Champion: A Legend Novel

My heartbeat slows to a stop. Everything stops. This can’t be real.

How can the boy who stirred an entire nation be dying?

“You’re wrong,” I say sadly. “It makes perfect sense.”

“Why?”

“Because Day chose to walk in the light.” I turn my back on him for the last time. The door opens; the cell’s bars make way for the hall, a new rotation of prison guards, freedom. “And so did Metias.”

No matter how much money the Republic throws at me, I will forever be the boy from the streets.

And I’d forgotten that a boy from the streets is no match for the future Princeps.

capital. Just the thought of seeing him again leaves my heart pounding, aching from his absence in my life

He’ll listen to you.I closed my eyes and bowed my head. I didn’t want to admit it, but I knew that Anden was right

He stood close enough so that if I wanted to, I could tilt my face up and accidentally brush my lips against his. My heartbeat quickened at the thought

Please, let it be her.
Did her voice always have this effect on me

The one who actually matters to you.”
My cheeks warm at the taunt in his voice. “June?”

She’s June, I tell myself on repeat. My lips work greedily along her neck, tasting smoke and perfume

Day reaches out and touches my hand with his. He encloses it in a handshake. And just like that, I am linked with him again, I feel the pulse of our bond and history and love through our hands, like a wave of magic, the return of a long-lost friend. Of something meant to be. The feeling brings tears to my eyes. Perhaps we can take a step forward together.