Page 7 of The Eye of the Fifth
The empty threat almost made Kyra roll her eyes. She was used to them. But she caught herself, wanting the conversation over as swiftly as possible. ‘It won’t happen again.’
‘No,’ Lilion said. ‘It won’t.’ Silence ensued, and Kyra refused to be the one to break it. She drank her well earned wine and waited. ‘Tomorrow’s fight will be different.’
There it was.Feigning her ignorance, Kyra asked, ‘How so?’
Lilion did not even bother looking remorseful. ‘You will be fighting another fae.’
‘I see. I bet those odds are exciting.’
‘Does it matter? If you win this, you truly will be Warrior-Queen of the Arc.’
She should have been embarrassed, but instead Kyra smirked. It had a nice ring to it, especially hearing it from someone else’s mouth, even if Lilion was humouring her. ‘WhenI win,’ Kyra corrected her.
Something malicious glinted in Lilion’s dark eyes. It might have been pride but Kyra doubted very much the woman had ever been proud of anything but herself in her life. Her voice dropped to a low murmur. ‘I want you to unleash everything you have tomorrow. Do not hold anything back. Let it out. Let it go anddestroyhim. Do you understand?’
‘Perfectly.’
‘Good. Now go home. Rest. Donotdrink anymore and do not let Miss Talbot in. Not until tomorrow’s fight is done.’
Kyra nodded her understanding, but proceeded to lift the goblet to her lips. Lilion’s magic shot through the room and knocked it from her hand before it could even touch her mouth.
Irritation rapidly rose, but she forced her voice to remain calm as she said, ‘One more drop wouldn’t have hurt.’
‘Do not test me, Kyra,’ Lilion warned. ‘Gohome.’
Without another word Lilion left, taking the decanter of wine with her and leaving Kyra alone in the chamber, wondering if her seven year winning streak was about to come to a bloody and violent end.
Chapter Three
Reunited
???
Avaldale, Vrethian.
Kyra.
‘I fuckinghateher,’ was Rosary’s predictable greeting later that night. Kyra didn’t even bother telling her that Lilion had forbidden her to come for she knew it would fall on deaf ears. And though she desperately wanted to, she didn’t touch the wine that Rosary angrily poured as soon as she’d walked through the door of Kyra’s hovel-house.
‘She’s a cunt,’ she continued to seeth in between furious sips. ‘An unbearable, narcissistic, egotisticalcunt.’
From the edge of her bed, Kyra watched Rosary as she paced the room, her flushed face slowly paling back to normal, her annoyance ebbing away with each sip of wine.
Potentially adding fuel to the fire, Kyra said, ‘You were right, by the way. Lilion told me about tomorrow’s fight. I’ll be fighting a fae male.’
‘Fuck.’
‘Precisely.’
‘How do you feel?’
Kyra studied the calluses on her palms. ‘I don’t know how to feel. Up until this point, every fight has been a breeze. I’ve never been worried about it, and each time I step into the pits I know what the outcome will be. But for the first time, I’m actually-’
‘Scared?’ Rosary quietly finished for her.
‘Yes,’ she admitted. ‘But not of dying. I think… I think I’m scared of being beaten. Of losing. Of having an entire arena, including Lilion andyouwitness me being beaten. I don’t want to be remembered as weak.’
Slowly setting down her wine on the uneven floorboards, Rosary sat next to her, gazing at her with such an intensity that Kyra could see every shade of amber in her round eyes. ‘You won’t lose, Ky.’
