Sweat pasted Ash’s orange-and-scarlet dancing costume to her skin, and her breaths came in stunted gasps. She bit back a whimper, calling on her fury to keep her strong.
But one of his words hooked her. Nearly?
Ignitus took slow steps around her, his bare feet squishing in the water-soaked carpet. He didn’t mention it, merely nudged the empty bowl out of the way as he left her direct line of sight. “My brother’s gladiator, though,” he continued, “was the most foolish of all today.”
Slowly, Ash stood. Her legs tingled at being unbent, but she felt better not being on her knees. “Great Ignitus,” she said, turning to follow him, “I didn’t—”
“Stavos thought that his poisoned knife would not be seen.” Ignitus’s eyes locked on hers. “He thought that my Kulans would not meet his cheating with violent force.”
Was that a spark in his eyes, a smile on his lips?
“Aren’t you angry with me?” Her voice was no higher than a whisper.
Ignitus grinned. “I have every right to be, don’t I? Geoxus denied any wrongdoing on the part of his gladiator—but I owned your wrongdoing, Ash. Though it may be difficult to believe, I am proud of you. Some of my guards and a few gladiators have mentioned seeing Stavos of Xiphos’s hidden blade. But who took action against him?”
He waited, the wonder in his voice unmistakable.
Ash gawked at him. “I did, Great Ignitus.”
Ignitus tipped his head. A lock of hair fell across his shoulder. “You used igneia dancing techniques to subdue Stavos. It was elegant.”
He was taller than her, his eyes dark and endless, and Ash couldn’t remember ever looking at him directly for so long. She felt drugged, fuzzy, her mouth filled with cotton.
To break the spell, she swept her eyes to the side. The hair that had fallen across Ignitus’s shoulder glinted in the flame light. A few strands underneath were gray-white. Ash frowned. Was that coloring a sign of age, like in mortals? Doubtful. Likely they were strands of silver Ignitus had had servants weave into his hair.
“Geoxus’s war declaration holds,” Ignitus said. “We sail to Deimos tomorrow. Kula stands to lose much. But”—he leaned closer—“I am not angry, because I have found my next victor. You.”
Ash gaped at her god, seeing the smile of hunger he gave before he urged his gladiators to face death. The smile he had given before a sword pinned Char to the fighting sand.
“I’m a dancer,” Ash tried.
“You’re a Nikau. I know Char taught you how to fight. This is what you were born to do.”
No, Ash wanted to say. This wasn’t her destiny.
This wasn’t what her mother had wanted for her.
But Ash wasn’t only herself, standing there before Ignitus. The Nikau legacy was strong—a line of fierce igneia gladiators who had brought Ignitus hundreds of wins. She was her mother, her grandmother, her aunt, a cousin, a living corpse of all the Nikau gladiators who had died over centuries of fighting. Char had tried to resist by making the best of this role and bringing as many wins as she could to Kula’s coffers. But she had still died, and Ash would still take her place.
A sob gripped Ash’s throat and she choked on it, coughing, wanting to break. Char was dead and nothing would change. Nothing would—
A question struck Ash like lightning, cutting into her spiral of panic and dread.
What would change this dangerous, bloody cycle?
Ash remembered the Great Defeat dance. The Mother Goddess, who had decimated the world, dead at the end—probably not by Ignitus’s hand alone. But she had been killed by something. That was the truth in the story: the Mother Goddess was dead.
So there had to be a way to kill Ignitus too.
The revelation blossomed in Ash’s heart, swelling like a surge of drums and a crash of cymbals. She wanted that, she realized. She had wanted that her whole life: wanted Ignitus to die.
As one of Ignitus’s gladiators, Ash would have access to him. He would dine with her, discuss fighting strategies and the best uses of igneia. She could use that. Unlock his secrets.
And kill him.
That would change their world. That would free Kula from this bloodshed.
Ignitus’s ivory teeth glowed against his dark-brown skin. “Geoxus thinks to shame me for your interference. But you are angry that his gladiator defeated Char. Let it fuel you. Be one of my champions and avenge your mother.”
This close, he smelled like cinders and coal and sunlight.
Everything else fell away. “Yes, Great Ignitus,” Ash