But before Julie could answer, the brunette stepped forward with a bitter scowl on her face.
“Are you two stupid?” she snapped in a vicious tone, throwing her hands in the air like we annoyed the hell out of her.
“Excuse me?” Julie asked in a threatening voice, raising her chin in defiance. “You don’t get to speak to us like that.”
Hell yeah. She had a spine of steel.
The brunette rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Don’t you two know what’s happening?”
“Obviously not.” I offered wryly with a shake of my head and an eye roll. “Didn’t you just hear the two of us talking amongst ourselves wondering what was happening?”
A dark laugh preceded her response. “This is why you two are going to die.”
Instinctively, Julie and I reached out an arm in front of one another at the same time, both of us wanting to protect the other.
“Are you threatening us?” Julie seethed, and my hackles raised right alongside her.
“I’m not going to kill you, you idiots. They are!” she exclaimed and gestured towards the door.
“And who exactly are they?” I demanded, needing clarification to her claims.
“There is a war going on, and we are caught in the middle of it. And what do you think happens to people caught in the middle of war?”
I knew the answer, but I really had no desire to play this dumb game with her.
“Can you please clarify?” I snapped, causing her to growl in frustration. Like answering me was an inconvenience and a waste of her time.
Her eyes locked onto me, and her lips thinned in a grim frown. “We were put in this room because the other Trifecta that’s coming has an unclaimed mate. And unclaimed mates get fought over and somebody dies.”
I looked over at Julie, who seemed just as confused as me.
“And you know this how?” Julie prompted, motioning with her hand to continue.
She slapped her hand to her forehead before rubbing the bridge of her nose with her eyes closed. “Because I heard the leader say it.”
I felt my brow wrinkle.
When had the leader said that?
She must have seen my bewilderment because she added flippantly, “It was in the monsters’ language.”
Twin gasps of shock came from Julie and me.
“See, this is why you’re going to die. You have no survival instincts. That’s the first thing I did when these bastards tried to touch me and take me. I listened and I learned what they were saying.”
“I’ve been here, like, two days.” I retorted in my defense. “And most everyone has spoken English to me. How was I supposed to learn a new language in that timeframe?”
“Same.” Julie nodded. “I’ve been here for one day.”
So they had done another Selection the day after me and only Julie had made it through? Were they just going to send women down here every day now to be slaughtered? My stomach rolled at the senseless death.
“It’s really no excuse,” the brunette muttered mostly to herself as she turned to look at the door. “If you had any sense of survival, you would have figured it out.”
She was either a language guru or she had been here much, much longer than we had. I wasn’t sure how that was possible, though, because the way my monsters had described it, any paired Trifectas and their mates would be summoned to the capital rather quickly if they didn’t go of their own free will.
This woman confused me, but it was clear she wasn’t the kind to want to chitchat about her experience down here. She was too busy insulting us.
“Well, I don’t believe you.” I retorted.
She shrugged, still giving me her back. “What do I care if you believe me or not? It’s at your own detriment. Just know that we could all die here today.”
Linking arms with Julie, I took us to the other side of the room where we could whisper in privacy. “What is this woman’s deal?” I had never met anyone so toxic in my life.
The Above wasn’t exactly the greatest place for friendliness. We had to toe so many lines. Civility was a must, though. People were cold and distant, but not outright hostile for the most part.
“Do you think she’s speaking the truth?” Julie asked, and my eyes snapped up to hers, hating the trepidation I saw there because it mirrored my own. We were starting to believe this bitter woman.
“I’m not sure,” I hedged, “but it would make sense. My mates wouldn’t separate from me unless it was ordered by their leader. I know that.”
“She’s just bitter,” Julie said, tossing her head to the brunette, echoing my own sentiments of the woman. “She doesn’t like what’s happened and she’s fighting it. She probably sees we actually like our monsters and is trying to ruin that.”
Swaying caught my eye, and I looked over to see the strawberry blonde rocking back and forth on her heels, eyes still staring blankly at the wall. We walked towards her, and I asked, “Do you think she’s okay?”
“I’m not sure,” Julie whispered. “She doesn’t look well.”
“That’s because she’s dying, you idiots,” the brunette said almost flippantly from the other side of the room. Obviously, Julie and I whispering didn’t do very much to keep her from eavesdropping in this empty room.
No. I wouldn’t let this woman die if that was the truth. But I also wasn’t going to let her strike fear into my heart. That would do me no good in our current situation.
So I didn’t bother replying, instead reaching out for the redhead, gently placing my hand on her arm. But before I could try to rouse her from her haze to see if I could help her, the door to our room swung open and my heart dropped.
Chapter Twenty
SERA
A specter guard floated in and announced, “There’s a commotion in the throne room. Don’t worry, we’re here to protect you.” At this, two other guards came in and shut the door behind them.
“Bullshit!” the brunette screamed, spittle flying from her mouth. “You think I can’t see through your lies! You’re a Specter Trifecta, and you’re here to try to claim us despite the fact that we’ve been claimed already!” She raised her hands and shifted her feet as if preparing to fight.
My eyes bulged, and my pulse raced at her claims. No, that couldn’t be true. That wasn’t how any of this worked. My monsters had explained to me that an unclaimed mate could be fought over, but the crystal chose the mates. I didn’t understand what the point was of fighting over claimed women.
Julie rushed forward, putting herself in front of the crazy brunette. “No, no, they’re here to protect us. What you are saying is impossible! Nobody else can have us after the claiming.”
“She’s right,” the second guard offered, and relief swept through me. I felt so silly for having even listened to the brunette for a second—that is, until the guard clarified. “You should listen to your little friend here,” he growled, gesturing to the brunette with a wispy hand.
Julie swiveled back toward me, a look of fear and horror on her face, but it was too late. We had mistakenly put our trust in what we had been told by our monsters, believing that their kind would uphold any sort of rules.
Apparently desperation would make them do anything to survive—even if that meant taking human women already claimed by another Trifecta.
Did they think they could still become Rumilus if they forced themselves on us? There’s no way it could work like that…but what did I really know for certain?
The Specter grabbed Julie, floated to the ceiling, and held her aloft. “Quickly,” he hissed at the other two Specters. “We must take them to our piece of the crystal to test if we are compatible as mates.”
His words angered me.
“We cannot have two Trifectas,” I snarled. The Specter holding Julie shifted over until he was above me.
“You best hope one of you can be paired to multiple Trifectas, because if you’re not, you’re of no use to us.”
“And if we’re of no use?” I parried bac
k, knowing damn well they were out of their minds for even thinking this was possible.
“Then we kill you.”
Suddenly, I felt as stupid as the brunette had suggested I was.
“Wh-wh-what?” I stammered. “I thought all Specters wanted human women to be tested with the crystal to find the True Queen and restore your lands? Why would you kill us? Human women are cherished. You need us!”
One of the other Specters near the door snorted.
“You’re only good to us if you’re the female that brings us back to our Rumilus form right now. We are tired of being inferior in these forms.”
Another cut added on, malice dripping from his words, “We’ll be taking matters into our own hands now. We want to rule, doing what our brethren before us intended.”
“Intended?” Julie whimpered, still dangling in the Specter’s arms a few feet from me.
The brunette threw her hands up in disgust. “These are the usurpers who killed the original Queen!”
“Well, we’re not the ones who killed her, but we uphold the ideals that a mere human woman shouldn’t rule. Many of us share this belief.”
“How many of you?” I whispered, dismayed that I didn’t know who to trust. I wondered who else was a secret usurper.
“The less you know, the better,” the second Specter announced. “Let’s get going. The sooner we get this done with, the sooner we can get back to our stations. The fight for the unclaimed is a good distraction.”
“I’ll take this girl,” the third Specter announced, floating over towards the strawberry blonde, who still hadn’t realized anything was going on.
“And I’ll get this one,” the second said, coming towards me, making panic claw at my chest. How I was supposed to fight him off? I had no powers and no weapons.
“Good,” the one holding Julie murmured. “Leave the quarrelsome one here. We’ll need to all work together to take her. She has too much fight in her.”
“I’ll kill you all!” she screeched hostilely, launching herself up towards the bookshelf and at them.
They easily floated out of the way, and I wondered how you killed a shadow. Again and again, the brunette tried, and I was grateful that no matter how stupid she thought that the rest of us were, she wasn’t letting them take us without a fight. Or maybe she was just trying to protect herself.
In a rush of shadows, the Specter came for me, wrapping me in his tendrils in a vise grip. Tipping back my head, I let out a shrill scream that Julie echoed, hoping our monsters would hear us.
They quickly clamped tendrils over us, muffling our shouts and slightly gagging me as they invaded my mouth.
Our screams were futile. Our monsters would never hear us from this far away, especially being muffled. I had to find a different tactic. In the moment, all I could think to do was to squirm and fight to try to break free of the Specter’s embrace.
Julie copied me once more while the Specter guards cursed our actions as we wiggled around, but this too was in vain. Their tendrils were too strong, and within seconds they swept us out of the room, the Specter holding me pausing briefly at the door.
I couldn’t see what he was doing since he was shrouded in his shadows, but when I heard the doors being banged on and the brunette screaming, I put two and two together that she was locked in from the outside.
It felt like an eternity but was really mere minutes as he took me through the castle to where they needed us. I wished with everything in me that I could have seen the path to retrace our steps once I found a way to break free.
I’d have to figure it out as I went instead.
As the shadows were lifted and I could see once more, I took in the small room that we were deposited into. Immediately I reached for Julie, and we held onto each other for dear life as the Specters disappeared through the only door in the room with the strawberry blonde in their grasp.
There was nothing we could do for her, and it felt like my heart was splintering, the shards piercing my chest with every breath. She would die, and it was likely we would as well.
“We have to find a weapon or a way to escape,” I stammered, fighting through my terror to try to be logical enough to save us.
But no sooner did the words leave my lips than for the first time we heard a noise from the redhead. It was a shrill scream that was quickly cut off, accompanied by the snapping of a neck and a thump to the floor.
She was gone.
Julie began to sob and clung to me tighter. “Sera, I don’t want to die!”
My eyes shot around the room, looking for anything to barricade the door, but all that was in here was a string of crystal necklaces hanging from the wall.
That’s why they brought us here. To have a necklace to test the bond they thought could come from this. Come to think of it, the only time I’d seen Specters with the crystal was in the first cave I was in with the other Selected.
They must not have been able to keep them unless it was a match.
I wished with everything in me that I could have power from the crystal to fight back. To do anything other than wait.
Dropping an arm from Julie, I pulled away just enough to grip the crystal around my neck and willed it to be true. To lend me a way to save us, but nothing happened.
My cheeks were stained with the hot trail of my tears as I closed my eyes and dropped the crystal, placing my arm back to hold her tightly as we awaited our fate. I’d be with her, holding her and giving her all of the support that I could in these final moments. She wouldn’t be alone, and neither would I.
I kept my eyes shut when the door opened, refusing to accept what was about to happen.
It wasn’t until her body was pried from mine and her screams pierced my ears that they flew open and I saw her being taken out the door.
“Sera!” she cried, “Help me!”
My eyes burned and my body trembled as I openly sobbed, feeling helpless. I curled into a ball, rocking myself and trying to escape into my mind, knowing what I would hear.
My only friend here would die, and I’d be next.
Chapter Twenty-One
AXTON
My Trifecta was restless. Not that I could blame them. I was just as agitated, but I hid it under a veneer of calm. I didn’t want anyone to know that I was careening out of control without my mate. But I was. I needed to get back to Sera.
She was struggling with her heat, and I couldn’t imagine what she was feeling, being separated from us. We needed to get back to her and explain it to her immediately.
The only consolation was that I knew my mate was safe in that room, because within the throne room, Specters swam like sharks from The Above in infested waters.
They smelled their opportunity and were waiting to attack.
My heart ached for the unclaimed woman’s Trifecta. They would give it their all to win, but they were still just Specters themselves, and from the dullness of the crystal around her neck, it was clear there was no energy for them to pull from to try to give themselves leverage.
Instead, they remained evenly matched with their opponents, and evenly matched wasn’t good enough. Not when such a precious piece of your life was at stake.
Rowen twitched in agitation at my side. “I’m going to go check on Sera.”
“You can’t,” I hissed back. “Our presence is demanded. We must stand witness for this Trifecta.”
“This Trifecta is going to have their asses handed to them,” Rowen snapped in response. “It’s nine against three. There’s no way they will be able to protect their mate. We all know they will fail, so why do we have to bear witness to the once revered traditions being ruined?”
I didn’t respond, because Rowen was right. The crystal had already spoken. I understood that these were perilous times in our land, but we had always abided by the crystal. It is what gave us life, and it had chosen. It was barbaric to make this Trifecta fight for what was already theirs.
The leader called out, announcing the fight. Instantly,
a swarm of shadows descended upon the Trifecta in the center of the room, their mate’s shrill scream piercing my ears. From the corner of my eye, I watched Sylan rush forward to where she stood in the corner of the room, face aghast in horror as she watched.
“What are you doing?” I roared in surprise, but he had already shot off. He lifted her into his arms effortlessly and returned her to our side. My eyes bulged at his audacity. “Go put her back. We already have a mate.”
Sylan gave me a look of disdain before glancing at the small female trembling in his arms. “I’m not taking her to replace Sera. I’m taking her to hold her safe until her Trifecta can come back for her.”
Her eyes were locked on the flurry of shadows and energy swirling around, likely unable to discern who was who in the battle. She paid no mind to Sylan holding her, completely glued to what was happening to her mates, I’d imagine.
Her fear for them was palpable, and if I had to hazard a guess, she did accept the bond with them but hadn’t felt comfortable with the claiming yet, and they had respected her wishes.
This was exactly where we would have been if we hadn’t been honest with Sera and allowed her to make the decision of whether we would risk it or not.
“Take her out of here,” Rowen snapped. “Go put her in the room with the others so she is safe for now.”
I gave in, nodding to Sylan to get going before the leaders could stop him. We probably were already in a world of trouble for intervening—might as well save the poor girl in case she got caught in the midst of the fight.
The poor woman began to sob as Sylan raced out of the throne room, yelling for her Trifecta and reaching out with a hand for them. I hoped that Sera would help soothe her until the outcome was decided. But no sooner than Sylan left did he come slamming back into the throne room moments later, still carrying the unclaimed woman.
“Sera’s gone!” he roared over the commotion of the fight, setting the human woman down on her feet.
Immediately, the fighting stopped, and her Trifecta rushed over to grab her as her tears faded in their shadowy embrace.
Captured by the Monsters Page 14
