Page 53 of A Queen’s Betrayal (Legends of Worldbinders #1)

Arenna’s head pounded as voices returned to her, and the absence of power made her stomach churn. Flame still pooled in her veins, but the comforting warmth it offered had dimmed.

Wylder stood above her, offering a gloved hand. When her vision cleared, she took it and stood with his help on flat ground. The small hill that had sprouted out of nowhere was gone.

Across the pit, Bramnen knelt, panting in the dirt, with Marea resting a hand on his shoulder. The scowl on the Lady Commander’s pale skin made Arenna’s skin crawl.

“I—I didn’t mean to lose control,” she spluttered, looking down at her hands. The tips of her fingers were slightly gray. “I don’t know what happened.”

“You’re weak. Undisciplined. Untrained .” Marea didn’t hold back. “If you lose control like that just in training, Seven knows what you would do in a real battle. You are a liability ,” she seethed.

Anger bubbled beneath Arenna’s skin, but the commander wasn’t wrong. “That’s what training is for,” she countered. “I practice here so I don’t mess up out there .”

Marea snarled with rage, but a voice cut her off.

“That’s enough,” it demanded. The king walked into the pit, looking as lethal as the rest of his companions.

“Untrained, yes. Weak . . .” Kayson said, lifting the shield Bramnen had hidden behind, revealing a hole burned directly through the center.

“There is only one kind of flame powerful enough to cut through voidstone.”

“Dragon,” Wylder whispered, turning toward Arenna with parted lips. “I had never made the connection.”

What?

“And likely can burn through stone too,” Kayson added, turning in her direction. “Not only were you gifted an element, but to be given the exact flame that used to pool in the bellies of dragons, someone in the sky must really like you, Serpent.”

Arenna suppressed a retort at the nickname. “I find that incredibly hard to believe,” she scoffed. She no longer saw the Seven as merciful or kind. They made no one by accident; each person had a purpose. So why would hers be a life of abuse and torture? She muttered a curse under her breath.

“Dragon flame or not,” Marea chimed in, “she still could have killed Bramnen. She has no control over that power.”

“And Arenna’s right, that’s why we’re here, Mar.” Bramnen stood, brushing loose dirt off his pants. “That was brilliant,” he said to Arenna with a laugh. “And terrifying.”

Even Kayson smiled at that.

“I’m sorry,” Arenna muttered. “I will make sure something like that doesn’t happen again.”

Bramnen smiled. “Happy to help in any way I can, even if that means cowering behind a piece of metal while you melt it away.”

“How do you feel?” Kayson asked, grabbing Arenna’s hand and bringing her fingers into his line of sight. He ran his thumb over the gray patches on her skin, and she prayed he didn’t sense her body stiffening at his touch.

“Fine,” she said. “Tired.”

“Your fingertips are gray, which means you are approaching burnout. How much power did you use?” Kayson dropped her hand, his mouth pulled tight. “Look into your reservoir.”

She closed her eyes, imagining that molten flame. Her power was nearly depleted. Swelled with panic, Arenna said, “It—it’s almost gone.” She ran a hand along her arm, as if comforting the fire within her veins.

“It’s because you’re untrained,” Kayson replied. “Over time, you will grow in strength, and your power will multiply. But when we first start practicing, you cannot unleash it in the way you did. Not until you’re more disciplined.”

“I didn’t mean to.” She considered his words. “All I felt was power,” Arenna admitted. “It felt like I was unleashing everything I had ever felt. There was no beginning, middle, or end.”

“Strange that you did not feel the end, and yet your fingers still darkened.” Wylder brought his hand to his chin, lost in thought. “We know so little about elemental power; it’s hard to understand how different it is from Fae magic.”

“Ada, I'm sure, has answers,” Bramnen suggested.

“I need to speak with her.” Wylder turned to Arenna. “Good luck with the rest of your training,” he said naturally. He pulled a capsule from his pocket and swallowed it. In an instant, his body rippled out of sight.

She still wasn’t used to the sight of that.

“When I was fighting Bramnen, the earth grew to stop me,” Arenna said, turning toward Kayson, who leaned against the rack of weapons, looking as calm as the lake surrounding the castle. Did anything ever bother him? “Was that you?”

He nodded slowly. “I tried to let you stop yourself. Then I realized you weren’t going to get to that point.”

How long had he been standing there watching?

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“Who knew you were capable of appreciation?” Kayson twirled a dagger in his hand before sheathing it on his thigh. “Let’s work on that, shall we?”

“What, my appreciation?” Her fists twitched at her side. Arenna wanted to punch him right between the eyes to see his nose bleed. That would surely shut him up.

“Your lack of control.” He chuckled, folding his arms behind his back. “Like Marea said, you are undisciplined. As wonderful as it was to watch you incinerate my training pit, I do need you to be a little more in control on the battlefield. Can’t have you burning my army,” he added with a wink.

As frustrating as he was, he was right. “Let’s get started,” Arenna said, cracking her knuckles.

“Now?” Kayson clarified, grinning.

“Unless you’re scared, Reaper?”

He scoffed, shrugging off his thick jacket and tossing it to the dirt. “Never, Serpent.”

* * *

Despite winter lingering, the sun poured down in an endless stream of heat, sending waves of warmth over Arenna.

She was surprised the king stayed and hadn’t retreated to his castle, dismissing this task as beneath someone with such important daily matters.

Then again, he was the only other known elementalist.

Perhaps only he could oversee her magical training.

Arenna didn’t relish the idea, but she couldn’t deny Kayson’s depth of power. He was skilled—a brutal warrior—and she hadn’t even glimpsed a fraction of the strength that lingered in his bones. When she considered it, there truly was no one better to learn from.

And yet, she hated that it had to be him.

Across the pit, Kayson pulled the leather straps of his vest around his ribcage, securing it in place. Arenna tried and failed not to watch. For whatever reason, his presence demanded attention.

His golden eyes met hers across the pit, and heat immediately rose to her cheeks. It didn’t help when the king chuckled to himself and sauntered over. “Would you like me to sit and get a portrait drawn of myself for you?” Kayson mocked.

Arenna scoffed. “I think I’ll pass, thanks.”

“We could hang it in your chambers. Who knows? You might enjoy falling asleep while looking at my face.”

Laughing out loud, Arenna shrugged off her thick sparring jacket and discarded it near the armory. “Believe me, Reaper, I have no interest in looking at any part of you unless I have to.”

Lost in trying to push down the redness in her cheeks, Arenna hadn’t noticed Kayson had come up beside her, standing only inches away. His eyes raked over her, lingering on her face long enough to make her stomach flop. “Right,” he purred, smirking like an egotistical fool.

Oh , she was definitely going to punch him.

“Your power is not endless,” Kayson said, stalking around the dirt pit.

“Your reservoir will empty if you do not replenish it. And if it empties entirely, the power will never return. With proper training and discipline, you could burn the world if you wanted to and wouldn’t even feel so much as tired. ”

Arenna shivered despite the sun’s warmth. She didn’t want that kind of power. She had seen what even a small piece of it could do to someone like Jaksen. Though she was not him—nor as twisted and demented—she still feared what her flame might do to her mind.

And yet, she couldn’t deny she’d thought about ashing the entirety of both continents and wiping the world clean of the Rot and its evils.

“I don’t want to burn the world,” she said, quieter than she meant to. “I want to protect it.”

Kayson stared at her, his expression unreadable. After a moment, he said, “Good. Then I will help you train so you could burn the world if you wanted to, but have the strength not to.” He walked to the middle of the pit and held up a match. “Reservoir, now.”

Arenna let her eyes slide closed, imagining the lake of wet flame stored inside her mind. She saw it almost immediately, the surface bubbling and popping in slow, deliberate bursts.

“Tell me what you’re feeling.”

“ Power . It feels hot, hungry almost—like it has a desire to scorch.” Her throat burned, her palms itched. “I feel it everywhere, and like it wants to be let out.”

“That’s because it does,” Kayson answered. “Elemental magic is the least studied of all gifts granted by the Seven, simply because it is so rare. Texts about the Draka Kingdom were lost after the Severance . As elementalists have emerged over time, we’ve had to adapt and study them.”

Her eyes flew open. “Study them?” she clarified. “You’ve been studied ?”

“Not to the extent that some have been, but yes. Elders took me under their care as a child and spent hours honing my abilities, researching, taking notes, and seeing how to tame the beasts that live within us.”

“How does it differ from Fae magic?”

“Apart from being rare to only a few people,” Kayson began, “it is much stronger than any other magic. We control the elements of our world, and that power holds a strength no other can match. Elemental magic is as strong as the force it’s drawn from.

” He knelt in the dirt and pushed his hands beneath the grit.

Seconds later, the ground began to shake.