Page 88 of Spellcast
Do they?
I peer at their faces, trying to discern their thoughts. Do they see him as I do? Not as Ididwhen I first clapped eyes on him, deluded from the lies of the past, too afraid, too angry, too full of sorrow to recognize him for what he is...for what I see him to be now?A way forward through the darkness and chaos...
Please, please see him.
“No one needs to choose,” Cyphus grates out. “I’ll make it simple so there is only one choice.”
Only one choice?
I look wildly around at the faces, not understanding what is happening.
Danhy shakes her head, her eyes wide. “No, Cy, no, don’t say—”
“I challenge you to a...profa.”
Viggo groans.
Danhy closes her eyes.
Profa?What does that mean?
I strain to glimpse Tage’s face to see his reaction, but I can’t. Especially not when his hands stretch behind him to push me even farther away, putting more distance between us.
I stumble back several steps. Righting myself, I start forward again. “What—”
“Don’t.” Tage’s voice lashes out like a whip, and I freeze. “Stay back.”
I glance around in bewilderment but do as bade.
“It’s time to set things right,” Cyphus declares. “That means I’m not exiled...and Tage is no longer the alpha here.” A mercilessgrin spreads across his face. Clearly, he’s relishing the moment. Whateverprofais, he thinks it’s his to win. “I’ve given the challenge. Can’t take it back if I want to. And I don’t want to.”
Danhy’s eyes are open again, her chest heaving as she implores, “Cy, Tage, no!”
It’s this—the sight of her so overwrought that tells me we are on the brink of something disastrous. Her anxiety is contagious. My skin goes clammy and my stomach clenches.
I stare hard at Tage’s back, fighting the urge to step forward so that I can look at him and gain some sort of insight into what is unfolding.
“He’s right.” Tage inclines his head in one slow dip. “Profa has been issued. Let’s get it over with.”
Blinding light bursts through the cavern.
31
To the Death
Ablast launches me through the air and catapultsme back.
I land hard, the wind knocked from me. The jarring force shoots through my body. My bones vibrate, rattling the very teeth in my mouth. I can’t even feel the soreness in my ribs, the throb in my face, the ache in my head anymore. There is only this. The shuddering shaken marrow of me.
It takes me a moment to regain myself, to lift up on my elbows and watch in disbelief as the world tremors around me.
Two massive dragons slam together like boulders colliding.
This is chaos. Twisted and violent.
I gawk at the sight of them, even though I’ve seen them like this before—that first night when Tage swept me up to the Crags. I remember him, remember feeling him, that massive slab of muscle undulating all around me. And yet this is something altogether different...like seeing them in full color when before they had only been one-dimensional black-and-white outlines. Seeing them this way—dragons meting out abuse on each other, trying tokilleach other, is a new kind of spectacle. Terrifying and fearsome. The stuff of nightmares.
A great cloud of dirt billows from the ground, following them as they roll and thrash through the cave. They lift into the air, the great sails of their wings churning through the mist and dirty haze, spitting grit into my eyes. I blink and cough as I scramble back, covering my mouth with a hand.
