Chapter 147

VALERIA’S POV “No—” I lunged forward, my heart slamming against my ribs like a war drum. But I was too late. Dimitri’s fingers slammed down on the button, his smirk widening as if he had already won. For a split second, my world froze. I braced myself, every muscle in my body tightening. I knew what was coming—poison. A gas so lethal it would seep into the lungs of everyone around us, burning them from the inside, turning them into lifeless corpses before they could even scream. The end. I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for the sting, the suffocating burn, the chaos— But… Nothing happened. I snapped my eyes open, my breath catching in confusion. The arena was still there. The ground hadn’t turned into a graveyard. The warriors, the royals, everyone was still standing. For a moment, even Dimitri looked stunned. His hand trembled over the button, his eyes darting wildly across the battlefield as if expecting bodies to drop at any second. Nothing. No poison. No death. No victory for him.