children. You need any help”—he nodded at Ash, his black curls shifting—“you let me know.”
Rook’s fighting schedule often left Lynx alone. He was seven now, cared for mostly by the servants in Rook’s Igna villa. But Lynx had fallen gravely ill while Rook was traveling two weeks ago. Lynx’s mother had run off years back and Rook had no other family—and Ignitus had denied Rook’s requests to stay with his Undivine son.
Ash bowed her head at Rook and inadvertently eyed the lantern Taro had put out earlier, as though the flame might still spring to life and Ignitus would overhear them all.
“Don’t encourage her,” Tor snapped. “Trying to kill a god is folly. Remember Wolfsbane.”
It wasn’t a question. It was a battle cry, a warning, an omen. Remember Wolfsbane.
More than thirty years ago, a gladiator named Wolfsbane had come undone. Too many fights, too much death, too much loss. At a postfight celebration, Wolfsbane had taken a knife from the dining set, walked up to Ignitus, and stabbed him in the heart.
A mortal would have died. But a god retaliated.
Ignitus put Wolfsbane on display so everyone would know what happened to Kulans who turned on their god. Only Ignitus’s fire could burn a live Kulan. He seared Wolfsbane’s mouth shut, and he had Wolfsbane’s limbs removed in increments. He cauterized the wounds himself.
Wolfsbane had stayed alive for eight days.
Ash swallowed a kick of revulsion. “I won’t end up like Wolfsbane. Ignitus thinks my mother’s loss rallied me to his side, and he is proud enough that he believes I am fighting for him, seeking justice from Deimos. I’ll get close to him and figure out what it was that killed the Mother Goddess so I can kill him the same way. I can’t stand aside anymore. I shouldn’t have hidden while Mama—”
Ash stopped, her voice wavering. She braced her hands on either side of the mirror, her sparkling reflection staring back at her in the light of the porthole window.
“Char loved watching you dance, using igneia to create beauty,” Tor tried. “She didn’t want this life for you.”
“Well, I didn’t want to watch my mother die. Rook doesn’t want to be away from his son. You don’t want to have to worry about me dying, too, and Taro and Spark want more out of life than playing our nursemaids. Show me even one person in this room who got what they wanted.”
Tor went silent. Taro, putting oil in his curls, watched Ash in the mirror with a pained gaze, the same she knew Rook and Spark were giving her.
But Ash straightened, fighting to ignore them, and adjusted a curl here, a bead there. She had prepared her mother this way dozens of times. As a child, she had begged Char to let her wear the makeup and clothes too, just to play. But these weren’t toys.
This Kulan armor, made from reeds dipped in gold—it was ceremonial and dense.
These wrapping sandals fit with garnets at the intersections—they weighted Ash’s feet, made her feel unable to walk or run.
The weave of even more reeds that stretched across her thighs—her legs ached at the bulk.
The iron curlers that had styled her thick black hair. The sparkling garnets and golden picks that held it off her face. The sweeps of makeup: kohl to highlight her dark eyes, shimmering gold on her lids and across her cheekbones, sticky scarlet on her lips. This all made her a gladiator now. She had to be strong.
She had to be emotionless.
Ash glared into her own eyes.
“You and Rook. I heard Ignitus mention Brand and Raya.” Ash shifted her gaze to Tor in the mirror. “I don’t know the other fighters Ignitus named as champions.”
A few of Ignitus’s lesser-known gladiators had been selected to fill the other champion positions, leaving slots for gladiators like Brand and Raya who were currently in other countries, fighting battles over minor offenses. They were on their way to Crixion now.
For a moment, Ash thought Tor might not respond. But after a long pause, he sighed.
“The lesser-known gladiators are strong but unpracticed in wars. Ignitus is hoping their loyalty will compensate.” He didn’t look at Ash, as if refusing to admit that he was giving her this advice. “He will select the first fight pairings after the opening ceremony. Rook and I will help if you’re paired against us, but if Brand gets here in time, you’ll likely be pitted against him. He’s the only one who outranks you by blood, so Ignitus will