Exhilarated and filled with vitality, Nox took in the cheers of his people, at once calm and near tears with gratitude.

He was alive to see this.

Thanks to Rayne.

When she met his eyes across the coliseum, the two shared a smile. The silken ribbon was the color of his blood, the color of her eyes, and the former King of Cinder closed his hand to grip it in his fist.

Nox was winning this race for Rayne.

“Contenders approach the starting line.”

With one last look at Rayne, Nox went to the arches where they opened to the Ignis Desert below. A field of igneous rock and lava flows, and the site of so many wonderful and awful events in his life.

Today, that changed. Nox would only look at this place and think of his brothers and Rayne. Somehow, someway, he would convince Korac and Xelan to join him in this coliseum for their people and for their women—Signify a Cinder of hope, and not of ash.

The announcer said, “All right, in the tradition of the Verses—The audience will call off the mark.”

“Ready!

“Set!

“Go!”

Nox activated the gravity densifiers and flew down along with the other racers. Some scaled on foot down the cliff-side, wingless. They all rushed to the skids waiting on the shore of an enormous lava vein. Practiced, he strapped his feet in faster than the rest and dropped onto the magma’s surface with precision. No splashing.

Onlookers flew above, including the contender’s partners, and a Pil dwarf Nox realized was the announcer in a flying mechsuit. He said, “King Nox is in the lead, but the champion has yet to enter the race. This show of confidence is leaving the audience on the edge of their seats.”

Not in the race yet?

Nox clenched his jaw and worked on his advantage. Swerving around stalagmites and boulders in the river’s bends, banking down rapids as they approached the climax. While this wasn’t the same course Nox was familiar with, he discerned from their gaining speed that they were heading for a lavafall.

Their pulse was racing.

Rayne.

Calm and in control of a sport Nox had helped invent, he knew their accelerated heart rate was Rayne’s excitement. He couldn’t spare a glance above to spot her in the sky, but he wanted to assure her there was no way he was losing this race—

“Caedes, with all his Shadow upgrades, has finally entered the training course—”

Fuck.

“—His legendary championship status dates all the way back to before the Vacating when General Korac first consigned him to camp for speaking out against Nox in the first Cult of Night compound. It is a treat to have him return over these last few months since the camp and training course reopened. And there he is! Already in the river and passing competitors left and right—Elden! He’s nearly to the lavafall!”

Nox was imbued with all of Rayne’s gifts, so he was much faster than Caedes. This race would require a delicate balance of prowess to avoid blowing his and Rayne’s cover.

And there went Caedes headlong down the lavafall without so much as a glance at Nox. Once the bald Icarus passed, Nox knew how much to lessen the densifiers. He dialed it down and the flash of blue tied around his hand renewed his sense of purpose. Facing the edge of the world, he held his breath and went over the fall’s edge.

No matter how many times Nox plummeted down a lavafall, it always brought a grin to his face. The sheer drop doubled his heart rate, an experience he hoped to share with Rayne.

The second Nox righted on the surface of the lagoon, he buffeted his wings for further speed, crouched, and sailed to the shore.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Caedes was already off his skid, in his wetsuit, and racing to the water beyond the last plutonic crag. He went about it methodically, almost habitually, submerged in the focused zone of one forced to repeat the course many times.

Perhaps Nox owed the Icarean soldier an apology.

Later.

For now, Nox dismounted off his skid, slipped into a wetsuit, grabbed an electric spear, and ran so fast over the rocky ground that he nearly beat Caedes into the water.

The onlookers gasped and cheered while the announcer said, “Never. Ever. Have we seen such competition. No one ever matches the champion. Ladies and gentlemen, reconsider your bets.”

As far as vice went, gambling appeared more benign—

Nox took the notion back the moment he thought it. There was no telling what indecencies bookies and loan sharks committed for their money.

With his fist clasped firmly around Rayne’s ribbon, Nox swam for the beach beyond the riptide. So close—

The smell hit him first.

Whalesharks.

Massive beasts whose spouts geysered volcanic water and rot from their prey at least a story into the air. A pod of twelve rode the tide toward him.

Nox gripped the spear—

Caedes passed him, with his head down as he plowed through the water, concentrating only on the destination. Well, until he glanced at Nox.

Frozen in the water.

The bald Icarus, famous for defying Nox, gaped with the hard glare of posttraumatic stress in his deep green eyes, solid in Atramentous.

However, there wasn’t time for Nox to fret about their immediate discovery. He pointed beyond the Icarus, shouting, “Caedes!”

The leading whaleshark of its pod poured out of the wave and charged at Caedes like a bull—Mouth wide open, and its dozens of tined teeth spinning like a drill. Even if he turned now, it wouldn’t be in time. Nox poised, aimed, and threw his electric spear through the hole at the center of the whaleshark’s spinning jaws. It gagged and recoiled, spouted a tentacle from some other devoured beast, and withered under the spear’s powerful electric current. The stench. The sound—Nothing sounded as horrifying as a shrieking whaleshark. It rattled Nox’s heart, and he wondered if Rayne felt it—

“King Nox.”

Deflated despite his victory, Nox faced the Icarus who would surely arrest him. At least Nox could keep Rayne’s secret—

“My thanks.” The bald Icarus held up his hand from the water for Nox to clasp and said, “If I win, I get to tell your brother you’re alive and have the pleasure of watching your old General arrest you.”

Nox took the offered hand and only used five percent of his strength to squeeze. “If I win, you let me go without a word to anyone—”

Caedes opened his mouth to argue.

“—For two weeks. Give me two weeks to complete my work, and I’ll turn myself in.”

“Done.”

The sounds of splashing as the other competitors fought whalesharks in the tide drew them back to the here and now. Just in time, too. Together, Nox and Caedes took on several more from the pod. Caedes would lead a whaleshark into a charge, and Nox would puncture its gills with only one spear between them.

After the last whaleshark in the riptide fell, Caedes called, “See you in the caves,” before swimming for the beach.

Nox made to follow when he glimpsed his hand. Rayne’s ribbon was missing. He moved about, searching for it in the black foam. When he couldn’t find it, he ducked his head underwater.

There.

The bright blue ribbon was spiraling deeper below, and Nox swam after it—

Right into the drilling mouth of a charging whaleshark.

Nox shouted underwater and used his wings to dart to the side, avoiding the mouth—

Eternity take him…

Sticky and abrasive, Nox found himself victim—as many Icari before—to the toxic adhesive, coating the whaleshark’s blubberous hide. All down his wings, the backs of his arms, and the backs of his legs. Only his head was free to move. He ripped and pulled until he left a trail of feathers, dripping with cobalt blood, in the whaleshark’s wake. The bonding chemical filled his fresh wounds, searing his nerve endings over and over.

All the while, the whaleshark dove deeper until they met bottom, and it scraped Nox along the rough coral, taking more skin and blood. He screamed when it tore into muscle and came for the bone—

A bright flash of blue took Nox’s attention off the agony long enough to recognize Rayne’s ribbon. He still gripped it in his hand, even with the arm missing so much meat.

If he survived…

If he returned to win the race…

Nox vowed to kiss Rayne the second he laid eyes on her.

That was it.

With a primal roar, Nox went into Atramentous and dug his hands into the whaleshark. Chunks of blubber came away, followed by a plume of blood. The monster cried, and it should because Nox freed his wrist next. Elbows, biceps, and shoulders. Nox peeled the beast’s hide with him as he wrenched his wings and back free. Then he tore into it with his bare hands.

Organs.

Bones.

Spine.

Through all of Nox’s early life, he ripped things apart with his hands, but nothing quite this big. The second it died, he checked Rayne’s ribbon and swam for the surface. He broke water to the sound of her voice in so much distress.

“Caedes, please. Let me go in after him. You don’t understand—”

Rayne’s mouth fell open as she spied Nox swimming for shore, and Caedes stopped holding her back—Not that he even could. Everyone on the beach, including the other racers gawked, for a few heartbeats until…

“Nox has survived!”

At the dwarf’s announcement, the VIP crowd went wild, but they were nothing compared to the people viewing in the coliseum. Although it was miles from the beach, their cheers carried like thunder through the mountain.

Caedes muttered, “Well, I’ll be damned.”

Trembling, Rayne cried, “Are you okay?” Her eyes frantically looked Nox over as he walked out of the water.

He wanted to answer her question, but there was a vow to fulfill first.

Nox crossed the rocky sand to Rayne, cupped her nape with his ribboned hand, and kissed her.