Dead and limp.
Just like Elisha’s body.
Allyra tried to let go of the memory, but it clawed at her, pulling her in. A voice was speaking, a man’s voice, its tone somber and gray.
“—their lives cut short violently. But we must take solace in the fact that Henry and Catherine Cairns leave behind a great legacy—their sons, my nephews. Thomas, Alexander, and Matthew. Every one of them powerfully Gifted. I know that they will not let Henry and Catherine’s deaths go unpunished.
“Though sadness clouds our lives today, we must never let go of our hope and faith. Hope that this terrible event will be the catalyst that catapults the Gifted into action. Faith that it will usher in a new age of peace where none will ever live in fear of Revenants again.”
The voice was familiar—forceful and charismatic, even when speaking of a subject shrouded in grief and sorrow. But Allyra struggled to place it.
Finally, a small section of her vision swam into clarity—Alex. He was making his way up to the platform, flanked by two others, but they remained cloudy and unfocused to her. Alex’s face was pinched with pain and grief, his normally pale skin tinged with gray. He stepped onto the platform with his brothers. A complete and profound silence fell over the watching crowd.
Power welled up from within Alex. Like a pebble rolling down a hill, picking up speed and force until it became an avalanche—his Gift exploded from him, more powerful then she imagined possible. It combined with his brothers’ Gifts, and they poured themselves into Fire that consumed their parents’ bodies, creating a funeral pyre that burned so brightly and fiercely that the heat of it scorched through the passing of time, burning the memory away.
Finally, Allyra began to understand. Grief. She understood the power of grief and how it might drive someone to do desperate things.
* * *
The next time she was fully aware, Allyra was standing in a small room facing Jason, his dark eyes filled with concern, as he grasped her shoulders.
Lost in the past, she’d missed Henri and Adriana’s bout against the Fifths from the Inferno College—June and Dinesh.
“Who won?” she asked listlessly.
“June and Dinesh.”
“Henri and Adriana?” she asked desperately.
“Both alive,” Jason said. “They conceded in time.”
Allyra looked up sharply. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Jason took a deep breath, and he couldn’t quite meet Allyra’s searching eyes. “They’re both all right, but Henri’s back could be broken. She might never walk again.”
She drew in a sharp breath, and it turned to ice within her, the freeze spreading through her lungs and into her veins until she felt numb. She allowed Jason to pull her into his arms, to wrap his magnificent warmth around her.
“What is the point of all this?” she whispered.
His head was bent low, and she could feel his warm, steady breathing in the crook of her neck.
When he didn’t answer, she continued. “Pierre and Chi, and all the others lost in the Second Final. Elisha. And now Henri paralyzed. So many deaths and lives ruined. What is the point?”
“I don’t know,” Jason said softly.
Allyra took a shuddering breath and asked the same question she’d asked him during the Elemental Trials, in those last days before the Final Trial. “Why do you do it? What prize is worth the risk?”
“Why do you?” Jason asked, reflecting her question back at her. “There’s no longer a threat of imprisonment, no threat against your life. Jamie isn’t here, so no one can hurt him either. So why are you giving it your all? No one would have given it a second thought if we’d failed in the First Final, yet you helped me and pushed us to finish. So, the question is, why are you still here, Allyra?”
There were so many reasons. Her mind passed over her list.
Her father.
Emma.
Pierre.
Chi.
Alex.
So many reasons but none that she could put words to. Silence stretched between them.
“We can walk away,” Jason said quietly. “Say the word, and I’ll leave with you right now.”
Things had changed enough between them that she knew what it cost him to say those words. Perhaps he even meant them. She shook her head. “No, I’m not walking away from this. I intend to tear this house of brutality to the ground. I intend to make them pay.”
Jason pulled back and smiled dangerously, his indigo eyes bright. “Embrace the Gift?”
She nodded. “Who are we facing?”
“Owen and Eric.”
She smiled grimly, her Gift surging, filling her with untold power. “Let’s make them wish they’d lost that first round.”
* * *
Allyra tested the ground beneath her bare feet. The sun’s tropical heat had soaked into the black rock, making it uncomfortable to stand in one spot for any length of time. The ground was uneven, smooth in places and jagged in others. The evening light reflected from the black glass like a rainbow, finding beauty in the islands violent origins.
Beautiful and deadly. The Combat Arena would punish any missteps severely. Allyra allowed the crowd’s baying to fade to silence and her vision to narrow until she saw nothing but Owen Fan and the path she would take to get to him.
Like a distant echo, she heard Marcus’s call for them to begin. She took two quick leaps forward, then stopped, and waited. Every breath she took was steady and measured. The rhythm her heart beat out was calm. Allyra realized that she wasn’t nervous or afraid. She was just—ready.
This was the strategy she and Jason had come up with together. There would
