AERYN'S POV

Thoughts of Bastion swirled in my mind as I spaced through Bayer telling us who would be fighting in the other match of the quarter finals. I still couldn't believe he was working with the Ravos demons and conspiring against the empire. I couldn't trust he'd ever been my friend - not when he wanted me dead. His lie-detecting power would be taken from him just like every other draconian who has been banished. 

Exiled Draconians never lasted long among the demons without their powers. I squashed the sympathy I felt for Bastion and forced the image of the arrow protruding out of his chest from my mind.

I was the first to leave the training room that day, not staying to wait for my friends as I trudged home. As soon as I'd reached the base of the stairs leading to my father's castle, he'd stepped outside and made me follow him down the mountain. I will never forgive nor forget what he'd made me witness.

Emperor Nepheus had made me watch as holes were burned in Bastion's wings and a giant needle was plunged into his neck. His essence was withdrawn into a vial, and he was stripped of his power. The monstrous gates surrounding the Wrexial Mountains groaned open and the emperor forced Bastion from the Nyrial Empire, leaving him to die and become a victim of the demons.

I'd spent the entire week in solitude, splitting my time between dwelling in my room about Bastion's betrayal and practicing in the academy's training room in the middle of the night with my dagger while willing my Insignia to appear.

When the week was over, I found myself taking a seat beside Penn and Misty on the bench in the training room as Racquel and Zoran took their places on the mat in front of us.

Racquel pulled the gloves over his wrists and fastened the clip as he bounced on the balls of his feet. He looked pale but the crease between his eyebrows and the intensity of his focus on his opponent made him appear ready and determined. Zoran tightened his gloved hand into a fist and reached out with his bare one, clasping Racquel's outstretched hand to initiate the match.

My stomach flipped and I fiddled with my hands in my lap as a faint blue glow ignited from Zoran's palm. A thick cloud of frost swirling with sharp icicles hovered around his ankles and he snapped his fingers, causing the mist to grow until it enveloped his entire body. Racquel took a step forward, squinting into the revolving tornado as he removed four knives from his belt and held two in each hand.

The clear blades shimmered with the reflection of the tornado as it picked up speed and I watched intently, jealous of the reinforced topaz blades mined from the Wrexial Mountains. While his parents were farmers and raised Racquel on their ranch in Eaton, they'd also performed their Duties. Racquel's father, a strong stone wielder, was a blacksmith and his mother was an apothecary who could manipulate poisons into materials to make destructive weapons. They'd worked together to create Racquel's rare droxin-infused blades that would render Zoran's power useless if Racquel was able to land a solid hit.

Grooves along the weapons held a shimmering silver liquid that pooled in the vial in the hilt of each knife. Racquel flicked out his wrist and released two knives into the inferno of ice. He blanched as the knives were swept into the swirling mass and joined the ice shards spinning around Zoran. Two icicles shot out from the spiraling frost, forcing Racquel to pivot on his heel as they whooshed behind his back. Racquel transferred one of the knives to his other hand and launched both at the tornado. The blades cut through the frost and disappeared inside only for them to resurface and join the other two in the swirl.

"Shit," Racquel cursed, light eyebrows drawing together as he withdrew a short sword from the holt on his hip. My stomach churned and my palms were clammy with sweat as I leaned forward, placing my elbows on my knees.

The tornado's speed increased with fervor, sending the knives and shards of ice around Zoran's obscured form in such a rapid pace that the weapons blurred, and my hair was tossed around by the residual winds. Racquel's eyes were jumping all around the frost as he failed to track the movements of the weapons.

All four knives whipped out from the tornado as a flurry of icicles followed in their wake. Racquel tossed his sword and dropped, crying out as one of his topaz blades lodged itself in his shoulder on his way down to the mat. Penn gasped beside me and held a hand to her gaping mouth, concern causing her angular eyes to widen as Racquel rolled onto his back, breathing hard. Blood blossomed on his white tunic and stained the material as sweat beaded on his forehead. The silver droxin flowed from the hilt of the weapon, injecting Racquel with the power-blocking poison. He couldn't heal the wound even if he'd been allowed to use his power.

A massive set of black wings snapped out, dissipating the tornado as Zoran flew to the ceiling. His wings blocked out the sunlight streaming from the glass domed ceiling as he hovered above the mat. His palm flashed a vibrant hue of blue as an enormous spear of ice materialized in his fist. Aiming the spear at Racquel, he flapped his wings and drew his arm back. I choked on a warning as Zoran brought his arm forward, biceps bulging as his hawkish stare landed on his opponent.

Racquel's lips thinned as he wrapped his hand around the hilt of the knife buried in his shoulder. With a shout, he yanked it out and threw it at Zoran in one motion. The blade whizzed toward the ceiling and imbedded itself in Zoran's bicep. He roared as the poison drained into his veins and the blue glow on his palm extinguished as the ice weapon melted in his grasp. Racquel picked himself off the mat, hunching over as he planted his hands on his thighs and took several labored breaths. Zoran's fury was palpable as Racquel looked up at the enraged shifter.

"This is not going to end well," Penn worried, grabbing my hand.

Misty held her hands over her face, peeking between her fingers as she said, "I can't watch."

Zoran bared his fangs and tore the knife from his muscle, dropping it. The topaz blade clanged on the hard floor, completely emptied of droxin. By now, the entire class was huddled around our bench, fascinated by the two feuding Draconians.

It was anyone's match now. They were both injured and powerless. Racquel actually had a fighting chance.

Racquel scooped his fallen sword and winced as he jabbed it towards Zoran whose wings were flapping harder to keep him hovering at the ceiling. A thin stream of blood trailed from Zoran's bicep whereas a plume of blood leaked from Racquel's wound with each move he made.

"Quit hiding behind your wings," Racquel dared, masking his pain with a scathing look.

Zoran's emerald eyes darkened as he sported a cynical grin.

"You asked for it," he retorted and folded his wings, performing a nosedive to the ground. When he was a few feet above the mat, he tucked his chin and contorted his body into a somersault. As fluid as the water and ice he wielded, Zoran rolled on the mat to his feet in front of Racquel and huffed steam from his nostrils as he opened his mouth. Smoke formed at the back of his throat and a small spark of neon blue flared in the center of the smoke.

"No fire breathing!" Instructor Bayer demanded.

Zoran met Bayer's eyes over Racquel's head, and he clamped his jaw shut, scar adding to the disdainful frown he aimed at the teacher.

"Did you see that?" I whispered to Penn.

She nodded and narrowed her eyebrows, not daring to remove her eyes from the mat. "Yeah, he was about to incinerate Racquel."

"With frost fire."

Her eyes flew to mine in shock. "Shifters can't breathe frost fire. Only dragons can breathe anything other than fire."

While Zoran's attention was altered, Racquel took the fleeting second to lunge with his sword. He was able to nick Zoran's thigh with the tip of his sword before Zoran noticed and reached over his back, brandishing his longsword. He parried the sudden attack with admirable grace and lethality, bringing his weapon down on Racquel's.

The weapons clashed and Racquel's hold on the shorter sword faltered as more blood gushed from his shoulder, seeming to drain straight from his white face. The larger Draconian slashed down at Racquel with his longsword and Racquel raised his weapon in a horizontal angle across his chest, blocking the attack with both of his hands on the hilt. Zoran applied more pressure and Racquel's arms shook, knuckles whitening as he struggled to keep Zoran off him.

Desperation filled Racquel's eyes, and his cheeks puffed as he tried to shove his sword upwards to no avail. The blade slipped from his hands and clattered to the ground, leaving him defenseless. Zoran toed the weapon off the mat without taking his eyes off Racquel.

"I almost thought you were going to be the first to beat me in one of these challenges," he sneered.

Racquel's chest rose and fell with several deep breaths as he fell to his knees, wheezing, "I just did."

Zoran's eyes widened and he looked down at the black blood oozing from the festering wound on his thigh. The sizzling blood had burned a hole in his trousers and was sputtering on the mat at his feet, melting right through the padding.

"Tap and I'll heal you," Racquel commanded. "That poison will infect your blood with the Curse if I don't remove it from your system within the next few seconds."

Zoran's lip curled, displaying a fang as his hissed, "No. There's droxin in you right now. You can't even use your power to heal me."

"I heal internal wounds," Racquel said, removing his gloves as his palm flared yellow. "I'm immune to all poisons."

Zoran took a staggering step forward, lifting his foot above the hole bubbling with the dark substance as a slight waver made his leg buckle. The skin around the wound was red and enflamed, and dark veins swelled outwards as more blood seeped down his pants, disintegrating the material.

"Heal him right now!" Instructor Bayer roared, rushing over. "Draconians are forbidden from using the Curse, Racquel!"

My heart lurched. Racquel had to have stolen a vial of the poison from his mother who extracted it from a Cursed demon to study it. I couldn't understand why Racquel would infuse his sword with it and use it on a Draconian while knowing what it did to the demons. He had been with me the night we killed three of the monsters with translucent skin, serrated talons, red and black eyes, and no semblance of humanity. They were killing machines driven by insanity.

The same could be said about the demon shifters and summoners in Ravos.

Especially since the demon prince was plotting my assassination as I sat there.

Bayer gripped Zoran's shoulder and pushed him to the mat, applying pressure until Zoran was flat on his back with his legs splayed out in front of him. His entire body was shaking as the poison coursed its way through his body, infecting him with the Curse that would turn him into one of the demons. Racquel placed his glowing palm on his own shoulder, stanching the blood from escaping the wound. The blood thickened and dried, forming a scab until it was healed.

"Get over here," Bayer growled, wrapping a hand around the back of Racquel's neck to bring him closer.

Racquel crawled over and dropped his palm on top of the blood erupting from the open injury on Zoran's thigh. Zoran arched his back and groaned as Bayer held him down. His dark veins faded to green as the poison retracted out of the wound and the black blood stopped flowing until his skin scarred and the Curse was extracted.

Zoran's eyes fluttered shut as he laid back, breathing heavily. Racquel sat back on his heels as Instructor Bayer stood.

"Racquel, you are disqualified from the tournament for the use of the Curse. The emperor will be notified of your actions and will determine a punishment accordingly. For now, you must go to-"

Alarms blared throughout the training room and red lights flashed. A cloud covered the sunlight, plunging us in darkness. My eyes shot to the ceiling to discover that it wasn't a cloud preventing the sun from lighting up the room; it was wings.

Wings that were attached to numerous bodies wearing bone armor, as well as those enormous ones belonging to the frightening skeletal dragons accompanying the intruders.

The Ravos demons were here.

------------

Hi readers! :) I appreciate all your support with this story! What do you think about it so far?