Thank you? Was his gratitude supposed to soothe me? Make me believe I’d done something of note in his eyes? I felt like a groveling dog, forced to kneel upon knees that had been shredded and bloodied by defeat for the sake of appearances. My mind was racing with thoughts of Cetan and his urge to flee in the middle of what I considered to be a favor to him, but now my eyes were trained on Kaj, on my King. I couldn’t figure out if my anger stemmed from the fact that Cetan was a traitorous fool or because I’d fallen prey to the sharpened teeth of suspicion. My emotions were clearly running rampant and untamed, but did that give me reason to feel so… volatile? Kaj had tried his best to appear unbiased, yet I couldn’t help but feel resentful towards him. He was my successor and as such, my replacement- the younger, better version of what I once was.

It made me sick.

“He was my responsibility,” I stated haughtily. “Any fool with a bit of sense could see was unfit for battle.” Would you have done the same? Though I’d been removed from the sands, their heat still lingered like an infection that set my soul aflame… and I couldn’t contain the soft edge that bent my words or the bite of their meaning. I could feel the tension smoldering at my depths, rolling and tumbling with the tides of my past and my future, an intermingling of hurt and hate. I tried to shake the emptiness that often chilled me upon seeing my King, but it refused to be dethroned and the longer it remained, the more my blood seemed to boil with every quiet second. I was threatening to implode.

In a moment of weakness I glanced back toward the arena in hopes of eying Evangeline somewhere within the hazy light of my crazed desires, but came up short. I couldn’t wait for her confirmation because I feared what might come to surface in her eyes… truth, lies- words I couldn’t tolerate coming from her lips. Instead, I turned my attention back to Kaj, wanting -no- needing to express what darkness lurked just beneath the façade my family had grown all too accustomed to. However, the King continued to add insult to injury and that was the moment I knew I’d had enough. I’d had absolutely enough of his cool demeanor and his blasé tone… this was my life, my duty, and my heart on the line.


“I’m perfectly capable of tending to myself Kaj. I’ll seek a healer if I feel the need,” I all but interrupted. “There’s something else I’d like to discuss with you.”

Even if I couldn’t see Evangeline hovering nearby, I could sense her presence and decided to lead Kaj some yards away so that we might be able to converse in private. It was hard for me to express or contain my feelings, as they were quite affected by the warmth of battle and the adrenaline that accompanied it. I felt as though my blood had caught fire and my skin was crawling to escape the inferno that burned me from the inside out. I didn’t want to speak out of turn and yet my tongue could barely hold the words that pushed at my lips, cut through the flesh in order to seek finality. “What did you say to Eva?” It was truly all I could manage without creating imminent conflict with my King, but still very carefully planned. Image Credits