AllFreeNovel
Share Us
There were a million things I wanted to say. A million things I wanted to hear from him. But I could do nothing but hope that he could see everything before I turned and ran through the doors into the arena.
I didn’t turn back.
I couldn’t.
Not anymore.
Chapter 27
Elara
Darkness swallowed me the second the heavy doors slammed shut. The hall was overpacked, I could tell that much if only from the stench, the aroma of sweat and smoke and liquor mixed with something that reeked of piss. I cringed, trying to keep my head up high as I walked into the fighting arena.
Screams and cheers were everywhere, they cut through the ashy shadows that swallowed the crowd and rattled the sand and bark that covered the floor of the well-lit fighting ring.
The announcer, or at least who I hoped was the announcer stood in the middle of the light, the pompous man smiling and waving to the crowd as he gestured toward me and whoever else stood in the shadows behind him, beckoning us to come closer.
My heart was in my knees as I forced myself to continue walking, trying to keep my head high and my hands from tugging at the leathers that were now the least of my worries.
The shadows behind the announcer shifted as my opponent came closer, my eyes watching the hulking mass as I stepped into the ring of light. Then, as though the sound had been sucked from the room everything went wholly silent, that tingle under my skin increasing as though it sensed the change.
I had assumed that no one would recognize me, I hadn’t been allowed out of my cage enough for people to know who I was, but this man did. Judging by the mixture of gasps and hissed whispers that were now slicing their way toward the crowd, everyone who didn’t know, soon would.
“The… The Princess Elara.” The announcer's voice carried through his gasped stutter and I turned, smiling and waving even though there was currently a high risk that I would vomit all over everyone.
Through the dark I could make out a few faces, all of them shocked. All of them confused.
But only one was furious.
My mother, Queen Dalyah, stood before her icy throne at the far end of the hall, her face screwed up in savagery. Her icy eyes burned red; her hands clenched at her sides. My father, in his throne beside her, sat with a broad smile, there wasn’t a drop of that glazed confusion in his eyes. He turned to whisper something to my Uncle Jahn, who was smiling nearly as wide as my father.
As was Aeinya who seemed absolutely elated at what was currently unfolding. She bounced in her seat, clapping her hands in glee. Those three smiles pulsed through me, sending ripples of heat over my skin from where the circlet of hair was wound around my wrist. I tried to smile even as the gasps and shock of the audience turned into a low boil of cheers and confused applause.
Perhaps I could do this. Seeing them made it so that everything didn’t feel quite so impossible, well, that was until I turned from Aeinya’s glee to the Sun Prince that was sitting right beside her.
Batian.
Mother was not the only person who was furious. Batian sat in a chair of stone and glass, his fingers white and glowing as they curled around the ends of the arm rests. I had never seen him angry, I had never seen anything other than a smile on his lips. But there he sat, eyes wide, mouth pinched; he looked as though it was taking everything in him not to rush to me. Not to rage at me.
I flinched at seeing him, seeing that anger. He should be cheering with the rest of them. I stared at that fury, the momentary hope melting as Aeinya turned, her joy fading as fast as mine as she hissed something at him.
“The Princess Elara of Okivo,” the announcer amended his initial confusion to use my title, his voice still shaking as he tried to take control of the quickly deteriorating crowd. “She will face Lix, from the high court of Spryv.”
It was then that the shadows behind the announcer shifted, some of the cheers returning as the shadows broke apart and the man known as Lix entered the arena.
Well, whatever hope that had remained after seeing Batian’s fury was officially gone, any heat that had been skittering over my skin turned to ice. By the Goddess, I was doomed.
Lix stood at least two widths above my frame, my nose coming to the center of his chest. He towered over me, his frame as broad as he was tall. He wore no shirt, the tanned skin of the desert people stretched over muscles so broad and firm that if this man couldn’t crush me with his pecks I would be surprised.
He was pure muscle, every inch of him rippled and cut. Even his nipples looked like they might be able to cut me. It didn’t even matter if Aeinya had paid him off to not use his magic, one swipe of his mighty nipples and I’d be a goner.
I swallowed, or I tried to, I couldn’t quite make my throat move, not to mention that my mouth had gone horrendously dry.
This was not what I had signed up for.
This was not what Aeinya had told me about.
‘Everything was going to plan?’ My ass it was going to plan! What was she thinking?
