It was a scream that made the world stand still. A harsh, piercing cry of pain and desperation. Briony cried out in horror as the last few arrows struck his face. Carbry’s scream cut out abruptly, and he keeled over backward.
Briony rushed to him, knelt, and peered at his face. The sight before her left her nauseous. Two arrows protruded from his eyes. Another had struck the center of his throat. Blood dribbled from the wound; it glistened at the edges of his lips, pooled in the hollows of his face like drops of water. There was so much of it. Too much. She reached helplessly for his hand, slick with crimson, and gripped it as hard as she could.
“I’m so sorry,” she whimpered. “Carbry, I’m so sorry—”
“Tell…” he rasped, “I love…”
And then he said nothing at all. His hand went limp in hers as she gazed at his mutilated face. She knew Carbry was gone when his champion’s ring began to shimmer, then dissolved into flecks of red light.
She’d killed him. She’d killed him. And she understood in that one, awful moment that no matter how hard she’d tried to prepare herself for this, no matter what she’d said to Finley, there was nothing heroic about taking someone’s life.
“Hey.” Gavin’s voice was sharp. Briony turned to realize he was kneeling beside her, extending a hand. His voice sounded very far away. “You need to get up.”
Briony realized, dimly, that she was shaking. She thought he had run away, but here he was, looking at her with clear concern. Maybe it was a trap, but even if that was true, she was too shocked to do anything except take his hand and pull herself up.
Her fingers were sticky with blood and grime. Carbry’s body lay before her, twisted in agony. She and Elionor had encouraged him to try that curse, to be crueler than his ancestors. Cruel enough to kill.
Like he’d been trained to do. Like they all had.
“Of course not.” She folded her shaking arms around herself. “I’ve never killed anyone before.”
“It was his curse.” Gavin opened his hand, and Briony realized he had the ring Carbry had been wearing. It sat in his palm, smeared with blood—just like Innes’s champion’s ring had been. Briony felt a rush of wooziness as he continued to speak. “This is … strong spellwork. It would’ve killed you if you hadn’t stopped it.”
“No!” The word burst furiously from Briony’s throat. “I’m not supposed to kill everyone. I’m supposed to save them.”
Gavin frowned. “Did you read different tournament rules than I did?”
Briony let out a shrill laugh. “Fine then, kill me. Go ahead. Try and chase down the Relic we’re all looking for.”
“I thought about it. But it doesn’t make sense. The other champions are all working together. An alliance will get us through the night.”
Before she could respond, her name rang out from the hill behind them.
“Briony!”
She whipped around. Finley Blair was advancing down the hill. He looked utterly disheveled, his sleeve torn, a cursemark glowing on his cheek.
“You’re alive,” he said, gasping for breath. “Are you wounded?”
“No,” Briony murmured. “Why do you care? Didn’t Elionor tell you I betrayed her?”
“I didn’t believe her.” His voice was ragged. “I knew you wouldn’t turn on us.”
Briony sagged with relief. But then Finley’s gaze flickered behind her shoulder—and went gravely still.
She knew what he had seen: Carbry’s body.
“No,” he murmured. “Grieve, did you kill him?”
Beside her, Gavin choked out a laugh. “It wasn’t me, man.”
Briony watched Finley’s face move through grief and disbelief and despair all at once. And when he spoke again, she had already steeled herself for what he was going to say.
“Did you do this?”
Briony thought of the Mirror she’d come here for. Of Carbry’s blood, still warm against her skin. Elionor had tugged them apart—but it was Briony who had broken their alliance for good. With the one thing she’d come here to prevent: a murder.
“He attacked me,” she whispered. “It was an accident.”
“An accident?” He looked at Carbry’s mess of a body. The pain on Finley’s face broke something inside of her—and worse, how quickly he molded his face into his usual impassivity. “I suppose this was inevitable, wasn’t it?”
“No, Finley. You heard what I said under that truth spell. Please, you have to believe me—”