The Elemental Trial

by J. A. Armitage

  Oh, right. The rule that said your cameraperson couldn’t help you. The rule that would have kept Ben safe if they’d given us stronger pearls, or if they’d given Orin a ring that worked, or if they’d not sent us into a lawless underwater kingdom with a score to settle against the land dwellers.

  “But I'm not going to make you do this,” Orin whispered. “Not the ceremony, not the next trial. I know how much you want to go home.”

  His words cut through the haze. He was giving me his blessing to give up the race? Even though my quitting would mean he’d lose his chance at freeing his parents from slavery. I couldn’t ask that of him, could I? With a shock, I realized that it wouldn't just be Cass I'd be giving up if I quit now. I'd be giving up Orin too. If I could never come back to Faerwild, we'd be apart forever. As I looked up into his dark eyes, I could see the fear in them. He didn't want me to go, and yet he wasn't going to stop me if I wanted to. Some of my grief softened into something warmer, yielding. Love. I’d lost so much, I wasn’t going to lose Orin, too. Even if it meant playing the game a little longer. I gripped his hand and turned my head to the king. “I'll go on the stage.”

  "Now there's a good girl," the king flashed a saccharine smile that made me want to scream.

  With Orin's fingers interlocked in mine, we walked to the stage, escorted by the king's guard in case we changed our minds again. The second we stepped out in front of the people, a roar of excitement and cheering nearly burst my eardrums. This was definitely fame. So many people coveted it. Well, they could have it. It wasn’t for me.

  Patricia, with her usual smarmy, too-much-lipstick smile, walked over to us and shook both our hands. I let her because, hey, we were in front of a live audience. That and the rows of guards upon guards standing just out of eyeshot of the crowd.

  Behind Patricia on a couple of colorful sofas, sat Tristam and Sophia, both looking as gorgeous as ever. How the hell had they had time to both change their clothes and get their hair and make-up done? Orin and I were still in our wetsuits, and though my hair had dried a while ago, it clung together in sandy and salty rattails around my ears.

  “Welcome, Jacq and Orin. Come, sit down.” Patricia patted the spare sofa, pretending as though she wasn't a hunter ready to pounce on her prey. “Let's all have a look at the highlights of the last leg, shall we?”

  The large screens behind us flickered on and the story of the past week of our lives was recapped for the thousands of faeries in the crowd and millions of people back home. I sat cringing the whole time, wondering if they'd play back the kiss. That kiss I'd shared with Orin was my anchor, the only thing that was getting me through this, but it had been private. It wasn’t for them, and I didn’t want to share it. Thankfully, the kiss wasn't shown. Nothing in the Abyss was shown because no camera crew had gone down there beyond the time Ben filmed us in the jail. I noticed they cut the bit where Tristam was acting like an ass to Ben. Of course, they did. They wouldn't want to show their golden boy in a bad light.

  Then they showed the dance in the Sylph Palace.

  It was strange watching Orin and I dancing together—like watching a romantic movie where the two characters finally realize they were made for each other in the last scene. Except this wasn't the last scene. We still had another trial to go, and I wasn't sure if Orin and I would get our happy ending. Part of me wanted to keep our feelings secret, as we hadn’t even talked yet about what we were, what the kiss had meant to us. But watching us on screen, there was no hiding it. The chemistry between us was electric. We danced like there was no one else on earth, just the two of us. Then I saw her. Cass.

  I froze as on-screen me moved in to kiss Orin and then saw Cass. It had been her in the Sylph palace. The cameras had caught her perfectly. I'd thought it was the altitude playing tricks on my mind, Dulcina had said as much. But she'd been wrong.

  Cass had really been there. And I had seen her.

  28

  My heart pounded in my chest, and my mind whirred as I took in what I'd just seen.

  Patricia, unaware of my inner turmoil, started asking me questions about a romance between Orin and me.

  But I couldn't speak. The shock of what I'd just seen filled my mind, making it impossible to process what Patricia was asking me.

  “Jacq!” Orin shook my knee, bringing me back to the present.

  “So,” Patricia said. “You two look cozy. I think we can safely say you are more than just friends, right?”

  She held the microphone to my mouth, as we’d been thrust onto the stage without a chance to get mic'ed up.

  I wanted to scream, to tell everyone that it was none of their effing business, but doing that would win me no fans. Now that I knew I was right about Cass, I couldn't run the risk of being thrown out of Faerwild. “Orin and I have grown close in our time together,” I said carefully. May as well give Patricia and the crowd what they wanted.

  Across from me, both Tristam and Sophia pouted now that they were no longer the center of attention.

  “You've watched us on TV, but out of respect for Orin, I'd like to keep our relationship private.” It was as close to none of your damn business as I could get away with.

  Patricia, knowing that she was going to get no more out of me, turned her attention to Orin.

  “And you, Orin. What do you think of Jacqueline?”

  “Jacq is the bravest woman I've ever known.” He'd said that about me before, but now I knew he wasn't just talking about my ability to climb mountains or fight wild beasts. It ran much deeper than that. We'd shared more together in the past few weeks that most people go through in a lifetime, and because of that, our bond had grown deeper than I ever thought possible.

  I reached out and took his hand, not caring that we were on TV or that thousands of people were in the crowd watching us. That little gesture sent the crowd wild, causing Sophia's face to drop even further. Being upstaged was probably the worst thing that could happen to her.

  “And Jacq, what's next for you and Orin? You've got one more trial to go, and I happen to know it's even more dangerous than the first two. I've had a sneak peek, and it's not for the faint of heart. Are you going to use that bravery that Orin was talking about?” She was trying to get the crowd excited with talk of danger, and they were lapping it up. But if she thought she was going to scare me, she was wrong. I just didn't care anymore. They could bring a starving lion onto the stage and ask me to wrestle it, and I probably wouldn't bat an eyelid. They'd already done the worst thing they could to me. They'd taken my friend's life. Nothing trumped that. Let them starve us, trick us, torture us. I was ready for anything they threw at us because I was closer to Cass than I'd been in years, and I was determined to find her before crossing the finish line.

  I rehearsed some line in my head about being ready for anything, but before I could speak, the stage was plunged into darkness. At first, it was just the lights pointing at us, but then, the lights illuminating the crowds went too, and finally the ones in the palace behind us, leaving nothing but darkness.

  A panicked murmur ran through the crowd, but it wasn't until the first explosion that the screams began. My hand was already in Orin's when the lights went off, but I tightened my grip as people around us began to panic. As far as I could tell, the explosion came from a patch of grass behind the crowd. That area should have been free of people—I prayed there would be no more deaths today.

  All around me, screams punctured the air as people ran from the flames licking up behind them. It didn't help that the night sky was heavy with clouds, rendering the place completely black except for the fire that the explosion had ignited behind the crowds. The flames had the effect of funnelling the crowd forward, and I could see in the dim light that people were pressing against the stage, some even jumping the barriers keeping us separated. It seemed just seconds before the stage was flooded with panicked people making a run for it. Someone knocked into me, pushing me into Orin. The same person grabbed my wrist and squeezed it before disappe
aring into the darkness.

  “Come on,” Orin said, and we made our way blindly to the back of the stage and then down some steps. My ragged breath was loud in my ears, my legs numb with cold and exhaustion. Orin was leading us to the palace behind the stage. It wasn't ideal and could be the next target, but our options were limited. Either stay on the stage and risk being crushed or take our chances. And I didn’t have it in me to think of an alternate plan. It was all I could do to keep moving, to stay on my feet and not collapse in a puddle, waiting for whomever these attackers were to come and finish me off.

  But then, almost as quickly as the lights went out, they came back on, revealing a scene of complete chaos.

  Someone in an FFR uniform ran over to Orin and me, grabbing us and shepherding the pair of us through the crowd to the relative safety of the palace.

  Minutes later, Tristam and Sophia joined us, followed by a very rattled-looking Patricia and some more FFR staff.

  “Come with me.” The king appeared, ushering us through the palace to a room furnished with matching brocade sofas. “Stay here. I've instructed my guards to do a sweep of the palace, and there will be a number of them posted outside the doors of this room.” He waved his hand, and a pot of coffee and some cups with the royal crest appeared on the small table.

  Orin poured a cup and handed it to me. Sophia sat on the sofa in tears as the FFR crew rallied around her and Tristam sulked at not being allowed out. Once again I was trapped somewhere I didn't want to be. Okay, there weren’t goblins or merfolk trying to kill me, but this threat was even worse. This threat was invisible. If it was not for the genuine panic on the king's face, I might have thought this was his doing, or a stunt to bring the ratings up.

  Orin tapped my arm and pointed to a quiet corner of the room. Making sure everyone was caught up in their own conversations, Orin lowered his voice and whispered to me.

  “I don't think anyone was hurt, and I don't think anyone was meant to be.”

  I'd thought the same thing. The explosion was terrifying at the time, rattling my already ragged nerves almost to the breaking point. But in retrospect, it didn’t seem much more powerful than a particularly loud set of fireworks. From what I'd seen, it had gone off far enough away from the crowd enclosure not to hurt anyone. “So what do you think it was? A warning?”

  Orin shook his head and checked the others again. Everyone was wrapped up in themselves, not paying attention to us. “I think it was a distraction.”

  It made sense, well…as much as anything made sense in this place. “A distraction from what?

  “I don't know, but I'm sure we'll find out sooner rather than later. Whatever this is, I think it's bigger than the Fantastic Faerie Race. There is something going on, and I think we've found ourselves right in the middle of it.

  I nodded. The sabotaged rings. The Brotherhood of the Rose and Thistle. The splitting of our worlds. Cass. Everything was connected somehow, but between fighting beasts and solving riddles and mourning the death of another friend, I was hardly in a position to connect the dots. My mind felt hopelessly muddled. I took a deep breath and told him what I'd seen on the screen just minutes before the lights went out.

  “Cass was up there?” Orin seemed surprised, but then pulled me into a hug. I wasn’t sure what it was for, but I welcomed it, leaning into his warmth. He smelled of salt and blood, reminding me of the ordeal we’d just been through. He was so quiet I could barely hear him over Sophia's loud sobs and Patricia's swearing about the lousy phone reception.

  Finally, he spoke. “We aren't safe. Until we find out what's going on, we stick together like glue and trust no one. Tonight you sleep with me.” A few hours ago, the suggestion would have had me alight with excitement and nerves, but now, I was just confused. Confused and tired. I leaned into his hug, and it became just that. A hug for the sake of hugging. We clung to each other, adrift in a sea of confusion. In Orin's arms was the only place I felt safe anymore.

  The door opened, and we pulled apart. The king walked in, flanked by a couple of his men. “The palace is in lockdown for the night. You may as well get some rest. We'll convene in the morning where we will brief you on the final trial. I'll have some staff bring some food up for you.” He turned to leave. That was it? That's all we were getting?

  “Was anyone hurt?” I called across the room.

  The way the king looked at me sent shivers down my spine. It was almost as if he didn't even think to check on everyone. Perhaps he hadn't. “Not as far as I'm aware. I'll have someone update you all in the morning.”

  He left the room, and this time, Tristam was allowed to leave with him.

  So it seemed that we were stuck here whether we liked it or not. But for the moment, I supposed it didn’t matter. I was tired. More tired than I'd ever felt in my life and though it had been so long since my last meal, I wasn't hungry. I just wanted to curl up in a warm bed and sleep. I wanted to curl up with Orin and pretend none of this was happening. Pretend that we were just a boy and a girl without a worry in the world.

  I asked a member of the staff to show Orin and me to our rooms, not that we'd need more than one. The guard nodded his head and beckoned us forward. I followed him, putting my hands in the pockets of the hoodie Orin had given me on the beach. My fingers brushed something. A piece of cardstock… or thick paper. Whatever it was, it hadn't been there earlier, and I hadn't put anything in there. My heart pounded as I remembered the person crashing into me on the stage, the same person who'd lightly squeezed my wrist.

  All along the palace corridors, my mind whirred with what it could be, and when Orin tried to take my hand, I had to push him away. I couldn't chance the note or whatever it was falling from my pocket and being seen by a guard. I could tell he was hurt at my rejection, but it wasn't for long. The second we were shown to a room, I slammed the door in the guard's face, locking it behind me.

  I whispered to Orin what had happened, and he nodded. Pulling me to the bed, he pulled back the covers, and the pair of us hid, shielding ourselves from any hidden cameras. He magicked up a light source, and only then, could I safely pull the note from my pocket.

  My breath caught in my throat as I took in the delicate swirls of Cass's handwriting.

  “Cass?” Orin whispered. I scooted closer to him so he could read the note. It was brief, but it said all it needed to. Come to the Goddess of the Moon at midnight. Bring Orin. -Cass.

  I let the note fall to the bed, stunned. I'd found her...or she'd found me. For the first time in two years, I was finally going to see my sister.

  The threat of the Fantastic Faerie Race’s final trial loomed over us, but that was a threat for another day. For now, I'd done what I'd set out to do.

  I'd found her. And this time, I wasn't going to lose her again.

  * * *

  You can now read the final book in The Faerie Race series, The Doomsday Trial.

  Read on for a sneak peek!

  If you enjoyed the Elemental Trial…

  And now for a Sneak Peek of The Doomsday Trial, Book Three in The Faerie Race trilogy!

  * * *

  You can buy the whole series now

  The Sorcery Trial (Faerie Race book one)

  The Elemental Trial (Faerie Race book two)

  The Doomsday Trial (Faerie Race book three)

  29

  Chapter one

  I thought I’d been ready for the Fantastic Faerie Race. I thought I’d been ready for whatever I’d find over the Hedge in Faerwild, for the tests and challenges, even a little not-so-friendly competition. But the last few weeks had shown me how horribly, naively wrong I had been.

  The race competitors had been trained for physical strength, for intellect, even our magical capabilities had been honed. But no one had prepared me for the emotional toll this race would take.

  No one had even asked me how I would cope if someone were to die. No one had asked me what I’d do if my sister suddenly reappeared out of nowhere…and not a single producer or s
taffer had asked how I’d cope emotionally with the ever-present threat of my own demise.

  There’d been talk of how dangerous it would be. We’d been warned to watch our backs, but I’d thought it was just the studio trying to scare us to make great TV. I hadn’t believed anyone would really get hurt in here, much less killed—and yet, I’d seen three people involved in this godforsaken race die in a matter of weeks.

  I gazed up at the ornate ceiling of one of the Faerie king’s palace guest suites, these thoughts refusing to leave, my sorrow shredding at my heart with vicious swipes.

  Orin’s warm arm snaked over me, pulling me closer to him. I yielded to him, snuggling closer. In what felt like a sea of desolation, he was my only life preserver. If it hadn’t been for Orin, I’d have completely lost it.

  The palace staff had assigned us both rooms, but I’d followed Orin to his and curled up in his arms, adrift in my misery. Neither of us had bothered to undress, both of us falling into bed in the wetsuit-like FFR outfits we’d been wearing since we’d started the final leg of the Elemental Trial. Orin had fallen asleep first, his deep rhythmic breathing keeping me company as I counted down the minutes to midnight.

  I hadn’t been able to sleep a wink, despite the exhaustion weighing me down like a stone. How could I? If Ben’s senseless death wasn’t enough to keep me awake, the thought that I was finally going to see my sister after two years of searching kept my eyelids firmly open.

  I’d read Cass’s note so many times in the half-light of the moon that I knew every curve of every letter, and yet, I held onto it, fearful if I let go, it would somehow magically disappear. Taking Cass with it.