Ash screamed. She tried to claw her way out, but the rock anchored her, and she knew—she would die here.
Let me take your place, Mama.
She had begged her mother to let her be a gladiator.I can handle it, Ash had thought.
But she couldn’t. She couldn’t handle this pain—she wanted to cleave her body apart to escape it as the rock burrowed into her back.
Another rock dropped, smashing into Ash’s head, pinning her skull to the ground. She had been helpless many times throughout her life, butthistype of helplessness broke her. She whimpered and writhed, half hearing the muffled pleas spilling out of her mouth. She didn’t want this. She didn’t want to die like this.
The sand wavered in the heat; the crowd’s noise was a dull roar. Ash was fading, flickering, a candle pulsing in a raging storm.
Across from her was an archway. Far away, too far for her to reach, someone staggered out under it.
Madoc?
The stone on her head pushed down, down—
There was light.
Bright, all-encompassing light, as though the sun had dippeddown to escort one of its daughters to the afterlife. It flooded every space in Ash’s body, expanding her broken ribs, soothing her cracked skull.
Ash fell into it. If this was how life ended, she didn’t know why she had ever feared death.
Death was calm. Death was safe.
Death felt strangely like energeia.
Ash’s eyes flew open. She was standing, her body humming with power and might andburn it all, she had never felt this good. Every muscle stretched and relaxed, ready for use; every bone was whole and strong; every nerve tingled with alertness.
Her body reacted, moving as more stones descended. Speed let her dodge left, right, left, cutting around the rocks as Elias jutted his arms to direct the geoeia.
“No!” Giant tears tumbled down his face. “No—I have to do this!”
Behind him, through Ash’s tunnel, Kulan guards stormed the fighting pit. They sped toward Elias, who didn’t notice their approach.
The first guard hurtled into him, taking him to the ground. His hold on the geoeia dropped and the remaining stones crashed to the sand around Ash like so many raindrops.
The noise of the stands came back to her. Someone—Ignitus?—was shouting, “Arrest him! He interfered with this war—arrest him!”
Others: “How did she survive? What energeia is this?”
Ash whirled toward the archway.
Madoc stood there, his hands out to her, palms up.
He swayed and dropped to his knees.
The Kulan guards wrestled Elias into submission. He sobbed, heaving against them.
“I’m so sorry,” she told him.
Ash sprinted away, toward Madoc.
He leaned against the sandstone bricks, sweat sheening his face, his eyes closed.
Above them, the crowd’s cheering became murmurs of confusion—had the war ended? What had happened to Geoxus’s real champion?
Ash threaded Madoc’s arm around her shoulders. It was far easier than it should be to support him.
