So I was thinking. I really like posting two chapters every week, especially now that we're getting to a REALLY big part of the book in a few chapters (I think it's in like six more chapters and then Norah does something drastic. Again).
But, if you guys want me to start posting two chapters a week, let me know. I might adjust my posting schedule to post new chapters on Sunday if I start doing two chapters a week. But let me know what you guys think, and as always, if you want, vote for the chapters.
My body is tight like a coiled snake, ready to react and spring into action. The students stay close together, never daring to near the other faction. Sprinting, we circle around the arena that earth mages had erected early this morning. It looks nearly identical to the sketches Holland had come up with last night. Except, now with Clarika's help, benches raise outside the arena, allowing students a place to sit while they wait their turn to fight. They rise vertically and I know as soon as everyone is done warming up, they'll be sitting up there. It makes me wonder if the dragon riders will place their bets on one another like mages do.
Easton sticks close to me when we stop to stretch. Donovan follows suit and together we chat with Holland and the other instructors barking orders at us in the background. I'm too excited to hide my smile whenever I look at Clarika.
She stands close to Holland, arms held behind her like a soldier awaiting a command, while he impassively watches his student's trail behind me like baby ducks. Neither of them talk much. Holland's too busy correcting people and Clarika remains silent, knowing a Crimson talking with a dragon rider might as well be treason in the mages eyes.
My eyes slide over the crowd that consisted of dragon riders and mages but no dragons. Galeur and the other dragon instructors have taken the dragons to learn how to handle themselves in dragon fights. I can feel Rima's excitement thumbing through the bond like a living artery, pumping blood.
Vexian's glare burns into the side of my neck like the sun above. She wears a rather tight, brown uniform for an earth mage. But I suppose in enemy territory everyone needs to look their best.
I try my best to ignore her, but we lock eyes every now and then and she drags a finger down her cheek in mock tears. I know Holland catches it too, which means I have to be the bigger person and turn away or else face his disapproval.
"Mutt," I hear her whisper.
Once were done stretching, Holland and the other instructors call us to the outer edge of the arena where Skin Healers sit or lean against the walls. As Holland begins to explain the rules of the challenge, they start to spread out along the walls. Earth mages follow them while others start to set up the arena.
The ground rumbles as earth mages raise and flatten the dirt and snow to create a small city that runs across the middle section of the arena. The roofs are hooded and the dirt streets are narrow, creating nearly pitch black alleyways. On the other side, the dirt hardens into a dark mountain with numerous platforms. While the mages go on with their speech, unbothered, the dragon riders openly gape.
I stretch my wrists, twisting them and counting the twelve flat, stone platforms. Each one varies in height. The shortest comes to my shoulder while the tallest, planted in the center of the others, like a king with its circle of guards, is easily double the height of Galeur.
My sister stays back to let the other mage instructors talk to their students, while Holland talks to us.
He paces slowly in front of us, hands clasped behind him with an expression on the verge of cold or extreme focus. "I know how you feel about the mages," he begins as the arena finishes forming. "But there isn't anything we can do about that. We are Dragon Riders, and we are sworn to protect people, and with The Darkening possessing people and dragons, we need to prepare you for everything. And that means preparing you for Thrawlers with elemental abilities."
A rider with dark red hair cringes with disgust. "So we're like actually training with them? Like training, training and without our dragons? I don't understand why they have to be fighting across the school. It's not like we're going to have them hurt the mages."
Holland stops, silencing him with a firm stare. "That's exactly why they aren't here. And yes, we're training with the mages, and the sooner you get over that, the more you'll take away from this exercise. It may even save your life when the time comes."
Another instructor inhales and runs his fingers through his raven hair. "This exercise is going to be a drastic change from your normal training. Mages are aggressive, far more than you may think. Be prepared for that and do not hold back."
In the distance someone scoffs. "What's their version of aggressive? A splinter?"
I press my lips together and run my fingers over my single braid. It's tighter than usual, meant to stay in place while I'm being thrown around.
Donovan shoves my shoulder. "If they're anything like, Norah, we'll be fine."
My lips spread in a grin as I look over my shoulder. "You guys couldn't handle me if I fought like a mage."
"Doubt that," Ekon mutters from a few students away, brooding as usual.
"During the training," Holland resumes, raising his voice to reel us back into focus. "There will be four groups, each with nine students chosen by your team captains-" Please be me. Please be me. Please be me. "Every group will start in the same spot and when the match starts you will need to get through the city and to the mountain. The first team that reaches the mountain will need to hold it for five minutes. Leave the spot and the time ends and you have to start over."
Clarika strides just a few feet away from Holland, hands clasped behind her. "Have you picked your students?"
He nods. "Have you?"
"Norah," she says with a smirk glinting in her eyes. She turns her head fully to me, knowing exactly how much satisfaction I'll have beating my opponent. "And Vexian has so graciously volunteered for the second position."
A grin splits across my face as I glance to the stout mage. I want to wink and start my antagonizing now but Holland would disapprove. Vexian is already looking at me, her grin so sharp I expect fangs. I make my way to the other mage instructors with her following close behind until she's standing by my side.
"Ready, mutt?" she whispers.
My only response is a sly shrug.
Holland doesn't seem to be fazed by my sister's choice and jutts his chin to each student. "Easton. Ekon, get up here."
Despite myself, I smirk and watch the two as they march up to the instructors and turn to face the group. Easton glances sidelong at me while Ekon ignores my existence entirely. We take turns picking people from the crowd, and Adam seems more than surprised when I call him up first. Gently, he pushes his way past the mages and steps beside me, ignoring Vexian's snicker about the half-breed choosing a mix of each faction. As expected, she picks Lillian and Scarlet, one a light mage and one an earth mage, along with six others.
Teams begin to form and Adam whispers the names and the elemental abilities of each mage I ask about. By the time we're done, Easton and Ekon have a full team of dragon riders and Valerie one of all mages. But to everyone's surprise, and my teammates dismay, I'm the only person with a mix of both. A shadow mage, two fire mages, and five dragon riders, myself, and Adam whom I expect to drive a knife in my back.
But if Renora wanted me dead, I would be. So for now, I trust him.
We're told to line up on the opposite side of the arena, facing the mountain and false village. My group follows, keeping their distance from one another. Holland watches me and I can't tell if he's proud or questioning my sanity. Adam takes my side and looks down at me. "You sure about this?"
I nod, inhaling deeply. I know the mages will follow me, the Crimson who hasn't lost a single match. The Dragon riders will just need to trust me and my experience.
In the benches, students and instructors take their seats while one of the mage instructors finishes off with the rules. Their instructors are quite simple - our only limatation is not to kill people or torture them. If anyone, mage or rider, crosses those lines the instructors will step in and there will be a penalty for such violence.
But as the other teams discuss their plans, my eyes narrow in on the earth mage instructors along the arena edge. They stand, focused on the village with their fingers twitching at their sides.
Focus on that later, I tell myself and turn to my group. I relay my plan to them while also glancing and noting the dragon riders signing their own plans.
When the timer starts, every team will make straight for the village. Trying to explain how chaotic and messy that run will be to the dragon riders takes some explaining. We would no doubt lose a few people to that run and I convince them to stay put and attack from behind. The village is easier to explain; get out as fast as possible while destroying as many buildings as we can on our way, and create as few openings for the groups to run through as we can. It'll make for easy picking on the mountain if we have only a few openings that everyone will be forced to funnel through.
"On your marks!"
I take a deep breath while I turn to the village. I unhook my bow and nock three arrows to my string. My two other archers, both riders, follow, nocking a single arrow to their strings.
"Go!"
People take off sprinting toward the false village. Fire and vines and ice and lava shower the air like wildfires and falling meteors. The dragon riders gape as fireballs suddenly appear over their heads. They run through the barrage to scramble out of the way. My dragon riders itch to follow after them until they see smoke rising and hear the screams of their fellow teammates being burned and broken, many of them dragged by the earth mages to the side lines.
Theia and Mysha add to the chaos, using their abilities to burn the grass and shoot fireballs at anyone they see. I release my arrows as fast as I can but most end up burned. Zac gapes at me when a mage goes down screaming, an arrow in his thigh. Blood seeps into the snow and when he can't get up, earth mages drag him to the healers.
Lucas sneers at the riders, enjoying their shock. "Welcome to mage fighting, dragon riders."
"Let's go," I order and release another arrow.
Reluctantly, Zac and Felix release their arrows but nearly all of them are destroyed when the other teams figure out our plan. Vexian raises a wall of lava around her team, shielding them as they disappear into the village first. The other teams follow and soon the field is silent and littered with craters of charred earth.
"Lucas," I say, staring at the village but I still see his grin in my periphery. He flicks a piece of blond hair out of his eyes and walks forward to allow everyone full view of his abilities, not that I mind the added dramatics.
The shadows clinging to the arena walls slither toward him like black wraiths. They wrap around Lucas until, with a wave of his hands, they fly off him and create a large circle, just barely taller than Adam. His shadows swirl at the edges like a deadly fog.
"What the fuck?" Devan, breathes with wide, round eyes. He runs a hand over his dark, bald head and Theia ties up her fire-red hair before she walks through it.
One by one the mages walk through, grinning to everyone in the crowd with such confidence it almost makes me smirk. As much as they hate me, at least the mages still remember that I'm a Crimson and born for battle, even pretend ones like this.
With a final look at the village, I step into the darkness.
Black consumes my vision until it's slowly replaced by the lighter shade of black of the village streets. The houses are made of wood with stone roof. Each one has windowless holes and poorly formed doors that swing and creak. People scream in the distance and I try not to think about the other teams or whatever the earth mages are doing with their abilities.
Lucas darkens the shadows around us to keep from being easily spotted and, while the dragon riders collect themselves, we move through the city, hugging the houses as we run. Mysha and Theia send a stream of fire, burning everything around us. The woods burns but the stone crumbles, creating blockades that prevent anyone not an earth or air mage from crossing.
We need to get to the mountain before anyone else and we need to narrow their possibilities.
"Wait." Rea digs her heels into the dirt, sword raised and ready. Her breathing becomes rapid as we stop and watch her peer into the darkness of the streets. "Something's here."
I nock an arrow and fire when something darts across the street, but it's too dark to see anything but shadows. There is no thud or scream and I know I've either missed or this is the work of the earth mages.
Someone, a few alley's over, shrieks.
Something shifts behind us and we jerk, abilities and weapons raised. But there isn't anything there.
Then movement.
The creature, brown like wood, bursts from the dark, arms outstretched for the closest person. Mysha falls, screaming as the thing made of twigs and vines claws for his chest. Instincts kick in and Devan raises his sword, slicing the things midsection and kicking it off the fire mage.
The two share a long look of shock but are still too stubborn to admit anything. Adam helps him up.
Rea steps forward, tapping the motionless creature with her sword. "What is that?"
"Vegan Rotters," Lucas sighs, more annoyed than scared.
"Vegan what?"
"But they run." Theia says, confused. "They're not supposed to run."
Has she not seen a Thrawler before?
While I peer into the shadows where more figures begin to dart around, my heart races and my grip tightens on my bow. "Vegan Thrawlers," I say to the dragon riders just before another plant creature jumps out one of the glassless windows and tackles Rea.
She yelps as more wooden people sprint out of the shadows to attack. I release my arrows as fast as I can, heart pounding in my ears. Lucas teleports a Vegan Thrawler off of Rea. She shoots to her feet as Theia burns a house, crawling with plant people. They don't flail like normal Thrawlers, but the sight still forces me to remember the tombs when our dragons burst through the catacombs.
I shout, forcing my team into a sprint through the village. We burn everything we cross; houses, trees, and the plant people. Adam uses the air to spread the flames in every direction, feeding it just enough to bloom with life and not extinguish. Air currents push at our backs, forcing us to move faster. As we run, Lucas teleports us into different alleys whenever we come to a deadend.
Heat licks at my back, burning my bare neck. My skin stings but adrenaline keeps me focused on reaching the mountain. Arrows fly through the air. Swords gleam orange and red, reflecting the flames, as dragon riders slash through the wooden bodies.
We pass other students, Ekon and his team. We leave them behind, not bothering to warn them of the approaching horde.
Not a horde, I remind myself. The tombs and the dead that consumed it was a horde. Thousands of people, that's a horde. What's following my team can't be more than twenty plant people.
Something hard slams against me and I'm tackled through a weak, burning wall. The wood explodes and digs into my back when I hit the floor. My team shouts my name.
I grab the Vegan Thrawler's wooden neck, using my forearms to hold its hands away from my chest. Teeth snap inches from my face before it ignites in flames. With a grunt, I shove it off me before the flames can burn me too.
Lucas yanks me to my feet as Adam uses a burst of wind to destroy the creaking door.
We spring out as a group, continuing to burn everything in our path when I see light. With a look to Lucas, wer'e eaten by the shadows. He closes his portal and everyone falls into a crouch, ready to run but halt when I whisper otherwise.
They frown as I twist around, raising ice walls on all the openings that Thrawlers and other teams could get through. Then, once we're safe, I crouch, making my way to edge of the village. The shadows darken around us, concealing me as I peer around the edge of the house.
A tinge of disappointment lingers as my eyes scale up the different sized platforms. Vexian stands proudly on the tallest one with Lillian and Scarlet poised on the ground beneath her like handmaidens to a queen. Three other mages stand on the platforms below, sending fire at anything that moves. But no one is moving across the field.
Six houses over, I spot Easton. He's crouched and pressed against the side of a house. Donovan is right behind him and I suspect what remains of his team is standing guard behind them, covering in case any Vegan Thrawlers attack them.
"We should take him out," Theia whispers, hovering behind me. "Or let me burn the house around him and let Vexian do the rest. Do our job for us."
"No," I say and then pull back into the alley, but she does make an excellent point. My team watches me, waiting. The dragon riders flinch, raising their weapons as the ice pops and cracks. If we weren't going to be here for much longer, I would tell them that the sounds are because the ice is thawing.
"He's waiting," I say.
"For Vex's invitation?" Mysha snickers.
I shake my head, remembering the rider's planning. Though, even if I hadn't eavesdropped, training with the dragon riders has made it easy to predict their thoughts. "They're going to charge," I murmur. "With Ekon and Easton's combined teams all at once. They're going to try and overwhelm Vexian. They're going to lose a lot of people but it's their best option."
"Take the brunt of the attack," Devan nods, his dark skin shining with the light like oil. "But what are we going to do? We have to run that too."
At that, I smile.
"Two minutes left!" An instructor shouts.
The dragon riders charge from the village, spreading their numbers to make it harder for Vexian and her team to pick them off.
I hold up a hand, still crouched and wait for her team to attack with vines and liquid fire. When everyone's focused on the brunt of the attack, we move, staying close to the edge of the village. We look for the Vegan Thrawlers, but they're nowhere to be seen and the earth mages in the arena now stand with motionless fingers.
That's the end of them.
Cautiously, but quickly, we move to the edge of the arena. The ground quakes with vines ripping from the earth but Vexian's focus is on the dragon riders, not us. The two teams combine their archers, trying to take down the six people on the platform, but Vexian melts the arrows with her lava.
"Watch out!"
I whip around, only fast enough to see a flash of something before it rams into me. The force sends me back nearly ten feet. My body rolls over the snow like a stiff log and something in my chest cracks. Not broken, I would know a broken rib if I have one. But the pain is still sharp enough for me to gasp a few times and hold my side.
The sun blinds me as I squint at it. With a stifled groan, I roll to my side and already find my team moving to our fall back plan. Mysha and Theia burn away the vines grabbing for their feet and make across the field, toward the chaos. Everyone spreads out like cockroaches in light, blending into the crowd of dragon riders, but they're smart enough to stick to the outer edge of the group where the chaos is more forgiving.
I push onto my elbows just in time to see Vexian and her right hands leap off their platforms. Their hydromage melts the snow, raising it to engulf everything up to their waist and ease them to the ground.
Vexian and her friends prowl, splitting in either direction as they approach. She grins sharply, dragging a finger down her cheek. "I knew your team would abandon their dog, I just didn't know when."
I grin, all teeth and taste blood. "Come to gloat?" I question, rising to my feet with a sharp pain in my side.
"Three against one," Scarlet purrs around me, twirling her short, brown hair.
Vexian and her friends circle me like predatory cats stalking their prey. Their teeth gleam like flashing knives and I know they'll take a great amount of pleasure in whatever pain they can inflict on me.
On my feet, I run my thumb under my lip, glancing at the blood. It's enough time for Scarlet to try and take me by surprise. She thrust her hand toward the dirt and vines dive in and out of the ground like dolphins. They twist, suddenly growing thorns the size of my hand.
I take off sprinting only to skitter to a stop when a wall of lava erupts in front of me. The heat makes my skin blister I run in the other direction, trying to jump and twist out of chunks of rock and lava. My legs push faster when the vines are nearly at my feet. Then they burn away and a burst of air pushes me into the sky and cushions my fall.
I roll across the snow, hearing it crunch beneath me. I aim my bow and release the arrow. It slices through the air, heading for Scarlet's stomach when a burst of red and black shoots from the ground, melting the wood and metal away.
Then, I'm running again before Vexian and her friends can get a hold of me. But I only get onto my feet and pivot when invisible fingers grab my throat. Lillian circles around me, leaving ghost steps in her wake. She has made herself invisible so no one can see her. I choke. My hands want to grab the ghost girls hands, but I twist out of her grasp, jabbing my elbow where I picture her backside should be.
She grunts, her footsteps dragging across the snow. I use her prints to keep an eye on her and try to lunge again when a wave of vines lashes out like a whip. I jump back, spinning around with a spear of ice forming in my hand. It flies through the air but Vexian burns that away too.
Chunks of rock mix with thin vines that crack through like lightning. I hold my ground, using my abilities to counter theirs with waves of snow and shards of icicles. Vexian stays on her toes, trying to dodge the snow creeping up her ankles. Scarlet's vines shatter over the ground when I freeze them completely. I send the shards on Adam's winds to hurl them at her. But while I keep the three busy, my team is nowhere to be seen among the dragon riders.
When Vexian melts the ground around her into magma, sending a stream of it at me, I grab Lillian, whose just an arm's length away. I throw her in my spot and jump out of the way.
She screams in agony. Her armor, a pale gold, darkens with scorch marks. The lava sinks through her skin until nothing is left but black holes. She collapses, still shrieking and grappling at her body.
The earth mages work fast, using the snow to carry her back to the healers and fix her scalding burns in a matter of seconds. Then she walks up the stairs, her armor shredded to rags, to pout in the benches with the other mages.
Vexian's shock extinguishes as soon as her eyes turn to me. "Half-breed, bitch!"
I purse my lips in mock hurt, dragging a finger down my cheek. I wince when the ground rumbles and take off running again, circling them. In the corner of my eye, Easton and Valerie duel. Their swords clash and clank but they smile, talking each other up.
"I'm surprised you haven't taken your shirt off, yet." Valerie twirls the sword around her fingers, a bravado that would appall my parents. "Even when we had six feet of snow, you still tossed it to Norah and said 'keep it cold.'"
He chuckles and lunges.
Something licks my ankles and my heart skitters. I push faster with vines chasing at my heels. Suddenly the ground in front of me melts into a river of bright liquid flames. I grit my teeth, heart clashing against my ribs,but push myself faster.
With the swipe of my hands, blocks of ice drop into the magma like heavy stones. But they float, bobbing like buoys that melt as soon as my feet leave it. I leap onto the first block, nearly slipping when it bobs, and never slow down enough for the lava to burn through my armor.
I leap from block to block, trying to keep my weight as even as possible. My feet sing with the pain of heating metal. I push all my frost into my feet to cool my body down enough to not melt.
In the corner of my eyes, Vexian moves her hands with sudden, strong movements, and the end of my lava river lengthens. My heart lurches and sweat trickles down the back of my neck but figures move in my periphery and I almost send a sneer at Vexian.
On the mountain, Vexian's teammates scream and tumble off the platforms, hitting the ground with a crack. It makes her whip around, eyes wide. The distraction gives me enough time to make it to the edge of her magma and dive for solid ground.
"Timer starts over!" An instructors hollers. "Five minutes!"
I slide over the snow, using the momentum I've built to get to my feet and run straight to her. Scarlet finds me first and starts to move her arm, but I'm faster. Snow raises from the ground like a giant tube. It hardens into ice, glistening blue and white and slams into her side.
Her body rolls over the snow like a ragdoll and when she still tries to get back up, I shift my run to her. I pick up one of the swords from the ground as she pushes to her knees and drive it through her shoulder. The metal pulls back red and I shift my grip to bash the side of her skull with the hilt of the sword. Then, I grab her head and slam her skull into the ground.
Vexian is already running at me when Scarlet is being pulled back to the healers. I wonder if she realizes how much fun it was to distract her while my team snuck behind the mountains and took out the remains of her team. But she only yells "mutt."
From the mountain, Adam and the archers stay on the platforms, picking off the remaining dragon riders in Easton and Ekons group. Lucas teleports to the ground, disappearing and reappearing around the battlefield, landing strikes wherever he can. Mysha and Theia chase after Ekon and the three others in his group, giving them burns so bad they would need surgery to repair their damaged skin. My riders stick with the mages, timing their strikes between their abilities to not be struck.
Easton does a better job of avoiding my team than Ekon.
"Lucas!" I shout and he whips around, wrapping his shadows around me from across the field.
I fall through, reappearing behind Vex and grab her face before she can do anything. My frost slices through every nerve in her body and she shrieks like a siren. Her tan skin pales with shades of grey, her breathing catches and her scream dies into silence. Red pinpricks raise over her skin, only to turn into black patches. My grip tightens on her cheek when she collapses, but I refuse to let her go. I force the cold deeper, letting it pump through her veins and freeze her from the inside out.
When she's on the verge of blacking out, I release.
She drops immediately and curls in on herself, convulsing uncontrollably. I step over her, glancing at the dragon riders in the crowd and in the arena. They gape at me, wary, shocked, and disgusted.
"Norah!" Adam shouts.
Easton sprints faster, tackling me from the side before I can act. Air wheezes from my lungs, spine popping as I hit the hard ground. He pins my wrists above me and a sarcastic comment hangs on my lips. Where he frowns, I smirk.
A gust of air comes out of nowhere and Easton falls onto his back. I roll onto him, sitting back with my fist raised. He blocks the first punch while simultaneously hitting the side of my ribs with his free hand.
I bite my tongue, holding back a grunt, and try to stay on top when Donovan grabs my elbows and yanks them behind me.
Fire whizzes past his side forcing Donovan to release me. I shoot to my feet, twisting out of the way of Easton's foot and hook it around the giant mountain of a boy, kicking the back of his knees to bring him down. My elbow slinks around his throat and my muscles squeeze while freezing his face like I'd done with Vexian.
"Norah, stop," Easton growls, yanking me off him. Donovan gasps, choking on air while he subconsciously runs a hand over his red pricked face.
"Norah, yes," I grind, driving my elbow into his gut.
He wheezes but refuses to release until Rea thrusts her sword for his chest. Then he leaps back, caving inward to avoid my frothing hand trying to grab him.
Hand-to-hand fighting isn't my best method of attack and Easton takes full advantage of it. I duck and dodge his fists while Rea and Devan work on taking down Donovan. Lucas appear beside them with his shadows wrapped around him, teleporting everywhere to avoid Donovan's sword and fists. He deals small attacks to Donovan and Easton that don't do much damage but still weakens them all the same.
When I find my opening, I duck under Easton's fist and grab his throat. He tries to back away but I shock his body with the cold. Not enough to raise red and black spots, but enough to bring him to his knees and step on his elbow. When he cries out I let him go, snuffing out the guilt settling in my stomach.
I let Adam use his abilities to toss him to the healers and turn to the last five remaining dragon riders. Three from Easton's team and two from Ekon. Both of their leaders are on the sidelines, either with healers or sitting on the bench, brooding like children.
My team splits into groups, taking each rider down individually while Adam and the archers pick off the stragglers. They yelp and scream, grabbing their oozing wounds and broken bones before Adam chucks them to the sidelines. I make do with taking the riders down quickly, spotting areas that I could break. Hundreds of things pop into my head. I could use my frost like I had done with Vexian and have the remaining of the riders down on the ground, trembling. Or I could melt the snow into water and let them choke on it until they yield.
But they're the only family I have left and this faction isn't used to mage fighting. So, I keep my frost to a minimum and their shattered bones to one or two before having Adam dispose of them.
When the instructors call time, the arena is completely void of opponents. Theia's examining her nails, glancing up at the gaping dragon riders, even the ones on our team. They grinned triumphantly, but they're always something sharp and menacing about a mage's smile. It makes you wonder if they have something more up their sleeve.
I turn away from the village, my senses still on edge, and walk toward my team. The mages push off from the platforms they were leaning against and stride toward me while the dragon riders stay rooted in their spots. They watch me warily and even step away when I come too close.
It makes me pause, gut sinking. I did what was needed to win, I want to tell them but turn on my heels instead. Only the mages would understand such a thing. The only way to win a fight is to do what's necessary. Though, looking through the arena benches where mages and dragon riders sit, I can't help but feel a tinge of dread and guilt.
None of the mages seemed fazed by the blood and frost and burned grounds of the arena, nor of the screams that used to echo throughout. As I walk towards the stairs, I politely wave off Celest who waits to heal the burns and scratches littering my body.
She only raises a dark brow and watches me rise up the stairs to meet my sister near the edge of the arena, where the seating drops into the arena. Some riders glare, disgusted or shocked or both. I try not to seem like I notice them shifting away from me. I expected this of course. I fought like a mage, but that doesn't mean it still doesn't hurt.
Clarika waits for me with her chin raised and eyes gleaming with pride. It makes my stomach flutter and the dreaded looks of everyone around me fades into the back of my mind. "Good job, Norah," she says calmly.
I shrug, smiling lightly. "Thanks."
She juts her chin back to the bottom of the arena. "Have Celest fix those burns, I can't have a Crimson walking around with a bleeding lip."
My lips purse, but I nod, stopping to look at Holland a few feet away.
Unlike Clarika with her soldier stance, he folds his arms, eyeing with an expression similar to the rest of the riders. "Congratulations, Miss Crimson."