Cyrene skipped lunch in the dining area.
She sat in the infirmary where a healer had just patched up her ribs and ate whatever the man had left for her. Her side was still tender, but he’d promised that it would subside in a matter of hours.
Her fury was unmatched. She’d looked up at the board next to the boxes that listed the scores for the teams and individuals and cursed when it ended. She had a grand total score of zero. Maxon and Sylas were both at a solid negative three, putting their team at a negative six. Walston’s team had a score of twenty-six. When the next two teams went into the arena this afternoon, it was basically a guarantee that she would be near the bottom of the pack.
She hated losing.
Losing and Maxon of Herasi.
Brute and arrogance and plain idiocy.
She needed him to come to his senses or else she would have to take matters into her own hands. And he probably wouldn’t like that either.
It wasn’t until Society officials came to get her for the start of the next tournament that she finally left the infirmary. The contestants were given a spot to watch from the ground level that was essentially the sidelines but behind a clear barrier.
Cyrene watched Alura slaughter Dean’s team. Dean managed to keep up all on his own, but Fallon and Caelyn were hopeless at the game. Caelyn at least seemed fit and athletic, but this was out of Fallon’s depth, and it was clear on his face that he knew it. On the other hand, Alura looked as if she had been training for this moment for years. She outmatched everyone and took out all three objects single-handedly.
Though Cyrene couldn’t help watching Dean and the ease with which he used his magic. He had a master on his powers that had come from years of study. But she knew he had only been gone for a couple of months. None of it made any sense to her. But she couldn’t deny that he had magic and great control of it. Even if it confused her.
By the end of the match, Alura was in the lead in the individuals with Walston and Dean tied right behind her. Alura’s team had the lead just barely over Walston’s team.
Cyrene’s team was last, and she came in…fifth from the bottom.
It was depressing.
She had a long way to go.
“Maxon,” Cyrene called, rushing after where he was walking with Sylas. “We need to talk about the next competition.”
He stopped with his back to her. Then, he slowly eased around with a murderous expression on his face. He pointed his finger at her. “I’m almost at the bottom because of you.”
“We’re all near the bottom because we’re not working together.”
“No. It’s because you wanted to play hero. You think you know what it means to be a team player. Well, that means doing what is best for the team. I saw you dive for that fire ring instead of defend the boulder.”
Cyrene glared back. “Yeah, I wanted us to get three points instead of an automatic out. They would have hit me twice more and then taken the boulder. How would that have helped the team? We’d be down two more points in the standings.”
“You did it for yourself. Not for us,” he spat.
He was right, but she wasn’t going to let him know that.
“So, you’re not going to do anything different this next match? No strategy? They slaughtered us because Walston and Svatava had a plan of attack.”
“She’s kind of right, Maxon,” Sylas said softly.
“You’re siding with her now?” Maxon asked accusingly.
“No, but—”
“Fine. You two go off and make your plans and leave me out of this. Whoever we play tomorrow, I’ll dominate without you two.” Then, he strode off without a backward glance.
Cyrene grumbled, “He’s so infuriating!”
Sylas narrowed his eyes. “He’s a great warrior. You should listen to his strategy.”
“What strategy? He hasn’t told us anything, except to stay out of his way.”
“Maybe he’s right,” Sylas mumbled and then disappeared after Maxon.
Cyrene wanted to bang her head against a wall. She didn’t get it. Is it because I’m human? Because it disrupts their little tournament? Or because they think they’re better than me?
She pushed her shoulders back. They weren’t better than her. She would make damn sure they knew it, too.
Alura’s team faced off with Walston’s team in the morning. The winners of the last matches were playing first, and this afternoon, the losers would play each other. Wonderful.
Fallon stood next to Cyrene as they watched Walston and Svatava’s careful strategy fall to pieces at Alura’s feet.
“She’s…really good,” Cyrene grudgingly admitted.
“Unbelievable really. She moves so fast on the field; she’s a blur. Facing her was terrifying.”
“Fallon,” Dean snapped.
Fallon frowned and fell silent.
“Not supposed to talk about the match with the enemy?” she guessed.
He nodded. “Sorry.”
“Hey, don’t worry about it. I’ll repay you by beating you on the field this afternoon.”
Fallon grinned. “We’ll see.”
Alura handled Walston’s team so efficiently, it made Cyrene’s defeat look even worse.
Only Walston showed up for lunch with a rapidly healing black eye and said nothing to anyone else. Cyrene walked past his table and put a hand on his shoulder. He looked at her with confusion.
“You played a good match,” she told him.
“Does false flattery work in your homeland?” he demanded.
“It’s not false. You broke an object and got two hits in on Alura.” She nodded her head at him. “Good job.”
He tilted his head to the side, as if he couldn’t figure her out. Then, he finally nodded. “Thank you.”
She moved to a trash can and tossed the rest of her meal. She didn’t want to be full when walking out into that arena. If anything, she needed to get her magic steady and warm up her muscles. She didn’t want to have the same thing happen as yesterday.
She was jogging in place in the empty training facility when she felt a presence behind her. She turned to find Dean staring at her. “Here for a parting jab?”
“What would be the point of that?”
“Because you’re going to beat me without one?” she guessed.
He said nothing for a minute. Just stared at her. “Why did you talk to Walston?”
She stopped jogging, letting her breath even out again. “What do you mean?”
“He was defeated. You could have left him there.”
“He did a good job.” She held her foot backward, stretching out her thighs and balancing on one foot.
“That’s not why.”
“What does it matter?” she demanded, switching feet.
“I don’t know,” he finally admitted. “Curiosity.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“I wouldn’t have done it.”
“Well, you said yourself, we’re nothing alike.”
“That’s true.” He crossed his arms.
She put her foot down and mimicked his pose. “How did you get into the tournament anyway? Why did Elsiande sponsor you?”
He shot her a guarded look. “I saved a man’s life. It turned out that it was the son of a Society member.”
The way he’d said it, she could see the lie in it somehow. She just…knew Dean well enough to see it.
“You knew in advance,” she guessed. “You knew who it was, and that was why you saved him. To try to get their favor.”
He sputtered, “How did you know?”
She stepped up to him, and he shot her a wary look.
“The reason I spoke to Walston is because I have been as alone as he was in that moment and even more defeated, and people who loved me were there for me then. It was a small thing.”
Dean shook his head, and a ghost of a smile graced his features. “You’re lucky to have people who love you. But be careful. People can be used against you.”
“I was lucky,” she whispered as he strode from the training facility.
She swallowed back the tears threatening her, took a deep breath, and got herself back under control. She needed to figure out how to beat Dean and Fallon. And she couldn’t let her heart get in the way.
Maxon and Sylas said not one word to her as they stood on the arena line, panting with exertion. Dean’s team was formidable. They’d held up against Alura. They were currently beating Cyrene’s team—two objects down to none.
Her side was aching again. Fallon had gotten her with a simple sideswipe, and Dean had blasted her with the bits of the boulder he’d broken, refracturing her ribs. Both Maxon and Sylas were down two. If anyone got hit again, they would be out. They’d gotten Caelyn out, and Fallon had two hits, but Dean didn’t have any. That wasn’t great odds.
They should have been huddled together, strategizing their next move. Getting together a plan of attack against Dean. He was the one they had to worry about. But Cyrene wasn’t doing that, and neither of her team members seemed so inclined. It was essentially a free-for-all.
This wouldn’t hold up forever.
Jerond blew the whistle.
Cyrene pulled up a shield while simultaneously throwing a fireball at Fallon. He was quick enough for the first but not the second that caught his sleeve on fire. He pulled water from the pond and splashed it on his sleeve before sighing and hurrying off the field.
Three on one should have been a given, but while she had been dealing with Fallon, Dean had somehow managed to get a final hit on both Maxon and Sylas. She watched him run for the fire ring as if in slow motion.
No.
She was not going to go down like this again.
She needed to stop thinking about this the way she had been thinking about the tournament. She needed to stay out of the bottom two. There was no hope of their team winning overall with Alura dominating. She was near the bottom for the individuals, but if she worked…maybe she could still come ahead.
That meant she needed to do all that she could to get points. Not to stop her opponent.
Then, a thought occurred to her. Something she hadn’t considered before.
Her heart stopped. Oh…it was possible. It could be done only once. She knew, after she did it…the officials would never let it happen again. But that didn’t matter for right now.
All that mattered was using the instructions to her advantage. She didn’t need to follow the rules. She needed to create them. That meant…she needed to take her heart out of it. Take the Cyrene from Byern out of it and fully invest in what she was doing here.
Here, she was powerful. She was a competitor. She was Doma tribe. She needed to let everyone know what that stood for.
Cyrene drew on her well of magic, focusing on all of it as concretely as possible and silencing the crowd. In that silent place she went to, she could sense her magic and her bond with Avoca. All else disappeared.
Her eyes flew open.
She saw everything in perfect clarity.
The three objects on Dean’s side. The fire ring on her side left undefended. Dean standing before her ready to take her out and win this thing.
Then, she threw her arms wide, releasing her powers in a concentrated arc.
Fire blasted apart the log.
Earth demolished the boulder.
Water hit both her and her opponent’s fire rings.
She had destroyed all four objects in one blast of magic.
She sank to one knee as everything rushed back in. The crowd had gone silent. The whistle was a piercing screech. Confusion mired the audience. No one knew what it meant for her to have destroyed all four remaining objects. She knew the Society was searching the rules and trying to see how to deduct points from her. But she knew from where she knelt that they wouldn’t find it. The rules had been vague enough for her to work her way around them. So, she would get points for all objects she’d broken, not just her opponents’. She knew it would only work once, because they would likely change the rules after she circumvented them. But once was all she needed.
“And the game goes to team one,” Jerond said.
Cyrene’s eyes lifted to the scoreboard and saw her new total.
Fifteen.
Fourth place.
Right behind Alura, Dean, and Walston.
The crowd caught on.
The boos came blended in with the cheers.
Cyrene rose to her feet and smiled.
