Page 77 of Dance of the Phoenix

She kept on climbing upward, as if she’d just jumped on an extremely springy trampoline instead of hard, cold marble.

Haneul pointed at her almost floating figure, and his hawk flew toward Petra, but to my shock, it was too slow; Petra was already falling back down, and not back to her previous place, but rather forward, toward Yelene.

Seemingly realizing what she was trying to do, Haneul began running to cross the arena, but he was too late. Petra landed on top of Yelene, her hands in Yelene’s hair, preparing to sever her head.

That’s when Haneul suddenly screamed, “We surrender!”

And just like that, we lost that round.

But we didn’t lose more people.

There was another fifteen-minute break before the final battle of the day. At that time, with Ragnor still by my side, Haneul approached Ragnor. “I apologize, my Lord,” he said with a blank face that seemed to feel anything but apologetic, “but after the last few rounds, I deduced this would be the best outcome.”

I looked at Ragnor. He looked even more exhausted than before all of a sudden. “You made the right call,” he said in a rough, grave voice. “Good work, Haneul.”

Haneul bowed. It was a straight-backed, arms-to-the-side kind of bow that meant the utmost respect.

“Ragnor,” I whispered once Haneul returned to his seat, “we have to win the next round.”

He hugged me to his side. “I know.”

He didn’t say we would win. That I had nothing to worry about. In fact, he seemed even more somber than before. He didn’t even seem surprised that we were in this position.

It was as if he’d predicted this part of the Hecatomb would go wrong.

And that made me feel sick again. Because if Ragnor lacked faith, then how could I have any?

This dreadful feeling in my gut grew to impossible proportions when the break was over and it was time for the last battle between Neisha and CJ and the Atalon League’s pair, which I was unfamiliar with, named Azaz and Thorne.

When the battle started, I found myself looking at Jada. She was sitting a few rows behind me, her large gray eyes glued to the arena in something akin to a trance, as if she was compelled to look by some external force.

I returned my gaze to the arena, where Neisha and CJ worked together to take down Azaz, who seemed to be the Gifted one in the pair. He was agile, though, and he managed to avoid every attack by Neisha and CJ. He instead managed to get some kicks in on CJ.

Neisha must’ve realized this was going nowhere when she suddenly lifted CJ as if he weighed nothing and, quite literally, threw him like a pitcher would at the pair.

CJ stretched out his hands and landed on Thorne, his hands wrapping around Thorne’s neck. With what seemed to be minimal effort, he tore Thorne’s head off.

The crowd cheered, and I even relaxed a little, seeing the good shape Neisha and CJ were in.

But I relaxed too early.

Because when Neisha was attempting to take down Azaz, Azaz instead rushed at CJ, who was still holding Thorne’s severed head, and with his bare hands, Azaz managed to tear into CJ’s chest from his back, his hand creating a hole in CJ’s torso. When he pulled his hand back, he opened it and pieces of red, bleeding meat fell to the floor.

CJ’s heart.

Crushed to literal bits.

Two screams filled the arena just then.

Neisha’s was wild and furious, and she was immediately on Azaz, tearing his head off as easily as if she was squashing a fly.

And behind me, Jada’s was that of a woman who had just lost the most important, precious thing in her life.

Her soulmate.

Her Alara Morreh.

I moved before I could even comprehend what I was doing. Ragnor and Isora called after me, but I climbed the stairs to the row where Jada lay on the floor, her endless screams both heart wrenching and terrifying.