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Just four more,she thought, trying to push past the pain. She was exhausted, her aether nearly gone. But if she could just tag out four more of these little bastards, she’d be done.

Taly moved to take a step, and the pain almost had her crying out. But she didn’t stop. She took another hobbled step forward, towards the tree in the center of the arena. She needed something solid at her back—just until her leg recovered.

Navigating the group of suspended fairies that peppered the arena, she scanned the branches overhead. Early on, the fairies had taken to hiding in the foliage, darting in and out of the spindling limbs in a way that made it almost impossible to predict their next attack. Even if she used her Sight, trying to trace the chaotic patternof her premonitions through the leaves, she was still left scrambling.

As though her thoughts had summoned them, one of the fairies chose that moment to dive towards her. Acting on instinct, she immediately lifted her staff and fired off a column of condensed air. The wind threw the fairy back through the branches, shaking loose a rain of leaves and petals that fluttered to the ground like snow.

Taly struggled to see through the flurry, scanning the branches and tracing each chirp and rustle. She could just barely make out the faint golden afterimages as they moved through the branches, each following the threads of their individual decisions. Right or left. Down or up.

The threads shifted.

Taly began weaving the spell.Four more.They were all overhead, bunched together and about to descend.

A hiss of wind was her only warning before pain exploded at the base of her neck. Taly let out a scream as her back arched and her body jolted. Her staff fell from nerveless fingers, rolling away as she slumped to the ground.

A fairy—one she had thought frozen—floated just inches above her face, giggling merrily.

“Game!” Azura called from the sidelines.

Taly groaned, trying to move her arms first, then her legs, both unsuccessfully. Her head lolled to the side, but the movement triggered some other injury. Her body twitched violently, drawing a whimpered gasp from her lungs.

“What the hell?” she moaned. Even talkinghurt.

Azura leaned back in the tall green velvet chair Leto had brought down shortly after lunch. “You forgot to guard your back. A well-placed blow to the neck can incapacitate a fey. If this battle had been real, you would be dead by now.”

“Good to know,” Taly bit out. The words burned her throat. She could barely breathe.

The Queen waved a hand, sending out a tendril of magic that snaked across the yard. The spell licked at her skin, and Taly nearly sobbed in relief when the pain began to ebb.

A simple reversal spell, one Taly could have cast on herself.

If she could just figure out how to think around the pain.

“Again,” Azura barked.

Taly decided she hated that word.

Taly yelped as the ground flew up to meet her. Every nerve ending crackled with heat as a thousand needles pricked her skin, and even though a wave of numbness followed close behind, her body began to spasm uncontrollably. The manic cackle of the two fairies that bobbed overhead only served to complete yet another humiliating defeat.

Sadists.All of them. The palace was full of fucking sadists.

Dirt crunched, and a polished boot prodded at Taly’s shoulder, kicking her with what felt like an unnecessary amount of force. She groaned as she was rolled over onto her back.

“You’re still allowing yourself to get hit,” Azura said. The woman stood over her, her body blotting out the sun as she crossed her arms imperiously. Even though the details of her face were lost to the shadows, Taly somehow knew that the woman was frowning. “I keep telling you to guard your back, but do you listen? Of course not. Because Talya Caro knows everything. Everything except how to guard her back.”

Taly grumbled a curse and wriggled feebly. Her body was still completely paralyzed—she couldn’t even manage a crude gesture. “I hate you,” she muttered, her scowl deepening when Azura grinned. “I hate you so much, you crazy bitch.”

“That’s sweet.” Azura chuckled as she poked Taly in the stomach with the tip of a folded parasol. “But flattery will get you nowhere. You know what will get you somewhere, more specifically out of here and back where you belong? Guarding your back.”

“You’re such a bitch,” Taly groaned as the Queen sent out a small wave of magic. Something crunched as it moved back into place.

“You said that already,” Azura chirped, ignoring the poisonous glare that Taly sent her way. She reached down and hauled the smaller woman to her feet, grabbing her by the waist when her knees immediately buckled. “Anyways, my dear” –Azura waited for Taly to find her footing before releasing her— “I think we should call it a day. The gates will be closing soon, and I have a feeling you’re going to want a bath before dinner.”

Taly would’ve rolled her eyes, but the pain that movement would inevitably trigger wasn’t worth it. Yes, she needed a bath. She was filthy.But she didn’t need the woman that had been sitting in the shade drinking tea all afternoon pointing that out.

Taly swayed on her feet, panting. She leaned against the tree when the world began to tilt. Her heart was still beating too fast, and there was a slight haze creeping in at the edges of her vision. Her stomach turned, but she waited until both the Queen and Leto had disappeared behind one of the stone arches before sinking back down to her knees and vomiting.

She heaved until there was nothing left inside of her—until she was crying not only from the bile that stung her nose and throat but the lingering pain that tightened like a vice around every cell and muscle and nerve.