by G. Bailey
He runs his hand through my air. “I could never hate you.”
I let out a breath I wasn’t aware I’ve been holding, relieved to hear those words.
“The lift is the only space we have that the cameras don’t see. Be careful what you say in your room or any open space,” he warns me. “And I will find ways to secretly help you in the trials. I will never let you die in there.”
“Until our next lift journey then,” I say as the elevator jolts to a stop and he backs away from me, his expression turning from the Gold that I know to the cold man who everyone else sees. I just have to remember we are all playing a game and I know who is going to win.
Me.
The doors spring open and I step out, but Gold doesn’t follow me. I turn my head back as I walk away, Gold’s eyes connecting with mine. A second is all we need to say goodbye before the door shuts and I squeeze my eyes shut. Breathing out the anger and pain this damn place causes in my chest, I steel my back and open my eyes before rushing to my room. Luke is still laying on my bed and I rush over to him. I sit on the edge and shake his shoulders a few times, which slowly brings him out of his sleep. His groggy eyes find mine, and even without words, he knows something is wrong.
“What happened?” He shoots up, rubbing his neck where Eva injected him. I give him a brief rundown on everything, except for in the lift with Gold. The way Luke glances at my lips when I say I was in the lift with him and the flash of anger in his eyes lets me know my puffy lips are giving too much away.
“I feel fucking helpless in here,” he growls, standing up too quickly.
He almost stumbles before I reach out and catch him. Before he can do anything, I wrap my arms around his waist and rest my head on his chest, hearing his heart beating so fast, just like Gold’s. I don’t know why, but there’s something comforting about listening to their heartbeats.
Luke doesn’t move and I fear he’s going to push me away before his shoulders drop. Instead, he wraps his arms around my shoulders and holds me to him, and I know he needs me as much as I need him to calm down before he gets himself fired.
The fact of the matter is, we need to escape this place, and a guard is useful to have on the inside.
Our life can’t be just stuck in here.
“I keep having dreams of a woman,” I tell Luke, wanting to tell someone I trust. “She’s a goddess named Kaelah, and she talks about Titans. I was going to ask Scott what he knows about them, but do you know anything?”
He looks down at me, his hand stroking my back. “Do you think these dreams are real?” There’s a note of tension in his voice, but at least he’s calmed down.
“Yes. I feel like she is real. It’s not just a dream. I need to find out what the Titans are.”
“Why don’t we head for breakfast and look for Scott there?” Luke suggests, pulling away from me and drifting his hands down my arms. My whole body shivers and the smirk on his lips makes me shake my head. Why are the men in my life so good at teasing? Luke leans closer, so close I can feel his hot breath on my ear. “Later.”
One word and my knees instantly go weak, my body springing to life.
Later indeed.
We quickly clean up and I get changed into new clothes, the same as before, and find a hairband to tie my hair up before following Luke outside. I’m still worried about him considering he was knocked out, but he seems to be okay as we head straight for the common area. There aren’t many people around, but the group that is here is not one we wanted to see.
Tyler sits in the middle of a bunch of thugs, at least by the looks of them, and he has a dagger in his hand. The dagger is vaguely familiar to me, and my body locks up when I realise why.
It’s the dagger that Coen used to stab me.
The sadistic bastard holds the weapon to his throat and winks at me. Luke steps forward, his hand reaching for his taser, but I put my hand on his chest to stop him.
“Careful, Tyler. You wouldn’t want to slip and stab your stupid ass, would you?” I say, my lips curling into a snarl.
Tyler lowers the dagger and grins at me. “The only thing that will be slipping is when I slide this dagger into your chest and dig out your heart. I will enjoy seeing your eyes fade from all life in the Blood Trials soon.” He runs his tongue across the flat side of the dagger, his gaze pressed on me. “I will enjoy tasting your sweet blood on my blade more.”
Creepy much?
“Tyler, you don’t have a girlfriend, do you?” I tilt my head at him. “Because your skills with women sure need a lot of work.”
Luke chuckles and I must have hit a nerve because Tyler’s face turns a deep red. He steps forward, his eyes darkening. His thugs move with him like trained pups and I brace myself for a good fight when footsteps register in the distance. I turn to see Scott, Memphis, and Axel walking through one of the doors. They look ridiculously hot like they’ve stepped out of a fantasy romance book or something and they’re here to fuck shit up. My guys—because that’s who they are to me now—surround me.
“Is there a problem here?” Axel’s mouth twitches, his arms folding over his chest.
Tyler glances at his guys before resting his eyes on me. He knows a straight-up fight, even when he has the only weapon, is not going to end well for him. His thugs might be big, but they don’t look like good fighters to me. Not compared to my guys.
“Be seeing you in the Trials, Izora,” Tyler growls with a smirk that I want to punch off his face. He then turns and clicks his fingers. His little pups follow him out to the common area, which is now filled with inmates making their way to the mess hall.
“Death threats before breakfast,” Scott mutters at my side. “Welcome to the Light Fae prison.”
Death threats are the least of my worries right now. My heart hammers in my chest at the sight of the double doors leading to the next phase of the Blood Trials. I barely finish breakfast when the guards usher everyone outside and into a steel hall at the back of the prison. My breath fogs as I rub the chill from my arms and my gaze locks on Eva. It’s not just her that catches my attention, but the Shadow Warden at her side.
Warden Kyle stands tall with his arms clasped behind his back, the buttons on his black uniform gleaming. He scans the hall and smirks when his gaze lands on me.
Out of all the wardens who could’ve been on her side, why him? I guess it makes sense when I think about it. He was the one who brought me to this hellhole, and the sight of him makes me even more certain I was framed. It’s all making sense now. Eva’s the one who’s been orchestrating this shit show all along with her minions like Warden Kyle at her side, doing the dirty work for her. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that she got the wardens to abduct me from the academy in the first place.
I glance over the hall at Luke standing with the other guards.
He’s looking back at me as if he, too, is realizing what I am. A crease forms between his brows as he looks between me and Warden Kyle.
Axel’s hand wraps around my waist and I look up at him, hating the pained expression I find on his face. Memphis hasn’t said a word since we got here.
Scott, on the other hand, has been going over strategy plans.
“Are you and Memphis okay?” I whisper, ignoring Eva’s spiel about how great and honorable the Blood Trials are. “I know you both lost someone you cared about in the Trials.”
“Eli.” Axel nods, his eyes flicking over to Memphis and then back again. “I’ll be okay, cutie, but I’m not so sure about the big guy. Losing his fiance the way he did… he was never the same after it.”
My eyes sting with tears at the thought of Memphis’ pain. I can’t imagine how traumatic it must’ve been to lose his loved one. It makes me all the more determined to protect my guys as much as I can and make sure I don’t lose any of them.
I move beside Memphis and take his hand in mine, giving him a reassuring smile. To my delight, he returns it, though he sniffs and clears his throat as though he was choked up.
; “Now the moment you’ve all been waiting for.” Eva sweeps a hand to the doors towering behind her. “I’m sure many of you will be familiar with the Blood Trials, for those who are not, listen up and listen well.”
With a nod from Eva, Warden Kyle unclasps his hands and crosses his arms over his chest. “The object of the Trials remains the same: try not to fucking die.”
“Now isn’t that reassuring?” Memphis mutters, winking at me.
“And remember that King Ares is watching,” Eva adds, giving us all that sickly sweet smile of hers, “so put on a good show. Again, may only the dangerous survive, and good luck.”
When the doors open and everyone is herded through them, I say to Memphis, “We’re going to be okay, you know?”
He stops for just a moment and looks down at me. “Yeah,” he says, his lips tugging into a smile. “We will be, kid. There’s no way any of us are dying before that crazy bitch does.”
Despite the fear clogging my throat, I laugh at that and repeat the words ‘we will be’ through my mind like a mantra, mostly to convince myself into believing them. Memphis is right. After everything I’ve been through, I’m not dying before I see Eva’s corpse rotting on the ground.
Once we are through the doors, the guards separate the men from the women. I find myself alone as I hurry into the locker room and open the one with my name on it. I’m surprised to find a familiar white jumpsuit inside. Although when I slide my fingers over the material, it’s cotton instead of leather. Maybe it’s suited for a certain climate. Whatever the reason, I’m kind of glad it’s not leather. As I pull it out, a pair of goggles and a thick black scarf tumble out and land by my feet.
I look around at the other girls and watch some of them wrap the scarves around their faces. A few other girls tie them around their waists and necks. I decide to hang mine over my neck once I’ve slipped into my jumpsuit and pulled my boots back on.
Unlike with previous Trials, the weapons aren’t stacked in piles around the room. They’re hanging inside the lockers as if they’ve been specifically assigned to us.I find a collection of small throwing knives and two canteens filled with water. At the back of the locker is a golden bow. I gently remove it and run my fingers over the smooth wooden limb, surprised to find my name inscribed there. The handwriting is distinctly Gold’s, a smile curves my lips. He did say he would look out for me.
Weirdly, I don’t find any arrows in the gold quiver, but I throw it over my shoulder anyway. Hopefully, the bow is magical, or else I’ll be screwed. Once I sling the bow onto my back and hang the weapons on my belt, I slam the locker before hurrying into the next room.
The guys are already waiting for me, equipped and ready to go with their scarves over their mouths.
Axel and Memphis have swords, some of them sheathed in scabbards on their backs while clenching another in their hands.
Scott is holding what looks like some kind of tranquilizer gun, and gods, he looks sexy holding it with his tattooed arms on display. Their dark clothing clings to their muscular bodies, showing off every well-defined muscle. With the three of them on my team, the others would be insane to get in our way.
I train my gaze on the endless doors that run in a vertical line. I can’t see what’s on the other side, not with the orange light shining through, but something tells me they’re portals. Hopefully, when we step through them, it won’t be like jumping through the holes back at Shadowborn Prison.
As soon as I stop beside my guys, a deafening buzzer sounds overhead and everyone steps forward to claim a door. Memphis takes the one on my right while the Mune Brothers take the two on my left. With a deep breath that makes my heart stutter, I tie the scarf around my nose and mouth and step into the blinding light.
The hot, dry air hits me first. It slams into me and knocks the wind from my sails as I suddenly start to fall. I instinctively reach out to dig my hands into the sand around me, but gravity pulls me until I roll to a stop at the bottom of the dune.
One by one, my guys land beside me, followed closely by all the others. Everyone falls down the same hill, but they don’t waste any time once they reach the bottom.
Inmates shift into various animals, some of them fighting each other, before running off.
My guys form a protective circle around me and I use the moment to take in my surroundings. There’s nothing out here for miles apart from an endless red desert stretching toward the auburn horizon. I hold my hand to my forehead and squint my eyes against the sunlight, just managing to make out the escarpments in the distance.
“We should go there,” I say, pointing at them.
Memphis tackles a wolf that lunges forward, killing it with a single swipe of his sword. “Then let’s go.”
Axel turns to Scott. “Brother, can you shift?”
“I might not be fae but I’ve still got a few tricks up my sleeve,” Scott says, and in the blink of an eye, he shapeshifts into a huge white eagle with beautiful slate-grey wings. He chirps at me and then takes to the sky.
We’re quick to follow, and thank goodness, because once my feet leave the sand, Tyler lunges forward in his wolf form. If I’d lifted off the ground a second later, my foot would now be snapped between his jaw. I can’t help the smug grin that spreads over my lips at the sight of him snarling up at me. Why the idiot isn’t flying, I have no idea… until we reach the halfway point.
“Fuck! It’s a flight field,” Axel grumbles, jutting his chin toward the veil of magic protecting the escarpments. “Motherfuckers.”
“What’s a flight field?” I ask, landing on the ground beside him.
“It’s a magical barrier that prevents anyone and anything from flying. They used the same bullshit during the Fae Tryouts.”
“Well,” Scott says, shapeshifting back, “we should hurry up if we need to walk the rest of the way.”
And so we do. The instant I step through the barrier, a gold arrow appears in my quiver. I nock the arrow and shoot it a few feet into the desert to test it. The arrow hits the sand and then materalises back inside the quiver. Thank the goddess the weapon is indeed magical. With an even greater determination, I follow the guys across the desert, and we soon figure out why we can’t shift by the time we reach our destination.
What I thought was escarpments is actually an enormous maze with towering red-stone walls. They tower over us and cause shadows to stretch over the desert around us. The inmates who arrived before hurry through one of the entrances and I can already feel myself tensing up at the thought of being trapped in a maze. Way too claustrophobic for my liking.
“Looks like we gotta split up,” Memphis says, then glancing at the other inmates not far away, adds, “and soon. Won’t be long before they catch up.” He looks back and grins at me. “Not that I’m above spilling some wolf blood.”
“Well, before you get happy trigger with that, we need to decide who stays with Izora.”
The guys all look at me, their expressions equally determined as the last. I’d rather not get separated but there’s two entrances so we don’t really much of a choice. We need to keep moving through the maze if we want to get out.
I look up at Memphis and Axel, who both hate the Trials more than anyone. They can also take care of themselves and I’d rather not stress them out more with having to look out for me.
“Me and Scott will take the right door,” I say, nodding at the professor. “Is there a way for us to find each other if we get lost?”
Scott steps beside me. “There’s a lost and found charm called vrísko̱.” He holds out his palm and waves his other hand over it. In the palm of his hand, four silver pins appear. “These will bind us for the duration of this Trial. When either of us gets lost, we simply rub the pin and repeat the spell. A light will flare into the sky and your pin will glow the closer you are until it’s reunited with another pin. You repeat the process until all four are returned. Only those who wear the pin on their clothes can see the light.”
We each take one.
<
br /> Scott pins his to the collar of his black t-shirt and whispers the incantation.
“Hidden far or near, I call for Selena’s moon to guide us here.”
I pin mine above my heart and nod at the guys. “Okay, let’s go.”
With Scott at my side, we enter the maze and the sun is immediately blocked out by the narrow walls. My heart squeezes at the thought of being separated from Axel and Memphis. I know they can handle themselves, but I still hate that I won’t be there to help. The thought of Tyler and his wolf cronies attacking them boils my blood.
Scott falls into step beside me. “Once this is all over, I want to cook you dinner.”
I blink up at him, surprised by the random comment. “I’d like that,” I say, looking around for other inmates. So far so good. “Plus, food is totally the way to my heart.”
“I know. You always liked to snack during my class.”
My cheeks heat up as my lips spread into a smile. “Damn. I thought I was sneaky eating those chocolate orange bars. Sorry. I used to get really peckish after all the braining.”
Scott chuckles and runs a hand through his white hair. “I didn’t mind since they’re my favourite. Perhaps I can bake you a chocolate orange cake for dessert.” He holds out his hand and pulls me back from the side of the wall. “Watch out for those vines. They’re poisonous.”
“Oh. Thanks.”
His grip stays on me even once we pass the vines and make our first turn.
I arch a brow at him, grinning. “So this cake thing. Are you asking me out on a date, Professor Mune?”
He nods, using his sword to cut the vines from our path; they slither aside, hissing at us. “Of course I am. As soon as I get you out of here, I’m going to be treating you like the goddess you are.” His gaze lands on me, his eyes blown with desire. “You will never go hungry or suffer under my watch. You’re mine to protect, to serve, and to love. I plan on doing just that once we’re free again.”
My heart skips a beat at his words, half accelerated by love and the other half fear. “Isn’t it crazy when you stop to think about everything that’s going on? It feels like yesterday I was totally not checking you out at the academy.”
