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"You’re faster Keep her on the run Don’t be afraid" Another knife blazes by, this tiround at my feet "Don’t let her see you bleed"

Over his shoulder, Evangeline prowls like a predatory cat, a glittering stor and no one will stop her Not even the princes And I cannot give her the chance to win I cannot lose

A bolt of lightning escapes h the air at ers back, colliding with the outer wall of the arena But instead of looking angry, Evangeline regards irl," she snarls, wiping away a trickle of silverblood

All around, the other students draw back, glancing between the two of us This could be the last tiain I cannot lose My focus intensifies, deepeningI hardly notice the walls shifting around us With a click, Provos re-for Silver rins across at me, and razor-thin pieces of metal peel off the floor, shaped to her will They curl and shudder and scrape into a living nightone, tossed aside for a new tactic The s, creatures of her mind, skitter across the floor to stop at her feet Each one has eight razored legs, sharp and cruel They quiver as they wait to be released, to cutsensation prickles my skin, like they’re already upon ers The lights flicker as the energy in the rooe Power races through th--and by need I will not die here

On the other side of the wall, Maven smiles, but his face is pale, afraid Next to him, Cal doesn’t move A soldier doesn’t blink until the battle is won

"Who has the advantage?" Instructor Arven asks "Mareena or Evangeline?"

No one raises a hand Not even Evangeline’s friends Instead, they stare between us, watching our abilities grow

Evangeline’s s the one everyone’s afraid of And now she’s angrier than ever

Again, the lights flicker on and off, asdarkness, her spiders scrabble over the floor, theirin terrible hare of energy in ing us both into a strange battle of flickering color My lightning bursts through the darkness, streaking purple and white as it shatters through spiders at every turn Cal’s advice echoes into one spot on the floor long enough for Evangeline to hurted metal tears at my arms, but the leather suit holds fir aroundsilver braid passes through ot her on the run I’h the shriek offorher hard to spot, but for a brief moth and power absolutely, to know you can do what eline feels like this every day, and now it’s my turn I’ll teach you what it’s like to know fear

A fist slah the rest of round Evangeline pauses above me, her smile surrounded by a messy curtain of silver hair

"Like I said," she snarls "Quick"

My legsout in a maneuver I’ve used in the back alleys of the Stilts a hundred times Even on Kilorn once or twice My foot connects with her leg, sweeping it out from under her, and she crashes to the floor next topain in y, even as they collide against her face Pain sears throughto see sweet silverblood