Page 195 of A Kingdom of Wild and Power
‘Remember everything we’ve taught you,’ he said. ‘And don’t get cocky out there.’
Alina nodded.
There was so much she wished to say, yet the words refused to rise past the tightness in her throat. Instead she reached for the staff resting against the wall and took it in hand. She checked the position of her desert dagger one final time, then turned to look at them.
She studied each of them carefully.
First, Kai.
The man who had once helped her step beyond the narrow cage she had built for herself. God, how long ago had that been? It felt like another lifetime entirely. Back then she had been little more than a proud and sheltered princess.
Now…
Now she no longer knew what she was.
And perhaps it no longer mattered.
She did not need to be anything more than the blade that would cut down her enemies.
Her attention shifted to Dawn.
The witch who had betrayed her. The woman who had shattered her into a thousand jagged pieces. Yet the sharpness of that anger had begun to dull with time, worn down by distance and everything else that had happened since.
Alina wondered whether one day she might learn to tolerate her.
If she survived this day.
Finally, her gaze rested on Mareena. She tried to show through her eyes what her words could not. That she would survive. That she’d return. And maybe one day Mareena might finally reveal to her all those secrets she seemed to be keeping.
Maybe one day Alina might feel her heart beat once more. Maybe one day they might even explore what that could mean for them both, together. Perhaps no one else would understand it, but Alina found that she did not particularly care.
She was grateful for Mareena.
She knew Kai did not trust the phoenixian princess. And truthfully, there was a small part of Alina that did not entirely trust her either. Mareena had her own reasons for helping them, of course she did. They all carried hidden motives. But because of her, Alina now stood here.
Ready to kill Saren.
So she’d wait for the right time to uncover such truths.
The sound of drums began to thunder through the corridors.
Alina turned towards the arena doors. She refused to look back at the others, because she knew if she did, she might falter, might begin questioning everything she was about to do. Her grip tightened around the staff until her knuckles blanched white.
She drew one final breath.
Then squared her shoulders.
The doors opened.
Alina stepped out into the arena.
She had trained in this very place for several days before the fight, and yet nothing had prepared her for the change in atmosphere. The moment she stepped into the arena, a deafening roar swallowed the air around her. Cheers and screams crashed together like a storm.
She glanced upward.
Her brown eyes widened as she saw thousands of hungry and furious faces leaning over the railings above, spitting insults and craving blood.
Across the arena, the opposite gates creaked open.
