A low grunt of pain hit my ears, so I looked up. Agarthon’s strike had hit its mark, Donovan’s shoulder was bleeding. A bolt of panic hit me. “No!”
Suddenly, the ground was twenty feet away. My huge muscles surged with power. I stomped forward just as Grisela caught Cress with a backhand, knocking her ten feet away. She landed in the grass and didn’t move.
Lurching forward, I grabbed the troll by her arm, punched her in her stubby nose, then pulled her, throwing her off balance. Turning in a circle and holding her arm tight, I spun around and around, pivoting on my feet. Grisela lifted off the ground as I kept spinning. I leaned back, counterbalancing her weight, and swung her around and around and around…
I let go. Grisela soared through the air, over the courtyard, and landed with a thump in the forest a mile away.
No time to celebrate, the challenge was still on. I thumped forward and scooped Cress out of the grass gently and laid her over my shoulder. She stirred once and mumbled.
I was already shrinking, though. Damn. And Connor was still talking, promising the audience the protection and strength of a great army that he would lead, if they joined him.
Agarthon, clocking the bigger threat, stomped towards me—sword bared—and left Donovan slumped near the tunnel. Nate, shaking off the last of Connor’s seduction magic, had crawled over to him. His hands glowed over Donovan’s shoulder, healing him. Agarthon rushed at me, swinging his sword.
Uh, oh.
A flaming iron ball hit his helmet, knocking aside his strike. Oh, thank god, Eryk had recovered, too. Before Agarthon could come at me again, I balled up my fist and used the last of my berserker strength to punch him in the chest.
He flew back, landing near the archway, chest plate crushed in.
Dead? I hoped so. My muscles were gone. Eryk took Cress from me as I shrank back down to my usual size. “We have to get in there, right now!”
Agarthon lifted his head and tossed something behind him into the tunnel. It exploded with a sharp crack.
The archway collapsed.
Chapter
Twenty-Eight
“Now you will hear from the one they call the Chosen,” Redmayne boomed. A furious buzz of voices told me they didn’t want to hear it.
“Come on,” I shouted to the others. “We’ll go in from the top of the hill!” I had to get in there, even though my legs could barely hold me upright. I used my arms to pull myself up, desperately crawling as fast as I could.
Within the amphitheater, Redmayne was trying to placate the crowd. “No, no. You must listen to her. The purpose of this debate is to hear both sides. Come, girl. No, come here. You must speak.”
Audrina’s breathy voice floated out of the amphitheater as we stumbled and crawled up the hill. “I… uh. I love magic. I want to take it all.”
A loud chorus of boos almost deafened me as I hauled myself to the top of the hill. I looked down and gasped.
There were hundreds of thousands of creatures here. Not just centaurs, I saw high fae, goblins, pixies, brownies, shifters in their animal forms, all shape and size. Vampires with their teeth bared, hissing at the stage. A big ogre, right at the front, roaring and brandishing an ax. They all screamed curses at Audrina. “Tyrant! Dictator! Bloodthirsty whore!”
A giant centaur with long red hair trailing down his back nodded pointedly at Audrina. She stood in the middle of the stage, staring at Connor with huge, glazed eyes. “And, uh. I want to rule the world. The worlds, plural,” she added awkwardly. “That’s right?”
Connor held her gaze and nodded subtly.
“It’s my right, as the Chosen One,” Audrina continued. “I’m supposed to close the stones and take their magic.”
The screams of the crowd drowned her out. Someone threw a rotten cabbage; it thumped onto the stage near her feet. Connor’s lips twitched. He was trying not to grin.
I took a deep breath and pulled every ounce of heat from the core of my belly. “Quiet!”
Silence. Every single creature in the auditorium turned around to look at me. Thousands of faces—angry, furious, scared, outraged.
A wave of exhaustion crashed over me. I had to do this quickly before the spell broke, and I passed out. “She’s not the Chosen One.” I pointed with a shaking finger. “Connor is using seduire magic to beguile you. Everything he said is a lie. He’s devouring spark stones and taking their power, and you all know that for a fact. Don’t let him fool you.”
The spell broke, and Connor leapt to his feet. “Liar!” He hissed. “This woman is lying.” His words had no power. It was a small mercy. He might be drained, but so was I. I had nothing left, not one ounce of energy. If anyone attacked me now, I was dead.
“How dare you?” Redmayne boomed. “Who are you?”
“Tell them!” I lifted my chin. “Who am I, Connor?”
His face twisted. “I have no idea.”
The crowd looked, waiting for him to reassure them. Glazed eyes were clearing slowly.
“He doesn’t want to tell you, because it proves that he’s lying to you!” I shouted as loud as I could. “Because I’m the Chosen One.”
“She’s lying,” Connor snarled. “She is just a crazy human woman. Do not listen to her, good people!”
But Audrina was looking up at me. “Susan? Susan, is that you? Susan!” She lifted her long arms and waved at me frantically, her eyes clearing a little. She burst into tears. “Susan, I kept trying to tell them that I wasn’t you, but they wouldn’t listen!” She rushed to the front of the stage. “Your friend here said I just had to play along, and say what he wanted me to say, and he’d take me back to you. Please, can I come home? Please?”
The crowd broke into furious mutters, shifting restlessly on their feet. Even Redmayne looked confused. He clomped forward. “What is going on here?”
“Did you honestly think that she was the Chosen One, Redmayne?” I shouted down at him. “She has no magic. You can see that yourself.”
“She is hiding her magic so that we will underestimate her!”
“Are you that stupid? She’s a human girl.”
