ir Gifts
A Rejected Luna – Her Rise to Power
Chapter 35 – Losing
EUNICE’S PERSPECTIVE
It didn’t make sense.
No one with just a wooden staff should be able to block me like that.
Not again and again. Not that easily.
I narrowed my eyes, watching how she moved. How the staff spun in her grip like it was made for her. How it always hit exactly where it needed to.
It wasn’t normal.
She was hiding something.
Of course she was.
She was a witch, after all. Witches always had tricks. And with Dravic at her back, she didn’t need to play fair.
“You’re using a special weapon, aren’t you?” I said loudly, backing a few steps toward the crowd. “That staff. It’s
enchanted. A gift from one of your witches, right? Or Dravic?”
Chapter 35 – Losing
Voices around me murmured.
Marcia laughed, slowly shaking her head, her eyes downcast.
I pushed further. “You all saw it! No one fights like that with just wood. She’s hiding behind spells.”
The whispers grew sharper. Soldiers glanced at each other,
unsure.
Then someone shouted, “Unfair!”
Another echoed, “It’s rigged!”
A buzz moved through the ring. The doubt they had held onto earlier returned all at once, heavy and loud. Perfect.
She couldn’t win clean. Everyone would see it.
Marcia still didn’t say a word.
She just lifted the staff, and snapped it clean in half over her knee.
The crack rang out across the field.
Then, before anyone could move, she threw the two broken pieces toward the ones who had shouted. They landed with dull thuds at their feet.
Chapter 35 – Losing
“Test it yourself,” she challenged.
Silence.
12 min left
The soldiers who’d yelled now looked stunned. One of them picked up a piece. Turned it over. Knocked it against his palm.
Just wood.
Ordinary, splintered, unenchanted wood.
No glow. No markings. Nothing magical about it.
My blood ran cold.
She couldn’t have beaten me with that.
It wasn’t possible.
My grip on my sword tightened. My breath turned ragged, rage coursing through me. Blinding me to anything else.
She was unarmed now. I had an opening. And I wasn’t about to waste it.
I lunged forward without warning, swinging hard and fast. If I could land one clean hit, I could shatter the illusion. Crush her confidence. Reclaim the upper hand.
But just as my blade was about to make contact, Marcia raised
Chapter 35 – Losing
one hand,
12 12 min leff
The staff, broken and discarded, snapped back together midair and flew toward her like a flash of lightning.
She caught it in one hand, spun it once and thrust it forward.
A pulse of energy exploded from the staff, slamming into my stomach with brutal force.
The world tilted.
My feet left the ground.
I flew backwards, landing hard on the packed dirt with a loud thud. Excruciating pain shot through my abdomen. I curled over, coughing until blood rose up and spilled from my mouth.
The crowd gasped.
Marcia didn’t move; didn’t speak.
She just stood there, still holding the staff like it belonged to her. Like she hadn’t even tried.
Like this was nothing to her.
My hands dug into the dirt.
My stomach burned. My mouth tasted like metal. My sword was
Chapter 35–Losing
somewhere behind me, out of reach.
I could hear the whispers again.
But now, they weren’t doubting her.
They were in awe.
“She threw her without touching her.”
“What was that? Some kind of spell?”
“I didn’t even see her cast.”
They weren’t afraid of me anymore.
They were looking at her.
At Marcia.
Like she was invincible.
Like she was something more than what we were.
And I hated her for it.
I hated the way they stared at her.
I hated how powerful she looked.
Chapter 35 Losing
I hated that she didn’t even need to bleed to make me spit mine.
My fingers clenched into fists.
Jealousy crawled up my throat like bile.
She wasn’t supposed to win.
Not like this.
Not again.
Marcia took a slow step forward, the staff still pulsing faintly in her grip. Her expression wasn’t mocking. It wasn’t even cold. Just calm. Steady. Like she already knew how this would end.
She raised her voice, clear enough for all to hear.
“Do you want to yield, Eunice Hale?”
I coughed, pushing myself up with one hand. My ribs ached, my throat burned, and my body screamed at me to stop. To surrender. To save myself.
But I didn’t.
I looked past her. At the crowd.
Dozens of eyes were on me. Most unreadable. Some wary. Some already turned away like the fight was done.
Chapter 35 – Losing
Then I saw Kael.
11 min left
He stood at the front, jaw tight, arms folded across his chest. But his eyes—they weren’t on her. They were on me.
There was something in them.
Not concern. Not fear.
Pity.
My stomach twisted. He pitied me.
And Marcia had done that.
I shook my head slowly, locking eyes with her.
“No.”
She didn’t move.
“You’re done,” she said quietly. “You can’t win.”
“Shut up,” I growled, forcing my legs to move.
I lunged again, sword raised high. I didn’t care about form or balance. I just wanted to land a hit. One real hit. Something to make this worth it.
Chapter 35 – Losing
But Marcia didn’t back down.
→ 11 min left
She met my blade midair with her staff, spinning once to throw off my angle, then knocked my weapon away with a crack of wood against steel.
Pain shot through my wrist, my grip slipping.
Before I could recover, she moved closer, faster now.
She wasn’t holding back anymore.
Blow after blow rained down upon me. Her strikes were precise, sharp, like she’d been waiting for this moment. Her movements blurred. I couldn’t keep up.
Everything hurt, despite the adrenaline rushing through me. I backed away, further and further from her.
I barely managed to block the next hit, but the force sent me stumbling down.
Then she stopped.
For a heartbeat, I thought she was giving me another chance.
But she wasn’t.
Her staff pulsed in her grip again, glowing faintly with magic.
Chapter 35 Losing
–
→ 11 min left
Then she raised it high and brought it down hard across her
knee.
The wood splintered into sharp, jagged fragments.
She raised her free hand.
The pieces hovered in the air, spinning in place like they had minds of their own.
My eyes widened.
“Marcia–” I started, breath hitching.
She didn’t wait.
The shards shot forward like knives.
I covered my face.
The nearest one whizzed past my throat, so close I felt the air shift.
A second scraped past my shoulder, slicing my sleeve clean
open.
Another stuck in the dirt where my hand had just been.
The crowd gasped again.
Chapter 35 Losing
I tried to stand, breath trembling. My limbs shook, not
responding.
My body was done.
11 min left
My mouth filled with blood again, and I spat into the dirt. My side throbbed—a raw, crushing ache that stole the air from my lungs.
This time, I didn’t rise.
Couldn’t.
The fragments hovered again.
I gasped, hot tears slipping from my wide eyes.
But Marcia didn’t launch them a second time. She just lowered her hand, and the pieces clattered harmlessly to the ground.
The silence that followed was deafening.
No one cheered. No one moved.
They’d seen enough.
So had I.
my
side
I stayed down, breath ragged, chest heaving. The pain in told me I had cracked a rib. My hands trembled as I pressed
Chapter 35 – Losing
33
11
11 min left
them into the dirt, trying—and failing—to lift myself. To gather my dignity.
Marcia stood across from me, unmoving.
Dravic’s voice rang out from somewhere behind her.
“The challenge is over.”
That was it.
That was the end.
I had lost.
And I had nothing left to give.
B
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