cutting off our conversation. “Mordaca, Blood Sorceress Extraordinaire.” She gestured to me, and the crowd cheered and booed. She turned and waved toward Tarron. “Against Tarron, King of the Seelie Fae.” She grinned widely. “And if I am not mistaken, they are Fated Mates! Even more exciting!”
Miserable bitch. I had no idea how she’d sensed it, and I hated the invasion of privacy.
“A fight to the death,” the Dark Necromancer shouted. “So get your bets going! You could win big on this one. And I definitely will!”
Shit shit shit.
She grinned at us. “You had better hurry. By my calculations, you have less than twenty minutes left.”
“Bitch,” I hissed.
She cackled and disappeared, then reappeared at the top of the stands right in front of us. She stood on an ornately decorated platform—no doubt her private viewing booth.
Her invisible chains broke, and I spun in a circle, taking in the tall metal fence that surrounded us. Dozens of faces jeered at me from the other side, and my skin chilled.
There were so many.
How would we ever fight our way out?
Winged demons flew up to the top of the metal fence, a half dozen of them armed with swords pointed right at us.
“We’re not flying out of here,” Tarron said.
“Nope.”
I stepped toward him, but the Dark Necromancer screeched, “Fight!”
My heart thundered. Holy fates, what were we going to do?
“Kill me,” Tarron said.
“No,” I snapped.
All around, the crowd howled. My stomach pitched.
The Dark Necromancer shot a bolt of lightning right at Tarron’s feet. He jumped back, narrowly avoiding it. She shot another bolt, and Tarron leapt back even farther.
“No talking!” she shouted, sending a small blast of lightning at each of us, nearly hitting us dead-on.
A threat—fight or I’ll electrocute you.
My jaw tightened.
Bitch.
I called upon my magic, reaching for one of the skills that I rarely used. It swelled inside me, more powerful than ever, and I was grateful for the recent challenges that had forced me to grow.
No one else could see what I was doing as I appeared inside Tarron’s mind. I needed to send him a message.
Once the connection was established, I spoke quickly. “I am not killing you. I don’t care if you’re willing to sacrifice yourself for me. I’m not going to accept it. Let’s buy some time. Hit me with some elemental magic. Make it look good, but I’ll transport out of the way before it hits.”
He scowled, his eyes blazing, then nodded sharply.
The crowd roared as his magic swelled on the air. I watched his eyes, noting where he looked. He stared hard just over my right shoulder, then he hurled a fire bomb right at me. It soared through the air, heading toward my right. I called upon my transport magic and flashed out of the way, appearing five feet to the left.
Tarron threw another blast of fire, and I darted right, using my transport power.
The Dark Necromancer shrieked, enraged. “Fight!”
This wasn’t working.
She wanted to see injuries.
Tarron threw a blast of wind at me. The air sparkled as it hurtled toward me.
I can take it.
I took it full-on, not bracing myself so that it wouldn’t reflect back at him. The force slammed me back into the wire fence. My bones shook and my head rang from the hit, and it took all I had to stay on my feet.
Shit, that hurt.
Tarron looked pissed that I’d done it. I drew in an unsteady breath. We had to make this look real until we could find a way out.
I drew a sword from the ether and charged Tarron. He drew his own blade and ran for me. Our steel clashed in midair, and my mind raced.
How to get out of this?
“Just kill me,” Tarron growled. “Or wound me. Something. Anything to get her to give you the crystal.”
“No,” I hissed, letting my blade clash with his again. “I’ll only watch you die once.”
“Only one of us is going to make it out of the Court of Death. There’s only one stone.”
“We can get two crystals.”
“That doesn’t mean there will be two resurrection stones.”
I dodged a particularly slow blow of his, then kicked out, catching his ankles with my foot and taking him to the ground. I lunged for him with my blade, trying to indicate with my eyes where my sword would land.
He rolled to the left as my blade plunged down to the right.
We weren’t doing such a bad job of faking this, but the Dark Necromancer was going to catch on eventually.
All around, the crowd jeered.