Chapter 7

Aris sprints from the starting field as arrows rain down, surviving a spine shot when the titanium sword on her back stops an iron-tipped arrow. She reaches a towering hedge labyrinth made of living thorns whose walls lengthen and close, forcing a desperate run through shifting corridors as other challengers scream and fall.

Inside, Aris encounters a silver-skinned serpent and then witnesses Pagnus Ender brutally kill Helra by hurling her into the barbed walls and stealing her knives. Hearing blades shatter elsewhere, Aris identifies Harlan Raker by the sound of superior metal breaking lesser steel, then deliberately trails him as he carves through ambushers and archers, unknowingly clearing her path. Raker confronts her briefly but dismisses her and moves on; Aris follows him out of the maze.

Emerging into a living forest that is also a graveyard, Aris finds ancient swords tangled in the trees. Valen and Kira successfully claim silver blades from above, but Pagnus barrels after Aris. Ahead, Cadoc and his allies pelt the branches with rocks, and when Aris refuses Cadoc’s lewd offer, they attack. Dodging arrows from cover, she is run down by Cadoc, who nearly takes her throat before she breaks free.

Surrounded by Cadoc’s kin and the Enders, Aris raises Stellan’s titanium, only for Cadoc’s superior silver to shatter it. He reveals Stellan’s stolen dagger, gloating, and prepares the killing stroke as Aris desperately reaches for the tree-bound swords—none answer. Fueled by fury and will to live, she makes one last reach.

At the moment Cadoc strikes, a sword does not fall from the trees—it erupts from a grave beneath Aris’s hand. The ancient blade meets Cadoc’s swing and explodes his silver into shards, turning the confrontation and marking Aris’s bond with a weapon of greater power.