Blackbourne signaled, and the combatants on either side of the challenge ring dropped into a ready stance. Both had stripped down to the waist, oblivious to the December chill. Ice rolled his shoulders, every muscle rippling with repressed action as he clutched his new wand. It was clear he wanted this fight.
Sabelle wanted to vomit.
Lean as a whip, Mathias waited, looking as if he hadn’t a care in the world.
God, if she had known when she suggested Ice for this Council post that it would place him in grave danger, she would never have mentioned his name.
“Stop blaming yourself,” Bram whispered beside her.
“Who else am I to blame, then?”
“He could have declined. Ice wanted this … and perhaps I drove him to it as well. He wanted revenge against Mathias so badly after Gailene’s murder. I stopped him. He was too young to fight Mathias. In my attempt to protect him, I only made him more desperate.”
The truth of Bram’s words washed an icy chill over her. Fear gripped her stomach. “I cannot simply sit and watch him die.”
“Then don’t. Send him your thoughts and good wishes. And don’t underestimate him. When we were friends centuries ago, I saw huge promise in him, but knew it would never be achieved until he curbed his temper. He’s come a long way since then. Let’s hope it’s enough.”
Ice and Mathias began a slow circle, each sizing up the other. A glib smile played across Mathias’s mouth, as if he mimicked Ice merely to toy with him. Ice ignored the silent jibe.
Dread slid through Sabelle. Her heart roared with disquiet, and she feared nothing good would come of this challenge. Ice was everything she wanted in a friend and mate. Sitting next to Bram and the others, watching Ice fight for his life, was eating at her composure.
Suddenly, Mathias raised his wand. She gripped her brother’s hand, terror clutching her throat, as Mathias pooled water at the bottom of the ring, quickly making it into something of a fish bowl. Around and around, he swirled the water at his feet, then sent a tidal wave of water Ice’s way.
With a mere hand, Ice froze the wave before it crashed over his head and swallowed him whole.
Mathias laughed. “So you can fight. Maybe today won’t be deadly dull. How about this?”
With a flick of his wrist, Mathias blasted a wall of fire at the frozen wave. With a flash, it crashed into the icy barrier and began melting it. The resulting water rose to the ankle, then waist, again to the neck … and kept rising.
Treading water, Ice whooshed his wand in a circle. The water began to dissipate, mist floating at the top of the challenge ring’s ceiling. It formed small clusters, then grew into big clouds in an angry gray.
Then snow began to fall, a light, harmless dusting of powdery brilliance.
Again, Mathias smiled “Interesting. Now that we’ve discussed the weather, are you going to try to kill me or not?”
Ice said nothing, just stared, his concentration unwavering.
Mathis sighed, then hurled a ball of fire Ice’s way. Ice drew in a mighty breath and, waving his wand, blew snow directly into the ball’s path with a howling wind. The fireball popped, sparked … fizzled.
“More childish games?” Mathias goaded.
Sloshing around in the snow, Ice continued to stare, circle him. “Fuck off.”
“We’ve had this conversation before. I’d hoped you learned to be more eloquent since I introduced you to my friend with interesting toys. But alas . . .”
Sabelle shuddered into Ice’s silence, thinking of the whip Mathias had flayed Ice with so viciously. But Ice said nothing, and minutes slid by. Mathias put out a hand, thumb and fingers curled toward Ice, who clutched his throat a moment later.
With his other hand, Ice sent a spell zinging to Mathias that was full of spark and electricity. Mathias tried to dodge it, but he’d been too preoccupied cutting off Ice’s windpipe to oppose it. Instead, Mathias feinted to the right. The spell caught him in the arm, just above his elbow. He roared, his shoulder jerking with the effort to pull and tug at the muscle. It didn’t move.
“Bloody bastard. You think to paralyze me temporarily? Is that a fair fight?”
“Choking me is?” Ice countered.
Mathias reared back, then lashed back at Ice, free arm raised, fingers bared like claws. A twisting fireball made its way toward Ice. Quickly, he threw up a sheet of frozen water between them, but before the spell reached it, the ball dissolved. But Sabelle sensed the spell wasn’t broken.
A moment later, Ice clutched his eyes with a roar. “What the—”
“Burns, doesn’t it?” Mathias sneered, trying to work his arm free of Ice’s temporary paralysis. “Also keeps you from hexing me when I can’t move.”
Sabelle gasped and leapt to her feet to run to Ice’s side. Bram and Tynan pulled her back down. “We’re impartial observers only.”
Her brother’s words punched her in the stomach. “You would simply let him die?”
Bram ground his jaw. “We’ve no choice. These were the risks, and Ice knew it when he stepped into the ring.”
“He wants revenge so badly . . .” She bit her lip, trying to hold still her trembling chin.
“And you,” Bram admitted, then sighed. “He made me promise … if he managed to win the Council seat, that I would not disclaim you if you wished to mate with him.”
Horror spread across Sabelle’s face. In that moment, she both loved and hated her brother. He was making Ice prove his worth, earn a prominent place in magickind before allowing her to mate with him. That was a guardian’s task, true, but did he care so little for her heart? For his former friend?
Yes, Ice wanted revenge. But he was willing to fight the worst evil in a millennium, in part, for a chance to be with her. How stupid had she been not to Bind to him already? She had put Bram’s blessing over Ice’s heart, and now … This couldn’t end soon enough. She had to talk to Ice.
“Bloody git!” Ice growled at Mathias.
Right now, Sabelle could say the same about her brother.
“I underestimated his love for you. Nor was I certain that you felt the same,” Bram said. “It’s my duty to be certain he’s the best mate for you—”
“Excuses!” she hissed at him. “And you know it. Ever since you awakened from that black cloud of Mathias’s you’ve been calculating and scheming. Unfeeling. You cared only that my mating allied you with someone advantageous. After you rescued me from my selfish mother … you became just like her.”
“Sabelle—”
“I don’t care whether you disclaim me or not, Ice will be my mate. You can go to hell.”