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  Panting and sweating, Y’dex turned to him. “Your…turn,” he said, and armed sweat off his pale forehead. “Let’s see you…top that, off-worlder.”

  Rast took a deep breath. “I’ll sure as hell try, you can bet your ass on that.” He looked briefly up at Nadiah and saw that she was sitting on the edge of her seat, twisting her fingers together anxiously. This one’s for you, sweetheart, he thought and then turned his attention to the massive stone.

  Taking a deep breath, he pictured himself wrapping his arms around its stony sides. The thought was so deep and the image so vivid he could almost feel the rough coldness of it against his arms, could almost touch its surface, his fingertips searching for a grip on its ungiving hide.

  Lift with your legs, not with your back, he thought irrelevantly, then he closed his eyes and pictured himself heaving the huge thing up into the air.

  It was immensely heavy and he could feel himself straining, feel the newfound muscles in his mind protesting against such treatment. But he was determined to do it. He ignored the silent pain which felt like a burning that started at the top of his head and ran down all the nerves in his body. He pressed on, imagining the feel of the monstrous stone in his arms rising higher and higher.

  There was an awed gasp from the spectators and Rast dared to open his eyes. What he saw almost made him lose his concentration—the stone was up in the air at least a foot and it was rotating there silently, like a giant pendant twirling on an invisible chain.

  Only the chain is my mind, Rast thought with cautious enthusiasm. I’m doing it—I’m actually doing I—”

  A scream directly above his head nearly caused him to drop the boulder but he held on tight and looked up instead.

  Hovering near the top of the high, vaulted ceiling, was Nadiah. She was at least three stories up but Rast could still see the terror in her dark blue eyes. Beside him, he heard a low, nasty laugh.

  “Which would you rather keep in the air, human?” Y’dex asked him. “The rock or the girl? Better decide—now!”

  Suddenly, Nadiah was falling, her piercing screams echoing against the rocky grotto walls.

  Rast had no time to think. He knew instinctively that he couldn’t hold the boulder up with his mind and catch Nadiah at the same time. He let the huge rock drop with a resounding thud and reached for her with his new muscle as though he was reaching for a fly ball. Yes, like a ball, he thought wildly. Running with the idea, he imagined catching her in a giant, cushy baseball mitt.

  To his unspeakable relief, Nadiah landed with a gasp in the invisible mitt he’d imagined when she was barely three feet from the ground. The impact seemed to knock the breath out of her but she didn’t appear to be seriously harmed in any way.

  Rast ran to her and took her in his arms, hugging her tight. Nadiah hugged him back, her slender frame shaking with sobs.

  “It’s okay, it’s okay. You’re safe now,” Rast soothed her. He stroked her long blonde hair and held her trembling form against him, trying to surround her with his body, to make her feel safe. “Are you all right?” he murmured after a moment.

  Nadiah seemed to make an effort to bring herself under control. Taking a deep breath, she pulled back from him and wiped her eyes. “I…I’m fine,” she whispered brokenly. “I just don’t…I’ve never liked heights. They frighten me.”

  “Anyone would be frightened after that.” Rast glared at Y’dex who was still smirking at him. “That’s it, buddy, you and I are gonna dance and this time I’m going to break more than your nose.”

  “Any challenger who physically attacks another challenger during the course of the blood challenge shall be summarily dismissed in defeat and cast out of the grotto into the wild lands above,” Magistrate Licklow intoned, obviously quoting from the official rules.

  “What?” Rast glared at him. “So it’s not against the rules for him to nearly murder an innocent girl but I can’t punch his lights out for doing it?”

  “Precisely.” The magistrate gave him a cruel smile that didn’t reach his bulging eyes. “And I’m afraid that Y’dex wins this challenge. He held the boulder aloft for thirty seconds while you, human, only managed twenty.”

  “What?” Rast was really getting angry now. “I had to drop it to catch Nadiah. And he knew I would.”

  “That doesn’t change the fact that he is the official winner.” The magistrate cleared his throat. “I declare the honorable Y’dex Licklow as the winner of the challenge of wills,” he announced loudly.

  There were some angry murmurs from the stands which made Rast feel a little better. At least all the people of Tranq Prime weren’t corrupt—they knew injustice when they saw it. Unfortunately, the crowd’s reaction didn’t help him. He and Y’dex were now one to one with a single challenge left to decide the winner.

  The challenge of blood.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Are you ready for the challenge of blood?” Lydiah rubbed her shoulders comfortingly and Nadiah looked up at her friend gratefully.

  “I think so,” she said, trying to keep her voice from trembling. “I mean, I have to be, don’t I? If I’m not, I don’t have a chance of getting free and after what Y’dex just did…” She trailed off, shaking her head.

  “Did he truly lift you with his mind and let you drop?” Lydiah sounded upset but not surprised. “Havris said he did but I didn’t see it.”

  Nadiah nodded. “Yes. If Rast hadn’t dropped the boulder in order to catch me I would be dead now, I’m certain of it. He lost the challenge in order to save my life.” She shook her head. “I knew your brother hated me but I never thought he wanted to kill me.” Despite knowing what kind of male her intended was, the near death experience had still shaken her to the core.

  “I don’t think he wants to kill you so much as that he feels if he can’t have you, no one can.” Lydiah sounded thoughtful. “It was always that way when we were children too. If Mamam gave me a toy for my own to play with and I refused to hand it over to him, Y’dex would take it and break it. He used to say, ‘If I can’t have it, neither can you.’”

  “I am not some toy to be broken and cast aside,” Nadiah cried passionately. “I am a living female with feelings. And now more than ever I want to be free of him!”

  She could tell by the lifted heads in the audience that some of the spectators had caught her words, or at least the gist of them, but she didn’t care. Didn’t care if the whole of Tranq Prime knew how she felt—she was tired of being held in thrall to the blood bond, tired of being tied to a cruel and pitiless tyrant who cared so little for her life he would kill her out of spite. She just wanted to be free to do as she pleased with her life. Free to live it with Rast.

  Forget that, she told herself sternly. It’s not going to happen, even if you do break the blood bond and manage to survive being bondless. But she couldn’t help remembering the way he’d saved her from certain death and the look in his eyes when he held her close. The way his big, muscular body had seemed to surround her, making her feel safe as he soothed and comforted her. Oh, she thought desperately. I wish I didn’t love him so much—this would be so much easier if I didn’t!

  Then again, without her love for Rast, how would she ever find the strength to break free of Y’dex? I have to use my love, she thought, staring at the center of the challenge floor where Rast was waiting quietly for the new challenge to begin. And I have to cherish these final moments with him. One way or another, this is all we have left.

  “Do you have any idea how this will turn out?” Lydiah asked, breaking her train of thought. “I mean, you do have the Sight so I thought maybe—”

  Nadiah shook her head. “That’s not how it works. I can’t see things just because I want to.” She frowned. “In fact, I haven’t had a single vision or al’lei since I stepped foot back on Tranq Prime. It’s strange.”

  “Maybe the Goddess wants you to trust in her,” Lydiah said. “To have faith that she will see you through this trial no matter what occurs.”