Winning the Legend (27 page)

Arianna didn’t argue. There was so much she
wanted to say, but there wasn’t enough time. She rolled over in his
arms and cupped his face in her hands. His eyes were still closed
as she studied his face. Today was the end for her. Even if she won
her match, Rhys wasn’t letting her go without a fight. If she lost
her match, Devin and Andrew would not let her go without a fight.
People were going to get hurt. She wanted to save everyone, but
there might not be way to do that. At this point, there might not
be a way to even save herself. Andrew’s eyes opened at her change
in emotion, and he pulled her face to his chest. She fit perfectly,
right under his chin. He kissed the top of her forehead, trying to
bring her out of her sad thoughts.

“Shhh,” he cooed as he patted her back.
“Everything will be fine.”

“I did all of this to avoid war,” Arianna
replied. She wanted to cry, but there were no tears. It was sad,
scary, and weirdly exciting at all the same time. “And now that’s
all that’s going to happen. Even if I beat Rhys, it will mean war.”
She was similarly frustrated.

“When you beat Rhys, we will just have to
face him. If Nessa is right, his clan won’t fully support him. It
will be just Rhys,” Andrew said logically. Arianna pulled herself
closer. She needed his warmth and strength. Andrew was certain the
outcome would be what he wanted. Arianna needed that certainty.

“We’re ready to open the gates,” Thomas said
from the sitting room.

Arianna wiped a last sniffle away. Only
Andrew was allowed to see her cry. He stood and pulled her up with
him. He held tight to her hand, giving her the strength she needed.
He was certain their fate was to end up happy together, away from
all this mess.

“And the wurdulac were all given rings to
check everyone?” Arianna asked. As the neutral group, the wurdulac
were manning the gates for the tournament. Luckily for Arianna,
they were not as neutral as they seemed.

“Yes,” Thomas replied. “We had enough blood
to change all your people at the estate, and some of the wurdulac.
They have all pledged loyalty to you above everything else. When
this happens, they have all been assigned to get you out of the
estate. We plan to take you back to the Randolph grounds. Michael
has taken over running the Seeger family, and is doing the security
under Mori at the Randolph manor. Seems everyone agrees that Lord
Seeger may be getting a little too old and forgetful. No one trusts
him to keep you safe, and the council has had a change in their
views. Your safety is their top priority, now that Michael is on
the council.”

“Or a change in personnel,” Turner
added.

“What did you guys do?” Arianna asked,
getting momentarily distracted.

“We might have let it slip to the younger
generations that their fathers and grandfathers were the ones that
caused this mess,” Turner added mischievously.

“How many councilmen were removed?” Arianna
asked Devin, who was now grinning with Turner over the success of
their latest scheme. They had started it before they left and it
had come to fruition while they had been gone. No one had told
Arianna yet as she had enough to deal with.

“All of them,” Devin replied. “They are all
now happily retired; or rather that’s what their sons and grandsons
reported to us a couple weeks ago.” Devin shrugged. The older
dearg-dul were not his concern now.

Arianna stared around the room. The world
had kept turning while she’d stepped out of it for the past two and
a half months, and she just now realized that she had forgotten
about it. The people around her hadn’t, however. Devin was risking
his life to help her be able to make her own choices, yet found
time to keep playing the power game back at the Randolph estate.
Arianna wanted to hug each person sitting in the room now: Devin,
Turner, Thomas, Molina, Andrew, and Gabriel. They were her support.
They kept her crazy night human world together. This was her
family.

“Back to the plans,” Thomas said, bringing
the attention back to himself. “Once you win, Rhys will attack.
Nessa can’t get the specifics out of him, but she knows that he
will order his men to attack your keepers in particular. He plans
to personally take you away from us. For now, Nessa knows he has at
least four people assigned to attack each Andrew, Turner, and
Devin. She said they keep changing, so she isn’t sure who it may
ultimately be. Either way, all three of you have to look for
multiple attackers. Their goal is to wound, kill, and do whatever
they have to, to get you away from Arianna. Our goal is to stay
together. It will be left to Gabriel and Molina to escort you back
to the manor if anything happens to them. I’ll provide air cover
and logistics.”

Arianna looked over to Andrew. She couldn’t
be separated from him. He smiled and shook his head. It didn’t
matter how many people Rhys sent at him, he would stay beside
Arianna forever. Arianna looked around the room. Everyone was
prepared for the battle.

“When it comes down to a fight, the goal is
to show everyone all the power we have now. Everyone with the new
blood in them has been practicing, and some of us have more traits
enhanced than others,” Thomas nodded to Turner.

“What?” he asked. “I can’t help it if my
parents tended to stick with lycans or humans.” Turner’s new skills
were the most limited of her team, and it wasn’t due to his
ability. Turner was correct; his clan mainly stuck to humans and
lycan, and thus didn’t have any ancient blood to activate with
Arianna’s merged blood.

“Any questions?” Thomas asked.

“Nixon, Nelson, and Jackson— they know the
details?” Arianna asked of the guards not present as they were at
the gates checking the people who entered.

“Yes,” Thomas replied. “I spoke with them
before they went to the gates. They are managing who comes into the
tournament and all Rhys supporters will be put in one area.”

Arianna looked around the room. No one else
had questions. She studied each determined face. They were ready
for today. Obviously they all had several plans in place, but it
wasn’t even worth telling Arianna at this point. The only reason
her hands weren’t shaking was because of Andrew’s hand on her back.
They all watched her. They were waiting. She was their strength.
Arianna took a deep breath before looking around the room again as
she spoke.

“Thank you, guys. I know I can trust every
one of you with my life. You are my family, and I love you all.
I’ll see you guys all tonight at our victory celebration at the
Randolph estate.” Everyone cheered that idea though Arianna was
only putting up a front. She didn’t believe for one minute that
they all would make it out of there unscathed. She had seen the
masses through Nessa’s eyes. Everyone was waiting for her, and some
were willing to fight to take her back with them. She didn’t have
the power to stop Rhys’ plans if they escaped, but she did have the
power to win the match outright and be undisputedly free.

Chapter 29

Crowds weren’t the best for Arianna. She’d
been hesitant around crowds since she was a child, and performing
in front of them was the worst. The past year had dulled some of
the anxiety, because no matter where she went, there were always
people watching her. Forced functions had also made crowds easier,
but she still wasn’t completely over her fear. Arianna had been
picturing the crowd before she ever got outside, but she didn’t
imagine it large as it really was. She looked around and caught
sight of Thomas directing more people into standing room only
areas. They had originally agreed to only let under a thousand
people into the stands. There had to be twice as many by now.
Arianna had been nervous about the thousand people they planned to
pack in, but this was worse.

‘Thomas?’
Arianna questioned, nervously taking a seat
beside Andrew in the front row with all the other
competitors—winner and losers—from the games thus far.

‘Yes?’
he asked, pointing to another group of people.

‘I thought the odds of
getting out of here were better with less people around to
fight?’
Arianna asked, starting to
tense.

‘It would have been until
we found that only the people on the far right of the south stands
were supporters of someone else. The rest are all here to support
you. Seems our wurdulac friends were not so closed up while we were
locked here. They had been getting the word out to the clans that
you were going to bring change to the night human world. Apparently
there are more people who want change than there are those who want
Rhys to be king.’
Thomas assisted this
last group before coming to sit behind her.

‘They’re all here for
me?’
Arianna was now in awe of the
audience that stared at her the same way.

The petite, blond teenager was their hope
for change. Most had not even met Arianna before and were surprised
to find her to be so young. Serge Moro spoke highly of the young
girl, and everyone present felt her power. They didn’t know what
she was capable of, yet all were ready to stand beside her when the
fighting started. Her parents had been well-known in the night
human world, and even with only being a part of it for a year now,
Arianna was also famous. Change was coming, and most of the night
humans wanted it to happen.

Arianna anxiously waited for it all to
begin. Her stage was set and she just had to perform without
getting stage fright. Andrew took her hand, and did his best to
soothe her nerves. Energy seeped out of her. He had faith in her
ability; he just needed her to see it too. Rhys didn’t stand a
chance if Arianna did what she needed to do.

‘Just ignore
everyone,’
Andrew suggested.

‘All two thousand of
them?’
Arianna asked, refusing to look
beyond the competition floor.

‘How is that any different
than baku or dearg-dul parties? There are always hundreds or
thousands at those’
Andrew asked. Crowds
didn’t bother him. While he didn’t like to be seen, he had gotten
over large crowds when he was forced to attend functions as a young
child. He came from a very prominent family, and there was no
choice.

‘The dearg-dul and baku
clans never expect much of me. It’s much easier to live up to
expectations when they aren’t very high. These people expect the
world.’
Arianna tightened her grip. It
wasn’t just the stares and questions from the audience; it was the
expectations that everyone had.

It was time to begin, and the large clock
from inside the estate chimed. Even away from the house, Arianna
could hear it. Serge Moro moved slowly to the center of the
fighting ring, giving all the people around a chance to quiet down
before he needed to talk. By the time he was in the center, not a
single person spoke.

“Welcome everyone,” Serge began as he looked
at all the faces in the crowd. “As all of you know, Miss Arianna
Grace of the Randolph clan has called a tournament for her hand in
marriage. All thirteen clans sent a representative, and the day
humans also sent their own representative. Through two rounds of
tournaments, we have narrowed down the competitors to the top six.
In the preliminary hand-to-hand matches, Loan Durand stands with no
wins and is in last place of the six competitors. Prior to the last
match, Brenton Winter and Nik Katsulas were tied with two wins a
piece at fourth place. Mr. Winter’s competitor was to be Mr. Durand
and that would not increase either competitor to win the
tournament, thus they won’t be fighting today. Rhys McKinny and the
day human Devin Alexander are tied with three wins a piece for
second place. First place is currently held by Miss Arianna.” Serge
was prepared to continue talking, but the crowd’s murmurs far
overpowered his own voice. Everyone around Arianna was talking.
They had heard that Arianna had entered, but none believed that she
had actually done it. Serge waited for everyone’s excitement to die
down before speaking again.

“Miss Arianna called the tournament for the
dearg-dul Randolph clan. She has been competing all along for the
baku Grace clan. Since she’s the leader of both clans, she does not
break any rules by doing so.” While the people continued to mutter
amongst themselves, it was quiet enough for Serge to keep talking.
“The first match today will be Mr. Alexander versus Mr.
Katsulas.”

Devin rose and walked to his starting spot.
Reaching in his back pocket, he took a blood strip and ate it while
watching Nik enter the ring. Nik wasn’t his normal sulking self,
instead he was watching Devin like a hawk. Nik was judging each
movement. The crowd quieted as soon as Nik stood on his mark with
Serge between the competitors. Nik could no longer win the
competition, but he could stop Devin from winning.

“This is a ten minute match to submission.
The first person to get the other to quit, willingly or
unwillingly, wins. We ask for a clean fight. Any intentional death
blows will result in disqualification for the competitor. The fight
is ten minutes long. If both are standing at the end of ten
minutes, the winner is based on most direct hits. Understand?”
Serge looked to Devin first, who nodded back and then to Nik who
nodded agreement. His rules were restated for the audience only.
Each man already knew them. Serge moved back to the sidelines and
sat down.

Devin waited, feeling the power of Lord
Randolph run through him. Lord Randolph had become an evil man by
the time he died, but he was always powerful. Devin was thankful
that intentions didn’t cross the blood along with the power. Night
human blood could be used by day humans for small periods of time,
it would enhance him but would not transfer abilities permanently.
Devin would see better and react quicker than he did in his normal
day human form. After years of using the dearg-dul blood and
training full time without it, Devin was prepared for this match.
He needed to win here to tie with Arianna and Rhys if she lost. A
three way tie would mean he could challenge Rhys first. By beating
Rhys, he then would fight Arianna and give her the win. Devin
waited for Nik to make the first move. That was the one thing Devin
had an abundance of: patience.