CHAPTER 5: THE RECKONING
Elara's POV
The eastern grounds looked too beautiful for what was about to happen and I stood there watching the sun paint everything gold while my heart tried to beat its way out of my chest.
Seraphine smiled at me from across the courtyard and her teeth were so white and perfect and through the bond I felt Kael's terror like ice water in my veins and his hands were clenched so tight I could feel the phantom ache in my own fists even though we weren't touching.
Lucien's voice cut through the morning air. "Begin."
She moved and oh god she was fast and her nails caught my ribs before I even processed that she'd struck and the pain was white-hot and immediate and through the bond Kael's fury exploded like a star going supernova.
"Did he at least make it good last night before sending you out to die?" Seraphine purred and circled me like prey and I hated how the crowd ate it up and I hated more that part of me wondered if she was right.
I didn't answer because talking meant showing weakness and Kael had spent all night teaching me that predators smell fear before they smell blood and I was already bleeding so I needed to hide everything else.
She struck again and I barely blocked and my arms screamed and she laughed like breaking glass. "He'll forget you the moment you're gone and I've waited three hundred years so what's another month before he comes back to me?"
Through the bond I felt Kael's desperate need to intervene and his absolute helplessness because stopping this fight would destroy any chance I had of the court respecting me and that helplessness was somehow worse than my own fear.
The hunger I'd been fighting twisted sharp in my gut and my new teeth throbbed and Seraphine saw it and her smile went vicious. "Oh you're hungry and he sent you out here starving and that's almost cruel even for him."
Something inside me snapped and I stopped thinking about Kael's careful lessons and just moved and caught her wrist when she came at me again and sank my teeth into her arm without planning it.
Her blood hit my tongue and it tasted like power and rage and centuries of wanting things she couldn't have and the shock on her face was so worth it even when she backhanded me hard enough that I hit the ground and tasted my own blood mixing with hers.
Through the bond Kael lurched forward and I felt Cassian grab him and Kael's anguish cut deeper than any physical wound and I pushed myself up on shaking arms because I couldn't let him watch me stay down.
Seraphine stared at her bleeding arm and then at me and for the first time she looked genuinely surprised and underneath that was real anger because I'd marked her and that meant I wasn't helpless after all.
"You want to know what makes me different?" I said and my voice came out rough and feral. "I'm not trying to take him from you because I already have something you spent three hundred years begging for and never got."
Her face twisted and she came at me without thinking and Kael had been right that anger made even ancient vampires sloppy and when she lunged I dropped low and drove my shoulder into her knees and we both went down hard.
We rolled across the grass trading blows and my ribs cracked and her nose broke and through the bond I felt Kael's pride and terror and my hands found her throat and her nails raked my arms and the crowd roared but all I could hear was my heartbeat and Kael's beating in perfect sync through the bond.
Then her knee caught my stomach and flipped us and her hands closed around my throat and squeezed and black spots danced across my vision and through the bond I felt the exact moment Kael became certain he was about to watch me die and his grief was so devastating it hurt worse than not breathing.
The hunger rose up like a tidal wave and my vision went red and something ancient in my blood decided death could wait and I grabbed her wrist and bit down hard on her pulse point and drank deep and reached for Kael through the bond and his power flooded into me like lightning.
Her grip loosened and I rolled us again and this time when we hit the ground I was on top and my teeth were still in her wrist and through the bond I felt Kael feeding me his strength and together we were so much more than either of us alone.
I released her wrist and pressed my arm across her throat and leaned close. "Yield."
Her ice-blue eyes burned with hate and for a heartbeat I thought she'd rather die and through the bond Kael's anticipation sharpened and then her hand tapped twice against the ground.
"Yield is acknowledged," Lucien's voice rang out. "Elara Voss stands as Lady of this court by right of combat."
I stood on legs that shook and looked down at Seraphine bleeding on the grass and through the bond Kael's relief hit me so hard my knees buckled and then he was there catching me before I fell.
His arms came around me and pulled me against his chest and I felt his heart racing against mine and through the bond his emotions were so intense it all just felt like love even if neither of us knew how to call it that yet.
"I told you not to die," he said rough against my hair and his voice shook.
"I'm very good at following instructions," I whispered and felt his laugh vibrate through his chest even though it sounded more like a sob and then exhaustion pulled me under and the last thing I felt was him lifting me and the bond singing that I was safe now.
I'd survived and proven I had teeth and maybe just maybe I was starting to believe I could actually survive this beautiful terrible world that wanted to devour me whole.