Page 178 of Their Rejected Queen

That can’t be a good sign.

“I don’t know,” I tell Sofia, “but we’re dead meat out here in the open.” I reach down for my vials.

Sofia slaps away my hand. “You can’t use those here.”

I blink at her as another arrow streaks through the sky. Luckily, it’s heading in a different direction.

Not so luckily, I hear a feminine shriek that’s quickly cut off into a gurgle.

Sofia frowns and pulls out her channel crystal I’d seen her use before at the camp. Now I understand why Renalt had given it to her, but it makes me wonder why my sponsors hadn’t procured one for me earlier.

The hologram depicts a girl I don’t recognize with an arrow in her chest. Another is sticking straight through her throat, and she falls over in a slump as the fire quickly consumes her.

A number on the top right of the screen changes.

One candidate down.

“Why can’t I use my vials?” I ask her, unable to keep the edge out of my voice.

Seriously, what is she on about?

“Renalt said it would draw the monsters to you,” she says as she pockets the crystal and begins dragging me in the other direction. She’s grown a lot stronger in the past few months.

The pain has ebbed, but not enough that I can walk yet. Each step sparks agony behind my eyes, and I take in gulps of metallic air, attempting to stem the pain.

This is Arwan’s power, and for whatever reason, it is already highly activated here. Making it hard for me to function, much less utilize his power for myself.

I’m feeling what Arwan is right now.

Which means he’s not doing so well.

I try not to worry as I frown at Sofia, realizing what she’s telling me. “First of all, you shouldn’t trust a royal with my secret. Second, how would he know what would draw the monsters to us?”

She huffs, then snatches one of my vials and pops off the cork. Before I can stop her, she flicks the contents behind us and continues dragging us along.

“Hey! That was⁠—”

“Just watch,” she says, cutting me off.

Two, Ze’ev counts down.

The ground trembles again, and a bright light flashes overhead just as he says: One.

The dirt behind us opens up as I watch, horrified, when shadows engulf the spot where Sofia had drenched it with one of my vials.

Did my sponsors know about that?

Why hadn’t any of them warned me?

Frantically, I search the grounds looking for them.

They should be here.

They should be⁠—

Time’s up, Ze’ev says, his voice changing into a tone that makes my skin crawl.

The brilliant light emits from the tower in the distance and travels out like the crackle of a thousand lightning bolts shooting through a storm.