Page 313 of Elemental Becoming

“It’s fine, Rowena,” I say, keeping my voice steady. “I can handle this.”

Lyra steps forward before Rowena can respond.

“I’m the one who challenged you,” she says, her voice low and dangerous. “You fight me, Ardyn.”

Then she moves between us, planting herself squarely in Ardyn’s path. The message is unmistakable.

Ardyn’s smile widens, her eyes gleaming with malicious amusement. She tilts her head, watching the tension she created coil tighter around us.

“What’s the matter, Amara?” she asks. “Do you always have someone fighting for you?”

She takes a step closer.

“Rowena. Lyra.”

Her gaze flicks briefly between them before returning to me.

“Just like at the ball.”

The implication hangs in the air.

“You’re the Spiritborn.”

The smile never leaves her face.

“And yet everyone else always seems to be doing the fighting for you.”

A few of the soldiers around us give low whistles and mutter curses.

“This isn’t right! She’s the Spiritborn!” one woman calls out.

Several others voice their agreement. Most of them, however, look far more interested in the spectacle unfolding before them.

Rowena scans the crowd, her expression tightening with concern.

Ardyn ignores them, her eyes fixed on me.

“Maybe you’re not as powerful as everyone thinks,” she muses, her voice turning colder. “Maybe all your strength comes from the people around you. You can’t even stand on your own.”

She pauses, letting the words settle over the room like ash falling from the sky.

“Tell me, Amara, how does it feel? To have everyone watching, waiting, but never truly wielding the power you’re supposed to have? How long before they all see you for what you really are?”

The words hit harder than they should because a part of me has asked those same questions. A part of me has wondered if everyone else sees a future savior while I still see the girl who grew up on a farm and spent most of her life feeling ordinary.

I refuse to give Ardyn the satisfaction of seeing her words land even if they do.

Forcing my expression to remain calm, I straighten my shoulders and meet her gaze. Whatever doubts I carry belong to me. She doesn’t get to wield them against me. Instead, I let every one of her words feed the fire building inside me.

For weeks, she’s been taunting me from a distance.

She stared me down in court, her glare burning into me as I sat off to the side, listening to Thane and Rowena meet with their citizens.

She has a talent for asking questions that sounded innocent.

How is your training progressing, Amara?

Have you managed to master that yet?