean others would take that to their advantage therefore I’m acting as if I’m not shitting myself to gain the upper hand do you understand?”

“No?”

“Then you clearly don’t have the mental capacity—”

Rydan and Freya begin quarrelling in harsh whispers like siblings as I rest the palm of my hand just above my stomach. I drag my gaze away from Lorcan to the side of me and find Link looking down at an item in his hand, brows furrowed and ignoring everyone around him.

“What have you got there?” I ask as I walk up to him.

Link lifts his eyes at me and sees that I’m looking at his hand. He opens his palm and a grey talisman—like a stone carved with a star in the center rests in it.

I instantly recognize it and an airy smile graces my lips.

“Illias gave it to me on the night of the ball,” he murmurs, staring at it. “He said it’s his talisman, that it’s meant to promise—”

“That you’ll both see each other again.”

Link glances up at me again, dark caves or not, his eyes still glimmer like sapphires at my response. I remember the meaning because our mother gave it to Illias before her death. She’d told him to give it to the person he would one day grow to love.

Not even Kye ever got it.

“You’ll see him again Link,” I assure him as I nod at the talisman. “We both will.” That much I trust. “No trial can stop that.”

Though his smile is weak, shy and hesitant, I know it is what he wanted to hear.

Murmurs then come from the front and dozens starts shuffling towards the gates.

Terror tightens Link’s face as he looks at me. Freya and Rydan make their way to us and I try so hard to keep the anxiety over the trials starting at bay.

I look over my shoulder, as if running might still be an option, but I lock eyes straight away with a venator’s glare and huff.

The iron gates crank and judder, causing Freya to flinch as the light seeps through the cave. I close my eyes and a flash of my younger self appears.

My father getting ready to set course to the city, golden hair feathering his shoulder as I stand by the door.

“Father? One day I’d like to be a venator… like you.”

He chuckles, it’s sad, it’s hollow, it’s not my father’s usual guffaw. “You wouldn’t want to be one Nara.”

I frown and he sighs lowering himself on one knee. His thumb rubs my cheek. “Chase your own adventure, don’t follow someone else’s.”

Freya’s voice wrenches me back into the present and I open my eyes to see her concerned ones waiting for me to walk with her into the arena. I do, numb and lost. I look around feeling infinitely small compared to when I’d been up with the crowd, watching fights ensue.

I squint as the ravenous sun burns into the middle of the pit. Wooden defense walls taller than a human coat the arena like a maze, making it hard to see where to go.

The flock of people cheer above us, but I drown it out as I raise my head enough to see the queen seated atop her throne with the general at her side and the rulers of other lands.

Bitterness dances in Sarilyn’s eyes as she scans the trainees then darkness, sorrow almost once they find mine.

Confidence flares inside me as I straighten, defying everything she hopes I’d be right now. A phoenix warrior clad in red and gold armor is the only one to notice Sarilyn’s tense shift and follows her gaze to where I am.

The phoenix narrows her eyes at me. Hira, the woman to whom Lorcan had introduced me at the Noctura ball. I analyze her from afar but there’s no maliciousness behind her stare, it’s that same curiosity she’d shown back then.

“Nara,” Freya whispers by my side as we all stop, and the crowd grows silent. “I should tell you. About the plans, we’d made, I may—”

The second my stare breaks from Sarilyn, she addresses us all, cutting Freya’s words in the process. “Months of training, proving you are fit to become a venator has now come to this—” She rises from her throne, lifting her chin with authority and smiles “—the trials.” Whistling and claps echo through the arena, but Sarilyn’s words have never sounded fouler. “They will take place over three days. You will be tested on your agility, how you work as a team… courage.” She cuts a gaze in my direction and her smile strains before clearing her throat. “Today is the test of survival.”

My eyes shift to Freya as she releases a nervous breath and Link blanches, almost dropping his sword.

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