Cade blinked, utterly bewildered by the sheer spectacle before him.

  After a restless night’s sleep and a light breakfast, he and his crew had gathered their supplies and headed out. It had been a tense trek, void of their usual banter, and everyone was in their own heads as they’d arrived.

  He couldn’t blame them. Even this—even now that they were here, actually standing in the massive arena—still felt like a surreal blur of light and sound.

  The Tournament of Life had officially begun.

  The collective volume of the arena had a near tangible force to it as Cade and his crew entered from a low tunnel. He walked with Bunny resting on his shoulder, and the little dragonling’s tail swished back and forth as he glanced around in wonder. The bright morning light that greeted them as they exited onto the clean white marble of the arena floor had nearly blinded him.

  His eyes slowly drifted upward as the sheer scope of the arena’s stands made itself known to his senses. Thousands of skin tones mingled throughout the hundreds of thousands of seats that spread up toward the sky.

  It was like every hue of the rainbow and beyond had decided to present itself in the clothes of those present. The heavy scents of grilled meat, oily bread, and sweating bodies crashed into him like it was a physical force.

  Near the top of the arena’s high walls was what Cade could only describe as the royal seating. And, within that isolated box stood a half-dozen Lifekeepers in their pristine robes of white and green.

  Despite the sheer grandeur of this amazing colosseum, however, his attention had been drawn not by the amazing representation of every mortalkind in the stands, but the nine other teams that had joined his on the arena floor.

  The crowd, he had expected, but it was the seventy-two other warriors who walked in from various entrances around the edges of the battleground that truly gave him pause.

  Oh shit, Cade thought.

  He was no expert on magic users—hells, he still barely understood what a core even was—but he could practically feel the auras of condensed power gathering around the open space.

  Cade reached into his pocket and touched the new focal stone there. It had taken a few hours for Gavin to attune his telepathy to the fresh ones they’d procured. But as Hugh had demonstrated time and time again—even up to his own betrayal—communication was a priceless tool in the arsenal of any team, but especially one like theirs.

  “Ten teams of eight,” Cade mentally sent to his crew. “Everyone, I want you to clock any of the big hitters in this tournament.”

  “Am I doing this right?” Nora sent through their shared link. “It feels like I’m just trying to shout my thoughts really loud in my head.”

  “That’s because you’re shouting your thoughts really loud in your head, paladin,” Elena sniped back a bit too harshly.

  “Tighten up, people,” Cade sent to cut off any more bickering.

  Cade gave Elena a glare, but she didn’t budge. He squinted over the large distance that separated them and the other teams, careful to keep his own mask of indifference set across his features.

  “Anyone spot anything unusual or dangerous amongst the other contestants?” the thief sent quickly.

  “I see at least two teams composed entirely of elves and gnomes respectively,” Elena contributed. Probably diplomatic teams with deep pockets.

  Cade spared her a glance and saw how the blush from his earlier admonishment lingered just a bit across her cheeks.

  “There’s a little girl over there!” Evie sent excitedly as she skipped alongside their group.

  Sure enough, from a tunnel adjacent to theirs, a little girl skulked forward, both of her hands firmly clasped in front of her as she stared ahead with dead eyes. Her gray skin and braided white hair did nothing to ease Cade’s discomfort when he took in the little girl.

  Something about her was…

  …off.

  “WELCOME!” A feminine voice boomed from everywhere and nowhere all at once, and any hopes of focusing on the other teams dissipated in an instant.

  Everyone except for Orro flinched in surprise at the voice, and the cacophony in the stands stilled within the span of a few heartbeats. Where once there was a great storm of noise, there was now a still well of silence. It unnerved Cade to no end, but he waited like the rest of the gathered teams as the voice continued.

  “YOU BRAVE FEW HAVE BEEN GRANTED A CHANCE AT GREATNESS. FIVE CHALLENGES AWAIT YOU, EACH AN EXPRESSION OF MY POWER. MY WILL. MY LIFE.”

  At the final proclamation, the crowd above began to murmur excitedly.

  The beautiful voice continued, louder than before.

  “HEED MY LESSONS TO SURVIVE THE TRIALS: PERSEVERANCE OF LIFE, FIGHTING FOR LIFE, METAMORPHOSIS OF LIFE, THE MEANING OF LIFE, AND REBIRTH.”

  “Well, that clears things up,” Nora said dryly.

  As the paladin spoke, green tendrils swept around the white marble below them, and Cade felt a pulse of foreign euphoria invade his mind. It was a tsunami of tranquility, forcing his limbs and thoughts to relax as the vermillion magic intensified. Flowers and grass started to spring up from invisible cracks in the floor, and there was an audible sigh from dozens of nearby combatants.

  Then, the emerald magic ascended through the arena and condensed up into the clear sky above. There, in the center of the growing orb, a sumptuous figure appeared. Even from this distance, Cade could feel the sheer weight of her presence.

  Life—the goddess of Elysia.

  Just as quickly as the serenity blanketed his entire being, something within him roared in defiance at the unwelcome energy. The magic that he had yet to subdue into a proper core writhed within him.

  With a burst of power, it shoved against the effects of Life’s energy. Surprisingly, his own magic exhumed the deity’s spell with little difficulty. Clarity broke over him like the sudden parting of clouds to let in the light of day. Everyone around him, including his own team, were transfixed by the glowing figure in the sky. Reverence and gratitude and lust shown as clear as crystal across the faces of all those Cade could see. Nora shook her head and seemed to break from the spell moments after him. They met eyes, and he gave her a crooked grin. She smirked and returned her attention to the deity.

  Before he could help his teammates snap out of this strange daze, the goddess spoke again.

  “IN YOUR FIRST TRIAL, YOU WILL FACE A PUZZLE UNLIKE ANY YOU HAVE SEEN BEFORE,” the goddess warned. “THOSE WHO SURVIVE WILL RECEIVE A GRAND TREASURE. THOSE WHO PERISH WILL ASCEND TO THE NEXT LIFE WITH EASE. PREPARE YOUR HEARTS, MY CHILDREN. THE TIME HAS COME TO CELEBRATE THE GIFT OF LIFE, IN ALL FORMS. LET THE TOURNAMENT BEGIN.”

  There was a blinding flash of light so intense everything in his vision faded to white.

  One moment, he had been standing in the large arena, listening to Life’s melodic speech.

  The next, he was… well, wherever “here” was.

  A soaring ceiling was adorned with intricate frescoes depicting scenes of Life in various settings, from a picnic with lambs to hovering above a city with tendrils of magic coiling from her very being. Massive crystal chandeliers descended from above, their countless facets scattering light across the polished marble floor below. Tall arched windows lined the walls, framed by heavy velvet curtains in deep crimson, allowing glimpses of moonlit gardens beyond.

  The room’s perimeter was graced with ornate gilded mirrors and delicate rococo moldings, their golden hues complementing the warm glow of wall sconces. At one end, a grand staircase swept down in a graceful curve, its balustrade a masterpiece of wrought iron artistry. The opposite end housed a raised dais for musicians, ready to fill the air with elegant melodies for the evening's grand affair.

  To his surprise, elegantly dressed people mingled around the room, each wearing flowing gowns, tailored suits, or military uniforms adorned with medals. Servants in pure red livery moved gracefully through the crowd, offering drinks and canapés.

  And everyone—everyone—was staring at them with an eerie smile.

  “What in the hells just happened?” Cade muttered, glancing around.

  The spots in his eyes lingered for several more moments as he slowly collected himself.

  “Is everyone okay?” Cade counted off their heads while he asked, and to his relief, all of his team had made it. Bunny jumped back up to his shoulder, having apparently been knocked off in the surreal transportation to whatever the hells they were about to face.

  “Were we just… portaled somewhere?” Jer spoke up, his hands clenched tightly to his stomach.

  “Seems like it.” Cade stood tall, though his own intestines felt like several fairies were trying to break free from them at that very moment. “Let’s regroup, team. I’m glad you’re all here, but we don’t have time to waste. Let’s solve this thing and get our gold, alright?”

  The subject of treasure helped all of them recenter, and their team of eight assessed their surroundings in full.

  But as they searched for any sign of a puzzle, all they found were the eerie smiles of the ballroom’s guests.

  Cade smiled widely at each and every guest he passed, and he was mildly concerned his face would cramp after maintaining those eerie grins for so long. Thick pillars lined the expansive room, with a vaulted ceiling detailed with a collage of paintings and murals. Despite the busyness of the decor, however, Cade had to admit that whomever built this place had taste.

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  Gavin walked close to Cade and, as he looked around the room in stunned wonder, grinned widely.

  “Did we win already?” Gavin asked in confusion. “Because this doesn’t look like a battlefield. I thought that delightful woman in the sky would’ve just had us kill each other for a while, or something. Battle royales are quite popular in most of the major cities right now.”

  Cade chuckled despite himself. “I’m glad she didn’t. Though at least we would’ve picked up on what in the hells was going on. But if we did win already, then this is the strangest victory celebration I’ve ever seen. Worse, I haven’t even had time to comb my hair.”

  “You never comb your hair,” Orro muttered just loud enough for the others to hear him.

  A tall, slender man in a gold-embroidered coat approached them, his manner regal yet gentle. Beneath his finely tailored robe, Cade observed, was a crimson suit that was just as dignified as the man that wore it.

  “Welcome, esteemed participants. I am Baron Rathmore, your host for this evening’s… prelude,” The Baron said in an unfamiliar lilt.

  “Prelude?” Cade echoed, raising an eyebrow. “Prelude to what?”

  The Baron’s smile was enigmatic. He procured a glazed fruit from a passing servant and tossed it into his awaiting mouth.

  Then he spoke through it like it was the most normal thing in the world. “To the true Tournament, of course. This ball is a test of your wits and social graces. Consider it an appetizer before the main course.”

  Cade’s mind raced.

  He was good with people, but a ballroom filled with the elite of Elysia was a different kind of battlefield. He glanced at his team, each member a study in contrasts against the opulence around them.

  That name stuck in his mind, however.

  Baron Rathmore.

  He knew that name, but he had to be mistaken. The Baron Rathmore he remembered was supposed to be dead for a couple of centuries now. This was probably just one of the man’s descendents.

  Elena, never one to be outdone, quickly adjusted her posture, moving with the practiced grace of a highborn lady. Jer, on the other hand, looked like he was ready to flip over a table just for fun. Rayka’s eyes sparkled with mischief, while Orro pulled his mask up further and placed a gloved palm on his orange sword.

  With a growing grin, he saw Evie, in her own whimsical way, fit right in with the ebb and flow of the ballroom. She twirled slightly as the music picked up, her gaze flitting from person to person, detail to detail. A woman’s hat had caught her attention. Cade followed her gaze. Sure enough, it was adorned with feathers that matched the exact hue of the wallpaper.

  “Evie, focus,” Nora whispered, though Cade observed how her own eyes were scanning the room with the precision of a warrior assessing a battlefield.

  Cade would need to ask about her history, and soon. He took in all of these details within a few heartbeats, but there was just so much happening all around them. He figured he was missing something important. There had to be at least a thousand people in this truly vast ballroom, and that wasn’t taking into account the three stories of balconies that lined this elliptical room.

  “Baron,” Cade said, turning back to their host. “What exactly are we supposed to do here?”

  The Baron’s smile widened, and his eyes flashed with a hungry malice for such a brief moment that Cade would’ve missed it if he had not been searching their host’s face for any clues.

  But it had been there, and it left him with a sour taste in his mouth.

  “Mingle. Gather information. Find the hidden clues. Only then will you pass onto the next stage of the Tournament,” the Baron answered in a bored tone. “And, might I add, try not to kill your fellow participants just yet.”

  With that, he melted back into the crowd, leaving Cade and his team standing in a corner of the opulent room.

  “Alright, team,” Cade sighed. “Let’s split up and see what we can find out. And try not to cause a scene. Also, be on the lookout for the other teams. This might be our best chance to meet our competition without, you know, blades excessively involved.”

  Cade trusted them to do their jobs well, but he couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that he was missing something obvious.

  They dispersed, each member moving with purpose—or in Jer’s case, with the eager anticipation of causing just enough chaos to be entertaining. Cade made his way towards a cluster of nobles, hoping to pick up some useful tidbits of information before they noticed him.

  He scanned each member of the group he approached, noting the glint in their eyes, the position of their shoulders—everything. After a breath, he saw his prey. He snagged a golden goblet from a passing servant, though he had no intention of even sipping the crimson liquid inside.

  He had a job to do.

  “Greetings, my fair and benevolent masters!” Cade bowed to the nobles, who returned his courtesy with raised glasses and bobs of their heads.

  This was too easy.

  He tunneled on a plump, jovial man whose face was already red from the wine.

  “You look to be a man of great knowledge and even greater wisdom. What might this humble traveler call you?” Cade asked in his best upper-class persona.

  Judging by the faces of those who heard him, it was flawless.

  For the moment, he was one of them.

  The man blushed even redder at the praise, and his eyes lit up. “You—you’re talking to me?” He gestured at his own chest as if there were any debate.

  “Of course!” Cade responded smoothly.

  “Huzzah, my dear traveler. I am Lord Harken, but let us dispense with hindrances such as titles or the quantity of estates we might possess.” Harken leaned in conspiratorially. “I have seventy.”

  He leaned back and grinned widely, his compatriots surreptitiously stepping farther and farther from their conversation.

  “So, what brings you to the Baron’s Ball?” Harken asked, his eyes twinkling with curiosity.

  Around them, hundreds of people from all of the mortal races mingled and ate and talked. He spotted a few clad in armor and weapons, but most of the tournament participants blended in with the rest of the crowd.

  Cade would have to change that.

  Cade smiled his most charming smile. “Just looking to enjoy the festivities. You know how it is—never a dull moment in Elysia.”

  Harken laughed heartily. “Indeed! Though I know nothing of this Elysia you speak of. It must be a quaint hamlet, I’m sure. But you must be here for more than just the dancing and drinking, though I know all of the Baron’s balls are spectacular. The women, I hear, can’t get enough of them! Though I also heard whispers that our host has a great announcement to make soon.”

  “Is that so? You’ve never heard of Elysia?” Cade asked.

  That troubled him, but he was missing far too many pieces to this puzzle for anything to make sense quite yet. Cade’s smile turned disarming, and he gestured for the plump gentleman to continue.

  But before Harken could respond, a pair of heavily armed warriors beelined in his direction. The first human was nearly bald and had a crazed look in his eyes, and Cade definitely didn’t want to learn the reason behind that little bloodthirsty glint.

  His companion wasn’t much better.

  He was so close in visage they had to be brothers and this late arrival was clearly the older of the two. He had a tightly cut mop of dirty brown hair that Cade would’ve bet his entire coin purse on that he personally shaved with a hunting knife.

  To put them in Cade’s professional terms: they were bad news.

  He didn’t recognize either of them, but he could spot their intentions easily enough. To his right, Cade caught sight of Nora and Evie making their way toward a secluded corner where a group of military officers were engaged in a heated discussion. Cade excused himself and followed them, careful to use as many bodies to obscure his path from those two interlopers.

  As he approached, he overheard snippets of their conversation—words like: “the Baron’s loyalties,” “that bastard,” and “we’ll be ready.” His interest piqued, Cade stepped closer, hoping to gather more.

  As he listened in on the officers’ conversation, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to find a servant in red livery holding a silver tray with a small, ornate box.

  “A gift for you, sir,” the servant said with a bow.

  He was an elf with silver streaks in his otherwise immaculate black hair, and wore the red garments Cade was coming to associate with the people of the Baron’s household.

  “Thank you.” Cade took the ornate box from the tray and opened it. Inside was a glass sphere that pulsed with enchanted runes. Intrigued, he lifted it up, and as he did, the runes glowed brighter.

  A soft voice emanated from the sphere, reciting a riddle:

  “To grasp the Baron’s veiled design,

  Listen where the murmurs align.

  Breezes whisper through twilight’s gate,

  Before his toast, unveil your fate.

  Truth or darkness, fate will seal,

  As whispers in the night reveal.”

  The voice faded, leaving Cade with a chill.

  Before he could pocket the sphere, it crumbled into fine grains of sand that spilled through his fingers onto the floor. For some reason, the sight reminded him of those fancy hourglasses he knew merchants often used.

  He needed to gather his team. Time was not on their side.

  “Everyone. Gather on me. The challenge has officially started,” he sent urgently.

  No one replied.

  His brow furrowed. “Can anyone hear me?”

  Silence.

  “Fine. Let’s do this the old fashioned way,” he sent anyway, just in the off chance anyone could hear him but was ignoring him out of spite.

  He found Evie first, her eyes wide with delight as she sampled a delicate pastry.

  “Evie, we need to gather everyone,” Cade said, his voice low but urgent.

  She nodded, evidently sensing the seriousness in his tone. Cade thought he saw a deep sorrow flash across her eyes when their gazes met, but it was gone as quickly as it had appeared. He had more important things to consider, and so left that mystery for some other time.

  They moved through the ballroom, finding Elena and Jer near a lavish buffet, each carrying plates piled high with delicacies.

  “We’ve got our first clue,” Cade told them, and they reluctantly set their plates down after stuffing a few of the pastries into their mouths.

  Rayka was chatting animatedly with a group of nobles, but she quickly excused herself when she saw Cade approaching.

  “What’s going on?” she asked, a mischievous glint in her eye.

  “We’ve got a riddle to solve,” Cade replied. “Meet at the grand staircase.”

  He continued through the crowd, spotting Gavin near a group of musicians. The telepath was leaning against an ornate pillar as he smiled slyly at a lady beneath the shadow of his arm.

  Evie muttered something softly under her breath, but Cade missed whatever she said. Gavin in tow, he moved on in the direction he remembered Orro slunk off to.

  “I’ll meet you all by the staircase,” he said, dismissing the others. “I don’t want to move in a pack just in case we get targeted.”

  They all nodded, and Cade shifted through the ebb and flow of the ball attendees, careful to avoid any noticeable groups of other contestants. He briefly eyed the same little girl with freakishly gray skin, but she was hidden by the crowd a breath later. After a minute of searching, he spotted his best friend in one of the few dark corners this well-lit room offered.

  Orro was the only one who hadn’t indulged in the food or drink, his sharp eyes constantly scanning the room. Just as Cade was about to reach him, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned, ready to brush off whoever it was, but froze when he took in the face of the person who stopped him.

  That face.

  For all his days, he wished he never saw that face again, as its presence here only spelled death for him and his crew. The man had a nasty scar running down the left side of their neck, but his obnoxiously handsome features were still relatively untouched. The scar actually made his domineering and arrogant attitude all the more pronounced, in fact.

  “Well, well, Cade. Fancy seeing you here,” Fenwick drawled, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

  Hugh’s new prized pupil stood there in a suit that blended right into the gala.

  Cade forced a smile, though his heart pounded in his chest like a wardrum.

  “I like the new suit, Fenwick,” Cade commented with forced boredom. “Did you know you could dress differently than virtually every other person here, or were you afraid to stand out? Style isn’t a template, you know.” He flashed a cheeky wink. “It’s about courage.”

  Fenwick’s lips curled into a sneer, revealing the snake beneath the finery. “Unlike you, Cade, I can afford to dress like this every day, not just for special occasions. But I wouldn’t expect a gutter rat like yourself to understand the standards the rest of the world live by. You are just a petty little thief, after all.”

  Cade’s jaw clenched, but he was determined not to let Fenwick get under his skin. He shouldn’t even be here.

  None of this was right. The anger coursing through his veins intermingled with the tumult he felt within his fledgling core. Still, he could work with this. He could spin it in his favor.

  Probably.

  “Good for you,” Cade started. “Now, if you’ll excuse me—”

  Before he could finish, a familiar voice cut through the noise, stopping him in his tracks.

  “Hello, Cade. It’s time we had a bit of a chat.”

  Hugh.

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