The Minotaur perked up as we approached. It stepped forward again, pulling harder on the chains the closer we got. It was the biggest monster I’d ever faced.
Which meant I was going to have to throw a lot of lightning at it to knock it out.
Once I was as close to the monster as I could get while still staying out of its reach, I stopped and gathered my magic. It came to me easily, the electricity filling my body so it and I were one and the same. Spiderwebs of crackling light danced over my skin, begging to be released.
The orbs buzzed around me, and I smiled at them, even though I hated them.
One of them flashed dark for a second. A glitch, maybe? I didn’t think they could glitch, since they were created by the gods.
But it wasn’t my problem. I had more important things to focus on. Like helping Felix kill this monster.
I looked away from the orbs, raised my hands, and hurled two bolts of lightning at the Minotaur’s chest.
Its angry roar rang through the field. Its entire body lit up like a spotlight. I smelled the sharp, putrid scents of burning hair and skin. But it kept tugging at its chains, refusing to go down.
I kept the bolts locked on its chest, pushing my magic toward it. The light was so bright in front of my face that I could hardly see.
It roared again, followed by a loud snap from its direction. Another roar, another snap.
“Selena!” Felix cried out in warning.
I lowered my hands just in time to see the Minotaur’s hand in front of me. One of its nails came at me to take my head off, but I dodged out of its path.
It shouldn’t have been able to reach me. But a glance at its feet showed that it had broken free from the chains.
Then, a punch to the gut.
My breath caught, and I looked down.
One of its nails had gone straight through my stomach.
This couldn’t be happening. But the electric light shining from my skin blinked once, twice, and then it went out.
The monster looked down at me, and something flashed in its eyes. Guilt, perhaps?
It pulled its nail slowly out of me. Sharp, twisting pain worse than I’d ever known ripped through me. I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out.
My hands went to my stomach, and I stumbled back, collapsing to the ground. Warm, sticky wetness flowed through my fingers.
Blood. So much blood.
If I was bleeding so much, why didn’t it hurt?
My head lolled to the side. Felix had dropped his sword, and his mouth was open in shock.
My vision hazed around the edges. I tried to keep my eyes open, but the world continued to fade. So I pressed harder on my stomach to slow the blood. But I didn’t even have the strength for that, and my hands dropped to my sides.
I couldn’t move. Trying to think felt like wading through quicksand. All I could do was sink into oblivion.
Is this what it feels like to die?
A deep, guttural cry tore through my mind.
Julian.
His blurred form flew through the air, and then, everything went dark.
39
Selena
I cracked my eyes open, and was assaulted by bright rays of light. I shut them quickly, and then opened them again, ready this time.
I was lying under the covers in bed. Julian sat next to me, his ice blue eyes shining with worry. The golden Emperor of the Villa wreath encircled his head.
Everything felt hazy and dreamy, like I wasn’t really there. But Julian held my hand, and I squeezed tighter, grounding myself.
My stomach tingled with icy coldness.
The memory of the Minotaur slammed into me. All that blood… so much blood.
“Are we dead?” I asked Julian.
“No.” He looked at me in wonder. “You’re healed. We’re both alive.”
“Although you would have been dead,” said a man with ink black curly hair sitting next to Julian. His skin was perfectly smooth, and his features were cut sharp. He had to be a supernatural of some sort. “If the Minotaur had its way.”
“Who are you?” I pressed my other hand to my stomach. It was covered in a thick slab of salve.
“I’m Vejovis,” he said. “The god of healing.”
I sat up and recognized where we were—the healing chamber in the villa. I knew Vejovis healed us when we needed it, but I’d yet to meet the mysterious god.
“I usually leave my patients’ sides before they wake,” he continued. “But you required heavier monitoring, since you were nearly dead when I got to you. If Julian hadn’t won the Emperor of the Villa competition when he did, you would have been dead.”
I looked back to Julian, and the realization of what that wreath on his head meant sank in. “We needed to give that competition to Felix or Octavia,” I said. “Why did you win it?”
“The Minotaur tried to kill you.” His grip around my hand tightened, like he was afraid he was going to lose me at any second. “My back was toward the Minotaur when I was fighting Octavia. But then she stopped fighting, and I knew something had happened. I turned around, and there you were…” he trailed off, his eyes going distant before he refocused on me. “Bleeding out on the ground. You were dying, Selena. So I did the only thing I could do. I drove my sword through the Minotaur’s heart and ended the competition.”
“It’s a good thing he did,” Vejovis said. “Because once the competitions end, I’m allowed to come down and heal the champions who need it. By winning, Julian ended the competition and saved your life.”
“I love you,” I said to Julian, since it meant far more than any words of thanks.
I was starting to understand why the fae viewed a simple “thank you” as an inadequate expression of gratitude.
Vejovis looked back and forth between us. “We all saw Julian’s birthmark when Minerva’s chosen champion revealed it in the arena,” he said. “I saw yours when I was healing you. There have never been soulmates in the Games before.”
“This isn’t new news,” I said. “The orbs were around us when I told Julian that we’re soulmates. That was after the second week of the Games. Surely the entire Otherworld knows by now.”
“I’m bound by the spell not to reveal anything to either of you about this year’s Games,” he said. “But you may take my comment as you see fit.”
Of course. Voicing simple factual statements was the same way that Rufus—the half-blood who’d been in charge of me before I’d entered the arena the first time—had gotten around the spell.
“The gods must censor the live broadcasts,” Julian said. “It’s Bacchus, most likely, since he’s in charge of the entertainment. And we’ve purposefully never mentioned that we’re soulmates when anyone else is around.”
“Except for Vesta and Venus,” I reminded him.
“It seems they’ve been tight-lipped about it,” he said. “Because apparently, no one else in the Otherworld knows we’re soulmates.”
“Which means…” I gave him a knowing look as the pieces fit together.
“Yes,” he said. “Bacchus—or whoever’s deciding what’s shown to the fae—must have his reasons for keeping this from them. This may end up working in our favor even better than we planned.”
“It may.” Hope built in my chest at the possibility. But Vejovis couldn’t know about what we had planned. No one could.
But maybe he had the answer to something else…
“The monsters aren’t supposed to kill us in the emperor competitions,” I said, changing the subject before Vejovis could ask Julian and I what we were talking about. “But the Minotaur tried to kill me.”
“It did.” Vejovis nodded. “It’s very troubling.”
“It wasn’t the first to do so,” I said. “The chimera tried to kill me, too.” I gave Julian a meaningful look, since he, like the other champions, had thought I’d exaggerated when I’d said it after that competition.
“I should have believed you.” His words gave me an immense amou
nt of satisfaction. “I’m sorry.”
“I understand why you questioned it,” I said. “In the centuries since the Games have started, no monster has ever tried to kill a champion in an emperor competition. And no one else saw my fight with the chimera.” Now, after learning that the broadcasts were censored, I wondered if anyone in the Otherworld had seen it, either. “It was far more likely that I was being paranoid than that I was right.”
“But you’re my soulmate,” he said. “I never should have questioned you.”
“Just don’t do it again,” I said with a smile.
“I won’t,” he said. “I promise.” Then he turned his focus back to Vejovis. “This never should have happened,” he said. “The gods must have plans to do something about it.”
“What would you want them to do?” he asked. “All but one of you will die today.” He turned his focus to me. “If you die, it matters not. If you live, you’ve earned your reward. Why complicate matters?”
“I’ve technically already been killed,” I said, another plan forming in my mind. “Which should mean that I’m no longer in the Games.”
“I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.” Julian’s eyes lit up. “We need to talk to Juno. Get her to—”
“If Juno was going to pardon you from the Games, she would have done so already,” Vejovis interrupted. “The Olympians will not admit fault. Plus, they delight in watching the champions kill each other off. The only exception is if someone breaks the rules and gets themselves eliminated. They won’t be satisfied with anything less.”
“Apparently one of them would,” I said. “Because that’s the only way the spells on the monsters could have been broken, right? An Olympian had to have done it?”
“Diana is the goddess that puts the spells on the monsters,” Vejovis said. “She’s one of the most compassionate of the Olympians. She has no reason to want you dead.”
That wasn’t true.
“I sent her chosen champion to the arena the first week,” I said. “I’m the reason that Molly’s dead.”
I never got to know Molly, and I deeply regretted it.
Just like I deeply regretted much of what I’d been forced to do during the Games.
I’d learned how to control my magic, but the power I had at my fingertips had changed me. Early in the Games, I’d promised myself that I’d never delight in killing. But ever since watching Octavia torture and murder Cassia, I’d fantasized about how satisfying it would be when I finally got my vengeance and killed her.
I barely recognized who I’d become. And that scared me more than I cared to admit.
“Diana wouldn’t blame you for Molly’s death,” Vejovis said. “The gods are well aware that the champions they choose likely won’t make it out alive. Diana’s champions rarely win, and she’s never blamed the ones responsible for their deaths.”
“Well, someone clearly wants me dead,” I said.
“It’s not Diana.” Vejovis looked sure of it, and I believed him.
It was said that the gods chose champions who showed traits of themselves. Molly was sweet, and she didn’t seem to have a violent bone in her body. Which meant Diana likely didn’t, either.
“Maybe it’s not Diana.” Julian stared down Vejovis, as if that could force an answer out of him. “But there are eleven other Olympians. It has to be one of them.”
I didn’t know enough about the gods to guess which one it might be. And judging from their silence, Julian and Vejovis didn’t, either.
“It could be one of the Olympians.” Vejovis shrugged. “Or it could not. But like I said, the gods have been choosing champions for the Games for years. They’ve never broken any of the rules before. It seems unlikely that would now.”
“But the Minotaur tried to kill me.” I sat straighter, and frustrated sparks of electricity gathered in my palms. “Everybody saw.”
Again, silence.
“I’m afraid I’ve stayed longer than I should.” Vejovis stood, grabbed a damp washcloth from a nearby table, and used it to wipe the salve off my stomach. “Good as new,” he said with a smile. “Now, I must take my leave. And I wish you both the best of luck in the final fight.”
40
Selena
I wasn’t given a skimpy gladiator costume to wear in the final fight to the death.
Instead, I wore a short dress similar to the one I wore for the Emperor of the Villa competitions. But this one was covered in sky blue jewels. I felt like a sparkly blue disco ball. Even the gold pointed tips on my ears were covered with sky blue gems. And my hair was down with soft curls in it, as was expected of the full-blood fae.
The message was clear.
Whoever won the final competition wouldn’t emerge from the Games as a half-blood chosen champion.
They would emerge as an equal to the fae.
Julian had been pulled away from me right after Vejovis had left the healing chamber. We didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye.
But it wouldn’t be the last time I saw him. I was going to make sure of it.
Now, I rode to the Coliseum in a carriage with Octavia and Felix. The two of them were so sickeningly snuggly the entire time. I hoped he’d shove his tongue so far down her throat that he’d gag her to death. Although then I wouldn’t be able to kill her myself.
It was gross to watch, and it took all my effort not to shoot a lightning bolt between them to force them apart.
Instead, I stared out the window at the rolling countryside, mentally readying myself for the upcoming battle.
When the carriage dropped us off in the concrete halls beneath the arena, I was glad when Rufus helped me out. I couldn’t hurry after him and away from the others fast enough.
We talked as we walked. I was glad to hear that his family was doing well. Plus, talking with him eased my nerves, just as it had the +first time I’d entered the arena.
I couldn’t believe that was only a few weeks ago. It felt like years.
Rufus led me to a glass box with a door cut into it, and he opened the door for me.
Please don’t trap me inside of that thing, I thought, remembering how Cassia had nearly suffocated to death inside the igloo.
But the gods had already created a game that involved the risk of suffocating to death. If there was anything good I could say about the gods, it was that whichever one of them designed the games was creative. I doubted they’d do the same type of competition twice in one year.
I stopped in front of the box and took a deep breath. “You specifically requested me, didn’t you?” I asked Rufus as I stepped inside.
“I’m not allowed to tell you who I favor in the Games.” He looked at me with a spark of mischief in his eyes. “But don’t you find it interesting that Jupiter’s first ever chosen champion made it to the final four?”
“Yes.” I shuffled my feet, my nerves firing with anticipation. “Quite.”
“I have to close the door now,” he said. “But your magic is stronger now. You know how to use it.”
“I do,” I said, already feeling the electricity thrumming inside of me. “And I plan on it.”
He closed the door, and I pressed my palms against the glass wall of the box as it lifted up into the arena.
A path lined with hedges twice my height was in front of me. Beautiful pink, purple, and blue flowers bloomed from the bushes. The path came all the way around my box, locking the box inside.
An entrance to a maze.
Crap. I’d never been good at mazes. And I’d never attempted a life-sized one where I couldn’t see the layout from above.
Feeling myself starting to panic, I looked up and over at the Royal Box. Sorcha sat regally in her throne. Julian sat in the throne beside her, the golden wreath on his head. He looked even more majestic than Sorcha. His eyes locked on mine, and I could practically feel the message he was sending me.
You can do this.
My electricity hummed louder. Because yes, I could do this. It wouldn’t do me any g
ood to believe otherwise.
In front of Julian and Sorcha—in the seats where the other champions normally sat—were four fae. Prince Devyn, Princess Ciera, and two others who I recognized as the fae who nominated Octavia and Felix for the Games. Each of them wore the color that represented the god who had chosen their nominee.
Maybe it was the confident way he was holding himself, but Prince Devyn stood out more than the others in his sky blue robe. And he didn’t look nervous in the slightest. Which made sense, since because of his gift, he knew the most likely way this competition would play out.
Princess Ciera kept preening herself and glancing back at Julian.
How can she be happy to see him?
But I quickly remembered that the gods hadn’t broadcasted anything about me and Julian being soulmates.
That was going to be awkward with Princess Ciera later.
Assuming we had a later.
I looked around at the rest of the crowd. It was more packed than usual. Everyone held onto glasses of honey wine, sweetmeats, grapes infused with alcohol, cheeses, and other treats. The Coliseum had rained down more food and wine for this competition than any other.
Opposite the Royal Box was another box with five people in it. None of them had wings, they had red tattoos around their biceps, and they wore drab, unadorned clothing.
Half-bloods.
The three that stood out first were a man, a woman, and a girl who looked to be their daughter. They had the same shiny, chestnut hair as Felix, and they were more striking than even the most beautiful full blooded fae. They had to be his family.
They were standing as far away as possible from the other two half-bloods. A thin woman with dark blond hair, her hands resting upon the shoulders of the frail, pale girl in front of her.
They had to be Julian’s mother and his younger sister, Vita.
No one was there for Octavia.
Felix’s mother glanced at Vita and moved closer to the other side of the box. She pulled her daughter along with her.
The Faerie Mates (Dark World: The Faerie Games Book 3) Page 16
