Elara felt the earth slink under her feet as Dante's words floated over the stadium.
Get him killed.
Kieran stood across from her, his golden eyes black with uninterpretable feeling.
Neither of them moved at first.
The din of the audience subsided into nothing.
That was the two of them.
And the past slicing between them like a razor.
From his great balcony, Dante watched them with shining silver eyes. "Well?" he mused. "I do not have all night."
Elara closed her hands into fists.
Dante imagined this would be simple. She would leap at the opportunity to kill the man who turned against her.
And years ago, perhaps she would have.
But far too much had evolved.
Kieran had shifted.
And despite all—despite the suffering, the rejection, the past burning ablaze in her chest—Elara could not ignore one indisputable fact.
She did not want to murder him.
Kieran looked as though he could hear her ideas flickering.
And suddenly he started to move.
Elara hardly had time to respond before Kieran surged.
That was not an attack, though.
Not precisely.
His motions were deliberate, his strikes meant to drive her to move rather than cause damage.
Dante was looking for a performance.
And they were both dead if they failed to offer him one.
Elara picked it up right away.
She twisted as his claws just brushed her shoulder, dodging his first attack.
She returned, quick yet under control, her sword cutting toward his ribcage.
Kieran gripped her wrist with a tight grip.
Their eyes locked, a wordless exchange going between them.
There has to be a way out.
Not now. Participate in it.
From above, Dante laughed. Ah, this is lovely," he said. "Betrayal, suspense, the terrible meeting of erstwhile friends. Actually, it's almost poetic.
Elara started to grind her teeth.
Dante considered himself to be in charge.
But he was mistaken.
Kieran shoved her back to drive her into the arena's edge.
Elara's breath came quick but not from tiredness.
She was poised.
Still waiting for the ideal opportunity.
Then she realized it.
Too preoccupied with the conflict, the soldiers along the top ledges
The gates behind them came unfastened.
And on the far side of the pit, there is a solitary, narrow passageway connecting into the tunnels below.
Kieran observed as well.
His second attack arrived faster, drawing her toward the escape path.
Elara twisted, releasing his hold, then whirled into a merciless kick that knocked him flying.
The audience broke out in applause.
Dante's smile was great. "That's more like it!"
Kieran drove himself gently, blood running from his lip. But his eyes burned with something ferocious.
The pulse.
Elara inhaled hard.
Right now or never.
Kieran moved initially.
He came at her once more, but instead of striking he caught her wrist and whirled her toward the open gate.
She ran the instant her foot sank into the ground.
The cheers of the people became confusion.
Dante stopped grinning. " What—?"
Kieran crashed into one of the soldiers, ripping a knife from his belt and cutting through the wrist cuffs on Elara.
They tore across the gate together exactly as the alarm rang.
Disorder broke out.
Wolves grabbed after them.
Moving in time, Elara and Kieran avoided, struck, chopped down everybody standing in their path.
Dante's explosive yell rocked the ground. "STOPLESS!"
Elara's pulse screamed in her ears.
Kieran took her arm. " quicker!"
Leaving Dante and his wolves behind, they shot into the tunnels.
For the time being.
They raced until their legs burned, till the air smelled of sweat, blood, and freedom.
When they stopped at last, it was deep within the cave system of the mountain, much beyond the paths Dante's men would follow.
Leaning against the stone wall, Elara exhaled forcefully.
Silent Kieran stood next to her.
She looked to him, first since they had fled.
His golden gaze fixed her, inscrutable.
"That was careless," he remarked.
Elara laughed contemptuously. "Oh, I'm apologies. Would you have rather we stay and die?"
Kieran drew a hand through his hair and breathed sharply. No. nevertheless—" His jaw tightened as he cut himself off.
Her heart still beating, Elara scrutinized him.
She wanted to say so much, really.
She wanted to shout so many things.
She said, instead, "Why did you come?"
Kieran stopped.
Quietly then: "I couldn't leave you there."
She expected different, but the words really hit her.
She avoided to admit something squeezed in her chest.
He had shown up for her.
Despite everything.
Though past.
She also had no idea how she should feel about that.
Between them was silence.
Kieran shook his head and breathed out. We must relocate. Dante will not stop hunting us.
Elara nodded, pushing off the whirl of feelings inside her. "Agieved."
But something sensed different as they descended further into the caves.
Something had evolved.
She had harboured years of contempt for him.
Fuming him.
And yet he hadn't taken advantage of the opportunity to let her die.
For her Kieran had risked everything.
And that knowledge worried her more than anything.
Because the link between them persisted regardless of her best efforts to resist it.
Not stated. Not broken.
And regarding her liking of it or not...
It grew more powerful.
For Kieran and Elara, what does this escape imply about their future?
Is Dante already organizing his next action or will he let them go?
Can Elara come to see that she still feels anything for Kieran?
They had fleed.
Still catching up, though, was their past.
And some ties are never cut off.