Everything I needed.

Armed, I made my way to the towering pagoda that was Kael’s prison. Thankfully, the multiple ledges would give me plenty of help scaling the tower. It had been a few seasons since I used a grappling hook, and it took two tries before I was able to secure it and start my ascent. I left my bow and arrow on the ground. The bow would do little good in such a small room. At each floor, I paused and listened outside of the window before I moved on and up.

On the fifth floor I spotted Kael, chain-bound in the corner of a small stone room. Each floor had guards posted, and Kael’s floor was no exception. There were two.

My hand felt into my pocket searching for the blow dart and removing the protective cork. I had chosen the ones dipped in blue, knowing those were the sleep darts, from a previous lesson from Kael. My fingers fumbled with the dart and it slipped through my fingers, falling fifty feet to the ground.

I froze and tried to calm my nerves down. I had to be less careless.

A blindfold covered Kael’s eyes. He was gagged, looking like he was asleep, but I could tell he was feigning. His legs were a little too stiff. He probably knew I was outside of the tower and was ready to act, to help if needed.

Taking aim, I blew. The guard closest to me slapped his neck.

“What the…?” He pulled the dart out of his neck. “Sound the alarm…esca—” He fell over. The other guard turned to attack me.

I was already over the window ledge and had another dart loaded. The blowpipe was knocked from my hand by the second guard, and I launched myself at him. We rolled across the floor. I was hoping to knock him to the ground and wind him, but now I was on the bottom fighting for my life.

Kael’s training kicked in, though. I wrapped my arms around his hands, ducked rolled, and wrapped my legs around his head and squeezed. Knowing I wasn’t going to win, and quickly losing the upper hand, I pulled the extra dart from my pocket and stabbed his neck.

A few long seconds later, the second guard went slack.

Out of breath, I ran to Kael who now sat up in the corner, tense and alert. My heart went out to him. I reached for his blindfold when a shadow passed over the opened window. I turned and ducked as a shooting star whipped past my head. Another SwordBrother in head to toe black, had crawled in the window that I came in. Where had this one been, on the roof? Had he come up from another floor? I had the element of surprise on the first SwordBrother and luck was on my side for the second, but I don’t know if I could take a SwordBrother in a one on one confrontation.

I stood in front of Kael protectively, a knife in each of my hands. I bent my knees, balancing my weight evenly, and made myself relax. The other SwordBrother cocked his head when he recognized my technique and he mirrored my stance. Even behind the face mask, I could have sworn he smiled at me.

I attacked.

He blocked, hitting my arms with his and deflecting each of my blows.

I aimed a stab.

He blocked again and reversed the move, so I had to leap back as he forced my own knife toward my torso. It was then that I noticed his lack of weapons, which only irritated me. Could I kill a defenseless SwordBrother? I realized how stupid that statement sounded, since there was no such thing as a defenseless SwordBrother.

I needed to end the fighting and end it now, before others came and I would be doomed. Taking my knife, I tested its weight and threw it toward his chest. The SwordBrother rolled and came up closer to me, but I didn’t care about the knife or about hitting him. I could see Kael struggling against his bonds.

The knife was merely a distraction. I concentrated on my gift, on his life. In seconds, I could see my foe’s heart, his inner light beating. I closed my eyes and reached for the light, beginning to extinguish it.

The SwordBrother stopped in his tracks and fell to his knees clasping his chest. He moaned slightly, but that was the only sound he made as I continued to pull, drain him, destroy him. His arm reached out toward me, as if asking for help, but I refused. The familiar anger that was my constant companion surfaced and whispered to me to be quick. Hurt him. He had tried to kill me; he was going to die.

My mind was so focused on my target that I didn’t hear the sound of chains loosening behind me, or the quiet footsteps as Kael escaped his bonds and put his hand on my shoulder.

“It’s okay, Thalia. Release him.”

“No! We need to escape. I don’t want to be killed. I only came here at your request. Not so that we would be murdered.” The man moaned and leaned on his hands trying to crawl toward me.

“Thalia, look at me.”

My neck whipped to look at the person touching my arm. Deep green eyes stared at me. It wasn’t Kael, but his brother Alek. I saw the empty chains and the blindfold and gag lying on the ground.

“It was a test?”

“Yes, one that Kael thought up himself—to prove your strengths to us and to prove your bond.”

“But where’s Kael?” My mind didn’t comprehend what was happening, and I still had my hold on the SwordBrother whose arms were shaking in pain as he tried to hold himself off of the ground.

“Thalia, release him now!”

Alek’s warm hands pulled mine down, and I released my hold on the man in front of me, but it was too late. He fell to the ground. In that one second of hesitation I had felt his heart—once bright and pulsing with energy—stop.

Alek’s words rolled over and over in my mind until comprehension dawned. I stared at my hands in horror and then back to the body that was on the floor.

Alek ran forward and yanked off the mask.

And I saw Kael’s pale lifeless face. Not breathing, eyes closed.

“No!” I screamed and dropped to the floor in despair.

I watched as Alek listened to Kael’s heart and touched the side of his neck searching for a pulse. He pulled back, clearly distressed. He shook his head. Strong arms seized me and I was jerked back to my feet. The small room was instantly filled with other SwordBrothers. Two had come down out of the rafters, others climbed in over the ledge, the door opened and more filtered into the room. There were so many, and I hadn’t even seen them.

My mind had been so numb, I’d barely registered the impossible odds of escaping and the cruel test they’d played on me. I had failed.

And I’d killed Kael.

Bile rose up in my mouth and the room spun. My knees went weak, but I couldn’t fall. My captors wouldn’t let me.

Tears finally burned in my eyes as I realized the consequences of what I had done. “Kael! No-o-o!” I hiccupped. This was not what was supposed to happen. He was invincible. He could take on a whole army, but he couldn’t protect himself from me, and I had attacked him in the most vulnerable spot. His heart.

“Let me go,” I cried. “Let me go to him.” It wasn’t fair that I couldn’t touch him, be with him. I pulled against the two holding me, but Alek turned his eyes to me, blazing with anger and tears.

“No, take her away. Take her to the pits, and make sure she doesn’t come back. Ever.”

A higher pitched feminine scream erupted over my shoulder as Gwen rushed forward and threw herself on Kael’s body, crying hysterically. Great heaving sobs wracked her body, and I just stared at him.

At Alek.

And I knew that I had forfeited my life.

Chapter 11

The pits were just that. Pits. Deep dark holes in the ground. I looked up and could see the stars shining bright, teasing me with their twinkling light, but from far away. I walked around the pit and tried to reach across but I gauged it to be at least ten feet. And the walls must’ve reached one hundred feet high. They were smooth stone, no cracks or crevices to provide foot and handholds.