The Frozen Beginning (Elemental Diamond Book 1) (36 page)

Thomes relinquishes his anger, hitting the sides of her head, her face, and her ribs. She takes it all without a sound. The air surrounding her struggles past her lips as she keeps her jaw clenched tightly.

Thomes quickly becomes annoyed with her silence. He moves close enough for her to hear his words, but still far enough for him to remain out of reach. With her entire body vibrating with an echoing pain, Glacier can barely hear his words.

“We didn’t realize that he would be rat food, you see. But I guess we didn’t
actually
check on him. Nobody fed him. It was an inevitable outcome. Something was going to give. He was a weak little critter…”

Glacier’s heart
burns
. She knows she has never felt a pain like this. Not even when her father was murdered.

I have been fighting to save him, and he has been dead all along
…

Refusing to let Thomes see her break, she steels her back and holds strong.

Don’t be weak
…

When he still hears nothing from her, Thomes has his men drop her. Collapsing to the soft carpet, blood spills from her mouth. She coughs a few more times before a boot hits her ribs.

A small crack splinters inside her. Glacier groans as a white-hot pain sears her side like a hot fire poke. Rubbing her forehead into the ground, she feels an irritation to her still healing scar. Her eyes itch with tears as she grinds her teeth grotesquely.

Still, she refused to make any other sound.

With one more kick to the same cracked rib, she flips over onto her back, her breathing laboured and agonizing.

“You will no longer be receiving my assistance in the arena.”

With her eyes still closed, the sounds of footsteps pass her ears before the door collapses open.

“You are on your own now, Miss Wardgrave. My men and I have been ordered by the Chancellor to return to Hydren. During the Deliverance, you will be completely and entirely
alone
.”

TWENTY-FOUR

NEW DECISIONS

Glacier limps numbly down the tunnel leading
towards the arena, with only Tric, Branch and Keena left in her team. The four of them walk sluggishly, different weights lingering heavily on their shoulders.

Tric stumbles along, seeming without hope. Branch has a defeated aura that gives Glacier the idea that he has lost complete and total interest in the tournament, wanting nothing other than to go home to grieve. He hasn’t spared her a single glance all morning. She knows he probably won’t speak to her again either.

Keena, unlike the remainder of her team, walks with anger in her stride. She is furious, thirsty for blood. Glacier can see from her clenched fists that Keena would give
anything
to be the one competing in the Deliverance.

Trudging along, Glacier feels both hopeless and terrified. Her face hurts with bruising and the small open cuts, her side splitting.

Castor is gone. What is the use in even fighting anymore? What do I have to gain from winning this competition for a team, and for a
region
that has hated me until I became their ‘champion’? I don’t have anyone left worth fighting for
…

The audience floats on a cloud of hot air, their boisterous shouts deafening. The banging on the tunnels is harder and louder than ever before. All excited for the finale.

Glacier continues to watch her feet, moving closer to her end. Walking along, her limp goes unnoticed. She is unsure whether anyone has noticed how battered she is, or if no one is bothered enough to care.

Once seated in their cubical, the Hydra team waits for the other two teams to arrive.

Glacier glances up to the Pyre team’s entrance, her eyes immediately catching the gaze of her final opponent. Brink winks in her direction, his usual smug grin resting proudly on his lips.

Quickly glancing down, Glacier refocuses on her shoes. The uniform she has to wear is similar to the previous ones, but instead of her region’s colour with the two gold stripes, it is a gold shirt with two blue stripes.

Glacier is intensely attuned to the sounds around her. She glares up at the footsteps she hears move across the glass above her.

The Chamber all wait for the audience to hush before they speak. Sasis, as usual, stands before the other representatives. He raises his hands in front of him before slowly bringing them down. The crowd begins to silence.

“My children, the day is finally upon us. Today is the day of the Deliverance!”

The crowd roars their excitement before they are once again silent.

“The finalists may now enter the ring…”

Glacier’s blood pumps in her ears, perspiration gathering on her top lip and eyebrow. Slowly rising to her feet, she takes cautious steps towards the cube’s exit. Before she leaves, Keena calls out to her.

Glacier turns around, her eyes wide and glossy with fear. Keena has a hard look on her face, merciless, “Kill him.”

Shaking her head quickly, Glacier’s eyes leak with grieving tears. “I can’t…” She is under no presumption that she will win, or even
live
.

I don’t have Thomes anymore. And Brink can control his element. He has already won
.

But Keena wasn’t having a word of it.

“Kill him, Glacier! I don’t care what it takes, just
do
it
.”

Glacier has never seen anyone this malevolent or destructive. Keena seems to have lost all care in those around her with the loss of her twin. It is obvious that she doesn’t care whether Glacier dies, as long as she takes Brink down in the process.

Giving her an incredulous look before stumbling out of the box, Glacier limps into the ring. Brink is already waiting with his arms crossed and a smirk on his lips.

Something floats past his eyes as he watches her limp closer towards him, disappearing in seconds. Glacier’s teeth grit at the sight of his smug self. It gives her the determination to end him.

He doesn’t get to win this. Not after everything he has done. Not after everyone he has hurt
.

A red hot, fiery rage fills her, boiling over like a pot of hot water. With nothing left to lose, she comes to peace with the fact that if she goes down, she is going down fighting to her last breath.

I don’t need Thomes. I will do this on my own
.

Glacier waits for the horn to indicate the beginning of the final battle, but instead she hears the voice of the aged Chamberman.

“Traditionally, there are three contestants, three finalists that compete in the Deliverance. After Miss Staren’s passing, it has left only one viable replacement from the second Harvest battle to fight in the Deliverance.” Glacier feels her heart begin to bubble with fear as the word starts resounding in her head.

Replacement? There’s going to be a replacement? Will it be Gamble? What if it’s Porter?

A sudden rush of fright floods her body as her heart squeezes with fear.

Please don’t be Porter
.

“And that is none other than
Fielder Vinson
, from the Pyre team.”

Glacier’s heart
stops
. She feels it stop for an eternity of a second. Her breathing labours, and her palms sweat profoundly.

No… Not him. Please let this be some kind of sick nightmare
…

Glacier’s eyes focus on Fielder, who seems to be at war with himself.

Fielder will protect me… Brink will kill him… Please choose someone else,
please.

She watches with stricken eyes as Fielder slowly approaches the ring. He studies her with the same intensity, his forehead creased with thought. Glacier’s eyes dribble with tears as she anticipates what is to come.

TWENTY-FIVE

DELIVERANCE

This is it. No running away, Glacier. No chance
to escape.

Brink, Fielder and Glacier all stand at different corners of the arena, their eyes sharp and focused. Her heart thumps hard in her chest as she mulls over Fielder’s sudden participation in the final battle.

Why would they pick Fielder?

“This will not be an easy battle, my darling children. This will be a battle between 3 great titans of this generation.” The crowd rallies together in a synchronized clap, quickly building to a loud crescendo of applause. Glacier’s eyes briefly whisk across the faces of the remaining competitors in the cubicles.

Gamble sits back with his arm in a sling, his eyebrows furrowed. Porter sits close beside him, whispering something into his ear as he watches Glacier with scouring eyes. Isaac has his shoulders forward as he leans ahead on his knees, anxious. Bronze sits closest to the box’s exit, her small boot tapping with nerves and her lip held between her teeth. Dolby sits alone in his team box, his arms folded, his eyes grim.

Glacier takes a deep breath, refocusing on the battle.

Don’t worry about them. Worry about winning.

Watching Brink with sharp eyes, Fielder subtly moves in Glacier’s direction, angling his back to her. The shift goes unnoticed by everyone apart from her. Glacier shakes her hands off, imagining her fear and her worry expelling from her fingertips as she prepares for the battle that will determine whether she sees the light of tomorrow.

Surprised by the long honk of the horn, Glacier’s shoulders jump with surprise. Before she can move, Fielder jumps to stand in front of her. A long string of fire whirls through the air, hitting Brink in the centre of his chest. Staggered by the force of it, he grunts loudly as he hits the ground with a thud.

Fielder moves closer to Glacier, his arms out wide at his sides. Glacier is flabbergasted by his protectiveness. Still having not moved an inch of a limb, she stands frozen behind his body.

“Fielder, what the hell are you doing?” Dolby shouts from the Pyre team box. Glacier turns her head to find him standing with a furiously confused snarl. His eyebrows are furrowed, creating deep frown lines across his forehead. Fielder doesn’t spare him a glance as he keeps his eyes focused intently on Brink’s recovering form.

What Fielder is portraying is an act of treachery. Protecting another elemental that isn’t from his region is unheard of. Instead of battling with his teammate, he is battling against him in favour of an ice elemental. The act breaks the first and second laws that we have all lived by.

Glacier’s eyes are wild as they flicker across the faces of the other contestants.

The earth elementals all stand with their jaws low and their eyes wide. Never before would they have seen one elemental protect an opposing elemental.

Glacier’s team are equally surprised. Keena’s eyes are enjoying Fielder’s betrayal to his own kind. The need for retribution – for death – is the clearest in her eyes. As if reading her mind, Glacier knows that she is currently wishing death upon everyone in the ring – even her own teammate.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this year’s competition has surely kept us on our feet!” Hampton’s haughty words indicate that he is not all so surprised as he rills the crowd in a frenzied buzz.

Brink quickly rises to his feet, his glare telling many tales of coming pain and death. Advancing on the pair, he neatly dodges every attack made by Fielder’s violent flames, evading them like a leaf fluttering in the wind, graceful as it floats. Fielder steps back closer, his hand gripping her hip as he holds her behind him. The heat from his hands almost scorches her flesh through her shirt.

“Stay behind me,” he murmurs, his head turning slightly in her direction as he speaks. Brink’s hollow eyes have Glacier shaking with fright.

Her quivering body aches with bruising, her eyes burning. The heat in the air is suffocating. Black smoke grows in size.

Elemental fire doesn’t usually burn black…

When Brink is close enough, Fielder throws a punch to his head. Easily side-stepping his attack, Brink throws his knuckles in Fielder’s direction. Landing it against his ribs, Fielder grunts in pain. Clenched fists connect with flesh, grunts fill the air, and Glacier’s head swims with the fight unfolding.

Glacier knows that they are quite evenly matched. Both are strong willed, powerfully muscled and heat-resistant. The only advantage noticeable between the two of them is Brink’s technique. He has noticeably trained in the past, much longer than Fielder.

What on earth am I standing around for? I need to help him!

With a sudden rush pumping through her veins, Glacier pounces on Brink’s back, wrapping her arm around his neck tightly.

The heat emanating from his body sets her skin alive with searing pain. Crying out her pain, Glacier continues to grapple him, pulling his body weight back.

Brink is quick to shake her, flipping her over his shoulder in one fluent move. Glacier’s back hits the ground with a thud, winding her momentarily.

Fielder’s shoulder connects with Brink’s torso, pushing him back from Glacier. The unanticipated move sends Brink’s boot into Glacier’s head. Her sight crowds with blurry black dots, her skull blooming with an extraordinary pain.

She clenches them closed in hope of easing the soreness. A nauseous spiel curls in her stomach, her brain thumping loudly in her head. Without a doubt in Glacier’s mind, she has no qualms of dying right then and there, her body withering and head contracting in agony.

“Kill him!” She can barely hear Keena’s shout past the pounding of her brain against the walls of her skull. “Get up
freak
, and
kill
him!” Past the grunting and poisonous smells of smoke and heat, Glacier can hear the distaste in Keena’s cry for revenge.

Freak…

Shifting her body from side to side, she tries to wiggle into a sitting position. Her head clouds dizzily, flooding with heaviness. When she finally manages to open her eyes, the muggy air dries her pupils instantly, creating an irritating burn.

Blinking a few times to ease the irritation, her face is shadowed by a figure looming above her. Hesitantly glancing up, her eyes meet scorching fire.