“Tell me I’m wrong.” Tears fell down his apparition’s face, dripping down onto Malik’s chest. “Please tell me I’m wrong.”

This was something beyond the maze, beyond Idir and all the other fears that plagued his life. Now it was only Malik and the one person he’d never be able to outrun.

“. . . I can’t,” he said softly.

“What?”

“I said I can’t. But even if I am just a kekki, even if Mama and Nadia and everyone would be happier without me . . . fine.”

Malik pushed free of the apparition’s grip, rising to shaking legs.

“I’m going to keep going.” As he said it, he knew it was true. “Neither of us is ever going to win this fight.”

Malik retracted the spirit blade and held his hand out to his shadow.

“Why don’t you come with me? Maybe we can figure a way out of this together.”

The mirage stared at Malik’s outstretched hand. Slowly, he reached for it, and the moment their fingers touched, the Odjubai Desert disintegrated.

The exit to the maze loomed several hundred yards away as cheers replaced the stark silence. It didn’t seem real, but there it was, the first threads of victory now within his reach.

Malik didn’t move. He stared down at his own hands, unable to pick apart what he’d just seen. He wished he had time to sit with himself, to find the place where all his fear and desires tangled together so he could try to unravel them, but time was one thing he never had.

Just then, Tunde burst around a corner. There was no way of knowing what his friend had seen on his path, but judging from the haunted look in Tunde’s eyes, it had been just as disturbing as what Malik had faced.

For several long seconds, the two friends simply stared at one another. A gnawing worry told Malik that if he didn’t make things right with Tunde now, he might never get the chance again.

“Why did you lie for me?” he asked. “Back at the Azure Garden.”

Tunde ran his hands down his face, all his usual swagger gone. “I don’t . . . I had to make a choice. I chose the option that felt right, but now I don’t know if it was after all.”

Malik nodded, his throat tight. Difficult choices with no right answer were something he knew all too well.

The cheering from the exit had grown louder, yet neither of them moved. After all Malik had gone through since he’d first arrived in Ziran, it was strange to think the end was within his grasp.

“Adil,” said Tunde suddenly. “Remember that thing I said about not wanting to take this competition seriously?”

Malik nodded again. “I remember.”

Tunde opened his eyes, and they were filled with a determination Malik had never seen before. “I think I changed my mind.”

Despite himself, Malik grinned. He and Tunde looked at the exit, and then at each other one last time.

And then Malik did what he did best.

He ran.

He ran for Nadia and for the last chance he had at her freedom.

But he also ran for the servant boy Mwale Omar nearly beat to death.

He ran for Leila and Mama and Nana and every Eshran who had waited for a just world that never came.

He ran for all three of the apparitions he’d encountered in the maze. He ran for the boy he had been and the person he was becoming.

Malik put everything he had into the final leg of the maze, neck and neck with Tunde. He didn’t know if it would be enough, if it would ever be enough, but this was all he had to give.

With sweat blurring his vision and legs screaming in pain, Malik ran for the finish line.

28

Karina

This was all wrong.

Driss was supposed to win. Every reputable bettor in the city had called the competition in his favor, and the temples had resigned themselves months ago to a third Sun Era in a row. Driss was supposed to win, and Karina was supposed to marry him and kill him with no regrets because he was a violent bully, and then she was supposed to use his heart to bring the Kestrel back to life.

But Driss was dead, supposedly murdered by Adil’s older sister. Everything about that story seemed suspicious; she had seen Eshaal Asfour only at a distance, but the girl had been half Driss’s size. Yet she had already confessed to the crime, with Tunde as a witness.

But whether the story was true or not, Driss was dead, which left only Tunde and Adil. One of them was going to have to die for the Rite of Resurrection, but which one? The first boy Karina had ever let into her heart, or the one who had snuck in without her noticing?

She’d wrestled with the choice as the Final Challenge dragged on, unable to decide which of the two deserved to die more.

And then Adil burst from the maze’s exit, Tunde not even a second behind him. Sweat drenched the Life Champion’s face, and there was a determined set to his jaw that had not been there before the challenge.

Their eyes met, and the dizzying feeling from the necropolis exploded in Karina’s chest. As the people of Ziran welcomed their new king, she imagined ruling with Adil by her side, facing down their enemies the same way they’d faced down the serpopard. He took a step toward her, and she saw herself putting down her sword once and for all.

But then Karina remembered the Kestrel’s blood staining the ground. She remembered the terror of the raid and the Sentinels dragging Afua away screaming.

No. She had come too far now to not perform the Rite of Resurrection. She had sacrificed whatever future she and Adil might have had together the moment she had chosen this path of dark magic to save Ziran.

But could she really kill this sweet, night-eyed boy? Could she kill either of them?

The priestesses were leading Adil to the winner’s podium, Tunde following behind with a pained smile.

There was no more time to hesitate, no time to debate. Tunde or Adil. Karina’s mouth opened against her will, and even she did not know which name would fall out until it did.

“Adil Asfour,” she called out. Adil’s head snapped up, and the world seemed to fall away beneath Karina’s feet.

“You’re disqualified.”

The stadium fell silent. Every eye was on Karina, but she only had eyes for Adil and the confusion twisting his face. “I clearly stated earlier that you could bring nothing into the maze with you. During the first obstacle, you used a smuggled knife to aid your escape. For your blatant disregard of the rules, you are disqualified and your win deemed invalid.”

The audience had been unable to see the visions the Champions saw, but they had seen their physical reactions. Adil had used some kind of dagger near the start, though Karina had no idea how he’d smuggled it into the stadium, and it was the perfect scapegoat for her decision.

Karina turned to Tunde, unable to meet his eyes. She hid her distress with a smile, as she’d been trained to do. “Thus, the winner of the Final Challenge, and your future king, is the Water Champion, Adetunde Diakité! Rejoice, for an era of Water is upon us at last!”

No one seemed more stunned by Karina declaring Tunde the winner than Tunde himself. He ascended the winner’s podium cautiously, as if someone might pull it out from beneath his feet at any moment. The guards surrounded Adil, clearly expecting him to react violently to this turn of events, but he went without a fight. Karina threw the boy the coldest glare she could manage as he passed.

“I warned you not to make a fantasy out of me,” she whispered, and her heart shattered at the pain in his eyes.

While all of Ziran cheered for its new era and king, Karina sent a silent apology to the true winner for what she’d done.

No matter how much it might hurt him now, one day Adil Asfour would understand that she had saved his life.

The people were already calling it the romance of the century: the princess reunited with her first love by the grace of the gods and the magic of Solstasia. It was all anyone could talk about for the rest of the sixth day, and the hours passed in a flurry of festivities and song, with every person of any importance in the city wanting to congratulate the new couple. At one point, Tunde’s mother grabbed Karina’s face in her hands and sobbed as she blessed their union while Tunde’s younger brothers babbled at her, wanting to know everything about their new sister.

Through it all, nobody guessed the truth Karina would carry for the rest of her life: by choosing Tunde, she had really chosen Adil.

But night arrived as it always did, and she finally found a moment to herself as she stared at the ceiling of her new personal bath.