But he was a shining one. He didn’t care about that. He couldn’t understand the emotional impact of death because he had no fucking emotions.
“What the fuck makes you think I can pull it off again?”
“Because, Danika, you’re a survivor, and you’ll have no choice but to survive. You will kill their champions. They will see it, and they will be afraid.” His smile was thin and calculating.
A possibility niggled at the back of my mind. “Did you know this would happen?”
Aspen tipped his head to the side. “Know?”
“That the other courts might object to the outcome of the games?”
“I make it my job to know things, Danika.”
“And what do you know about my sister?”
His smile evaporated, and his face was a mask of indifference. “Nothing.”
“I thought you made it your business to know stuff?” I mimicked his earlier tone.
His mouth tightened a fraction, the only indication that he was displeased with my impudence. “There are things even I’m not privy to, Danika, and the fate of the taken is one of those things.”
But he’d known about the sword. He’d said that, if it belonged to me, it would find me, and it had. Did he know I had it? He had no clue about Killion. At least, I didn’t think he did, and I couldn’t risk that line of questioning. I couldn’t risk him finding out I had the sword and taking it from me.
But Nina was another issue. I could press him on that subject. “Can you find out about my sister?”
He sighed. “Focus on the trials. They start in forty-eight hours. Rest, recharge, and be ready. I can’t help you with your sister, but I can arrange to have you taken to the outer district to visit your family. They’ll be moved to central Middale in a few days. You can give them the news yourself.”
His mouth smiled, but it was an empty action that didn’t reach his eyes. My skin crawled at his fake attempt at consoling me. He’d just thrown me to the wolves for the second time, and now he was basically giving me an opportunity to say goodbye to my family, again.
Frustration was an angry ball in my throat. “Get out.” My voice was husky with the threat of tears. “Just get out.”
Aspen stared at me for a long beat before leaving the room.
The door closed, and I was alone as the events of the past few hours crashed down on me. I was going to have to fight again. I was going to have to kill again.
The walls closed in, and my lungs grew tight. I opened my mouth and screamed.
Do you feel better now?
The sword’s words resonated in my head.
How was it doing that? I wasn’t holding it. I hurried to the dresser and pulled the sword out of hiding.
Thank you, it was awfully cramped back there.
“I’m sorry.”
Don’t be. I can’t actually feel anything. It’s simply fun to pretend sometimes.
I settled on the bed with the sword in my lap. “You can speak to me without my holding you.”
Our connection is growing.
Connection. Killion hadn’t told me anything about this sword or why I could communicate with it, but maybe the sword itself could enlighten me.
“What are you?”
Um…I’m a sword. Are you feeling well?
“I know you’re a sword, but why can you speak to me? Why do they call you a weapon of the conquered?”
Honestly, it’s all a little fuzzy. I’ve been asleep for a long time. You woke me up, actually.
“And before the sleep?”
Darkness and before that…You.
“Me?”
You always wake me, Danika, except that isn’t always your name. But your soul. It remains the same, and I am bound to it. To you.
I was so confused. This made no sense. “I don’t understand what you mean.”
I’m not sure how to explain it any better. I was awakened by you and have been bound to you for my whole existence. I am your partner in battle and your conscience when in need. I am your blade.
“And how long has that been?”
Eons.
Eons. This made no sense either. The sword had to be broken. I needed to speak to Killion. He’d explain it all. In the meantime, I needed to focus on how the hell I was going to survive three blood trials—whatever form they might take.
You’re troubled.
“I have to fight again.”
Which is something we do well. He sounded almost smug.
“I won’t be able to take you with me.”
Ah, yes. We are in hiding.
Silence filled the room.
Unless you find a way to change that…
Aspen wanted me to win the trials. He wanted Winter in power. He’d said if the sword belonged to me, it would find me. I hadn’t wanted to ask him about the sword before, afraid he’d find it and take it away. I wasn’t thinking straight then, but now…Now my head was clear, as if holding the sword sharpened my mind.
Aspen had made the proviso that I got to bring one weapon of my choice, and my gut told me that the bastard prince didn’t do anything without a good reason.
He’d seen me wield the sword. He knew what I could do with it.
The fucker wanted me to choose it.
You have a solution.
“Yeah, I think I do.”
I woke to dim light and the smell of coffee. I’d fallen asleep on top of the covers, fully clothed, but there was a blanket over me, and someone had removed my boots for me. Was it morning? Impossible to tell without windows. Fuck, I hated this poky, dead room.
Movement in the periphery of my vision had me sitting up straighter.
“It’s all right, mistress,” Blossom called out as she emerged from the tiny washroom. “I ran you a bath. Coffee is on the dresser.” Her expression was neutral, but there was something in her eyes. Something that, if I didn’t know better, looked like compassion. But these wankers had no compassion, did they?
“Did you cover me and take off my boots?”
She blinked sharply, an almost involuntary action. “Yes, mistress.”
“Why?”
“To make you comfortable.” She pressed her lips together.
My neck prickled. Killion had taught me to read people, their body language, the slightest twitch of a brow, and hers screamed that she was hiding something.
I tilted my head to the side and scrutinized her. “And why do you care if I’m comfortable or not?”
Her throat bobbed. “I don’t.”
That made no sense, and I wanted to push further, but she made a beeline for the door. “I’ll be back in an hour to help you dress for your trip to the outer district.”
She exited, leaving me with an awful sense of wrongness. The whole exchange had been off.
No, Dani, no. Not your problem. Focus on Nina and staying alive.
Six days till Killion came for me.
Six days and I was out of here, if the blood trials didn’t kill me first.
3
Blossom was true to her word, returning an hour later to help me dress in more Winter colors, clothes cut to accentuate my shoulders, and make my limbs look toned and powerful. I strapped the blade Aspen had given me to my waist, where it gleamed bright gold against the dark blue of my trousers.