When Theo had seen the name on his tournament coin he had felt some small cold vindication in his soul. All the poison called hate within him would find release that day in a match.

  Ramses.

  Theo didn’t hate the man in truth, he just hated the way he walked, the way he talked, and most of all, the way he had hurt Lillian. That was all there was to it, nothing personal.

  Theo sat cross legged on the ground, waiting for Joy’s fight to finish. He knew he should be out there supporting his friend through this moment, but he could care less right now. All that mattered was the match with Ramses.

  After some interminable amount of time a girl tapped him on the shoulder and gestured for him to walk out towards the arena. He barely registered her face, he was in a daze, waiting.

  The corridor felt cold. A bitter wind was creeping down the hall and seeping into Theo’s bones. It was welcomed into his body; he needed a cold fire to bring down Ramses.

  Theo didn’t listen to the stupid announcer do his stupid introductions. He just walked out into the arena. The entire arena was filled with ice. But it wasn’t just knee-deep snow. There were beautiful works of art embedded into the snowbanks, people caught in moments of pain and weakness, triumphant heroes, and the average person living as normally as they could. All these images sparked something in Theo, yet he crushed it down in his anticipation for seeing his enemy.

  Theo’s gaze turned red when he saw Ramses step into the arena. Ramses didn’t seem to look much like anything. He didn’t seem happy or sad at all, he just seemed like he was there.

  But Theo could feel the bubbling core of hate in him simmer as Ramses stepped onto the icy field.

  Theo took one final breath, uncaring for the structures of the battle and what was supposed to happen here. Theo didn’t want battle; he wanted to teach Ramses a lesson.

  Without waiting for the announcer to start the match, Theo released an iceberg in the arena. Hundreds of sculptures were shattered as he looked forward with all his freezing power.

  It was much more than he was used to, but it didn’t matter. None of it mattered as long as Ramses felt the cold.

  “Her body shields me.” Theo could hear the voice carry across the stadium, though he knew that it was being spoken at a normal volume.

  Within the iceberg Theo had just made in the center of the arena, Theo saw a body of glowing light surrounding Ramses’ form. The glowing body had saved Ramses from the onslaught of ice, but Theo wasn’t finished yet.

  He gazed down into his hands and a brutal spear was formed out of ice. Layer by layer, a spear filled with brutal crags and edges was created. There were many sharp points that stuck out from it, and as Theo held onto the weapon drops of his blood spilled from where he gripped the spear.

  A spear of white and red that cried ‘pain’ to the world.

  Ramses was not stationary during this time. The hollow space where the woman had been, was filled by hands from the woman each with nails longer than an average man was tall. These nails pierced the ice that surrounded Ramses, then different fists rammed into the weakened walls of ice, causing more and more ice in Ramses’ prison to fall away.

  As Theo approached the edge of the iceberg he had created, Ramses exploded out of the side of the icy wall. The two men faced each other, Ramses said “her nails will strike my enemies down.” And a spear appeared in front of him, it was a spear that looked as if a massive nail had been shaved down until it was usable as a weapon. It shimmered in the snow.

  Both men squared off against the other, sizing up the opponent. Then they rushed at each other, letting their spears clash.

  Nail shattered ice in a spray of frozen chips. The spear pierced through Theo’s right shoulder throwing him back and pinning him to a sculpture of a woman eating a random piece of fruit.

  Theo snarled at Ramses and a flood of ice erupted in front of him. Ramses whispered, “protect me, please.”

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  A warrior version of the woman who always appeared when Ramses called slammed down in front of Ramses, a massive shield carried in both arms. She brought the shield up in front of them and held back the flood of ice looking to consume him.

  Theo screamed as he ripped the ethereal spear out of his shoulder, then he stared down at the wound and froze the surface layer shut so he would not keep bleeding everywhere.

  He brought the spear down level at the woman and Ramses then chucked it at them with the strength in his remaining arm.

  Ramses watched the spear close in on his and said, “she would never harm me.” Then the spear passed harmlessly through the woman and him, like they were ghosts.

  Theo screamed at the top of his lungs. It was a throaty scream filled with wordless hate. He threw out all the weakness that held him back, he threw away what he cared about, he forgot why he was even fighting the man in front of him, all in a reckless effort to feel only the cold edge of hatred for the man in front of him.

  Theo looked beyond the air in front of Ramses. He knew there were little bits of invisible water in everything and that was what he truly froze when he used his gift; but he looked beyond it. For the first time he truly looked at Ramses.

  Theo didn’t see a villain. He saw a man who struggled to get here and had fought Lillian honorably. Or about as honorably as anyone can fight. He saw there was pain in his eyes and loss. But most of all he saw a deep underlying passion to the man. He was beautiful.

  But none of that mattered as the water inside Ramses’ body froze.

  A scream of terror erupted from Ramses as he was frozen. Theo knew that the pain must have been immeasurable, and he knew that he had just done something truly awful to the man in front of him.

  Theo had made a mistake.

  Theo stopped looking at Ramses and fell to his knees.

  Ramses was mostly ice; he had been turned into a living statue much like the ones in the arena around him. But that wasn’t enough. Pain wasn’t enough to ever make him stop loving, even death could not keep his love from the world.

  Silently, a shimmering image of the woman he loved appeared in front of him. He needed no incantation of love to summon her, because his entire being was composed of love for her.

  She caressed his face with a glowing hand and lightly kissed his forehead.

  In a burst of light his body was restored whole and hale. Chips of ice fell off him as he stood proudly as tall as he could.

  Ramses could not lose. He refused to lose.

  Theo did not notice Ramses’ epic rejuvenation; he was too busy moping about how he had just murdered someone in a horrific way. Truly, edginess never helped someone win a battle.

  “Her luscious locks bind my enemies.” Quietly, Ramses mumbled his incantation and a net of glowing hair enveloped Theo.

  Theo looked up in surprise as the net encased him. The man he had killed was standing there unharmed with a confident look on his face. This was bad.

  Theo frantically started forming hunks of ice around the arena. He obscured Ramses’ view of him and formed a small knife out of ice to hack away at his bonds.

  The hunks of ice around the arena were not forming as quickly as he hoped. They were quite small and measly in comparison to the glaciers he had formed earlier in the competition.

  Ramses floated above the cover Theo had created on a giant glowing hand. His eyes shone with no hate, not even acknowledgement, it was the eyes of a man who could not wait finish this battle.

  A wave of ghostly hands shot down at Theo as he finally ripped himself free from the net. A weak shell of ice formed around him in hopes of protecting him from the volley.

  But it wasn’t enough.

  The hands pierced through the feeble shield and drove Theo to his knees. Hundreds of hands forced him to the ground where they held him down as Ramses approached.

  Ramses held a club that looked to be made of a human femur, Theo tried not to think about the ramifications of that too hard.

  Ramses approached Theo as he laid on the ground and said, “I forgive you, and I hope you forgive me.” Then Ramses walloped Theo over the head with the bone until he fell unconscious.

  When Theo awoke, he was in the infirmary for the losers of the matches. Joy was sitting in a cot near Theo and was taking a small nap. But more importantly, next to Theo was Lillian who had a cross look on her face.

  Theo began simpering, “I am so sorry I couldn’t beat him. I just… he was too strong.” He wrung his hands and looked like a truly miserable wretch.

  “Why in the world would I care about that? Why in the world would I want you to come in like my hero and beat that guy up for me? Do you really think that’s what I wanted?” Lillian’s words cut into Theo, sharper than knives, they stung.

  “No, I guess not.”

  “YOU GUESS!” Lillian’s shouting was starting to attract the attention of the healing staff in the room and there were hushed whispers with the guards outside.

  “I was angry, I was just so angry for what he did to you.” Theo felt sobs starting to push up his throat, but he shoved them back down. Now was not the time to feel.

  “You were blind to it all Theo. That wasn’t a fight, it was just you trying to express your hate for him, and in your hate for him you destroyed so much of what you love.” Lillian held Theo’s hand as she said this.

  “What I love?” Theo asked, the sobs starting to push their way back up again.

  “Did you not even notice? I bet you didn’t.” A light scoff escaped Lillian’s lips. “Whose ice sculptures did you think were on the arena floor? They were playing mind games with you, the knights snuck into the prince’s castle last night and stole all your artwork.”

  Theo stared disbelieving at Lillian. All his hard work, all his art, it was gone. And he didn’t even notice as he was fighting Ramses.

  The sobs were pushed back down into his stomach, and Theo felt empty. So very empty.