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I look up at him, seeing him clearly for perhaps the first time in my life. Not as the terrifying king who shaped my childhood, but as a broken man consumed by fear and grief. Who lost his mind to it.

And in that moment, I let go.

Not of my will to fight, but of the need to win on his terms. I stop trying to be the warrior he molded me into, and instead, I let myself feeleverything.

The pain of my wounds, even as they heal. The fear of unleashing too much of my strength in this battle, killing him, and becoming the Lonely King, lost in an icy wasteland. I feel my love for Sapphire, fierce and terrifying in its intensity. The grief for my mother, the longing for what could have been if she’d been patient and waited to drink that potion until it was finished instead of believing she could overcome the missing ingredient because she simplywantedit badly enough. I even feel compassion for my father, trapped in his own frozen hell, unable to escape.

I let it rise, and it consumes me.

The ice beneath me shimmers, responding not just to my magic, but to the water flowing through me from Sapphire. Water that doesn’t freeze at my touch, but that twines with my frost, creating a brilliant, sparkling display throughout the arena.

The crowd gasps, their anticipation rising.

“What are you doing?” My father presses the blade harder against my throat, drawing another line of blood.

I open my palm.

Frostbite trembles where he lies on the ice, and then he shoots across the arena into my waiting hand, my fingers curling around his hilt.

My father stumbles back, his eyes wide. “Impossible.”

A tremor ripples through the crowd, and I rise to my feet as water, ice, and air swirl around me in a storm of harmonized power.

“You were right about one thing,” I tell him, my voice cutting through the chattering in the stands. “Youdidcreate me.”

Water droplets rise around me, freezing into razor-sharp fractals that catch the light and glitter with deadly promise.

“Every punishment taught me pain,” I continue, advancing on him with measured steps. “Every harsh lesson taught me precision. Every time you made me believe I wasn’t enough—“ I bring my sword up in a swift, merciless arc, “—taught me how to prove you wrong.”

My father’s face contorts with rage. “You ungrateful?—”

He hurls ice spears at me, but I don’t dodge. Instead, I raise my hand, and the air around me heats, melting his attack and shaping it into a tidal wave that I send crashing back at him.

My father roars, charging at me with his blade raised high. “You’ve been corrupted! You’ve beenturned!”

His accusation rings hollow against my ears, more desperate than triumphant, and I parry his blow with brutal efficiency, our swords meeting with a clash that sends frost spiraling outward.

“I’ve been neither,” I counter, forcing him back with a warm gust of air. “I’veevolved.”

And then, with swift precision, I use my combined air and water magic to create a slick path of slush beneath his feet.

He slips, and I lunge for the opening, disarming him with a strike so fast my blade becomes a blur.

“You don’t control me anymore,” I say quietly, and then I call his sword into my other palm, force him to his knees with a blast of air, and hold him down with the tips of both blades to his throat.

RIVEN

Triumph surges through me,as cold as the ice coating the arena floor.

I could end this now. I could endhim.

But then, like a spark of warmth in the ice, Sapphire’s presence rushes through our bond. Her hope. Her fear. Her plea before I stepped into the arena.

Promise me you won’t become the Lonely King.

I said yes. And I will never betray my word to her. I will never lose her trust.

So, I lower my voice, keeping it steady through the adrenaline.