Over the next few days, I was stripped of my dress and given instead Illyrian fighting leathers. I clenched my fists and got to work training.

The fighters were given a room in a deeper cavern to train. And I trained day and night to build up my muscles. I strengthen my back and core. My shoulders. My legs. I refused to bow to the depression outside of my cell. Here, I was an Illyrian warrior.

I was strong and I would not be moved.

When the day of the fight came, I stood at the door of my cell, waiting.

I didn't know who was at my cell that first night, but I did know I'd take their advice. I would fight.

Then, the door opened and I was lead out of my cell and down several levels and down a corridor. I was stopped and the cuffs were taken off of my wrists. I could hear the roaring of the crowds above us, could hear the stomping feet.

"Fight, and win. No mercy for the dead. No remorse, either. Only one may leave that Ring. And I'm willing to bet an Illyrian would beat that lesser water nymph in a heartbeat." The guard behind me said.

He must have had no idea how the Illyrian women were treated in the Night Court, but I didn't blame him. We weren't talked about much.

The metal grate I stood on shifted suddenly, and began to rise. The voices became deafening and I blinked as light came into the hole I rose up and out of into the Ring.

I assessed my surroundings. Sand, dirt, and small pebbles. A water nymph, that guard had said. I'll be at an advantage, then.

I saw across the way that this water nymph was tall- very tall- and he more a simple loon cloth and was covered in scars. The crowd cheered as he stepped out into their range of sight.

I stepped out then, too, my wings behind me spread as much as I could get them with the clamps and the cheers became deafening.

I scanned the walls. Spears, knives, swords, axes, clubs. Heavy melee weapons.

Then, a deep voice called to take a weapon.

The water nymph took a spear and a net. To trap and pin me, then kill me. I clenched my jaw.

I scanned the wall, then chose a pair of curved swords and slipped two knives into my belt.

We stood at the center of the Ring, holding our weapons up.

I leveled my gaze with him, and I saw, under that facade of fierce determination, fear settled in his eyes. Even as they looked at the Syphons on my wrists. I grinned at him- a vicious look. Don't let him see my own fear.

I settled into a crouch and set my face in a mask of hatred. For Haven. This was for Haven. I'd kill everyone in this blasted mountain if I had to. Every last High Fae and faerie alike until there was none left.

For killing Haven, they would pay. For Haven.

There was a ding of a bell, and the nymph charged. I side-stepped the first strike of his spear and swung a sword at his neck, but he dodged and I missed my target, but still managed to slice the blade across his arm, causing blue blood to spurt forth.

He let out a roar in pain and swung the butt of the spear around and hit my calves, knocking me to the ground. Hard.

I rolled as he tossed the net at me and sprang to my feet again.

Screams for more blood from the crowd above us made me grind my teeth as I spun around, taking a knife from my belt and throwing it.

I watched as time seemed to slow and as I threw the knife, he threw the spear.

This was it.

The knife embedded itself in his chest just as the spear reached me...

...and passed through my body and landed behind me several feet away.

I looked down at my hands, and they were wreathed in shadows. My body began to settle and I willed the shadows to disappear and they did.

The crowd was silent in surprise for just a moment, then began to scream for his death. Now. Kill him. Now. I swallowed the nausea building up and took two steps closer to him.

I looked at the moaning and bleeding nymph on the ground and lifted a sword and in one stroke, took off his head.

One would leave this Ring.

And that one was me.

I looked up at the throne where Amarantha sat leisurely, and I could have sworn there was a look of pride on my High Lord's face.

******

"A Shadowsinger, huh? I didn't know about that part." That voice was back and I sat in my cell with my back to the door, knees up to my chest. If I still had a knife, I would have already killed myself. Unfortunately, they took all the weapons I once had.

"I didn't either." I mumbled. A tear slid down my cheek.

The voice was silent for a moment, then said gently, "It gets easier."

"What does?"

"The taking of a life. It sounds terrible, but I have found it to be true."

"You've killed many people?" I asked and leaned my head back against the stone wall, tucking my knees up to my chest even tighter.

"Yes. Out of service to my people."

I stared out into the hallway. "Are you even real?"

A small chuckle. "Yes, Adrianna. I am real. You just can't see me."

"Why not? It would be nice to see someone. Then I'd know I'm not completely insane."

"Aren't the brightest people a little loopy?"

I rolled my eyes. "Not entirely. I'm sure the great philosophers in the libraries in the Courts and the High Priestesses aren't loonies."

He- for it was definitely a male's voice- seemed amused by that. "Have you ever meet a High Priestess, Adrianna?"

"Well, no. I wasn't exactly allowed to do things. How do you know my name, anyways?"

"I thought I was just a voice in your head. Perhaps I'm your conscience."

"Ha-ha. My inner thoughts are wildly more amusing than you are. I would have known you were in my head a long time ago."

"I guess you're a bit too perceptive for that, Adrianna. You always have been. You just don't give yourself any credit."

"What are you saying? You don't know me."

"Maybe not very well, but we have meet."

I lifted my head and leaned forward. "What? When?"

"At your home. For the first time, four months ago. Come on now, you don't mean to tell me you can't sense another Shadowsinger?"

I clenched my jaw. Sense? Is that what I was doing? How we were speaking? "...Azriel?" I barely whispered the name.

"Yes." Was the only reply.

I stood up, then, and stared harder into the shadows.

"Are you really here?"

"Under the Mountain? No. But I can see you. Through the shadows. With the shadows. Communicate with you through them." Azriel replied and I could have sworn he smiled a little by the switch of tone.

"I have never heard of that happening with Shadowsingers before."

"We are rare, Adrianna. Not much is even known about us. I myself know very little of all we can do."

I sat back down again and pulled on the end of my sleeve. "You know our High Lord is here, right? Amarantha has him. They seem...pretty close. But he also doesn't look or act like the High Lord I grew up seeing and hearing about."

There was a very long bout of silence, and when that silence turned into an hour, I thought he was gone completely. Then, he was back with a sense of urgency. "Are you certain?"

"Yes. I mean, she certainly touched his back like they were together or something." I shuddered. "Which is disgusting."

"What else is there?" He asked.

So, I told the Spymaster everything. What I saw, heard, and everything else.

Over the next few months, I was allowed to leave my cell only to perform hard labor. I memorized my surroundings and relayed them back to Azriel with all the details I could muster. I helped him. I trusted him. In fact, what got me through the next two, three, four, and five fights in the Ring were the talks I had with the Shadowsinger.

Months turned into years, and soon enough, I was Under the Mountain for a decade.

I only had a concept of time thanks to Azriel.

He trained me to use the shadows even from wherever he was. The Court of Dreams, he called it. He told me about Cassian, Amren, and Morrigan. His family- or the people who had become his family.

When the depression set in, he was there taunting me to make animals or shapes out of shadow, saying he could do better asleep.

Fifteen years came and went, and then twenty.

I had become very strong and one of the most popular fighters in the Ring. Faeries betted on me. Cheered for me. Called me the Shadow Warrior.

Little did they know that while in my cell, I was feeding The Night Court's Spymaster information that could doom them all.

While learning how to use the shadows and my new skills in fighting to become Azriel's own assassin, spreading rumors to get certain people thrown into the Ring where I waited with my curved swords and death.

But, everything changed when a human was thrown into the cell across from mine.