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Mills spat mud from his mouth to the ground.

I continued to prowl closer, throwing an air shield around my body so I could deal with him. “Going from poisoning drinks to all-out battle. Tell me, Mills. Did I ever do you wrong?”

He sneered. “You exist.”

“Ouch,” I hissed between my teeth, my hand on my chest in fake hurt. “Not the first time I’ve heard that.”

Orion whizzed in a circle to my right, throwing a well-aimed dagger at a Kinetic with ruby hair. My heart lodged in my throat as I recognized the man as Cardinal Kittle, Scarlett’s older brother. Did that mean Scarlett was here, too? Cotton?

Facing Mills again, I conjured an Elemental knife to my free hand, my sword still in the other. “It’s too bad. We could’ve been friends, but no. You chose murder. So, I think I’ll return the favor.” I threw the knife and watched it rotate until it landed perfectly between his now-frozen eyes.

I looked just in time to see Cardinal slipping away from Orion as another Kinetic Warrior took his place.

Sensing a knife cutting through the air, I sent a breeze to knock it off course. I looked just in time to see Chrome drive the Elemental side of his double-edged sword through the throat of a beefy Kinetic with light gray hair.

As savage as Chrome looked, he couldn’t help the dipped brow from the sadness that sat there with the life he took. He knew the man. And when I looked down at the slumped body on the ground, I met the vacant eyes of Scarlett’s eldest brother, Granite. The two had been friends. A fissure in my heart cracked for Scarlett and Chrome.

Chrome whirled, punching an incoming attack from behind. Again, when the blow landed, it was like a localized explosion of pressure, blasting the Kinetic back and imploding him into crimson bits.

Chrome was weaponless as he fought three-on-one with his bare fists. Each blow he landed sent a pressurized explosion into his attackers. If he kept using his magic at that rate, he’d deplete his reserves soon. I called out to him and conjured my element for assistance. Without looking, he held out a hand as I sent a sword his way, which he grabbed seamlessly before sparring with the two remaining Kinetics.

Water elementals unleashed their wrath, rinsing away the blood as fast as it drenched us while drowning Kinetics. Still standing in my air shield, I scanned to see if anyone needed help. River’s black ponytail caught my attention, and I watched as she began to struggle against a thermal Kinetic who countered her ability while she remained locked sword against sword. In their specific vicinity, rain formed and froze into large shards of ice. Just as it reached the top of the jade hair of a female warrior, the ice melted and turned to steam. River tried again with a different tactic but ended up with the same results.

Electric energy buzzed in my veins. I sent a high voltage of my blue magic into the rain pouring above River’s Kinetic opponent. The electricity combined with the water locked up the female warrior in electrocution, leaving River the chance to drive her sword in her gut.

I remembered Onyx in his fight with his ex, and I dashed toward them. Just before I reached him, I was barreled into from the side, taking me to the ground. Too focused on reaching Onyx, I used my air magic to drive my knife into my assailant’s side. With a curse, he lurched from my body, and I didn’t waste the opportunity to reach for my sword to finish him off. But I instinctively dropped it from the shocks of electricity jolting up the arm that held my blade.

That was all the attacker needed to lurch at me in a split second despite his wound. The male warrior sat atop me, pinning me to the ground. As his blade was about to pierce the skin on my temple, a dagger flew from nowhere and sunk into his carotid artery. A jolt coming from the bond had me unfurling my palm to catch the hilt of a dagger, my body having reacted before I ever realized what was happening.

Looking behind me, Chrome winked at me with a smirk. I rolled my eyes and pushed the gurgling Kinetic off me, climbing out of the mud. “Fucking arrogant ass,” I muttered to myself.

A familiar voice cried out in agony, distinguishing itself from the others’ echoing around us. Onyx collapsed to his knees. He looked up at the young woman with a look of betrayal just as the blue-haired Kinetic Warrior shoved a dagger into Onyx’s ribs.

I screamed and desperately scrambled through the mud to his side, tossing up an air shield to protect us. I rummaged through his pockets, searching for the antidote, trying not to look at the blood dribbling from the corners of his mouth. “Why is her blade affecting you? It shouldn’t…” It didn’t make sense but I searched his pockets anyway, not wanting to risk his life. His pockets came up empty. “Where’s your fucking antidote, Onyx?”

“Used…” he wheezed, “it.” He must not have restocked after the training session earlier.

I dug into my pocket and pulled out one of the extra vials I grabbed from the training facility. Jamming it into his neck, I couldn’t help but notice how pale he grew. His currents were flickering, shorting out.

“Come on, Onyx. Don’t you fucking do it.”

Suddenly, a black cloud appeared beside Onyx’s head, the specks of ash slowly piecing together to form a man. After a second or two, Chrome stood in its place.

Shocked, I asked, “What the hell, Chrome?” My mouth opened wide as I looked back at the space he had just been sparring half a football field away only seconds ago.

“New ability, I guess,” he mumbled in a rush, seemingly unconcerned. Squatting down, he slid his arms underneath his dearest friend and cradled him to his chest. Onyx was fading as his thick, dark lashes drooped, brushing against his ochre skin. “Let’s see if I can do it again without killing us both.” And just as he had arrived, he left in reverse, disintegrating into what looked like black ash that floated away on the wind.

“Holy shit,” I whispered. With the severe anxiety his final words just brought me, my air shield blinked out.

A flash of gold drew my focus, and not from the Elementals in battle around me. Sneering at me like he was already the victor, Golden Figarro flipped a dagger and caught it, drawing a sword in his other hand. Shoving the dagger into his weapons belt, he said, “Should’ve killed you back at the palace.”

Rising to my feet, I sighed. “Ah, I get it. My death will cement your place as Daddy’s number one bitch,” I said, adjusting the grip on the dagger that Chrome sent me while reaching for the final sword at my back.

“You can imagine my shock to find that our hero, Chrome Freyr, has been alive all this time, hiding out amongst the enemy. And not only that, but he’s an Elemental himself,” Golden mused as if we were having a casual chat.

“Yeah, you’d think the king would’ve said something a long time ago about that, right? Isn’t it strange that he hid it from all of us?”

Golden shook his head, unconcerned. “Not surprising. Of course, he’d disgrace such an abomination.” His upper lip pulled up as he pointedly eyed my golden skin and unique eyes.