Page 12 of A Legacy of Stars (The Lost God Legacies)

12

STELLA

T he noise of the crowd was at an all-time high and Stella was keenly aware that another competitor had either died or completed the challenge, or perhaps both—a death and a victory at the same time.

“Look alive, princess. That beast is retreating now, but we need a strategy here. This is the wisdom challenge,” Fionn said.

Stella glanced from her mercenary partner to the priestess at the corner of their pit, who rang a bell.

Ten minutes left, or she was out of the Gauntlet Games and she’d lose her shot at happiness.

She chanced a look at the royal box where Arden was leaning forward in his chair, his worried gaze fixed on her. Stella forced herself to smile. She looked to the gamemaker’s box where Endros sat. A ghost of a smirk played over his lips. Leave it to the god of war to invent the most violent wisdom challenge in years.

Usually, any violence in this challenge was quick and vicious and explicitly a result of not using one’s head. But a fight against a monster in a pit that required both talent and luck was sure to produce the bloodshed the god of war savored.

Endros nodded at Stella, his eyes faintly glowing with power. A chill spread through Stella’s body, but she refused to be a pawn for him. If he had a score to settle, she wouldn’t be the one to pay the price.

Fionn walked toward her, two curved blades in his hands. His hair, which had been perfectly tied back, was now plastered to his forehead and neck with sweat. The intricate design on his Novumi fighting leathers had been slashed by the beast they were fighting.

The sun blazed down and sweat beaded on Stella’s forehead. The hairs at her nape had drawn into tighter curls in the humidity, tickling her skin every time she moved.

She sized up their opponent as Fionn stepped up beside her.

The Octobear, as she’d been calling it, stood close to seven feet tall. It had the body of a wild bear, but eight large, tentacled legs sprouted out of its back, each tipped by a bear paw with vicious claws.

The mythical beast was entirely summoned by magic, so loud it made her ears ring. All magical objects had a sort of resonance, but this monster had a more distinct ancient sound that unnerved Stella.

The water in their pit was already up to her calves, soaking into her boots and making her movements slow and slippery.

But soggy feet were the least of her problems. She had a monster to slay in the next ten minutes if she wanted to advance in the contest.

“Is this a bad time to admit I was expecting you to pick talent, not luck?” Fionn said.

Stella scowled at him. “Forgive me for not realizing someone with your ego wouldn’t pick talent.”

“Offended that you think I don’t already have it, princess,” he said with a wink. “At least that luck is serving us well.” Fionn gestured to the claw gashes on his left thigh.

Stella laughed and winced at the throbbing in her side. The Octobear had gotten her good with one of its long-range tentaclaws. Her shirt and the waist of her pants were soaked in blood, but the leather breastplate had saved her from the worst of it.

She could practically feel the burn of her parents’ eyes and she was furious at herself for being wounded. At the exact moment she’d been driving in close to try to snatch the jewel from the green ribbon around the Octobear’s neck, she’d felt a shock of fear in her chest. Teddy’s fear.

The split second of distraction was enough for the beast to claw her, but Stella recovered quickly by slicing off its arm. Unfortunately, it appeared to be generating two new tentacled arms in its place. Now it would have nine, and the wound had only made the monster temporarily retreat.

Stella wished her side would heal faster so that it wouldn’t be so distracting. She didn’t need another thing splitting her focus. Her stupid bond had nearly been the end of her in the first few minutes of this task.

She stole a quick glance at the hourglass at the top of their pit. Sand was rapidly pouring into the lower half. They needed to win, and quickly.

She pressed a hand to her side, and it came away bloody.

Fionn grinned at her. “Don’t worry. You look great in red.”

She laughed and winced again. “We have to crowd it. I can try to wound it with my bow from afar, but at least one of us has to get close to swipe the jewel.”

So far, they’d only succeeded in deflecting its arms and making it angry.

All her instincts had her looking for the fastest escape route. Stella wanted to flee this danger. Worse, her magic wanted to join the fun. It swelled and pressed against her skin, making her even warmer under the blazing sun.

Her fire magic had always been like this, as swift and temperamental as flames, roaring to life whenever she was hurt or angry. It took tremendous restraint to stuff it down in a fight. When she was younger, she’d trained on the beach until she could master the fits of fire that overcame her when she was hurt or angry. She’d blow all her fire into the sea, letting it turn to steam, away from anywhere it could hurt someone.

Now with fear so wild in her heart, she could barely contain it .

Only her father’s familiar refrain rooted her. Feel the fear. Do it anyway .

How many times had he encouraged her to try new things with those words? It was okay to be afraid, but she could not let the fear win.

She tried to call up his training. Every opponent had a weakness. The bear’s fur was matted along its left side where she’d caught it with her sword before slicing off one of its tentaclaws. She could try to hit it there again.

Eyeing the wound, Stella drew her bow and aimed. Wisdom meant knowing they did not have to slay the beast to get the prize. Wisdom meant playing to the advantage they both claimed. They had excess luck, but Fionn was already a talented fighter and she was already a goddess-blessed archer. Perhaps there was wisdom in taking a beat to consider that this test was meant not to give them a moment to breathe, because the answer suddenly seemed so obvious.

She loosed an arrow. One of the Octobear’s arms swatted it away.

The monster let out an inhuman growl, and the crowd gasped.

“Well, shit,” Fionn grumbled. “All you did was piss it off.”

“Take out the arms and it will have to regenerate. It took almost a minute for them to regenerate last time,” she said. “We have to go now. We can’t break another charge from that thing.”

Fionn grimaced and nodded. “All right. Let’s see how lucky we really are. You take the arms on the right and I’ll take the arms on the left, but watch out for its shorter, regular bear arms. That’s what got me last time.”

Stella nodded and followed Fionn as he charged across the pit. She took five quick shots as they charged in the hopes of distracting the beast. All it did was make the Octobear angrier. It slammed its arms down and the water erupted in a wave that nearly knocked Stella off balance.

She looped her bow across her body and drew her short swords to slash away one of the arms. She dodged and ducked the rest, forcing herself to get as close to the bear’s body as she dared.

One clawed arm skimmed her shoulder, and another snagged on her wristguard, but she pressed on. She sliced up and out, severing an arm. She crossed her swords and made quick work of the next two.

Three arms down, two more to go. She moved closer to the next arm as it struggled to double back and fight her off. But the beast bucked and growled as a tentaclaw dropped on the other side of its body. Stella’s blade slipped and only sliced into the underside of the tentacled arm.

Dark brown herbal-smelling blood sprayed across her hands. Stella’s stomach heaved, and she ducked under its giant bear paw just in time. One claw scraped over the top of her head. The scratch warmed with blood.

She stumbled behind the bear and watched in horror as it swatted Fionn away like a rag doll. He hit the dirt wall hard and leaned against it, looking woozy. The bear bellowed a ground-rattling roar at him.

Stella wasn’t quite tall enough to reach the green ribbon fastened around the bear’s neck. Another three inches and she could have untied it and snatched the ruby.

Instead, she drove her swords into the wound she’d already made on the bear’s side and thrust them upward. The beast screamed.

She twisted. Searing pain lanced her side and she cried out as claws raked the already angry gash below her ribs. If she hadn’t moved at the last second, she might have been eviscerated. Perhaps she was lucky, after all.

Her magic surged beneath her skin and it took every bit of her self-control not to lash out and burn the beast to ash.

Panic gripped her. They were running out of time, and she was perilously close to losing control of her magic.

She stumbled away from the beast and ran for Fionn as the bear curled in on itself. Its stumps were quickly sprouting two new arms each.

Fionn shot arrows at the beast for cover, but it retreated into the far corner to regenerate.

The mercenary paused and glanced at Stella’s side, which was still bleeding steadily .

A wave of dizziness hit her, and she stumbled into his arms. Water sloshed around her hips and she cursed as it splashed into her wound.

“Easy, princess. You’re not looking so good. We need to end this and get you out of here.” Fionn steadied her, and she turned and looked at the beast again.

“I couldn’t reach the ribbon to snatch the jewel,” she mumbled.

“I think we’ve got one more rally in us. What do you say?” Fionn said.

“I think we’ve been lucky so far. We don’t need to kill it. We just need to remove the ruby. I was trying to get the arms out of the way so I could do this.” Stella aimed her bow and breathed out. “To luck,” she whispered.

She loosed the arrow and closed her eyes. Please . It was a plea not to the gods, but to something deep within herself. Please be good enough . She heard the arrow hit the dirt wall with a thud.

The water sloshed beside her. When she blinked her eyes open, Fionn was halfway across the pit. The bear barely noticed his approach. It was writhing in the water as its new arms grew longer. They were nearly fully grown again, several claws beginning to sprout from the ends of each paw.

Fionn sprinted the last yard as fast as he could to her arrow on the pit wall. He jumped to grab the ruby dangling from the green ribbon. The moment his hand closed around it, the Octobear went rigid and then desiccated to dust.

The cheer of the crowd drowned out the pounding of Stella’s heart in her ears.

Stella bent forward and bit back a sob of relief as the water level immediately started to recede. She was dizzy and nauseous and had very little fight left. If that hadn’t worked, she would have been lost.

She forced herself to roll her shoulders back and turn to face the stands. Her parents were on their feet shouting, as were Leo and Rosie beside them. King Xander and Queen Jessamin were also on their feet, applauding. Jalen and Juliana joined their parents, but Alexandra stared at Stella with her eyes in narrowed assessment. Did she remember what Stella had done?

Stella shrugged it off. Nothing she could do about it now.

Finally, she looked at Arden. His tan face was paler than usual, but he was on his feet applauding her. The sight of him looking so frazzled made her heart soar. Stella was exhausted and she must have looked frightful, but she beamed at her love.

It was only the first challenge, and she’d almost died. Worse, she’d come perilously close to losing control of her magic, but she refused to let Arden or the crowd see her sweat.

As she turned toward the ladder that had been lowered into the pit, she spotted Endros in front of his elevated throne. He cocked his head, studying her with anger in his eyes, his shoulders shaking. But as flames erupted around him and the crowd gasped, Stella realized the god of war wasn’t angry at all. He was laughing.