The Faerie Games (Dark World: The Faerie Games Book 1)

by Michelle Madow

  “It’s not a bad offer,” Julian mused. “But you’re asking us to do a lot of dirty work for you. So how about this. We do what you asked of us this week. In return, if you get the wreath in the three weeks following this week, you won’t send any of us to the arena.”

  A four-week alliance. Julian was doing a good job protecting not just himself, but Cassia and me, too. It was surprisingly thoughtful of him.

  Or maybe he was just looking out for himself, and the two of us had lucked out by being in the right place at the right time.

  That was probably it. But still, I’d take what I could get if it meant a better chance at avoiding the arena for the next few weeks.

  Bridget tilted her head, considering his offer. “Two weeks and you have a deal,” she said.

  “Agreed,” Julian said, and then he looked at Cassia and me to see if we were in as well.

  “Agreed,” we said at the same time.

  “Great.” Bridget smiled, and our alliance was solidified. “Now, here’s what Hercules did to beat Cerberus…”

  She told us the story, and from there, we formulated our plan of attack.

  45

  Selena

  “Remember, Cerberus’s poison will wear off eventually, and the other champions will have another shot at fighting him,” Bridget reminded us as we got into position. “Cillian knows how to beat Cerberus. He’ll likely team up with Octavia and Felix and make a run for the wreath himself, although Octavia will want it, too. So you have one shot to do this right.”

  If Octavia ended up with the wreath, she’d send me to the arena. I had no doubt about it.

  “And watch out for Cerberus’s teeth,” Bridget said. “They won’t knock you out like his blood, but they’re poisonous, too. Just a scratch will weaken your magic significantly.”

  “No problem,” Julian said, as confident as ever. “We’ve got this.”

  There was a magical shield all around the Tomb, making it impossible to attack Cerberus from behind. So the front it was.

  Julian had volunteered to take the center head, so he stood in the middle. I was at his right, and Cassia was at his left. Bridget stood behind us, looking mighty proud of herself for the deal she’d made with us.

  Even though she was working with us for the next few weeks, I’d have to be careful around her after that.

  We placed our swords and sheaths on the ground, because we wouldn’t need them. They were actually a detriment, since they increased our chances of drawing blood and getting knocked unconscious by the poison.

  For this challenge, we couldn’t use any weapons apart from our own strength and magic. The swords had just been a trick to make the competition more interesting to watch. Which was twisted, but also clever.

  It felt strange to be weaponless, but I had my lightning, Cassia had her earth magic, and Julian had his strength. Together, we could do this.

  We faced the three growling heads, sizing them up as we got ready to ambush.

  Green magic floated out of Cassia’s palms and swirled around her, picking up rocks from the ground so the magic and rocks intertwined together. I dug inside myself to ignite my lightning, feeling it spark and crackle under my skin. Julian didn’t have to do anything—he was just pure brute force that was dangerous to mess with.

  “On three,” Julian said, and this time, he counted to three with no interruptions.

  Time to attack.

  Cassia hurled rocks straight at Cerberus’s faces. She put enough force behind the rocks to irritate the monster, but not so much that they drew blood. And to be extra safe, she padded the rocks with her magic to cushion them so they weren’t sharp and pointy.

  The three heads howled, but the howls turned into whimpers as more and more rocks hit its three ugly faces.

  No one liked having rocks thrown at their face—not even giant, legendary monsters from the Underworld.

  Once Cerberus was thoroughly irritated, Julian ran toward him, pushed off the ground, and took a flying leap. I did the same, and Cassia followed, no longer throwing rocks as we soared through the air.

  I focused on the top of Cerberus’s head, which was where I was trying to land. But while I was in mid-air, he raised his paw and swiped it straight at me, swatting me out of the air.

  Pain ricocheted through my bones. But I landed on the ground on my back, and my wings padded my fall, making the impact not nearly as bad as it would have been otherwise.

  The paw swipe had knocked the wind out of me, but it was nothing I couldn’t recover from. So I stood up and brushed the dirt off my dress. But before trying to leap again, I checked on Julian and Cassia.

  Julian had landed on top of the center head as planned. He looked like a god, gripping onto the head with his legs and hands as Cerberus bucked his neck, trying unsuccessfully to throw him off.

  Cassia hadn’t been so lucky. She dangled on the outside part of the neck of the head she’d been aiming for. She clutched onto its fur for dear life… and there was a bloody scratch along her leg that had ripped the bottom side of her skirt in two.

  Her green wings dimmed, losing their sparkle until they were a transparent shadow of what they’d been.

  Cerberus’s teeth had scratched her. Her magic was weakening. If she let go to fall, the impact would surely break her bones. Even if it didn’t, she no longer had the magic needed to leap high enough to get near the head again.

  To make things worse, the head she was holding onto was trying to buck her off. Her legs flopped through the air like a rag doll, and her grip around the fur was slowly slipping.

  “Brace yourself with your feet and climb up!” I called out to her. “You can do it!”

  She got her feet situated on the neck to keep herself steadier than before. Once somewhat stable, she reached one hand up to pull herself up like she was scaling a cliff. But her arms shook from the strain, nearly giving up on her. She grunted and tried again. But this attempt was just as unsuccessful as the first.

  Before I realized what was happening, Julian leaped from the head he was balancing on to land on the one Cassia was hanging onto. He braced his legs around the head like he’d done before and stretched his arm down to help her.

  He was close, but there were still inches between them. And her hands were slipping, and slipping. It wouldn’t be long until she lost her grip and crashed to the ground.

  Julian scooted as far to the side of the head as possible and stretched farther toward Cassia. His other arm extended outward in the other direction to keep himself from losing his balance. He was holding onto the head using only the strength in his legs, and he was doing it like a pro.

  But the center head saw its opportunity, opening its mouth and salivating as it prepared to chomp Julian’s arm straight off.

  “No!” I screamed, and seconds before the head bit down on Julian’s arm, thick bolts of lightning burst out of my palms and came together to strike Cerberus straight in its center face.

  46

  Selena

  The center head froze, vibrating like crazy as my lightning electrocuted it.

  I held onto the magic with everything I had, not letting go of Cerberus’s head. The lightning arced between my hands and the head, crackling and sparking and lighting up everything around us in its brilliant glow.

  I gritted my teeth and maintained my hold on the bolts as Julian got a firm grip on Cassia, pulling her up onto the top of the head with him. Relief coursed through me the moment she was up there.

  Time for me to try jumping onto my assigned head again.

  But right then, one of the fallen champions on the ground started to stir. Molly.

  I broke my lightning hold on the center head, kept as much power inside me as I could, and ran toward where Molly was slowly pushing herself up from the ground.

  I placed my hand on her shoulder and jolted her with the perfect amount of electricity to knock her out again without killing her.

  She slumped back down, unconscious. But it wouldn’t be lo
ng before the others started waking, too. And I wasn’t sure how much voltage to shoot them with while they were still unconscious to make sure not to kill them. For all I knew, the poison had put them on the brink of death and anything more would push them over. I couldn’t risk it.

  Which meant we needed to take care of Cerberus, quickly.

  I backed up, ran toward Cerberus, and leaped onto his right head. He must have been weakened from my lightning, because this time he didn’t lash out at me with his paw. He wasn’t being as forceful with trying to buck me off like with Cassia and Julian before, either.

  I would have shot him with lightning from the beginning if I could create bolts on command. But no—it took Cerberus nearly biting Julian’s arm off for me to do more than electrocute with a touch. Just like it had taken an entire crowd booing at me to shoot bolts at those orbs.

  Extreme emotions apparently heightened my magic.

  Hopefully it was something I’d learn to control sooner rather than later. And hopefully Julian, Cassia, and Bridget wouldn’t tell the other champions what I’d just done. I couldn’t risk being seen as more of a threat.

  After positioning myself on the head so I faced backward, I checked on Julian and Cassia. Julian was on the left head, and Cassia had somehow made it to the center one.

  With the center head weakened the most from my lightning, she wouldn’t need her full strength to do what came next.

  “Is everyone in position?” Julian asked, looking over at Cassia and me. Bridget was still on the ground, pretending to be unconscious.

  I tightened my legs around the head and leaned down to wrap my arms around the neck. “Yep!” I said, and Cassia echoed the same.

  “Go!” he said, and at his command, I squeezed my arms around Cerberus’s neck.

  The monster fought me, bucking harder as I cut off his air source. But I didn’t let go. I held tighter and tighter, feeling the muscles in his neck strain as he struggled and failed to breathe.

  It felt like I was holding on for at least a minute before the head drooped to the ground, unconscious.

  Julian’s head was unconscious, too. But Cassia was still working on hers, her eyes closed as she mustered as much strength to squeeze harder.

  The heads had to be knocked out around the same time for this to work. If the center head continued getting air, the other two would wake quickly.

  “You can do it!” I yelled up at Cassia in encouragement. “You’re almost there!”

  She grunted and tightened her hold around the neck. Within seconds, her head fell unconscious, too.

  Just like Hercules, we’d beaten Cerberus using only brute force. The monster was out cold—for now.

  As per our plan, we hurried around Cerberus’s unconscious body and into the Tomb as quickly as possible. Now that Cerberus was no longer blocking the entrance, I saw it was a cave leading into the hill.

  The orbs followed us inside, buzzing around us and providing us with light. For once, I was grateful for their presence.

  Cassia lagged behind because of the scratch on her leg. I went to her and held her up by her shoulders, helping her move faster.

  Bridget didn’t follow behind us. Good. She was being honest about not wanting the wreath. Which meant she could be trusted—at least until our deal expired.

  We turned around a corner, and there it was: a statue of a beautiful faerie woman. She must have been Queen Gloriana.

  Golden leaves circled around her head.

  The Emperor of the Villa wreath.

  47

  Selena

  I balanced on the balls of my feet, ready to hold off Julian if he ran to grab the wreath first.

  But none of us moved to take it.

  “You should take it,” I told Cassia. “You shared the horse with me when you didn’t have to, and you went through the most with fighting Cerberus. Plus, if it hadn’t been for you stopping us, we would have attacked Cerberus with our swords before Bridget got to us. We’d be covered in black poison, unconscious like the other champions out there. You deserve it.”

  “I don’t want it.” She gazed at the wreath, fear gleaming in her eyes. “I trust both of you to keep me safe this week.”

  I should have known she’d say that. Only the most impulsive, overconfident champions wanted to be Emperor of the Villa the first week.

  Cassia was none of those things.

  She was doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing—staying under the radar. That was a game she could play well, unlike me, who’d been on everyone’s radars from the start because I was Jupiter’s first ever chosen champion.

  Julian turned to me, his face hard with resolve. “It’ll be better for you if you don’t take it,” he said. “I’ll be Emperor of the Week and keep the two of you—plus Bridget and Vulcan’s champion—safe.”

  Suspicion built in my chest. “Why would you do what’s best for me instead of what’s best for you?”

  “Consider it an apology,” he said. “For bringing you to the Otherworld in the first place.”

  Every muscle in my body stiffened at the unwelcome reminder.

  Why should I believe he’d be true to his word if he were Emperor of the Week? He was a liar. Plus, I’d seen him in front of Juno earlier. He wanted that wreath. Badly.

  He was using my feelings for him to manipulate me. Again.

  I wouldn’t be fooled a second time.

  “I don’t accept your apology,” I said, and from the way his face crumpled, it looked like my words were a punch to his gut.

  After what he’d done to me, it shouldn’t have hurt me to do that to him. But it did.

  “But I stick to my word,” I continued. “And I promise not to send you, Cassia, or Bridget to the arena this week. Because I wouldn’t be here right now if not for the three of you.”

  Before I had time to talk myself out of it, I bolted to the statue, plucked the wreath off Queen Gloriana’s head, and lowered it on top of mine.

  “Congratulations Selena, the chosen champion of Jupiter!” Bacchus’s voice announced through the orbs the moment the wreath was secured. “You’ve won the golden wreath, and are the first Empress of the Villa in this year’s Faerie Games!”

  As he spoke, the wound on Cassia’s leg stitched together and healed. Color came back to her cheeks, and her green wings returned to their full sparkling brightness.

  The aches and bruises I’d acquired through the competition immediately felt better, too.

  “All chosen champions, please remain where you are,” Bacchus instructed. “Your transportation back to Vesta’s Villa will arrive shortly. And I know that I—along with the other gods and the citizens of the Otherworld—look forward to seeing Selena decide which three of the ten other champions she’ll send to the arena this week!”

  He said something more, but I didn’t hear him.

  Because the wreath felt a million times heavier at the reminder of the awful decision I’d be forced to make within the next few days.

  One of the three champions I’d send to the arena would die. I might not be the one to physically kill them, but his or her blood would be on my hands.

  And the two that survived?

  They’d be coming for me.

  48

  Jacen

  “I’m going to save our daughter,” I promised, holding onto Annika’s hands as I gazed into her beautiful golden eyes. “No matter what it takes.”

  We stood together in our quarters in the castle. My wife was one of the strongest women I knew, but with our daughter’s life at stake, she looked more vulnerable than ever.

  Her magic was bound to Avalon, so she couldn’t leave. If she did, the magic that protected our island would fail, and the demons lurking on Earth would surely locate us and attack.

  Bella was in our quarters, too, waiting by the crackling fireplace. She was going to teleport me to the crossroads whenever I was ready. Because despite all the research we’d done and all the allies we’d reached out to, going to the cross
roads with the fresh blood of someone you’d killed was the only answer we’d found for how to reach the fae.

  I already had the necessary blood in a vial with me. Earlier, Bella had teleported me to the Devereux mansion in LA, where the Devereux witches imprisoned murderers they’d captured in their basement. Blood was necessary for the strongest dark magic spells, and that was their somewhat ethical way of acquiring it.

  Once there, I’d done what I had to do, put the blood I’d need in the vial, and left the rest for the witches to use however they saw fit.

  “I trust you, and I look forward to seeing our daughter soon,” Annika said. “But we have to be prepared that we might not be able to contact the fae until the next full moon.”

  Right. The annoying catch that came up in every mention of going to the crossroads to call upon the fae. You were only supposed to go on the night of the full moon.

  But that was over a week away.

  No books and no person alive knew what happened if you went on any other night.

  “I have to try,” I said. “Who knows what’s happening to Selena in the Otherworld? We can’t wait for the full moon.”

  “I know,” Annika said. “I love you. And be safe.”

  “I love you, too.” I placed a light kiss on her lips, not caring that Bella was watching. “I’ll see you soon.”

  She nodded, although her beautiful eyes shined with worry.

  I was just as worried for our daughter. But despite not having any magic, Selena was smart and creative. She’d figure out how to stay alive until help came for her.

  And that was what I intended on asking the fae that met me at the crossroads—how to travel from Earth to the Otherworld.

  By kidnapping my daughter, the Otherworld had all but declared war on Avalon. Once I learned how to get to the faerie realm, the army on Avalon would march into the Otherworld, and we wouldn’t leave until Selena was back home where she belonged.