Alyx’s heart hammered in her chest as she stood in the waiting room outside the arena. Above her was a stadium of eager viewers, all waiting to see who would be their new Dragon Knights.

  She flicked up her Blessing description again.

  Major Blessing

  She had already won. This was just set dressing. Just a show for the people.

  A dragon was hers. It was just a matter of which one.

  Around her waited the other finalists. Fioreya stretched by the door, calm and collected as always. Kohen paced the room length, his hand twitching toward his pocket, then away again with every other step. His final ace, she was sure. Ahryn hung in the corner, looking lost.

  There were a few others, too. Another cousin from the Sellen branch. Outside, on the arena field, a promising outsider fought his chosen monster.

  Kohen watched the others with hungry eyes and fidgeting hands. He could see the goal, but it wasn’t quite within reach. It would not stop him from reaching, anyway.

  Which left Ahryn and the other girl in last place. Lost. In the wilderness. Unsure how they got here or why. It would take a miracle for either of them to be selected. One Alyx had no intention of providing.

  She flicked up her Blessing.

  Yes. She was a front-runner. She forced herself to stand taller. She was confident. She was strong.

  She would win. This would be definitive proof she was worthy of her name. That her mother wasn’t the failure the city labeled her.

  She read her Blessing again.

  It was still there. It hadn’t changed.

  The festival was almost over. Tonight, the Knights were chosen. Tomorrow would be celebration.

  Now was her last chance to show off for the dragons. One at a time, the remaining contestants would step onto the field and display their martial talents against a worthy opponent. Almost all of them had gone already. It had started with the weakest contestant, Ahryn, and worked up. Fioreya was next.

  And then it would be her turn.

  She and Telis had arranged for her to fight a level 32 Grildan Mountain Wolf.

  It was big. It was fast. It threw auras of darkness like blades. It would look impressive as her amber aura cut through the darkness. With her Blessing, she should be able to take out a monster three levels above her own.

  She flipped up the Blessing and read it again.

  There was a roar of excitement from above as the outsider slew the beast he fought, and the crowds went wild. The doors swung open, and with it came the cheering.

  Fioreya wasted no time. She refastened her helmet and marched into the arena, ignoring the injured outsider as she passed him. The cheering redoubled, becoming almost a physical force reverberating through her bones.

  Fioreya walked with ease under their gaze. She wore the mantle of Champion lightly, her head held high.

  Alacrity’s Champion (Lvl 32)

  She did not quake before the eyes of their grandmother’s dragon, watching from on high. She did not search the stands for the twin dragonlings. Instead, she fixed her eyes on the opposing gates. Gates that opened to allow a towering beast to be let into the ring with her.

  Elder Noctgolm

  Lvl 37

  [An ancient beast from the forests of Alden, captured and prepared for today’s events. Possessing powerful physical stats as well as lightning-fast magics, this is a formidable opponent.]

  The noctgolm lumbered forward. It walked on all fours, its front legs longer than its back, its back arched to hold its ugly head high. The head was like a frog’s, all mouth and maw, if that mouth was full of large flat teeth, like grindstones. Its skin was grey, covered in coarse fur from head to toe, a black, bristled mane running along its back and between the twisting antlers crowning its head. Its hands were broad grasping things, each more than big enough to scoop a person from their feet and crush them, armor and all.

  But Fioreya was unperturbed. She’d selected this beast.

  Alyx again looked to the stands. Her grandmother sat in her box high above the rest. The dragonlings should be with her or with their mother, the matriarch. She didn’t see them in either place, but they had to be here somewhere. This show was for them before all else unless they had already picked their knights and needed to see no more.

  Alyx found herself scanning the rest of the crowds. There was Marco squeezed in among other martials on the second level. Telis was also likely near him, but her presence was too low for Alyx to spot from this range.

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  There was comfort in knowing they were watching. A comfort tinged with regret. In disappointment.

  She squashed that disappointment.

  Cass hadn’t come. Of course, she hadn’t.

  Cass had picked Salos. Cass had chosen a dangerous monster over her. Cass—

  No. Now wasn’t the moment to think about Cass. Or Salos. Or the soul core.

  Now was for dragons. For her dragon.

  She went back to looking for the dragonlings. They had to be here somewhere. Even if they had picked their knight, there was no way her grandmother would let them skip an event in their honor. They were here to show off for the people as much as Alyx and the other contestants were here to show off for them.

  Their keeper—Alyx’s aunt and the city Steward—was also missing. She should not have let them out of her sight. They were too important.

  No, they must be here somewhere, just out of sight. Her aunt was probably with them, wherever that was.

  In the arena, Fioreya was already in the thick of it. Her sword was buried hilt deep in the noctgolm’s forearm. A twist brought it free with an arch of black blood and a howling scream.

  The crowd ate it up, shouting in excitement.

  Amid the cheering of the crowd, there was another noise. Not from the arena but from the door behind her. Murmured arguing from outside the waiting room.

  “Please,” a woman’s voice drifted in. Most of what she said was lost amid the other rumbles of the arena, but Alyx caught two other phrases from her, “Lady Alyx… very important.”

  “Damn, they’re loud,” the outsider muttered, shooting a glare over his shoulder at the door.

  Alyx sighed. She should focus on the arena, on her skills, on preparing herself.

  But she recognized the voice, and a gnawing curiosity grasped at her guts. A worried one.

  Out in the arena, Fioreya leapt into the air, her sword shining in the late afternoon sun as she fell like a bolt of lightning onto the noctgolm, her weight effortlessly removing its arm from its shoulder. The beast was on the back foot but was still raging. Still, it would only be a matter of time until Fioreya’s blade found its neck instead.

  Alyx stepped back toward the back door and the brewing argument.

  Two men’s voices had joined the woman.

  “Come on, just pass the Lady Mage’s message on,” the larger man—one of Kohen’s grunts unless she was mistaken—yelled down at the comparatively small guardsman.

  “I cannot allow anyone to disturb the contestants,” the guard retorted.

  Between them stood Pellen, absolutely dwarfed by the two larger men, a bundle of something wrapped in her arms.

  “Please, sir,” the little mage said, clearly not for the first time. “If you could just—” Pellen stopped, her many eyes twisting on Alyx.

  Alyx raised an eyebrow. “What’s this about?”

  “Blessing holder, there is no need. Please focus on your preparation.” The guard put his body between Pellen and Alyx.

  “Miss Cass is in trouble!” Pellen yelled behind him.

  “What?” Alyx recoiled like she’d been struck. She shot a look over her shoulder.

  Kohen had drifted closer, unsubtly eavesdropping. Mild confusion played across his face. Feigned or true?

  Was this a trap he set? It would be easy enough. Pellen and the big swordsman were technically Kohen’s people. He could have hired them to disrupt her showing in the arena. If he knew about her falling out with Cass, he wouldn’t even need to kidnap Cass to deploy this trick.

  Ahryn was beside him, very obviously listening.

  Pellen had launched into a story about waiting for Cass outside the Temple and Cass disappearing into the Temple’s basement. Her voice was heavy with concern. Either the mage was a better actor than Alyx had expected, or her distress was genuine.

  Behind her, Fioreya was showing off. Lightning arched between sword and hand, sparking in every direction, destroying the summoned minions of the noctgolm. The shadowy figures exploded in shadow and lightning, one after another.

  It would be her turn any minute now. As soon as Fioreya was done showing off. As soon as the monster collapsed. “Cass is very good at getting herself out of trouble, if she’s even in trouble in the first place.” She wished it wasn’t so believable that unnamed trouble had found Cass. “I’m sure she’s fine.”

  The words rang hollow in her mouth, but she needed to believe them. This wasn’t the moment to run off on a wild chase. Not when she was so close.

  She couldn’t go traipsing off now. Not on something as weak as this. Not when it was almost her turn.

  Cass had made her choices. She’d chosen Salos.

  Cass could take care of herself.

  The noctgolm staggered as Fioreya’s sword sunk into its chest. The blade exploded with lightning, sparks arching over the entire field and swirling into a dragon, rising into the sky in a thunderous roar. Alacrity’s Champion pulled her sword free, pushing the herculean body back. It fell, void of life. She held her sword up, and the crowds exploded in cheers. It was deafening.

  It was Alyx’s turn. She turned away toward the arena, toward her future.

  She had to go. Cass would be—

  “I found her staff!” Pellen shouted over the crowds.

  Alyx froze. That couldn’t be true. Cass went everywhere with her staff. There were better weapons, but Cass had barely looked at them.

  It was like another hand turned her body. She hadn’t consciously turned to face Pellen again. But there she was, the little mage still standing in the waiting room doorway.

  Pellen held out the bundle in her arms, pulling back the fabric wrapping to reveal smooth white wood curling into a gnarled end.

  Alyx’s hands reached out, plucking the wood from the mage’s arms.

  It was in two pieces, shattered down the middle. Splinters hung from the broken ends. Rough etching ran the length of the wood’s surface. Reinforcement runes, sloppily drawn by an inexpert hand.

  How had it broken? Alyx had seen the abuse Cass had put that staff through. Monster hides and stone facades. It had channeled an ungodly amount of Focus, transforming raw Will into unspooled potential.

  And now it was two pieces.

  Fioreya walked back to the waiting room. The crowds were quieting in anticipation. The far doors holding back Alyx’s chosen monster creaked open.

  “Your turn, Aretios,” Fioreya called from the arena door as she stepped inside. There was hardly a drop of blood on her. She barely looked winded.

  A cold corner of Alyx’s mind whispered that Cass was either captured alive and would be held a while longer, or she’d been killed on the spot. In either case, there was no hurry. There would be time. Time to fight her opponent and prove her worth with the blade to all that would see.

  It was madness to walk away from the arena now. She was so close to earning a dragon. So close to absolving her mother.

  But the living needed to come before the dead.

  Cass needed to remain one of the living.

  Alyx grit her teeth, her hands clasping around the staff fragment. “Where did you find this?”