by Meg Collett
Sunny lifted her head but didn’t meet my eyes, her trust in me shattered. “I have to pass the test too,” she said under her breath.
“I’ll make sure you pass it.”
My words caught her attention, and she squinted at me under the bright fluorescents. “What about you?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“What the fudge does that mean?” Now she glared at me, unrelenting, and pushed up her glasses like she meant serious business.
“It means we need to focus in there and work together.”
She didn’t believe me. “So I’m supposed to forget the other night? That you’ve been ignoring me all week?” Her body relaxed slightly, and actual concern crept into her voice. “Ollie, what the hell happened? What aren’t you telling me?”
“I—”
I didn’t get to finish. The cage door unlocked and a red light above it began flashing. From an intercom, Dean’s voice crackled. “Enter the testing area.”
Sunny lurched up with a squeak. I nodded toward her jacket and thick layers. “Take off anything you don’t need. I think we’ll have to face a ’swang in there.”
“What?” She kept swallowing like she might be about to throw up. “I can’t—”
“You can. Ditch the jacket. Let’s go.”
The cage. The scream. All the lights. It had to be a ’swang. But there was no way in hell Dean was making students fight in their first year. We had to be separated from the ’swang by something. To test our fear. Our reactions. It would be easy. We would both pass.
I waited for Sunny at the door, and, when she’d jerked off her extra layers, I heaved it open. Together we entered the cage.
The spotlights blinded me, but they gave off enough warmth I knew we wouldn’t regret taking off our jackets. The enclosure spanned almost twenty feet long and the same wide. On the opposite end stood another door, this one much larger than the one we’d come through. The floor consisted of a stained concrete, rusty splotches scattered throughout, some fresher than others. Sunny whimpered behind me.
No divider separated us from the other end of the cage.
I glanced up, shielding my eyes against the lights. Behind us and far above our heads was a large, completely black glass window. A viewing room. I turned around fully and looked up at the glass, putting my hands on my hips.
The glass blinked, like a light came on behind it, and the blackness dissolved. Dean stood alone in a room similar to the holding room we’d been in. He smiled down at me; it was the dangerous smile, the smile he’d given me at the Halloween party. The one that had been a promise and a threat at once.
My stomach sank. This wasn’t going to be a test. This was payback. A way to get me in line.
“I will be conducting your testing personally,” he said, voice coming out over the intercom again. “It’s you and me right now. Oh, and Sunny. Better be careful with her, Ollie. I know your previous history with saving young girls.”
I didn’t let myself react to his words. There was nothing he could say to me about that girl that I hadn’t already told myself every night since my time in the Tabers’ basement. As flatly as possible, I said, “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
Dean narrowed his eyes, warning me not to speak again. “Most testing normally involves a more sedate, drugged opponent. Along with guards lining the cage’s walls, ready to put the animal down in case things get out of hand. But you’re Ollie Andrews!” Dean swept his arms wide, glinting smile still in place. “You can do anything, right? So I sent the guards away and requested a livelier opponent.” He leaned toward the glass, his smile slipping away, as his eyes drilled into mine. “And Ollie? I would be careful.” His eyes flickered over to Sunny. “Bad things happen when you step out of line, and a death during testing wouldn’t be unheard of. So next time, when you think about questioning my methods, you should consider what I can do to you.”
My fists clenched at my sides. Sunny’s terrified gaze turned toward me. “You should remember the last old man who locked me in a room and tried to hurt my friend,” I hissed up at him. “Because that will be your fate soon.”
He waved away my words like they were nothing. I’d really pissed him off if he was willing to hurt Sunny, a descendant from an Original family. It was a big risk, and I wondered if he was lying about the guards. Surely he’d positioned some outside the cage, just out of view, in case this went sideways.
“Pick a weapon.” He pointed down to the wall in front of me, where a panel slid back and revealed a rack of weapons. “Ten seconds.”
“What’s going on?” Sunny’s voice cracked. She stood close to me, our shoulders brushing, and grabbed my hand. “What does he mean?”
“Nine seconds.”
I shook my head. “Not now. Get ready. This is going to be worse than I thought.” I mumbled the last part, talking mostly to myself. Why hadn’t I considered Dean using Sunny against me? I’d played right into his hands.
This test would be anything but easy. It would be a life or death fight.
“Eight seconds.”
I squeezed Sunny’s hand. “We have to get some weapons.”
With a jerking nod, Sunny scuttled over to the weapons and frantically pawed through them. I spotted the stingray whip quickly and picked it up, testing its weight in my hand. In Weapons Theory, I’d learned the mechanics of it and how to use it, but I’d never actually used it. Surprisingly, the whip’s leather grip fit my hand perfectly, naturally.
“Seven seconds.”
“What should I choose?” Sunny whispered, glancing over her shoulder to me.
“Have you practiced with the throwing knives?” She nodded. “Use them. You can keep your distance that way. Stay behind me as much as possible, but get off as many shots as you can.”
Sunny picked up the pack of throwing knives, their blades slender and lethal. As I reached for another set of daggers, the weapons panel slammed shut. We would each get one choice. Sunny whimpered.
“Six seconds.”
“It’s okay,” I murmured. “We can do this.”
Sunny cinched the belt of knives around her waist with quaking hands. She pulled out a knife and hesitantly tested its weight a couple times in her hand. I turned and cracked the whip, checking its length. It was onyx-tipped point with razor-sharp barbs. I controlled it with ease, like I’d always held it. More importantly, it would help me keep my distance and defend Sunny until Dean called the test complete.
“Five.” Dean’s voice boomed over the intercom, making Sunny jump.
“Ollie, I’m sorry for being mean.” There were tears in her eyes. She already looked defeated.
“Four.”
“Not now, Sunny. Focus.”
I stepped beside her and slightly in front of her, facing the opposite door, whip in hand. I was ready. I could do this. My heart beat solidly, evenly. My palms were dry, my grip solid on the whip. I breathed deeply.
“Three.”
“Perausog. Perausog,” Sunny said under her breath, like a prayer.
Dog. I smelled dog. From the door came a slight chuffing sound. Familiar. If I strained hard enough, I heard it.
Tick tock tick tock
“Two.”
“Be careful, okay?” Sunny whispered beside me.
“Stay behind me. Don’t let your fear get the best of you. He wouldn’t risk you dying.”
Tick tock
“What about you?” Sunny whispered.
A light above the door on the other side of the cage flashed green. A muffled howl came from the other side.
“I don’t matter,” I said between my teeth, red murder haze settling around me.
“One.”
The door unlocked.
“Tick fucking tock,” I growled.
With a snap, the door sprang open, flipping upward. From the darkness, two bright eyes glowed. A snarl. Sunny whimpered behind me. I stepped in front of her to shield her from the ’swang should he attack right away.
&
nbsp; I crouched, ready for the creature to come bounding from the narrow shoot. Instead, he stalked forward, slowly stepping out into the bright lights. The ’swang was almost as large as Hex, his shoulders, rippling with thick muscles beneath his heavy fur, level with my eyesight. His lips pulled back in a snarl, exposing his sharp fangs, saliva dripping in a thick stream from his mouth. One of his tall, curved ears had been nearly chewed off, and a large scar stretched over his left eye and down across his snout. Long, splintered claws clicked across the concrete as he paced back and forth in front of us.
“Your test,” Dean said from above us, “will be to subdue or kill the creature.”
Not surviving. Not lasting a certain amount of time.
The ’swang roared up at the glass, his claws curling and chipping off parts of the concrete beneath him. From behind me, Sunny pulled out a knife, the metal knocking against her rings. I didn’t look away from the ’swang as I whispered back to Sunny, “Don’t throw until I say.”
The ’swang’s head snapped toward me at the sound of my voice. I took a deep breath and focused on his eyes. I don’t want to hurt you.
If the ’swang was surprised when he heard me in its head, he didn’t show it. Ah, so you’re Hex’s little prize. The one everyone has been talking about.
Are you in his pack? If I convinced the ’swang not to hurt us, to just make a show for Dean, we might survive.
The ’swang lifted his lips wider, like he was trying to smile, but the effort made his scarred face look more grotesque. No, pretty girl. I don’t belong to Hex, and I have no qualms about killing you.
So much for talking my way out of this. Fine. Then I will hurt you, asshole.
I cracked my whip, its tip lashing across the cage and coming within inches of the ’swang’s face. He didn’t flinch.
The stingray whip for the prodigy. The ’swang let out a low growl. Only the best can carry the whip.
Shut up.
Your friend’s fear smells divine.
“Throw!” I sidestepped and lunged. A knife whizzed by my ear as I flicked the whip again. The ’swang howled and leapt toward us. Sunny’s knife lodged itself into his neck, solid and deep. She might scoff at being in the accelerated classes, but they paid off now. My whip’s tip dug through his chest. He didn’t slow down. I snapped back my whip to hit him again, but it was too late. He sat back on his haunches and rose up onto his back legs as he swiped a paw toward us.
I had enough time to shove Sunny at of the way, but by doing so, I’d put myself squarely in the path of the ’swang’s claws.
My head snapped back at the impact. The fleshy meat of my cheek, jaw, and neck shredded like fragile, expensive silk beneath a chainsaw.
The ’swang hit the ground, his claws dripping blood. By some grace, I stayed on my feet.
Not so pretty anymore.
I didn’t have time to respond to the ’swang’s thought before he leapt onto me, sending me staggering back, holding both our weight. He’d knocked the breath from my lungs, but I kept my eyes trained on the ’swang’s mouth. If he bit me, it would all be over. The pain would consume me, revealing my secret to Dean. I couldn’t let that happen.
The sharp breeze from another knife whooshed by my cheek and sunk into the ’swang’s snout. He let out a cry and released me, slinking back and swiping at the knife with his paw. I didn’t hesitate. I attacked, rage replacing my blood, becoming my life force, the violence achingly familiar to me.
More knives whisked by me, one after the other. I slashed my whip back and forth, the continuous cracking mingling with the ’swang’s ripping growls. I cut through his hide again and again until streams of his blood slickened the floor beneath his massive paws.
I slung back my arm and sent the whip zinging forward again, aiming for the ’swang’s face, hoping to take out an eye with the onyx tip. The ’swang twisted away and caught my whip in his mouth. He jerked and I fell forward, scraping across the concrete like I weighed no more than a doll, but I wasn’t letting go of my whip.
“Ollie!” Sunny screamed.
I’d slid within the ’swang’s striking distance, too close to that gaping, smiling mouth of his. He sprung toward me, ready to pin me to the floor. When he was a breath away, I rolled to the side, tucking head over heels in a tight ball. He landed between me and Sunny, and I sprang to my feet on the other side of the cage.
“Hey!” I shouted at the ’swang, sending my whip’s tip ripping across his back. “Look at me!”
He didn’t. He prowled toward Sunny, who reached to her belt, finding all her knives gone. She hadn’t kept count. Over the ’swang’s shoulder, she met my eyes, but she didn’t retreat, though her fear made her chin quiver.
Without touching her, the ’swang sent her staggering, one knee crumbling beneath her and hitting the concrete. Sagging onto the ground, she looked like she was being drained, like a straw had been stuck into her brain to suck out her life. Her face went pale and waxy, her mouth locked open in a horrified, silent scream. Black tendrils, like slender ribbons beneath her skin, snaked out from her temples and looped around her eyes, down her nose, and into her mouth.
The ’swang fed off her fear. And Dean wasn’t stopping the test.
With a howl of rage, I sprinted toward the ’swang’s back. With a sideways flick of my wrist, I sent the whip’s length cracking toward the ’swang. I’d never used the weapon before, but somehow I knew exactly how to gauge the distance, the force I would need from my wrist, like I was born with a whip in my hand. Perfectly, the leather end wrapped around the ’swang’s neck, tightening with each circuit.
I leapt onto his back, straddling his massive shoulders and pulling the whip tight.
The ’swang reared up onto his hind legs. He was so big that I was only a couple feet away from hitting the ceiling. Beneath me, he hit the ground again and began thrashing.
Sunny slumped onto the ground and didn’t move.
In that tiny split second, seeing her on the ground and worrying she might be dead, I understood true, heart ripping, gut sinking fear. I’d caught a glimmer of it that night in the Tabers’ basement. But now, I knew that real fear came from being afraid for someone else. From trying my best to save her, and knowing it might not be enough. That was fear, but I couldn’t dwell on it.
The ’swang backed up and I fell forward onto its neck. I struggled to hold on to the whip’s end and keep the coil tight enough. Before I righted myself, he flung himself into the cage’s bars, crushing me beneath his weight.
I screamed.
My vision went white from the impact, my breath stolen.
He reared again, claws scratching over the concrete, and fell backward. My back connected with the bars, and I scraped down every inch of the metal. The ’swang’s weight crumpled into me, folding my body beneath him like an accordion.
My ribs broke so loudly I heard the cracks. My body folded over, nearly in half, unnatural and horribly wrong. Inside me, my lungs jammed together, slammed against my spine. Somewhere deep in my pelvis there was a scraping, a shifting. A second later my right leg went numb. I might not be able to walk, so I needed to hang on.
Hang on and pray.
The ’swang hit the concrete and rolled. For a second, my world went black, the concrete an unmovable pressure against my side sending my crushed ribs swishing around in my chest like melting ice in a glass. Above me, the ’swang used his weight to grind me into the ground.
For me, there was only that one moment, crushed beneath the ’swang and the ground.
There was nothing else.
I became nothing but a scream of rage and white-knuckled grip on the whip’s handle.
The ’swang completed his roll, and I once again saw the lights blazing above us. I tried to clear my addled thoughts with a shake of my head, my breathing ragged and wheezing. I coughed, my throat wet and thick. Splatters of blood landed on my hands gripping the whip.
I made the mistake of looking down. Half of my collarbone stu
ck out from a ragged, bloodied hole in my skin. My shirt clung to me in tatters, scraped off by the grit of the concrete.
I coughed again and nearly fell off as the ’swang staggered to his feet.
From the side, a flash of color darted in, sliding in front of the ’swang. It was Sunny, dark hair streaming behind her, a yell on her blue lips. She swiped upward with both arms, knives clenched tight in her grip. The ’swang’s throat tore open, like a rip of thick paper in a quiet room, the blood spilling onto the ground. He staggered but managed to hit Sunny’s back with his paw. She tumbled wildly over the floor, connecting with the cage’s wall in a sickening crunch.
Seeing her crumpled against the wall energized me enough to ignore the sickening squelch of my breathing, the way my ribs had shifted into my back. I shoved my weight backward and hauled on the whip’s end. Over the ’swang’s heaving head, I looked at the blackened glass.
And smiled at Dean, blood dripping from my mouth and face.
The ’swang hit the floor, his front legs giving way beneath him. A horrible gasping filled the air and it wasn’t just me. I stood and limped away, dragging my right leg, jerking the whip tighter with each halting step. The ’swang went still but I didn’t stop pulling. His back legs twitched. A blue tongue lolled out of his mouth and he wheezed, body shaking with spasms.
“Sunny?” I choked out, not taking my eyes off the bulging ’swang’s eyes. My back hit the bars, but I walked my hands higher up the whip and kept pulling.
Across the cage, Sunny groaned and unfolded her body. “I’m okay,” she said groggily.
“Ollie!”
Only one voice could reach me through my murder haze. I glanced toward the side, keeping one eye on the ’swang. Luke pressed against the bars, horror spreading across his face as he took in the cage’s brutal scene. Hatter crouched beside him, hands reaching through the bars, and pulled Sunny to him. A handful of other hunters gathered around the cage, their faces shocked and confused. Someone yelled at Dean to unlock the door.
