The spell was clumsy. Raya tumbled into it, stomach performing somersaults as down became up and all sides of reality squeezed in. A well of darkness fanned out in place of the world, sucked her into a sprawling, tipping void, and spat her out with little mercy. A bitter taste surged up her throat. Her feet slammed hard into solid ground, and she clamped her hands over her mouth, swaying under the dizzying wave of her momentum.

Her back hit a wall, and she sagged against it, fingers curling until she pressed a shaking fist to her lips. Staring determinedly ahead proved successful; though the lines of the street ahead were split double, their spinning lessened the longer she looked. Colours settled and abstract shapes became pieces of reality as her eyes steadily convinced her brain they weren't telling lies. She had moved, but she was here, and the wall behind her was rough, hard and very real.

She pushed out a shuddering sigh and eased herself upright. Maybe she would hate that spell less if she practised it more, but the reward never seemed worth it.

It had, however, done its job and saved her. When she turned to properly take in her shifted surroundings, she found herself outside the arena, tucked into the mouth of an alley far out of sight of the place she'd fled from. Peering around her corner granted her a view of a wide slit of the chaos crammed into the arena: the sea of fighting bodies, pockmarked by the beasts' fur and scales, yellow-cloaked figures shining like underwater stars. Amina was reduced to a faraway blur within that crowd, blended so deeply within that Raya couldn't make her out. She couldn't see Corvin either.

Hidden as she was, the sounds of battle were sharp as blades pointed her way. She took an instinctive step back. Her arms wrapped her chest, nails raking her skin.

Was this her fault?

Maybe or maybe not. Either way, she was desperately afraid. She needed to get out of here, yet her feet lingered, glued to the packed sand, and her eyes kept searching.

She'd seen which way Corvin ran from where she was, but teleporting had ruined her sense of orientation. He could've been anywhere, and the longer she lingered, gaze jumping from one faraway face to another, the more the waters of her panic rose until she could barely focus. She needed to find him, to talk to him or protect him or something in between those flittering desires. This couldn't be his fault, could it? He hadn't brought these beasts here. There'd been honesty in his warm eyes, fear in his anger. He'd come for Meag. He hadn't killed those men.

She told herself those things in a whirlwind, but each one was slippery, flying away into the storm in her mind. How could she be sure of anything?

Walls were closing in around her again, except this time the ground refused to open up and whisk her away, and the tension in her lungs didn't let up. She shuffled backward, vision blurring. One thing she knew: despite all she thought had changed in the past few days, she was still the same coward.

"Help me!"

The scream reeked of terror, clarity shaved from the words so that they were sharp enough to pierce, and somehow it wrenched Raya from her spiral. Catching herself on the wall, she whirled in the direction it had come from. Her heart seized. Ivy-green scales stitched the shape of a beast, jaws stretched wide and thin and claws extended as it crawled towards a small figure—a child, hair short and dark and limbs curled to his core in fright. When she swiped away the film of tears that had begun to gather, she saw his purple overalls and tanned, dirtied face.

"Samir." As her next breath curled into that whisper of his name, she cast aside her doubt and pushed into a run.

Her long skirt, heavy with ceremonial beads and not hugely fit for battle, tangled with her ankles, and she hurried to hitch it up before she tripped. Her careening momentum nearly brought her crashing down on Samir, but she managed to stumble upright at the last moment and skidded between him and the beast, snatching a pinch of dust from her pouch. Iron hardened in her veins as the particles scattered. She held out a hand, palm flat and shoving outwards, and turned her face aside as she braced for impact.

The scaled beast snapped its jaw, teeth smacking together loudly enough to reverberate. Its body formed a squirming zigzag of muscle as it surged towards her. Venom lit a glow in its eyes. Translucent light scrawled a web in the air before it; when it lunged for her heels, its snout slammed against a barrier and forced it to rebound, murderous gaze sheened by shock. It shook itself with a hiss, arching its spined back in frustration.

Raya breathed a shaky sigh of relief, the thud of her heart heavy in her chest. The barrier shimmered white, cheerful but thin, easily shattered if she couldn't keep her focus. She didn't dare lower her hand.

Something warm touched her leg. She nearly jumped out of her skin, but risking a glance down revealed it was only Samir. The skinny farm boy clung to her dress with both hands, trembling like a leaf, his round eyes shining beneath pools of tears. He tilted a smile up at her, expression small and shaky but made soft by the hope lighting his gaze. "M-Miss Rayanah..."

The broken awe in his voice, so full of radiance, struck a painful cord in her chest. A lump rose in her throat, and she quickly looked back to the beast. Staring down a snarling, elongated face full of teeth dripped icy fear down her spine, but it kept her from drowning in these sticky waves of emotion. "It's okay," she told him, though she wasn't sure how such an unsure phrase could convince anyone.

The beast charged again, mindlessly ramming its head into her shield. Again, its scales bounced harmlessly off, though a sketched imprint of their outlines was visible in the air for a moment before the mirage faded. Ripples of light coursed in growing rings around them. Raya could feel them skim over her arms, raising the hairs on the back of her neck. Her feet shifted. The ground wasn't quite steady underneath her; every sense had been thrown slightly off-kilter, muffled as if forced beneath the surface of a pool, and the noise outside the barrier was gone entirely. She could only hear the weighty sound of hers and Samir's breathing and of the sand scratching the soles of her shoes, though the beast's silent snarls coiled around her, patiently prowling.

Teeth scraped the barrier. Raya flinched at the sight of the creature's open maw and again at the faint tearing sound, one that scrawled straight through her core. Samir screamed. Tugging incessantly on her skirt, he acted as yet another pull on her focus, tipping the world even further to the side.

Exhaustion yanked sharply at her gut. Jaw clenched, she laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder, gathering him closer to her. "It's okay." If she repeated the lie enough, maybe it would anchor both of them.

Her eyes began to close, narrowing her view of the world to a shaky slit—just enough space to see a spear fly from seemingly nowhere and split the beast's scaly armour. Gaze shooting wide, she flinched, staring at the starkness of the white stick protruding from its hide as if were a bone of the creature itself, wrenched painfully out of place. The beast roared and stumbled sideways, belly scraping the ground as it sank in on itself. A man charged in pursuit. His shapeless auburn cloak spilled over his broad shoulders and swamped his hand as he fumbled for a knife.

Raya's barrier flickered and broke apart, splitting into sparks that were swift to vanish. She kept her arm curled around Samir, unable to tear her eyes from the beast as it staggered and whined, pale, sticky fluid forming a ring around the spear's pearly shaft. Its pupils were such thin slits they were barely visible amongst seas of yellow. Growling, it threw itself in an unsteady leap, jaw cracked open to snap at the man.

Its teeth missed his ankles by a breath; he dodged, but not quickly enough to avoid the brush of its snout over his skin nor the sudden swing of its head. With a cry, he slipped backward, bundled in his cloak as he rolled aside. The knife slipped his hands and clattered to the sand. He lunged for it and came up into a crouch, panting hard, thick brows furrowed beneath sweeping waves of dark hair. She recognised him: Zayd, her brother's friend.

He cast her a look. She wished she didn't immediately know the intent behind it. Expectancy burned dark in his gaze, sharp as his knife but coated in clinging shadows rather than sunlight, waiting, hoping. Instinct nudged Raya's hand up towards her throat. Her knuckles brushed the soft material of her pouch, but it was as far as her fingers would dare travel. As if knitted by metal, the bones within them were stiff and refused to properly unfold. She set her eyes on the beast, some part of her scrabbling behind a wall built up in her mind, but the feeling was weak and distant. The side that mattered was utterly blank.

Zayd took a swing at the beast. His bone-carved blade whistled past the creature's throat, bouncing off the hard scales on its snout as it squirmed. It fell into retreat, step clumsy but swift, sending it lumbering away towards the main arena.

Shoving to his feet, Zayd aimed a couple of steps in pursuit before clearly deciding the chase wasn't worth it and slowing to a stop. He sheathed his knife with a huff. Though he did his best to pinch in his expression, when he turned back to glance her way, there was no mistaking the frustration in his eyes. It swirled, heightened by confusion.

He wouldn't dare say it, but he might as well have pointed an accusatory finger her way. Her chest burned with it all the same. She'd had her chance, and she was the one of the two of them who held magic. Her job was simple. She should've killed it.

Beside her, Samir shivered, and she was glad for the distraction. Though her shoulders felt caught in a vice, she fought her discomfort and turned her back on Zayd to look the smaller boy in the eyes. Clasping his arms, she crouched to bring their faces level. "Samir, are you hurt?"

Tears still glistening in his eyes, he shook his head. His lower lip trembled. He inhaled sharply, then flung his arms around her, squeezing her waist.

If he noticed the way she stiffened, he didn't care. "Thank you," he murmured, words nearly lost to the folds of her dress. Raya didn't know what to do. She hadn't been the one to save him, not really. Her mind stayed numb, her heart beating distantly, arms wooden at her sides.

Unperturbed, he bounced back onto his feet after a moment, his usual smile fighting to break the surface. "You're—"

"That's her!"

Accusation crackled like lightning through the intruding voice and speared the base of Raya's spine. She snapped upright, suddenly breathless, hardly daring to turn.

Sure enough, Amina burst from the arena, eyes ablaze.

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