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I swung my own, smaller blade at him and aimed at his helmet. Not the gaps or the eye sockets, but the top quarter of the metal. I struck it, but not enough.
I struck again and again and again.
It clanged and jarred Druin and he threw his arm out, catching me with the back of his fist, sending me sprawling.
He immediately seized on the advantage and leaped on top of me. His weight was immense and I knew I was in a bad situation.
If I didn’t get him off me soon…
“Yargghhhh!” he shrieked as he brought his blade down with all his might.
My legs were pinned down beneath him, but I was free from the waist, and shifted position, just enough for the blade to miss me.
Then he reached down and wrapped his hands around my throat and squeezed with his immense strength…
Tighter… Harder…
I’d succeeded in knocking his helmet to one side, so only one eye protruded, but it still remained firmly on his head.
I released one of my hands from his grip around my throat and reached up with the other to finger at his helmet. The oxygen rasped from my neck and spots danced in my vision.
And all I could think about was Lily. How I had failed her. How she was going to suffer.
Then, with some hidden reserves of strength I didn’t know I had, I got a foot loose and kicked him hard between the legs. His whole body shunted upward with the blow but it still wasn’t enough to get him off me.
He wasn’t going to try to get me to yield. He had no interest in letting me live. He was going to kill me.
But the lip of his helmet was closer now, and I slipped my fingers under it and lifted…
“I’m the Champion!” Druin bellowed so the whole audience could hear. “I’m the king of the roost! Do you hear me? I’m the king!”
I sucked what little oxygen remained in my lungs and used it for one final push with my fingertips, shoving his helmet off his stupid fat head. It fell to the pit’s floor and disrupted a small breath of red dust.
And just like that, the battle was over.
“So be it,” I said.
I opened up to my ability…
It had been a while since I had felt the rush of power, the overwhelming sense of becoming one with the universe. Time seemed to slow but I knew it was only due to my brain feeling, sensing, knowing all around me.
And I channeled it in one direction.
21
LILY
I just stood there, mouth hanging open as Ohara’s breath was squeezed from his throat.
Initially, the crowd had been so loud, I could barely hear the rasp of their swords as they swung through the air… and now, they were so silent, I could hear Ohara’s choking gasps as he struggled for oxygen.
I wished the audience would scream once again, for someone to say something, to do something, that would take my mind off what was happening.
I turned away, unable to watch Ohara suffer any longer. Even if I wasn’t watching, I could still hear that horrific noise in my mind, and I knew I always would no matter where I went, no matter what I did.
This isn’t how it was supposed to go, I thought. This isn’t how it’s supposed to end…
My heart broke at the thought of Ohara’s lifeless body, a body I didn’t get to taste or explore. And I wept for all the lost experiences we might have shared.
