The Rejected True Heiress (Liora and Callum) novel Chapter 493

Chapter 493 

Liora’s POV 

+25 Bonus 

The tournament grounds were already buzzing with activity. Students were everywhere, crowding around the various tents, leaning over the barriers of the racing track, and most of all, crowding around the 

combat arena with excitement. 

The combat bracket had been posted near the entrance again. I didn’t stop to read it. I already knew what 

it said. 

I exhaled through my nose and turned away from the full-length mirror. Away from the terrified face and wide eyes staring back at me. 

Through the canvas walls of the tent, I could hear the crowd cheering as a fight came to an end. Someone’s name was called over the loudspeaker for a different match, and a cheer went up again. 

I laced up my boots slowly. Tightened them. Then loosened the left one slightly and tightened it again. 

The tent flap opened and Zane slipped inside with Mia on his heels, letting it fall shut behind her. He glanced over his shoulder, then walked over to me, reached into his jacket, and pulled something out. He held it out to me without preamble. 

It was a knife. Small, fixed blade, leather-wrapped handle worn smooth from years of use. I recognized it before my brain had even fully caught up with what I was seeing. 

Marcus’s knife. 

I stared at it for a second, then looked up at Zane. “Where did you get that?” 

“Found it in your room. Under your mattress.” He shrugged one shoulder. “I figured you might want it.” 

Standing slowly, I glanced at Mia over Zane’s shoulder. She gave me a sheepish smile. 

“Better safe than sorry,” she whispered. 

Looking at Zane warily, I reached out and took it from him. The handle was exactly as I remembered it, the leather warm from Zane’s jacket. Marcus had carried this thing every single day for as long as I could remember. He’d used it to teach me how to throw, how to disarm, how to use close quarters to my advantage when I was just nine years old, much to my mother’s chagrin. 

“Keep it on you,” Zane said, patting the side of his boot. “Hidden. Just in case.” 

“Weapons aren’t allowed in the ring,” I said. 

“We know,” Mia replied. 

I looked at my friends. Their faces were both pale and drawn, just as mine was. 

“Daisy broke her own hand and didn’t feel it,” Zane said. “You know that. And with Bianca calling the shots out there, you probably shouldn’t bank on the fact that she’ll stop hurting you once she starts.” 

“Even if the royal guards decide to go against Bianca’s word and step in,” Mia added, “it could happen so fast. You should be prepared.” 

Neither of them was wrong, as much as I hated to admit it. With Bianca sitting up on her dais as the female Alpha, she was the one in charge of deciding when the fight was over. And if her spellbound crony was in the middle of killing me, I had a sneaking suspicion that she would let it happen and claim it was all just a horrible tragedy afterwards. 

I turned the knife over in my hands once, then leaned down and slipped it into my left boot, flat against my ankle, handle tucked just below the top of the cuff where it wasn’t visible. 

“Only if I absolutely have to,” I said, straightening. 

“Obviously,” Zane said with a wry smile. “We’re not telling you to stab someone for fun.” 

“Just checking to make sure we’re on the same page,” I laughed bitterly. 

I looked tired. I also looked like someone who had been in four fights yesterday and had gotten too drunk and slept in her clothes and was now expected to walk into a ring against an opponent who had once crushed her throat without flinching. 

But I was here. Still standing. 

Marcus would have said that was the only thing that mattered. He would tell me to get the fuck back up and get this over with and not look back, because Alphas didn’t look back, not even when they had no eyes left to do so. 

I just hoped that Mrs. Oakes would be able to help me like she said if it came to that. 

Most of all, I hoped it wouldn’t come to that. 

Outside, the loudspeaker crackled. 

“Liora Belrose to the combat arena. Liora Belrose, you’re up.” 

Mia grabbed my hand and squeezed once, her eyes full of tears. I squeezed back and refused to let mine mist over. I needed to see straight, not cry in the ring. 

Zane held the tent flap open, I walked out into the sunlight. 

The noise hit me immediately, a wall of voices and cheering and the low thrum of a crowd that had been waiting all morning for this. Students packed the stands on all sides of the combat arena, spilling over the barriers and craning their necks. I could see phones in the air, people filming and snapping photos. 

And there, I could see Bianca in an elegant blood-red gown on her dais above it all, sitting in her chair with her hands folded in her lap and her tiara on her head and that smile on her face. 

I didn’t look for Callum this time. But after last night, I knew he was there, cheering me on even if I couldn’t see him, and it filled me with comfort. 

I ducked under the ropes and stepped onto the mat. 

The crowd went wild.