Page 48 of Wrath Of Suns And Shadows (The Osparia #2)

“Hard to keep a promise like that when you’re the one keeping me in the one place I want to escape.

” My words came out harsh again. I couldn’t help it.

Regardless of the kindness he had shown, he could have stopped all of this if he would’ve just let me go on the ship, and then I wouldn’t have been his problem anymore.

Valla would have hunted me, along with whoever else wanted the bounty that had been placed on my head, but I would’ve kept fighting—running.

Maybe the rebellion could have even kept me safe if we could have been better prepared than last time.

He took a breath, collecting himself from my words before he walked toward the door.

“I’ll be back to escort you this evening. Eat, you’ll need your strength,” he advised, eyeing my plate still full of food across the room. He left, and I went back to the table.

A shadow made me pause as I took my seat, and then an orb of darkness scurried to me like a stray animal wanting love.

The same orb from the island moved around me like a dance before tucking under my hair and tickling the back of my neck as it came out the other side.

Showing me tender affection as it moved around my face and tickled my cheeks like it were giving me a thousand little kisses.

“Alright, alright, I missed you too, calm down.” I smiled brightly as it bounced around playfully.

My face grew more serious. “Does Crow know about tonight?” I asked, and it nodded as if it were telling me yes.

“Good, he could come for me before Kade gets back.” I lifted my arms. “I’m not wearing irons, so he could Hollow us out of here.

We could get back home,” I whispered excitedly, but the shadow orb lost its luster, as if the darkness of it had faded like a lamp going out.

Its excitement moments ago gave way to . . . sadness?

I reached my hand out, it nuzzled it softly, and something about it let me know Crow wouldn’t be coming. I deflated. “Why? Why will you not come for me?” I choked out, my irritation growing inside me.

The shadows backed away from me as if they could feel the moment my heart shattered. The moment I realized the man I thought loved me wasn’t coming for me.

Then they disappeared, knowing there was nothing they could do to comfort me.

Kade showed up before the sun went down.

He readied me and placed my iron cuffs on my wrists with apologetic glances and soothing touches until it was time to escort me to the throne room to be tonight’s entertainment .

Kade placed his stern, menacing, princely mask on so easily as we left the bedroom.

What the emperor didn’t know was that I wouldn’t be entertaining anyone tonight. I would end every competitor before they had time to move against me, regardless of the irons weakening me.

Nerves thrummed through me, but I knew I would have to win. I refused to let doubt or fear cloud my mind. I was determined to wipe Valos’s smug smile off his face when I walked away victorious tonight.

We stepped up to the large throne room doors.

The last time I was here was when we’d faced Valla’s outburst. I could hear crowded chatter and soft music from the other side of the double doors.

Kade nodded to the soldiers to open them.

They did, and the room overflowed with fae dressed in their finest, as if they were celebrating a special occasion.

I assumed to those closest to the emperor, it was.

The bottom floor was open with few people standing along the sides, and the ring was centered perfectly in the room for those who were gathered on the large balconies above, so they could witness the fight from an excellent view.

Valos sat on his throne, smiling to a fellow royal man before shooing him off and fixing his eyes on Kade and me.

They darkened the moment they locked on me, and I had to hold myself back from snarling at him.

Valla sat perched right next to her father.

The vicious curve of her painted lips told me she couldn’t wait to see me be a bloody pulp on the ground.

I wouldn’t be—not tonight.

Kade tugged me along as we walked around the ring to the side I would be on. The slow music stopped and the room went quiet as their emperor spoke. Any royals that hadn’t made it to the balconies quickly funneled out of the room to the second floor.

“Let the fun begin!” he shouted with an evil laugh.

“Bring out our first contender.” He waved to the doors, and a massive man sauntered in wearing only black pants and nothing else.

He didn’t seem to carry himself with the precise elegance of a fae, and with his dark brown, shoulder-length hair, I couldn’t see his ears to decipher what he was, but considering he was barefoot, I wondered if he was a dryad.

Most dryads enjoyed feeling the solid ground under their feet, as it made them feel closer to their bending—more grounded.

Nerves fluttered through me again at the thought of being attacked with bending and hand-to-hand combat. Without my bending, it would be even more of a challenge to defeat anyone.

“Rules! No bending”— thank the fucking gods —“no weapons, and no killing, although get as close as you can to it.” Valos said the last part with a smile, and the crowd cheered for blood.

But I didn’t plan on giving any of them what they wanted. I got into my stance, and Kade eyed me for a moment, as if he were trying to communicate to me with a single glance. Be careful.

For a moment, I thought I heard the words in my mind.

The dryad sauntered to his side of the ring.

“Olivis Canarabi has fought in our ring before and emerged victorious. Let us see if he can defeat the mighty Peacebringer,” one of Valos’s councilmen shouted through the room before he waved his hand, and Olivis leapt for me.

The crowd cheered. I lurched to the side, throwing all of my strength into the side of his neck, hitting the spot I knew would perfectly put him to sleep.

He jerked with a grunt as he went to stand straight up, but he ended up falling flat on his face with an echoing thud through the room that made everyone go silent with disappointment.

I grinned at Valos, but he didn’t look upset.

He still carried that smug arrogance to him.

“Another,” he shouted to his councilmen, and the crowd cheered again.

I looked over to the doors, and a woman walked in, beautifully fae with her hair pulled back in a slick tail out of her face, showing off her slightly pointed ears.

The way she carried herself let me know she was a water bender like me.

Her movements were fluid, smooth, and graceful.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to get her down as quickly.

Especially if these contestants—fighters—whatever Valos wanted to call them—were watching from somewhere.

They could study and expect my next moves.

I bounced on my heels as she walked over to the same side the dryad had been just on.

Two soldiers had dragged him off somewhere.

She stepped into the fighting ring, and the councilmen announced her.

“Arada Mistwill, another one of our regular victors . . .” He spoke and then raised his hand, signaling the fight to start.

She didn’t leap for me. We circled each other, watching and waiting for one of us to strike first. As she stepped toward me and swung, I raised my arms and ducked, blocking until her knee made contact with my side.

Then, I swiftly dropped and swept my leg out, causing her to fall to the ground.

I crawled on top of her and wrapped my hands around her neck.

I didn’t want to entertain these people any more than the short time we already had. She punched me in the ribs again and again and again, but I didn’t relent until her arms went slack at her sides. I stood panting as my eyes met with Valos’s, but he still didn’t look unpleased.

“That will be all for tonight. Please come again to the next one,” he shouted to the partygoers, who murmured in disappointment about the brief show.

Kade came to my side, and I winced as he wrapped his arm around my elbow to drag me back to my room.

The faintest brush of his hand against my side sent pain radiating through me.

I was sure I had at least one broken rib—or more.

As we made it to the doors, he let go of my elbow and wrapped his arm around my waist. Normally, he always dragged me around as his prisoner, but he was being gentler with me, breaking his normal princely mask.

He squeezed softly to hold my bones in place as I tried to hold my breath to keep the pain at bay.

“Fuck, Emelyn,” he whispered as we rounded the hall. “You should have blocked her. Why didn’t you hit them?”

“I’m not entertaining those people—I refuse.”

“What are you going to do, knock everyone out you fight in the ring?” he asked, and I shrugged.

“If that’s what it takes.”

He sighed, seeming frustrated with my decision. The walk to my room took forever, my breaths becoming more ragged.

“Almost there,” Kade whispered. We rounded the corner, he shouted to the soldiers to open the door, and they hurried to complete his command.

He slammed it behind him and made haste to move me toward the bed.

My face scrunched from the pain as I ground my molars to keep my whimper from escaping.

Kade quickly removed the irons and rushed to the bathroom to grab a cup of water.

He made it back to the bed and helped me sit up.

“Here, heal yourself,” he murmured as he sat on the bed and wrapped an arm around me to help me stay upright. My hand glowed a faint blue, and I groaned in pain as my bones shifted back into place and began healing. Kade let out a sigh of relief and his shoulders sagged slightly.

“I’ll talk to my father again. If you will not fight, then you being in the ring is only a disappointment for him.”

“He didn’t seem disappointed. He seemed glad that I could take them down as easily as I did. The only people who seemed disappointed were the crowd,” I said, and he looked off in contemplation before glancing back at me.

“I’m going to talk to him. I don’t want you fighting.”

“Why?”

“Because.”

“Because why?”

“Damn it, Emelyn, because I care about what happens to you.”

“Right, the Peacebringer must stay alive,” I murmured, and he gripped my chin with his thumb and forefinger and made me meet his eyes.

“If there is one truth I want you to know about me, Bunny, it is that I do not care if you are the Peacebringer. I do not care about the power that lives within you. I care only about you —Emelyn from Esora. Nothing more.” His eyes looked into mine with sincerity, but I didn’t understand.

Why would the Prince of Ember care about me at all?

I was so tired of the mind games, of his words and his actions battling against each other.

Kade’s fingers left my chin, and my mouth gaped as he walked away and left me alone with my mind turning as the door shut behind him.