by Eva Ashwood
They both sneered at me as they put on an extra burst of speed.
Fuck. Now I have to win.
I managed to get to the top first, finding a large hole in the dome just as I’d expected I would.
Peeking over the side, I found that the floor was a huge drop below.
Shit. There’s no way I can jump. I’ll break my legs.
Not for the first time today, I wished my new magic had given me the power of flight.
But, no such luck. I’d have to do this the old-fashioned way.
I cracked my knuckles and took a deeper look at the dark interior of the structure, running my gaze along the inside of the dome. All across the curved ceiling and walls were heavy, twisted ropes, crisscrossed to make a sort of rope ladder.
There were several hanging down from different points too, like snakes dangling in the darkness.
My hands grazed across the ledge of the hole and I found the rough texture of rope just at the edge. I was going to have to pretty much hang upside down to get to a level surface, but whatever I had to do, I had to do. I untied the rope from around my waist and shoved it in my bag, casting one last look behind me.
Fuck. The other competitors were gaining fast. If I hadn’t had such a solid head start, they would’ve caught up to me already.
I braced myself as I climbed over the edge, dangling my feet down and turning, gripping onto the rope ladder.
At first, my feet slipped, and I hung there, swaying back and forth over the enormous drop.
My eyes went wide, and I quickly pulled my legs back up hooking them into the rope ladder. Gathering my breath, I began to work slowly down it, hoping that I could move fast enough to stay ahead of the people who were approaching the crest of the roof.
I got into a pretty good rhythm. My upper body strength was great from hours spent working the heavy bag, and I kept the magic film on the palms of my hands, which helped me climb without getting cut by the ropes.
But when I reached the point of no longer struggling against gravity but climbing parallel to the sides of the building, I heard something scrape across the metal beams around me.
My heart lurched in my chest, and I peered around me into the dim light. The only illumination came from the sunlight streaming through the hole at the top, and although my eyes had adjusted, it was still a little hard to see clearly.
The noise came again, closer this time.
Please, gods, let it be something harmless.
I still couldn’t see shit, but staying still wasn’t a good plan. So I gave up searching and began to climb faster, moving my arms and legs as quickly as I could.
Then I heard it again, and again.
The next time the noise came, it was so close to me that I jumped, almost losing my grip on the rope. Very slowly, I turned my head, palms growing slick with sweat.
An enormous spider perched on the side of the dome a few feet away from me. It was staring right at me, and for a moment, I was pretty sure it was licking its spiky, hair-covered mouth.
Its legs were longer and thicker than mine, and its body was the size of a fucking horse.
Of course. First giant birds and now this. I hope there’s a god that really likes bunnies.
Chapter Thirteen
The scratching sound was squealing in my ears, but the spider wasn’t moving.
My hands gripped tighter to the rope as I realized it was coming from the other direction. Slowly, I looked over to the other side, finding three more—and the newcomers were even bigger.
Fuck. How many of these giant fuckers could there possibly be in this dome?
Of course, that was a very stupid question to ask. I might as well have told fate right then and there that I’d love for her to fuck with me.
I’d never been very squeamish about spiders. They were just insects, and they were smaller than me anyway. I didn’t need a man to kill them for me, and I didn’t get all squeamish if I saw one.
But these?
These were like something out of a horror movie.
I had never seen an insect so big, or so seemingly hungry as these hairy fuckers were.
Above me, the other contestants were crawling into the dome, hanging from the ropes. Every single one of them paused, their eyes going wide as they noticed the spiders around us.
The one to my right began to move, quickly scurrying toward me. I hooked my legs in the rope and laid back, hanging upside down. I barely had time to charge my energy before releasing my magic and slamming a stream of it into the spider.
The beast flew back and rammed against the dome wall before sliding down.
Eventually, it caught itself, its legs latching onto the ropes to stop its fall. It regained its footing and scuttled off into the darkness.
Great. One down, an unknown number still to go.
I wasn’t out of the woods yet. Not with the other three spiders creeping toward me faster and faster. Steeling myself against the utter ick factor—I’m not squeamish, I’m not squeamish, I’m not squeamish—I swung my body up and grabbed a hairy leg with one hand. I used the same sticky film I’d created to help me climb the wall and latched onto the spider’s leg as strongly as I could, then yanked.
As it came free from the ropes, I pulled my magic back into myself, unsticking my hand from the prickly hair of its leg.
It fell, and I didn’t even bother to see if it caught itself like the first one had. No time for that.
Quickly, I twisted my wrist around and around, creating a spiral of energy. Then I gripped onto the end of it and began to lash right and left, sending a whip of spiked magic at the spiders.
They hissed and gurgled, foam trickling down from their fangs.
The remaining two moved a bit closer, just enough for the magic to whip around them and slap them hard across the bodies. There was a loud shriek, and they moved back, hurrying to the other side of the dome.
Holy shit.
My breath was coming in short gasps as my heart thundered in my chest.
I steadied my breathing, trying to collect myself, knowing I needed to get to the bottom.
As I moved to unhook my legs from the ropes, I heard a loud hiss right next to my head. With a gasp, I turned, finding myself face-to-face—or, much more horrifyingly, face-to-fang.
The spider’s back leg reached up, the pointed spike on the end dripping with some sort of venom, and fear flooded my body
Everything happened so quickly that time seemed to blur.
As the leg came flying down toward me, I clenched my teeth, my body bracing to try to defend against the attack. Then a loud hissing noise sounded next to my ear, and I jerked back as a spear of dark, colored magic slammed into the spider, impaling it.
It moaned and groaned as it slid down the side of the wall, falling the entire distance to the floor with a heavy splat.
Fucking disgusting.
Snapping my head up, I found Lachlan climbing through the hole and down toward me.
I let out a surprised sound at the sight of him, and he laughed, swinging quickly across the ropes as the others who’d entered after me climbed and battled spiders all around us.
“You actually thought I wouldn’t follow ye?” he called, a mocking tone in his voice. “Why wouldn’t I? I knew ye were onto something. I knew it.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “What about our truce?”
He chuckled as he began to climb down the rope ladder. His upper body strength was nothing to scoff at either.
“I told you, when the sun came up it was over.”
A swarming irritation filled me. Of course. I should’ve known better than to trust him for a second after dawn.
But still, it was hard not to be a little grateful that he had followed me. If it weren’t for him, I’d probably be in the middle of being wrapped up like a mummy for the spiders and their children.
Looking back at him, I could see that he was twisting to the left trying to find his footing on the rope. About fifteen feet away fr
om him to the right, a spider sat crouched, ready to leap. As its long, thick legs pushed away from the side of the dome, I yelled out to him, thrusting my hand up.
“Watch out!”
Energy flew from my palm and wrapped itself around the spider, sending it falling to the ground.
His head whipped around. He blinked down at the spider’s body below him, and even from a distance, I could see him shudder.
“Fuck. I hate spiders.”
They seemed to be backing up, becoming more wary, mostly because of the damage all of us were inflicting on them.
I was still the closest to the floor, so I headed down, breathing a sigh of relief the second my feet met solid ground.
Unfortunately, I happened to land in the guts of one of the spiders. I bit back a retch as I picked up my foot. Long streams of goo stuck to the bottom, and I grimaced as I wiped my boot clean on a clear patch of earth.
Next to me, Lachlan landed, snapping the magic from the palms of his hands. He had used it like a booster, slowly sinking down the wall so that he was able to move faster than everyone else and not worry about the ropes.
It was pretty badass, actually. I definitely didn’t have that skill, and I was guessing none of the other contestants did either, considering no one had copied his move.
He looked at my boots and made a face. “That’s disgustin’.”
I rolled my eyes, pointing ahead of us. “I think that’s a little bit more concerning.”
He turned to follow my gaze and let out a low whistle as we both stared at the entrance to a large maze. The walls were made of stone, vines, and pretty much every other material you could find out in the jungle.
I growled at myself. “I should’ve spent more time looking down while I was up in those fucking ropes. I could’ve mapped out a route.”
Lachlan raised an eyebrow. “I’ve never been great at shite like mazes. I’ve always been more of a lad for smashin’ things and using my fists.”
My gaze shifted toward him for a moment. Huh. Despite the fact that our truce was no longer in effect, he seemed to be assuming that we were working together at this point.
I wasn’t going to complain though. The challenge ahead was more than daunting. I turned around and looked up at the competitors still making their way slowly down the wall—they were all picking up speed now that the spiders were retreating. Once they reached the floor, it’d be a fight to reach the finish line of that maze.
Merrick was descending the wall to my right, his arm muscles flexing as he lowered himself through the tangle of ropes.
I bit my bottom lip, debating for a second, knowing that this maze was going to give all of us hell.
Cupping my hands, I called out to Merrick. “Hey! I’ll share whatever it is I find—what we find—if you guide me through this maze. How about a little teamwork? What do you say?”
The light-haired mage narrowed his eyes at me suspiciously.
He didn’t answer me right away, but he did pick up his pace, releasing his grip on each rope so fast his descent became more like a controlled fall than a climb.
I could tell he still didn’t trust me, and I didn’t blame him. I didn’t trust him either. In fact, part of me wondered if I’d be better off offering to team up with any of the other competitors in the place than him and Lachlan. But at least with Merrick, we had some history—as tense as it was. I knew what I was getting into with him.
He landed hard on the floor, going down to a crouch to absorb the impact before rising and striding quickly over to us, staring at the maze. “I memorized it from up there. But there are some serious vines down one of the passageways and I don’t have anything to cut them with. It’s like an entire wall.”
I smiled and reached back to the side of my pack, pulling out a large hunting knife. “You mean like this one?”
“That one would do.” He arched a brow, his gaze hardening. “Lucky one of us has a pack.”
Still a little testy about that, I see.
But Merrick had clearly decided to take me up on my offer, because instead of giving me more shit about the pack, he jerked his chin at the maze. “Come on. Let’s go.”
I put up one finger. “We’re going to need some backup.”
Turning, I looked over at Trace, who was almost all the way down the wall by now.
Sure, why not make it an even three?
“Trace! If you stay right there and defend us from above, we’ll share what we find with you. Let us know if anything is coming, and if you can prevent it, use your magic!”
Trace shrugged, obviously not really caring that much. I would’ve much preferred to hang on the wall defending other people then be down in the maze too.
“Yeah, sure. Go!”
He gave me a nod, and the other two men and I darted into the maze. Merrick guided us with unerring accuracy, and Lachlan acted as security. There weren’t really any creatures—not breathing ones at least. Whipping vines, sticks, and stones shot out in all different directions as we ran through the massive maze.
Some of them weren’t even close, but others got near enough that I felt the brush of air displaced by their path. And several nailed me, leaving stinging welts and scrapes on my skin.
We hurried through, keeping our guard up.
When we finally reached the center, I pointed.
“There!”
A scroll hovered just above a large pedestal in the middle. The three of us stared at each other for a half second, distrust filling the space between us. But before any of us could speak, two other contestants reached the middle of the maze, coming from different directions. Alaric and Chetna.
Without thought, the men and I all took off running, heading as fast as we could toward the scroll.
I knew I couldn’t trust these guys, and they felt the same way about me. The only thing I could trust was to get that scroll in my hands. I used my magic, throwing my hands behind me and sending a blast of power out, giving myself a surge of speed. As I neared the pedestal, I leapt up onto a large rock, kicking off as hard as I could as I flew through the air.
Alaric was wiry but fast, and he jumped at almost the exact moment I did. He stretched his arm out, but I managed to wrap my hands around the scroll just an instant before he did.
I landed hard and rolled, coming back to my feet in a smooth motion.
Alaric cursed, and I heard two low voices growl as I took off toward what I was hoping was the exit.
I wasn’t necessarily splitting away from Lachlan and Merrick, but I was definitely trying to get away from the other two, who were looking at me with murderous eyes.
Well, maybe I was planning on ditching my two “allies”, but it didn’t matter. I never got the chance.
Lachlan tackled me to the ground just as I neared the exit to the maze. I had a sudden flashback to the night before as once again, the two of us went down hard. He grabbed me around the waist and flipped me onto my stomach, pushing my face into the floor.
“I’m all about teamwork, but no one screws me over,” he growled.
“I’m not trying to screw you over,” I mumbled against the packed dirt, heart thudding hard in my chest.
Had I been? I honestly wasn’t sure.
He scoffed at me. “Oh yeah? What exactly were ye doing making a run for it? If ye’re going to be a team player, then be a team player.”
He had a point. And I didn’t know at what point during this whole thing I would need him again.
I relented, bending my arm and handing the scroll back to him. He snatched it, then climbed off me, waiting and helping me up off the floor. I half expected him to make a run for it, but to my shock, he didn’t.
Merrick rounded the corner a second later, just as Trace joined us in the entrance to the maze. They each sent out bursts of magic, defending us from the other contestants who were trying desperately to get to the scroll.
I looked around wildly, knowing we didn’t have time to climb all the way back up. “We need to find a w
ay out of here. Fast.”
“Come on!” Merrick shouted, and all four of us sprinted out of the maze, still sending blasts of defensive magic behind us.
Merrick led us back to the wall, and I was about to point out that we’d be easy targets if we tried to climb back up to the opening at the top. But before I could say anything, he rolled up his sleeves and rubbed his hands together, his large muscles tense.
“I’ve got this.”
I wrinkled my brow, unsure if he realized he was standing in front of a wall.
Energy vibrated around him, moving through his veins and surging into his fists. Then, with a feral yell, he pulled his arms back and smashed his hands into the stone wall. The entire dome seemed to shake, and cracks spread from the place his blast had hit.
Two more pulses of energy, and the wall broke.
It exploded outward, opening a hole in the dome to the jungle.
My eyes went wide, but I hurried through, looking at him strangely as I passed.
Why didn’t he do that in the first place?
Chapter Fourteen
Taking off from the dome, we all ran as fast as we possibly could.
We stayed close, and I wasn’t sure whether it was because we were afraid to lose each other in a dangerous situation, or if it was because we didn’t trust each other enough to take our eyes off each other.
Either way, I was stuck with the three of them for a little bit longer.
I had to admit though, after the dome, I wasn’t really upset about that. If we hadn’t joined forces, none of us would’ve gotten out of there—and we definitely wouldn’t have gotten the scroll.
We ran at a flat-out sprint for what felt like forever, until all of us were completely out of breath and out of energy.
Reaching a hidden place behind some rocks next to a stream, we slid down the side of the stone face and collapsed onto the sandy ground.
My lungs felt like they were made of fire, and every breath sent shooting pains through my chest.
