I lay back on my bed in the cell I shared with my teammates and closed my eyes.

Visions of blood and the horror in the eyes of the men I’d defeated flashed through my mind, and I opened my eyes again.

I couldn’t sleep. My side burned like hell, and despite the assurances of the guards that a shaman would be by to ease our pain, no one had stepped foot into the prison all evening.

I sat up and paced the room, conflicting feelings running through me. Guilt. Anger. Pride. Love. Despair.

I told myself that the demons I fought today were volunteers, just like me. Demons who would rather face death than be condemned to a life of slavery in the mines. But was that really true?

Trention slept just a few feet from where I stood now, and I knew that he was no volunteer. He was forced into these games because of me, and though I had done what I had to do to keep him and the rest of my team safe today, if someone had hurt him, they would have been sentencing an innocent demon to death.

The cell across from us had been occupied by the team that opposed us just last night, but there was no sign of them tonight. I kept hoping the door to the holding area would open and those demons would hobble in, injured but alive. Healed by a team of shamans, just like the guards had promised.

But in my heart, I knew the truth.

Those demons had been taken to some room where they were forced to choose between willingly giving their life in service to the king or having it ripped from them.

I placed a hand on my forehead and fought against these feelings that threatened to overwhelm me.

There were still two battles left to go before I would have any hope of being declared free from the king’s dungeons. We had easily won the first fight and had come out of it with nothing more than a few scratches that would heal in time. But how would the next two battles go?

Nothing was guaranteed, and I couldn’t afford to let my heart get soft. I didn’t want to hurt anyone else, but I wasn’t exactly eager to sacrifice my life here, either.

For a century, I had dreamed of my freedom. I had prayed for it for a long time, but as the years went by, I found myself wishing for death more than freedom.

Death simply seemed more achievable.

But there were those who had not given up on me, despite the impossible task before them. They were willing to give everything to save my life and set me free. I would not dishonor them by dying in these games. The only one who could win my freedom this time around was me, and I was grateful for the chance to redeem myself.

Still, I couldn’t shake the sorrow and guilt of what I had done.

The door at the end of the cell block opened, and slowly, a set of footsteps approached. I woke my teammates, and by the time Reynar appeared in front of us, the five of us all stood in a row, waiting to hear about tomorrow’s battle.

“I can’t say I’m happy to see you standing here as a winning team,” Reynar said, looking pointedly at me. “But I come tonight tell you that the king has chosen for Aerden and Trention to continue on as partners in tomorrow’s battle.”

My mouth dropped open. “What about the others?” I asked.

Reynar smiled. “The rest of you will head back to the mines tonight,” he said. “Work begins first thing in the morning and continues for the remainder of your pitiful lives.”

Rushon gripped the steel bars of the cell. “But we won,” he said. “We deserve the chance to fight.”

“You deserve nothing but what the king says you deserve,” Reynar said. “Be grateful you’re alive. I doubt these other two will live to see another moon.”

Anger pulsed through me. It wasn’t fair. These men had volunteered for the chance to fight, and they had won. We all deserved the chance to keep going. But I knew that arguing with Reynar wasn’t going to get me a different result.

Morway slammed his hand against the wall and cursed. “I won’t go back there,” he said. “I can’t.”

“Would you rather die tonight in service to the king?” I asked, grabbing his arm. “Go back to the mines. I promise you that if I win my freedom, I will find a way to get you out of there. All of you.”

Reynar threw his head back, laughing. “You’re a fool if you believe you’d ever have that kind of power,” he said. “But since you will most likely die tomorrow, I’ll leave you to your foolish dreams. The rest of you, come with me now. You’ve got to be up bright and early.”

Rushon, Perrick, and Morway lined up and left the cell, their heads low and their spirits defeated. When they were gone, I wanted to run my fist through a wall.

What kind of king did this to his own people?

Trention watched as I paced the room, anger radiating from my body.

“Here, sit,” he said after a long while, pulling his legs off the side of the bed to give me room to sit. “You’re making me dizzy with all this pacing.”

“It isn’t fair,” I said.

“You of all people should know that life is rarely fair,” he said.

“I just hate this feeling of complete helplessness. I want to do something to save them. To help them,” I said. “Instead, I condemned five men to death today and had to watch my friends get sent back to the dungeons.”

“You carry so much on those shoulders of yours,” he said. “Did you commission these games? Did you condemn these demons to a life of slavery?”

“No, but—”

“There is nothing else,” he said. “We have been put in an impossible position. We must either kill or be killed. That is not our choice, but it’s the truth of our situation. Whether you decide to place the responsibility of this horror on your own shoulders is your choice, Aerden. And I thought you of all people would understand that the one thing they can never take from you is your own mind. Your own thoughts. Those are under your control, even when everything else has been taken from you.”

I quieted, listening to the wise words of an ancient demon.

“Don’t let them have this piece of you,” he said. “Master your own mind and you take your power back.”

My flesh broke out in chills at his words.

He was right.

He placed a hand on my forehead. “Your thoughts are more powerful than you realize,” he said. “Even when things seem hopeless and even when you are forced to watch great injustice performed right in front of you, it is still your choice whether to focus on the pain or whether to steel yourself for battle. You choose to be the victim or the victor. Rule your own mind, Aerden, and stop letting them chip pieces off of you as if you were made of stone.”

He moved his hand to my chest, placing his palm above my heart.

“Show them you are made of soul,” he said. “Of love. Of strength. Show them you are free because you choose to be free.”

A tear rolled down my cheek, and I grabbed my friend’s hand. He had been like family to me here in the dungeons, and his words echoed through me as truth.

For him, I would be strong, even in the face of death.