Ileus took the advantage of the fact that most of the sorcerers were in the stadium to watch the tournament. After a good diet and sleep yesterday night, he had regained his energy. In the morning he had brought Dawn back to her tent and he had already talked to Brantley to be present in the stadium for the tournament, as he really had to find that bastard.

Ileus was standing in the main hall with his hands on his waist. Except for the dungeons, which were heavily guarded, he had scoured through Norhall Castle but he didn't find him anywhere on the inside. Was he in one of the towers? He knew that only the chambers, which had Daryn had a balcony, which circled the spire of its tower and the other three towers didn't have any royal chambers. They were only tapering, tall monolithic conical structures. He had gone through all of them in the little time he had yesterday. Unless—

​​

Ileus walked out of the castle donning a relaxed look. The halls were nearly empty except for a few servants who didn't even bother to look at him. As soon as he went to the tower on the southern side, his gaze darted to the top and he narrowed his eyes at the tiny glasses that dotted the top portion of the spire. Why the hell couldn't he think of it earlier? The next moment he exploded into mist and traveled all the way up while circling the tower. When he reached the top, he saw that place was all stones and glasses of various hues for the purpose of decoration. He touched a glass and his hand went through it.

Illusion.

His lips curled up. It took him exactly a minute to understand the spell and then navigate through it. The place was heavily cast into spells and by the time he covered the distance to the balcony of the apartment that was hidden in the spells, it took him well over half an hour. If he wanted he could have used his magic to blast the spells, but that meant explosions and more than that, it meant depleting his energies. So he had no other option but to walk his way through the web of spells. By the time he was on the balcony, he was sweating.

The door of the room was open and he simply walked inside through the warding spells. He scanned the room and the corridor, but there was no one. Suddenly a voice boomed from behind.

"We meet again, Ileus!"

Ileus turned sharply to face him, as magic crackled in his hands and his eyes turned a golden yellow in defense—a trait he had inherited from his mother.

"Hello Áed Ruad!" Ileus said in a menacing voice as he looked in the red flinty eyes of the High Prince of the Faes who was standing in front of him. "Finally found you."

In a display of power and dominion, Áed Ruad's enormous, black-feathered wings erupted from his back that moved like shadows. Sheer darkness trailed like smoke from every feather that constituted the wings.

"Aren't you sneaky?" he scoffed.

"Where is she?" asked Ileus.

"None of your business," came a cold reply.

"Why are you here?"

"Once again, none of your business," said Áed Ruad in an icy tone.

"I will never let your plans succeed, Áed Ruad. If you think that you can join the sorceress queen to materialize your plans, then perhaps you are under an illusion."

Áed Ruad smirked. "Do you think that the neotide has any chance against the mighty powers here? She will die!"

"Get lost before it is too late Áed Ruad! Else you will regret," Ileus warned him as he stepped forward.

Áed Ruad threw his head back as he laughed. "You are sounding as if the future of the Lore depends on the tiny little shoulders of the neotide."

In all honesty, it was.

Ileus narrowed his eyes. "I would soooo love to kill you now! But that would attract unwanted attention from Lore. So be gone, else I might just gouge you to your death!"

On the verge of eruption, Áed Ruad charged Ileus but the wizard had already disappeared and Áed Ruad clawed his hands in thin air. He punched his fist in the nearby wall, which shattered on impact.

Ileus parthoned to the stadium in a foul mood. She was definitely not with her brother. And Volar—the boy was even darker than the last time he had seen him. Everything was going fine until young Áed Ruad turned to the dark side. He wanted to collaborate with Sedora to bring the Lore kingdoms under their rule—and he was just beginning.

The people around him distracted his attention. He looked at Dawn and realized that the contest had begun. There were six women in the ring who had run to a side to pick weapons and the guards were opening the gates of a cage from where a basilisk emerged. Gods! How he hated Sedora. His eyes went to Dawn who had run back to give a sword to Brenda.

"Who do you think we should bet in favor of?" asked a young sorcerer. He pointed at the screen in front of him, which was an illusion. It carried the names of the contestants and the amount of gold coins that was the minimum bet for them. The highest number of gold coins were twenty thousand for a woman called Erdaaz and lowest, hundred coins for… Dawn.

As soon as the contest began, the Ixoviyans started to place bets.

Ileus raised his eyebrow. This was interesting. On the top of his voice he said, "I would like to place twenty thousand coins on… Dawn Wyatt."

Everyone around him snickered.

"Are you mad? She will lose her life and you will lose twenty thousand gold coins," said one of the girls.

Ileus drew his face to the girl and gave her a charming smile, which made her heart leap out of her chest.

A man sitting next to her tugged her to make her sit on his lap and then turned to Ileus. "I will put my karats on Erdaaz." Then he circled his hands on the girl's thighs and said, "Erdaaz is the princess of serpents. She knows how to kill the basilisk. And tonight I will give you all my coins to you."

The girl laughed as she pressed a kiss to his lips. "You know I love gold."

Within a few minutes almost everyone except Ileus had placed their bets on other contestants. No one even touched Dawn.

Ileus's eyes darted to Dawn. She looked completely relaxed and her cunning gaze was taking in the enemies. He suspected the lethality that was about to get unleashed.

---

Dawn stood in the ring as she studied the basilisk but her focus was on the prize.

Daryn. Her mate.

A woman was trying to wrap her arms around him and he was removing them with revulsion. Yet another one came and sat right in front of him between his knees.

Dawn clenched her jaw. She turned her gazed at the women who were running towards the basilisk and then... smiled. Her eyes saw her target. She realized one thing—the opponents had picked up some very heavy weapons, which suited their skills. Idiots. They should have chosen the weapon according to the person, in case the beast they were fighting against.