?The air in the royal quarters of the VIP wing smelled of expensive lotus incense and aged blood-wine, but to me, it felt like I was suffocating.

  ?I moved silently down the dim, velvet-lined corridor, heading toward Eleste's private chamber. I had been trying to avoid her since the humiliation in Professor Vector’s classroom. I had hurt Valerie deeply. I had looked at the girl who made my morning coffee, the girl who had brought light back into my miserable existence, and I had crushed her pride in front of the entire academy.

  ?I did it to push her away. I had hoped that if I broke her heart, she would give up. She would realize the Academy was too dangerous, pack her bags, and return to the safety of the human world. I thought playing the cruel, arrogant Prince was the only way I could protect her from the ruthless, lethal politics of my court.

  ?I was a fool.

  ?As I approached the heavy mahogany doors of Eleste's suite, my instincts flared. Something was wrong. The two elite Drow guards who normally stood watch outside her quarters were missing. The corridor was entirely abandoned.

  ?I slowed my pace, letting my boots melt into the shadows. As I drew closer, I felt the faint, buzzing static of a magical ward. It was a Muffliato spell—a silencing barrier meant to keep conversations inside the room private. But whoever cast it was sloppy; they had left a hairline fracture in the magical weave near the floorboards.

  ?As a Prince of House Nox, slipping my shadow-magic through a cracked ward was child's play. I crouched by the door, which was left slightly ajar, and let the shadows carry the sound to my ears.

  ?Clink. The unmistakable sound of a heavy leather pouch, overflowing with gold coins, being dropped onto a wooden table.

  ?"...it is arranged, Princess," a deep, rasping voice rumbled from inside the room. I recognized the guttural tone instantly. It was Gorg, a massive, notoriously brutal Orc from the senior year.

  ?"Excellent," Eleste’s voice purred. I could hear the rustle of her silk gown as she moved across the room. "Your team has been carefully selected for the first round tomorrow. I have amply rewarded the tournament masters to adjust the brackets. You will be the very first match of the day. And you face Dorm 13."

  ?My blood froze in my veins. The temperature around my body plummeted, leaving frost on the floorboards.

  ?A rigged draw. She had bribed the Academy officials to specifically target Valerie's squad.

  ?"The Dwarf and the Werewolf are powerful," another voice noted clinically. It was smooth and completely devoid of emotion—most likely the Drow assassin from her personal entourage. "They will put up a fight. And the Gnome?"

  ?"The Gnome is vermin, just step on him," Eleste replied coldly. I heard the clink of crystal glass; she was pouring herself wine, celebrating a victory before the battle had even begun. "You may break the beasts if they get in your way. But your real target is the human girl. Valerie."

  ?My heart skipped a beat. My breathing stopped. My hands automatically balled into fists, my fingernails digging so hard into my palms that they broke the skin.

  ?"The rules say we cannot kill, Princess," the Orc grumbled hesitantly. "Headmaster Solon will disqualify us. Or worse."

  ?"Oh, Gorg, don't be so narrow-minded. Accidents happen all the time in the heat of battle," Eleste laughed, a delicate sound full of pure, icy poison. "A shattered spine from a bad fall. A skull fracture from a 'stray' hammer blow. The healers cannot fix what is instantly crushed."

  ?She took a slow sip of her wine.

  ?"No one will mourn a street rat without a pedigree. Least of all the Headmaster," Eleste continued, her voice dropping to a lethal, commanding whisper. "Demian was distracted by her. He thought she was an amusing little pet, and I tolerate no distractions before our union. We remove the humans, Gorg. Root and stem."

  ?I clenched my jaw so hard my teeth creaked.

  ?Root and stem.

  ?She didn't just want to defeat Valerie to prove a point; she wanted to execute her. She had orchestrated a public assassination under the guise of an academic exam.

  ?And the most sickening realization of all? I had driven Valerie straight into the trap.

  ?By telling her she was too weak, by humiliating her in class, I had hoped she would forfeit and flee. But I had forgotten who she was. She wasn't a fragile noble who retreated when insulted. She was a survivor from the streets. My cruelty hadn't broken her spirit; it had only ignited her rage. It had made her stubborn. Because of me, she was going to march into that Arena tomorrow with something to prove.

  ?As I stood there in the dark, suffocating shadows of the corridor, the horrifying truth crashed over me, shattering the aristocratic mask I had worn for my entire life.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  ?The icy wall I had built around my heart was a pathetic lie. I cared absolutely nothing for the throne of the Night Court. I cared nothing for Eleste, or the General's army, or my family's legacy.

  ?I was still hopelessly, desperately in love with the human girl. The girl with the wild red hair, the terrifying kinetic magic, and the fierce green eyes.

  ?And tomorrow, because of my own cowardice, she was going to be slaughtered right in front of me.

  ?I pressed my forehead against the cold stone wall of the corridor, squeezing my eyes shut as a wave of absolute, paralyzing despair washed over me. I couldn't barge in. If I revealed I knew, Eleste would just have Valerie murdered in her sleep tonight. I was completely, utterly trapped.

  ?"Damn it," I whispered into the empty dark, my voice cracking. "Damn it... damn it..."

  The gigantic brass horn blasted through the arena. The sound vibrated deep within my bones, a physical shockwave that signaled the start of the carnage.

  ?It has begun.

  ?

  ?It has begun.

  ?The enemy team didn't wait a single second. The ground shook violently as the massive Orc and the towering, hairy Minotaur charged toward us with terrifying, bloodcurdling roars. Plumes of yellow sand kicked up behind their heavy boots. The winged demon shot into the sky with a powerful, echoing clap of his leathery wings, ready to rain death and destruction from above.

  ?The crowd screamed for our blood. They expected us to break formation and run. They expected Dorm 13 to be completely crushed in the first ten seconds of the match.

  ?They didn't know us. And, as I was about to realize, neither did I.

  ?"Formation!" Bram bellowed, his voice cutting through the roar of the stadium.

  ?To my absolute astonishment, it wasn't Roc-ta or Bram who made the first move. It was Pip.

  ?The little Gnome, who usually trembled at the mere sight of a strict professor, stepped bravely past our frontline. His round face was a tight mask of absolute concentration. As the colossal Orc thundered toward him, raising a hammer heavy enough to crush a boulder, Pip firmly raised his small wooden wand.

  ?"Illusio Multiplex!" Pip shouted, his voice surprisingly steady.

  ?Suddenly, a blinding blue light flashed across the sand. Where one small Gnome had stood, there were now twenty. An entire army of Pips scattered, running and shrieking in every direction.

  ?The Orc roared in confusion. He swung his massive hammer in a wild, horizontal arc, smashing straight through three of the illusions. They burst into harmless showers of blue sparks, leaving the Orc dangerously off-balance.

  ?"Look down, ugly!" the real Pip squeaked, standing safely ten yards to the side.

  ?Pip slammed the butt of his wooden staff hard into the sand.

  ?Instantly, the earth beneath the Orc’s heavy boots began to churn and violently swirl like a dry whirlpool. The giant warrior lost his footing, flailing his massive arms wildly as he sank with a panicked roar into a deep, perfectly localized sinkhole that Pip had created out of thin air. The shifting sands locked up, trapping the Orc tightly up to his broad shoulders in the earth.

  ?One enemy had just been neutralized in under fifteen seconds. I stared in awe. I had no idea Pip possessed such potent, tactical earth magic.

  ?But the Minotaur didn't stop. The beast barreled straight past the trapped Orc, its bloodshot eyes locked onto me. It lowered its head, aiming its steel-tipped horns directly at my chest. The ground shuddered under the weight of its furious charge.

  ?"Not today, cow-head!" Bram shouted.

  ?The sturdy Dwarf leaped forward, intercepting the charge. He raised his gigantic, double-bladed axe high above his head. But instead of swinging at the beast's thick hide, Bram brought the weapon down with all his terrifying, brute strength right into the sand.

  ?CRACK.

  ?The impact was phenomenal. A visible, rippling shockwave of displaced earth and kinetic force tore through the arena, thrusting the sand upward like a localized tsunami. The sheer concussive force hit the charging Minotaur full in the legs. The beast stumbled, its momentum entirely broken. It roared in surprise and crashed face-first into the sand with a heavy, sickening thud, skidding to a halt just meters from my boots.

  ?Two down. The sheer physical dominance of the Dwarf left me breathless.

  ?I whipped my head sideways, looking for Roc-ta to see if she needed help dealing with the Drow assassin.

  ?But Roc-ta wasn't there.

  ?I blinked. My eyes were already glowing with my own neon-green Body Magic, accelerating my perception, but even with my heightened reflexes, I could barely track her. Roc-ta was so incredibly fast that she seemed to literally vanish before our eyes. The only evidence she was moving at all was a faint blur of gray fur and the predatory flash of two glowing yellow wolf eyes darting through the dust.

  ?The Dark Elf, who had been standing in a low crouch with his poison daggers drawn, suddenly looked panicked. He spun around desperately.

  ?"Where is she?!" the Drow hissed, his aristocratic composure shattering.

  ?A fraction of a second later, Roc-ta materialized completely silently right behind him.

  ?"Right here," she growled directly into his pointed ear.

  ?Before the Drow could even attempt to turn around, the Werewolf grabbed him by the heavy leather collar of his armor. With a brutal, flawlessly smooth motion, she lifted the fully grown Elf off his feet and hurled him straight over the ten-foot arena wall, sending him crashing into the lower spectator stands.

  ?The crowd, which had just been screaming for our brutal demise, fell into a sudden, stunned, dead silence.

  ?I looked at my roommates, my heart swelling with an overwhelming sense of pride and shock. I had spent a month living with them, and I had fundamentally underestimated every single one of them. We weren't the rejects of the Academy.

  ?Dorm 13 stood tall and fierce. The Orc was trapped, the Minotaur lay stunned on the ground, and the Drow had been effortlessly thrown out of the ring.

  ?But the battle wasn't over.

  ?An icy, dark shadow suddenly fell over me, blocking out the sun. I looked up.

  ?The high-tier Demon hovered directly above me. His leathery bat-wings beat slowly against the air, and his cold blue eyes were locked intensely onto mine. His pale, ash-gray hands were crackling with volatile, deadly shadow magic. He hadn't bothered to attack Bram, Pip, or Roc-ta. He had let his teammates fall because Eleste had given him only one target.

  ?Me.

  ?I balled my hands into tight fists. I didn't feel the paralyzing fear I would have felt a week ago. The neon-green kinetic energy in my bloodstream pulsed, vibrating hotter and stronger than ever before.

  ?I tilted my head back, looking the monster dead in the eye, and smiled a cold, ruthless smile.

  ?Bring it on, I thought...