He signaled for the door to open.

It creaked inward.

A tiger charged right toward Cion.

“You liar!” I screamed at Rodric.

“Of course they both had tigers. Did you honestly think I’d let him go?” Rodric laughed.

My thoughts raced. So did my heart.

I did the only thing I could think of.

Before Rodric’s laugh had even died out, I’d switched my grip on the railing. I kicked my feet off the bench and flipped over so my back would’ve hit the other side of the railing if I hadn’t let go.

I landed and was running before the sand settled around me. Gasps escaped from the crowd, followed by cheers.

I didn’t even turn to see Rodric’s puzzled look over where my shackles had gone. My sights were aimed at the tiger. It loped across the arena, leaving a trail of dust behind it.

My dress wrapped around my legs. I kicked through it, running faster than I ever had before.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw another body jump through the broken section of railing not far from me and angle toward me.

Dimic.

He had two swords in his hands.

“Kateri,” he called. He heaved a sword toward me. I caught it as I kept running.

“Free Cion!” I threw over my shoulder.

The tiger locked eyes with me and charged forward as though it knew it was in a race for its prey.

Cion had pulled his chain taut as far from the tiger as he could get. I could only watch as the tiger’s paws pounded into the sand and it leapt over the post, straight at Cion.

He rolled forward out of the tiger’s path and ducked around the post, back toward the doors.

The tiger recovered quickly, turning back and snapping, narrowly missing Cion’s arm. Cion whipped the small amount of chain back and forth, trying to keep the tiger at bay.

The beast didn’t care. It moved forward, forcing Cion to dive around the post again. His body shuddered as the length of chain ran out, and he was jerked around. He landed at an awkward angle, momentarily tangled.

I was nearly there, nearly to him, but I wasn’t going to make it in time. The tiger tensed, ready to jump on its stunned victim.

I forced my legs to move faster.

Just as the tiger’s front paws left the ground, I leapt.

A roar ripped from my chest as I jumped over Cion, landing one foot on the post he was chained to. I bounded off it and met the tiger midair.

I rammed my sword through its chest as we collided.

The tiger’s weight drove me backward as we crumpled to the ground together. The beast’s paws were around me and trying to detract enough to claw me. I didn’t have room to pull my sword free, so I rammed it in farther and twisted. The tiger let out a heavy breath and stopped fighting. I rolled the tiger away and disentangled myself from its limbs.