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LexaI’ve been to funerals like this before but always in Endova. There haven’t been many deaths in Silverhide. Our pack is young, with hardly any elders, and we’ve been relatively safe. I find myself clutching Kaleb’s forearm while we walk through the city under a cloak of wet, humid darkness, my mind racing over the battle on the beach. How many pyres were lit in the days that followed? Dozens? I missed them all. Kaleb doesn’t flinch away from my touch. His progress to the pit, the massive gate to the outside world, is slow, steady, letting me set the pace. My legs feel like lead despite the healing draft still working through my system. My elbow is fine now that it’s set back in place, and the drafts have done their job knitting my tendons back together, but the ache in my heart remains.A crowd has gathered along the wall. Shadowed figures of men, women, and children look up at us as we approach. I see familiar faces. Familiar curious glances. But tonight, people bow their heads
LexaThe sun doesn’t rise on the Glade the morning after Chessie’s death. Clouds block the sunlight completely, and it pours. I take the heavy basket covered in towels from Lis’s hand as we hurry through the city, ducking under awnings to shield ourselves from the spray of the rain. It’s warm. It feels rich and wet, and everywhere we look, children race through puddles, singing and dancing in the face of thunder and lightning that splits the sky into pieces. “It hasn’t rained like this here in decades,” she says over the pounding rain as the pack house comes into view. “I honestly can’t remember the last time it even sprinkled. It was probably your doing.”“What?” I whisper, my voice cracking from lack of use. I fell asleep last night curled over Kaleb’s legs, I think. He was my last memory before the world went dark, and my grief swept me into nothingness–a numb, hollow kind of darkness. His hand lay on my hip as he told me about his sister, and… his why.“You freed the dragon.” Li
KalebI rush through the chaotic swell of guards scrambling to access the arena, pushing and shoving my way through the fray. Silas shouts my name, but I ignore him as the dragon breaks free of its chains and soars into the sky, bellowing a roar that shakes the entire city. I catch a glimpse of Lexa. She falls to her knees, and blaring bright lights fill the arena. Guards with swords and spears race for her as the gates to the arena open, allowing them access, but I run faster, breathless, skirting around the open pit and over puddles of blood until I reach her side. She moans, curling into herself as she succumbs to what I know is shock. Shock from the games, from the dragon, from the physical and mental agony of entertaining the crowd above, which is now being hastily dispersed. Shock from watching her friend get executed by someone she loved and trusted.Her cheek is ice cold against my palm.But the guards are closing in. I scoop her into my arms and back against the wall as w
Lexa“Look at me.” Kaleb clutches my face between his hands. I can’t see past him. I can’t hear past the echo of Chessie’s scream piercing me from all angles. My chest contorts as I try to fill my lungs with air, but it’s useless. “Lexa, open your eyes.”I shake my head, blubbering as raised voices erupt all around us. Silas is screaming at the top of his lungs in the language of the fae, but I can’t make out a word he’s saying. It doesn’t matter. I imagine Meg bringing down that sword over and over, and the way Chessie closed her eyes at the last moment before her life was torn from her body. “NO!” I screech, but Kaleb shakes me violently, trying to drag me out of an anguish induced stupor. He presses his forehead to mine, panting, as the lifted voices reach a peak. There’s activity all around us, but he shields me from what I assume are the bodies–her body–being dragged from the arena. “Listen to me,” he breathes against my cheek. “You will go out there and take what’s thrown at
LexaNo one wakes me up. Hot midday sunlight spills through the window, barely muffled by the curtain. It’s definitely past noon when I roll myself out of bed, out of the coarse, woven sheets and onto the hard but freshly swept floor. Something inside me shifted yesterday. Something cold and gnawing I’ve been struggling with since I was young. It’s easy to forget that I’m still a person beyond the weapons and my skills in battle, but when I look in the rusted mirror hanging on the wall by the bed, tugging the strings that pull my shifting dress into shape, I see her. Me. Just Lexa. Lexa, who watched her mother prime and fire that arrow that didn’t make it in time. Lexa, who watched a man she cared about–maybe even a man she could have grown to love–grovel for her affection before seeing him get cut down in cold blood. Lexa, who worries about her friends more than anything else. A daughter, a sister, a friend. A fucking princess. I untangle the strands of my hair with my fingers be
KalebSilas’s manor center rests high above the sprawling, gold-washed city. In the distance, through the glare of evening lights, I can see the castle and the shadow of the wall around the Glade behind it. I had no reason to come here tonight other than Silas insisted, and Chessie and Lexa backed him up. I have no idea where the women are as it stands, but they’re safe here, even in the latest hours of the night. Lexa not being tucked at my side still makes me uneasy, however.Silas shrugs out of his cloak and drapes it lazily over an armchair bedecked with red and white embroidery. Everything about his manor screams luxury–the born kind. Our mother was a wealthy heiress of one of the king’s advisors. His father was a lord from one of the ancient high fae families with ties to the royal family in some way, shape, or form. I’ve ignored the details for as long as I can. Silas is as good as a prince with coffers to show for it.“Drink?”“Yeah,” I murmur, turning from the window to face








