Page 133 of A Kingdom of Shadows

"Make the choice, Naralía."

I shake my head. "No. I'm not going to kill any of them, not again, not under your control."

"Make the choice."

I won't. I won't, I won't.

"Make it!"

I can't seem to stop myself from shaking my head.

Her face contorts into anger. She keeps yelling, "Make the choice!"

I need it to stop. I need everything to stop!

"Do you think you are no better than me? Than Solaris!"

"Stop, please—"

"How can you be the reincarnation of Solaris when you are nothing but a weak human—"

My hands cup my ears, and the hilt of my dagger presses against my skin. I do not want to hear this. She's not here, she can't get to me, she—

She isn't real.

She isn't real...

I let my hands slip to the sides. Sarilyn is still hurtling insults—insults generated by what I think of myself. Slowly looking up at her, she stops and stares down at me with a wicked smile.

I whisper, "You don't control me, Sarilyn. Not now, not ever."

Her onyx eyes widen with surprise, and the strength I had conjured from long before becoming a trainee hits every bone in my body as I use the blade at my side to thrust it into her abdomen.

I cut through flesh and muscle, listening to the hitch of her breath, and slowly, I raise my head high to see her mouth hanging open as she stares at me. I'm watching the life fade away from her eyes, and when I know for sure that she can still hear me, I lean into her ear and say, "I may be human but I will make sure that nothing, not even you stands in my way." I yank the dagger out with enough power, letting her crumple, and as she hits the floor, she disappears like grains of sand in the wind.

Turning in a slow circle, I gaze at everything else in my surroundings fade. Darius, my brother, the dungeons. And then there is nothing until a gasp ripples from my throat, and I fall onto my knees. My eyelids crack open, and I'm back in the room with Kirian standing a width away. I look to the side as Darius pants on all fours, staring at me as if he'd also gone through hell.

"Congratulations," Kirian announces. "You both passed."

I'm trying to gather what just happened. "What did you do to us?"

"I tapped into your minds. I made you believe you were entering through a door and brought out your deepest fears in order to face them."

"And if we hadn't passed?"

One side of his lip tilts up. "You wouldn't be talking to me right now."

Darius grabs me from underneath my arm and helps me stand up. I turn to him, scanning his face and holding back a sob from what I'd seen when trapped in Kirian's mind test. My hands press flat against his chest, and I look at the wounded gaze he gives me.

What did he, too, have to go through?

"I believe this is now yours."

We glance at Kirian as he opens a palm to reveal a stone resembling lapis lazuli. I'm dubious about taking it. Still, I pluck it from his hand and fit it into my pocket.

Kirian observes me with an unreadable expression that unnerves me more. "You should know," he says. "Thalorians may be perceived as the most frightening Elves from Terranos, but one thing we value most is valor and honor." His eyes snap to where I'd placed the stone. He is genuinely not what Arlayna painted him to be.

He starts to walk away when I glance at Darius, and he nods to me to say what is on my mind.

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