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Still Theron stood and watched, his face contorting between shock and an infuriating neutrality that made me want to carve out his fucking eyeballs.

“HELP HER!” I cried, bucking and twisting to get out of the fucking chains. “THERON! HELP HER! SHE NEEDS HELP!”

His head turned towards me, but his eyes did not. “She killed it,” he said. “She fucking killed a Giant.”

“THERON!” I wanted to slap him, punch him,anythingto break him out of this fucking trance as Elara lay in a mangled heap beneath us. “THERON! FUCKING HELP HER!”

The crowd around us seemed to catch on to my cries, and suddenly a chant ofHelp her, help her, help herbegan to erupt from the stands.

Theron stumbled a little, catching himself on the railing of the royal box. His head sunk between his shoulders, and a pallor had crept over the back of his neck. He shook his head, his lips moving as he muttered words I couldn’t hear over the din of the crowd.

“THERON!” I roared, and finally his head snapped up to look around him.

His confused gaze landed on me, and he waved a hand in my direction. One of the guards rushed forward and released me from my chains, barely removing the last binding before I shoved him out of the way and vaulted myself down into the Pit.

“Elara!” I dashed across the ground, furious at myself for not being able to move as fast as she could. Every stride towards her felt like I was moving barely an inch. “Elara!” She didn’t move at all.

I skidded to my knees beside her, and reached out before jerking my hands back, unsure if moving her would hurt her more. I gently took her face in my hands, and saw with relief the flutter of her throat as she breathed. Bones protruded from her arm, blood cascading down the shredded casing of her armor. Thick black coils had started to whorl over her skin from where the venom of the Hadrian wolves Theron had so proudly sourced was now poisoning her blood.

“Elara?” I stroked her cheeks with my fingers. “Elara? Wake up. Please, please, fucking gods, wake up.”

A small, strangled sob sounded behind me, and I looked over my shoulder to see a shivering Nesryn hugging her arms around herself. She stared down at Elara’s inert frame with wide eyes.

“Is she dead?” She asked quietly.

“No,” I said, turning back to Elara. “She’s breathing, but…” She wasn’t waking up. If she wasn’t dead now, I had an awful feeling that in a few short hours, she would be.

Suddenly, healers were beside me, pushing me out of the way so they could lift Elara’s broken body onto a stretcher.

“You bring her back!” I commanded, rising to my feet. “You don’t let her die.”

The healers waved me off, muttering and shaking their heads. I watched as they carried Elara from the Pit, amidst cheers from the Velesians. The fucking Velesians had enjoyed their spectacle, and now they’d go to their homes, perhaps wondering for a few minutes whether or not the brave little Peyrusian princess would live. Then they’d go back about their day, as though she was nothing. As though she was no one important. As though she wasn’t my Bonded, the entire reason for my existence, the only thing now tethering me to this life.

Nesryn clutched onto my arm, big tears rolling down her cheeks. “Rook, she was so brave,” she murmured. “She protected me. She saved me. She must live.”

I patted her hand, still staring at the door the healers had carried Elara through. I only realised I was shaking when Nesryn clutched me tighter and began to cry into my arm. I held her to me, stroking her hair, my eyes still fixed on that door.

“It’s alright, little one,” I told her. “It’s alright. She’s strong. She’ll live. She has to.”

The heart beside mine was beating. Slowly, but it was there. She was still alive.

Don’t leave me. You can’t leave me. Please.

“Norahi!” The voice made Nesryn and I both snap our attention away from our grief. A guard gestured for us to follow him. “Come on then, king wants to see you.”

I kept my arms protectively around my little sister as we were escorted to the throne room. She clung on to me, and through the haze of my despair I was aware that her hair now tickled my chin. She was so much taller than when I’d been taken away.

I looked down at her wide, terrified eyes, glowing a soft cornflower blue, and a lump formed in my throat. She looked so much like my mother. I sniffled, stroking a finger under her chin and attempted to give her a smile.

“Are you alright?” I asked, chiding myself for not having asked her sooner.

She nodded, returning my smile with trembling lips. “Hello, big brother.” She sniffled, clutching onto the lapel of my jacket. “You’ve changed a little.”

I gave a laugh, tears blurring my vision. “So have you, little one.”

“Father sends his love,” she whispered as we were ushered into the stone chamber where Theron sat on his ebony throne.

“Send my love to him too. Tell him I am well.” I replied, and gently kissed her forehead. “It’s going to be alright. They’ll send you home. I’m sure of it.”