lay her head on Char’s shoulder and let her mother take her weight, just for a moment.
“The arena is empty?” a voice rumbled from the hall to Ash’s right.
“Yes, dominus. A guard saw your son heading for the temple. Shall I fetch him for you?”
Ash straightened. Your son?
She edged closer to the corner, keeping her breathing shallow, her body stiff.
A slow peek around, and she spotted Petros and a guard, their backs to her.
Cassia wasn’t with them.
“No.” Petros flicked his hand. “Prepare my carriage.”
“Yes, dominus.”
The guard marched off, taking the hall opposite Ash’s. She sank back regardless, keeping her eyes wide, muscles rigid.
Only she and Petros were in this intersection of halls now. She knew enough of his treatment of Madoc, Cassia, and Elias to know that this situation would not result in her favor, especially with the hall absent of igneia.
Lungs burning, Ash slid to the side, readying herself to retreat the way she’d come—
“I am alone,” Petros said.
Ash froze. The hall hung silent, the press of the empty arena above feeling suffocating.
After a long stretch of nothing, someone else spoke.
“You let Stavos escape,” the male voice snapped.
Ash ground her fingers into the wall. She thought she recognized the voice, but it was muffled, as though whoever was talking did so from behind a door.
She started to peek around the corner again when her heart seized.
Wait—had the voice meant that Petros had abducted Stavos?
“I started rumors that his behavior was from a fever,” Petros replied, ripe with confidence. “People already believed he’d fallen ill with the champions’ pox, like the others. Now they say he was delirious with fever, roaming the streets, and attacked an innocent family. Centurions had no choice but to shoot him down.”
“You are getting sloppy. First, Stavos. Now, your son.”
Ash bit her lip. Luckily, Petros asked the question she wanted to shout.
“What about Madoc?”
“He knows more than he says. Too much.”
“What he does or doesn’t know is of no consequence. I have his sister. He entered this war. He will do whatever we ask of him with her life at stake.”
“I’m losing faith in your ability to—” The voice cut off in a sharp drop.
Ash waited, sweat slicking down her back, her heart thundering against her ribs.
Then the voice spoke again. And Ash retched.
“Our conversation is not private.”
She shoved herself off the wall, sprinting back up the hallway. She didn’t stop to look back, to see if Petros was gaining on her.
He was Earth Divine; they were in a tunnel of stone. She had to get out.
Ash’s heart lodged in her throat, galloping pulses that made her wheeze. She slammed into a corner, shoved off it; she took a turn, barreling on. She didn’t know where she was going, only that she thought she was heading back toward the temple.
Petros was behind this. All of this. He was the one who had planted Madoc in this war, knowing about his anathreia. He was the one who had abducted Stavos.
Why? How did Stavos’s abduction tie in with Madoc?
And who had Petros been talking to? There was no one else there that Ash could see. Just the stones—
The answer throbbed in Ash’s mind. Geoxus. He was talking to Geoxus.
Ash had to find Madoc.
She bolted around another corner—and went sprawling through the air.
The floor rose up in a sharp wall that sliced right at calf height. Ash tucked her head before she hit the ground, rolling across her shoulders at the last moment. The flip rounded her onto her feet facing the way she’d come.
There Petros stood. His cheeks were red from chasing after her, his hand extended as the floor sank back to normal beneath him.
All thought left Ash’s mind. The only thing that broke through was terror.
She was panting, her body shaking. She had no weapons. She had nothing.
Petros scowled at her, his stout face turning purple with rage. “The Kulan. You—”
“Champion!”
Ash flung herself around. Up the hall, a trio of Ignitus’s guards were running toward her, flames in their hands.
She almost wept. When she opened her mouth, she heard herself croak out a trembling whimper, but she couldn’t muster enough shame to care.
The faces of the Kulan guards were fuming when they stopped before her.
“Ignitus has been asking for you,” one snapped. They were likely angry that she had been difficult to find. “He requests you join him for dinner with his other champion.”
Ash pulled the igneia out of the guard’s palm. He started, grimacing at her until she pressed that hand to her chest