When It Reigns (Cursed Reigns, #1)

CHAPTER TEN

AERYN'S POV

Thoughts of Bastion swirled in my mind as I spaced through Bayer telling us who would be fighting in the other match of the quarter finals. I still couldn't believe he was working with the Ravos demons and conspiring against the empire. I couldn't trust he'd ever been my friend - not when he wanted me dead. His lie-detecting power would be taken from him just like every other draconian who has been banished. 

Exiled Draconians never lasted long among the demons without their powers. I squashed the sympathy I felt for Bastion and forced the image of the arrow protruding out of his chest from my mind.

I was the first to leave the training room that day, not staying to wait for my friends as I trudged home. As soon as I'd reached the base of the stairs leading to my father's castle, he'd stepped outside and made me follow him down the mountain. I will never forgive nor forget what he'd made me witness.

Emperor Nepheus had made me watch as holes were burned in Bastion's wings and a giant needle was plunged into his neck. His essence was withdrawn into a vial, and he was stripped of his power. The monstrous gates surrounding the Wrexial Mountains groaned open and the emperor forced Bastion from the Nyrial Empire, leaving him to die and become a victim of the demons.

I'd spent the entire week in solitude, splitting my time between dwelling in my room about Bastion's betrayal and practicing in the academy's training room in the middle of the night with my dagger while willing my Insignia to appear.

When the week was over, I found myself taking a seat beside Penn and Misty on the bench in the training room as Racquel and Zoran took their places on the mat in front of us.

Racquel pulled the gloves over his wrists and fastened the clip as he bounced on the balls of his feet. He looked pale but the crease between his eyebrows and the intensity of his focus on his opponent made him appear ready and determined. Zoran tightened his gloved hand into a fist and reached out with his bare one, clasping Racquel's outstretched hand to initiate the match.

My stomach flipped and I fiddled with my hands in my lap as a faint blue glow ignited from Zoran's palm. A thick cloud of frost swirling with sharp icicles hovered around his ankles and he snapped his fingers, causing the mist to grow until it enveloped his entire body. Racquel took a step forward, squinting into the revolving tornado as he removed four knives from his belt and held two in each hand.

The clear blades shimmered with the reflection of the tornado as it picked up speed and I watched intently, jealous of the reinforced topaz blades mined from the Wrexial Mountains. While his parents were farmers and raised Racquel on their ranch in Eaton, they'd also performed their Duties. Racquel's father, a strong stone wielder, was a blacksmith and his mother was an apothecary who could manipulate poisons into materials to make destructive weapons. They'd worked together to create Racquel's rare droxin-infused blades that would render Zoran's power useless if Racquel was able to land a solid hit.

Grooves along the weapons held a shimmering silver liquid that pooled in the vial in the hilt of each knife. Racquel flicked out his wrist and released two knives into the inferno of ice. He blanched as the knives were swept into the swirling mass and joined the ice shards spinning around Zoran. Two icicles shot out from the spiraling frost, forcing Racquel to pivot on his heel as they whooshed behind his back. Racquel transferred one of the knives to his other hand and launched both at the tornado. The blades cut through the frost and disappeared inside only for them to resurface and join the other two in the swirl.

"Shit," Racquel cursed, light eyebrows drawing together as he withdrew a short sword from the holt on his hip. My stomach churned and my palms were clammy with sweat as I leaned forward, placing my elbows on my knees.