“Why is everyone here obsessed with sex?” Nora demanded.

  Nora and Evie rushed through yet another hallway decorated with all sorts of sensual furniture and erotic tapestries. What was worse were the Court patrons attempting to recreate the scenes depicted in the various sculptures and paintings.

  “We’re in a pleasure house?” Evie answered helpfully.

  “Yes, but couldn’t they find rooms for that sort of… thing?” Nora demanded between her heavy breathing.

  They had been racing through corridor after corridor for several minutes now, and she still felt no closer to finding George’s main office, whoever he might be.

  “I think the whole point is that they don’t have to,” Evie explained in far too cheery a tone. “Also, I feel we should take those stairs.”

  “The stars are whispering to you?” Nora asked, hope returning to her heart at Evie’s advice.

  “No,” the siren said simply. “I heard someone scream in that direction.”

  “Oh.” Nora shrugged.

  They jogged as quickly as they could down the stairs Evie had indicated, and they rounded on a long hallway lined with coiling dragons carved into the wooden panels on either side.

  A lush red carpet led up to the massive doors, one of which was partially open. A fierce cry echoed out of the room, and Nora rushed forward. It was a feminine scream, that much she was certain of.

  Pictures of Cade’s sister under a tormentor’s knife flashed through her mind, and anger seized her until all she could see was her target.

  She would make it this time.

  She wouldn’t let another woman close to her die because she wasn’t fast or strong enough.

  Her obsidian greatsword danced in the light of the glowflakes as she slammed into the cracked door and burst into a wide and immaculately decorated office spoiled by two crimson visages. The first was Rayka, tied and gagged to a chair, and the second was a gorgeous woman impaled between her breasts by a familiar orange blade.

  Orro stood protectively over the wounded blonde. His right hand was outstretched toward the impaled woman while the winter elf Nora recognized from a few days ago stood to the side with a chilly expression.

  “Get—this—out of me!” The stabbed woman demanded with surprising clarity.

  Blood that was both red and gold streamed out of her wound, and while she tried to pry the weapon out of herself, her strength waned at a visible rate. Orro wavered on his feet but didn’t move to retrieve his blade.

  “Where did you get that shard, assassin?” the winter elf demanded.

  “Cin, help me,” the dying human pleaded.

  Red mist seeped toward the winter elf, but she waved her hand and the rosy miasma dissipated with a rush of cold wind.

  “I might’ve, but you just tried to enthrall me, you desperate harpy,” Cin sneered.

  She turned to address Nora, who waited at the doorway.

  “You’re one of their teammates, but you’re not a part of the traitor’s crew, are you?” she demanded bluntly.

  Nora swallowed hard but moved around the edge of the office toward Rayka as she spoke. “I didn’t know them until they approached me and my friend about the tournament.”

  Not a lie. Not the truth either.

  The winter elf Nora assumed was Cin snorted loudly. “I take it you don’t even know what they stole? Why I’ve been hounding them or how Scorn’s Ravens got involved? Hells, paladin, why are you even here if you’re just participating in the tournament with these damned fools?”

  “Because she’s my friend,” Nora answered simply with a nod toward Rayka.

  She was surprised by the truth of it. Her greatsword’s edge slipped against Rayka’s tied feet and sliced through the rope with a gentle but firm twist of Nora’s wrist.

  “I see,” Cin answered coldly.

  She made no move to stop Nora, so the paladin used her sword to finish cutting through Rayka’s bonds. The one around her torso and neck came apart easily, but the one around her arms repelled her blade’s sharp edge like they were made of crystal.

  “You won’t cut through those with that,” the deadly elf commented as she moved toward the door. She walked past Evie like the siren didn’t exist, but held onto the door for a breath. “I’d suggest getting a move on. You don’t have long after George dies.”

  “Where are you going?” Nora demanded of the winter elf before she could stop herself.

  “After my true prey.” Cin disappeared.

  “Wait, sorry. That’s George?” Nora pointed at the dying woman still attempting to yank out Orro’s orange blade.

  The darkly clad assassin merely nodded his head. George’s back convulsed wildly as she pulled the weapon out by a fraction of an inch. The red-gold ichor dripped between her manicured fingers, staining the loose silken robes she wore like ink dropped into water. The orange shard glowed brighter with each ragged breath she took.

  “Free me,” George whispered, and her desk moved.

  Two bodies rose from where they had been kneeling, the mahogany desktop they had on their back crashing to the carpeted floor with a dull thud. Nora raised her sword but was too slow to stop the hidden enemies.

  Evie’s staff shoved forward in their direction and a screaming faun burst forth, smashing into the painted men and knocking George to the ground. The two men were battered against the wall and bounced off of some unseen ward there.

  The mistress of this fortress attempted to crawl away, to leave this accursed office, but Orro’s weapon only sunk deeper into her chest.

  “That was the last charge I have. The staff will need to replenish its magic now,” Evie told Nora with a disappointed frown.

  “That’s okay, Birdie,” Nora consoled in a soothing tone. “You did a great job stopping those men from helping George.”

  She tried to cut the bonds again, but it was useless.

  Rayka moaned softly and Nora cursed. As gently as she could, she removed the gag in the girl’s mouth. It was wet and red, but the young blonde spat and took in a shuddering breath.

  Nora was impressed to see the courage that remained in those stormy blue eyes, even if there were cracks where none had existed before.

  Instead of addressing Nora, however, or the dying woman in her chair, or the goat-staff that Evie held, Rayka turned her full attention and intensity on Orro.

  “You love me?” Rayka asked him.

  He met her gaze and simply nodded.

  “And you couldn’t come up with a less dramatic way to tell me that?!” she demanded.

  He tilted his head in what seemed like annoyance, his eyes narrowing slightly. “That’s not how I thought you’d react if—”

  “I love you too,” she interrupted, her voice softening. “Idiot.”

  “You’re both adorable,” Nora said dryly. “Now, let’s talk about the bonds holding you in place, Rayka. We need to get them off.”

  “My bonds. Right. They were enchanted by Hugh,” Rayka explained in a hoarse voice.

  Orro grabbed her hand and kneeled before the girl.

  “We’ll get you out of here. I promise,” Orro stated, his voice barely louder than a whisper.

  “You—” George interrupted with a wet gasp. “—should’ve run.”

  George collapsed on top of Orro’s weapon, and a pulse of red miasma spread through the office and beyond, passing unimpeded through the walls, floor, and ceiling. The sound of thunder crashed somewhere in the distance.

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  The noise only grew, however, and a dark premonition struck Nora.

  Those weren’t clouds and lightning that made that rumbling noise.

  They were feet.

  Hundreds of feet were closing the distance between this office and wherever such a horde of people had been hiding. Screams and groans rolled into the cacophony until it was unbearable.

  “Nora!” Evie yelled as she peeked her head into the hallway.

  “What is it?” she demanded.

  The paladin raised her sword in preparation for whoever, or whatever, came crashing through those doors.

  “We need to hurry!” Evie warned as she backed away from the gilded door frame. “I think all of George’s patrons, servants, and Destiny knows who else is very upset with what we just did.”

  “Cut those bonds,” Nora commanded Orro.

  With incredible speed, she strode over to the doors and shut them, but she caught a glimpse of what was coming for them. She backed away from the door, unable to truly sift through what she had just witnessed.

  A writhing mass of bodies, each person foaming at the mouth as red eyes screamed for vengeance. She couldn’t count how many she saw. It was like all of Elysia was just behind those two doors.

  Her head swiveled over to where Orro was attempting to cut through Rayka’s bonds with a long kunai.

  “Get her out of here now!” Nora urged.

  She lowered her sword until its tip grazed the fancy carpet beneath her worn boots. Her free hand reached into her belt and grabbed the hydrofang dagger. Nora closed her eyes. Her core awakened to her call and she readied herself.

  “I’ll buy you as much time as possible,” she told Orro and Evie as they both tried to free Rayka from her bonds.

  Something massive slammed against the doors.

  Nora took in a deep breath.

  Another vicious crack against the door.

  Her feet moved of their own accord as she crouched low and wide.

  A third slam.

  She let the breath go.

  “Low Tide,” Nora whispered affectionately right as the wards holding the doors in place sizzled and burst apart.

  A wave of flesh rolled into the office, dozens upon dozens of people clambering over one another in a desperate attempt to reach them. Her back foot swept forward as she twisted, activating the enchantments on the dagger at the same moment she released her dominion’s magic through her greatsword for the first time.

  It drank in the energy like water in a desert, only for it to reemerge stronger than ever. The dagger and blade ripped forward, trailed by water and a plume of black smoke so thick no light escaped it.

  Crackles of gray lightning spread throughout the cloud, and it rolled over the swarm of crazed people in a tsunami of force and magic.

  Her weapons connected with the nearest enemies, slicing through appendages and armor like they were paper. None of them were thinking. Whatever George had done to instigate this wild horde, self-preservation had not been on her mind when she formed this insidious spell.

  Three women of various races screeched with terror and bloodlust, and they leapt for Nora. The paladin took a step forward and slashed her two blades around her chest in a blur of rapid swings.

  The Whirlpool Guard technique was all that stood between her and the chaos that sought to tear her limb from limb. She maintained and repeated it, ignoring the cry of her tendons at the unrelenting pace she forced herself to keep.

  They would not get past her.

  She was a shield.

  A protector.

  They would not get through.

  A blast of energy rocked her backward, and she had to roll just to regain her footing. A shifter already half-transformed into some draconic monstrosity was barreling through these un-awakened mortals like they were insects.

  Scales formed across the newcomer’s skin like a glimmering mirage of prismatic colors. Nora recognized the patterning immediately and cursed.

  Luminaran Drakes.

  Nora’s fear-magic rolled off of her scales harmlessly even as it infected the masses. The red eyes indicating George’s hold were replaced by looks of sheer terror as Nora continued to pump the hallway with her dark mist.

  Her core drained at a prestigious rate, but she didn’t halt in her onslaught for one heartbeat even as the shifter rushed toward her.

  She wouldn’t let them pass.

  An orange blade flashed in her periphery, and Rayka’s exclamation of relief was short-lived as the luminaran slammed into Nora. She let her shoulder and greatsword take the brunt of the attack, but she was still sent flying.

  Her head cracked against the glass panels of the wall opposite her, and she felt another ward fail to stop her from shattering it. The thick stench of blood and smoke spread from where the glass opened up to the streets below.

  A green and yellow wave of energy flickered just beyond her head and then disappeared entirely.

  “Need some help?” a voice asked from above her.

  She looked up to see two faces. Jer was dangling nonchalantly from his glowing palms while Bunny was on his back. Nora was too flabbergasted to speak.

  “I broke down the sentinel wards of this place just like Cade instructed, helped Elena with her thing, and then I got bored,” Jer explained with a warm smile. “Thanks for helping me figure out where the fighting was happening. I had one too many awkward conversations with some people in the floors above this one. Anyway, need some help?”

  Nora nodded.

  “Good! I would’ve done it anyway, but it’s always nice to be wanted.” Jer flipped into the office and didn’t hesitate to start smashing and flipping his way through the chaos.

  Nora’s vision finally stopped doubling right as Bunny landed on her lap. A weird set of black markings were inked onto his otherwise pale white scales, and the sight of them brought new purpose to her aching body.

  The luminaran beast was facing off against Orro, who was barely holding on. One of Rayka’s arms was freed, and she and Evie were yanking on the other one still bound by the crystalline bonds.

  Nora raced to them.

  “What cut the first one?!” she yelled over the chaos.

  A wood elf partially clothed in Lifekeeper garb jumped for her screaming something about the love of his life. She used the flat of her blade to smack him out of the air.

  “Orro’s sword!” Rayka and Evie answered at the same time.

  “Orro! We need your sword!” Nora bellowed.

  The assassin didn’t respond, namely because the luminaran’s freshly grown tail had his leg trapped within it and was slamming his body repeatedly against the floor.

  Nora cursed and stabbed her dagger at the luminaran’s eyes. Though over fifteen feet separated them, that didn’t matter.

  Nora activated the second rune on the dagger’s hilt, and a thin stream of highly pressurized water blasted forth out of the tip of her weapon. It clipped the neck of one enthralled warrior and cut through it without slowing or faltering. The man died instantly.

  With a yell of defiance, Orro finally got his orange blade in between two of the shifter’s scales and stabbed deep into its flesh. The creature howled in pain right as Nora’s strike landed.

  The stiletto blade of water sliced into the drake’s eye socket. The secondary eyelid she knew it had was barely sufficient to slow the attack down, blinding the beast rather than killing it outright. The blue runes across the bone dagger faded away, but it was enough.

  “Jer! Catch!” Orro yelled at the redhead who was in the middle of the air as he kicked two enthralled civilians in the face.

  Nora watched as time slowed and Orro’s blade whistled through the air. Jer’s hand stretched out, but even from this distance, the paladin knew Jer was out of position. More enthralled people were spilling into the room, and she noticed a few were wielding large wooden weapons.

  Right as Orro’s blade flipped past his grasp, Jer’s palm lit up. Blue energy beamed forward and ensnared the rotating weapon.

  Time resumed, and Jer rushed to Rayka’s side. Nora stepped in front of her team as Orro retreated from the luminaran, who was writhing and smashing a myriad of unwitting allies beneath her claws and massive weight.

  “I’m sorry,” Nora whispered right as she released the full extent of her powers into the crowd. “Rising Tide.”

  A dam burst inside of her.

  More power than she had ever experienced before raced through her veins, burning new pathways beneath her skin. Her senses sharpened, and the tiny trickle of silver-ranked power she was accustomed to withholding was redoubled several times over.

  She felt a connection to the fear dominion that she had never had before. Silvery tendrils flecked with gold sparked inside her black wave of energy. The wave of magic flowed and rose with her Cerulean Wave technique, perfectly encompassing the entire gathering of enemies while keeping her friends out of harm’s way.

  A silence, save for the luminaran’s lashing across the floor, settled onto the room. Horror and fear etched themselves across every living thing’s face in that horrible office.

  “What the—” Jer muttered where he stood next to Rayka.

  “Free her!” Nora yelled at the redhead.

  He gulped but followed her order. The second he did, Rayka disappeared in a flash of green light. Nora met Orro’s exhausted gaze, and they shared a nod.

  “Get out of here. We’ll meet you there.” Nora adjusted her grip on her weapons.

  “No! NO!” A woman cried, and it was not the voice of one of the enthralled.

  Nora turned to see the attendant that had first greeted them rush into the room, unharmed by the petrified mass of bodies strewn throughout the hall and office.

  “You did this?!” She pointed not at Nora but at Orro. The man looked stricken for some reason.

  “Get out of here!” The paladin screamed at her allies. Evie acquiesced and lifted her tunic to reveal inky markings across her abdomen. With shaky fingers, she slashed across a section of it, and disappeared in another flash of green light. Jer raised a rude gesture toward the office, picked up Bunny, and the two of them disappeared shortly after.

  “What? How are you doing this?!” the attendant demanded between sobs.

  She didn’t attack. She just stood there, shoulders slumped as she crumpled down next to George’s fallen form. Her pink eyes glittered with tears.

  “Our leader loves to read,” Nora answered a bit numbly before she too raised her tunic to smear the inky markings hidden there.

  They had been carefully drawn by Cade the previous night. He had referred to his new tome again and again throughout the entire process. The annoyingly meticulous blonde had claimed that any small mistake would result in either the tournament’s magic taking hold and teleporting a part of her into the arena, or she would be stuck in limbo until her soul gave out, and she became a specter to haunt the land between realms for all eternity.

  Wonderful.

  “I’m sorry,” she heard Orro whisper to the pretty elf right as he disappeared in a flash of green light, and the arena’s magic took effect.

  In answer, the woman merely sobbed over George’s body.

  With her friends safe, Nora wiped off the antiward drawn in ink on her skin, and the arena’s magic snapped her out of George’s chambers. Her world flashed white, and she landed hard on her knees.

  Whatever awaited them all in the last trial, at least they would face it together. She smiled to herself at the thought, and her grip on her weapons tightened.

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