The Faerie Pawn (Dark World: The Faerie Games Book 2)
Page 1
The Faerie Pawn
Dark World: The Faerie Games 2
Michelle Madow
Dreamscape Publishing
1
Selena
The moment after snatching the golden Emperor of the Villa wreath and becoming the winner of the first Faerie Games competition, I regretted it.
Because as the Empress of the Villa, I had to send three of the ten other players to the arena at the end of the week.
One of them would die in the fight. The other two would live.
The two who lived would have a serious grudge against me.
One of the privileges of being Empress of the Villa for the week was that I got to stay in the most luxurious suite on the second floor of the mansion. Other players could spend time with me there, and thanks to a spell from Vesta, we wouldn’t have to worry about being walked in on or our conversations being overheard.
Julian and Cassia were with me in the suite. Cassia was relaxing next to me on the huge king-sized canopy bed, leaning back into the comfy pillows. Her green wings glowed brightly behind her. Julian sat across from us, on the magnificent sofa that looked like something straight out of the palace of Versailles.
They were helping me figure out who I should send to the arena.
“Octavia told me during the welcome banquet that she was coming for me,” I said. “She has to be the one to go.”
I frowned, my stomach swirling. Because I was talking about murder. I was going to send two other players into the arena with Octavia in the hope that they’d kill her.
It’s self-preservation, I justified to myself. If I don’t do this, Octavia will come after me. She’ll make sure I’m killed.
No matter how many times I told myself that, it still didn’t make it any less twisted and wrong.
But if I didn’t select three players for the arena, I’d be breaking the rules of the Games. The gods didn’t take kindly to players breaking the rules. I doubted Juno would be so lenient with me a second time.
However, I still had options. Everyone always had options. I’d read somewhere that just because you disliked your options, it didn’t mean you didn’t have them.
I could sacrifice myself. I could stand up there with the entire Otherworld watching and refuse to select three players to send to the arena. I could make my point, and be killed for it.
But I didn’t want to die. I was only sixteen years old. There was so much more I wanted to do with my life.
Plus, Prince Devyn had advised me to trust my instincts. And every bone in my body told me to do whatever was necessary to live.
“Selena,” Cassia said, looking at me strangely. “What do you think about that idea?”
I must have spaced out. “What idea?” I asked.
“Mercury’s champion—Emmet—has it out for us after we fought against him to get that horse,” she said. “He’s a strong fighter. He has what it takes to beat Octavia. Put another strong player in there with them, and you should be golden.”
“Are you saying that I should talk to Emmet—and the other player I choose to go to the arena—and ask them to work together to take out Octavia?”
“Yes,” Julian chimed in. “Emmet and whoever else you choose can be pawns to get Octavia out this week.”
“And if I let them know they’re pawns, they might be less likely to come after me later,” I said, remembering the lesson that one of my trainers, Bryan, had given me before I’d entered the villa. “Especially if I make a deal with them that benefits them in the next few weeks of the Games.”
“Exactly.” Julian nodded, his ice blue eyes as hard as steel. It was slightly unnerving. But as the champion chosen by Mars, battle strategy came naturally to him.
I couldn’t help but find his confidence ridiculously attractive. But I pushed my feelings as far down as possible. Julian didn’t care about me, and he never had. From the moment we’d met at the end of Torrence’s driveway, he’d used me just as he was advising me to use the others.
I couldn’t let myself forget that.
“The third champion should be Felix,” Julian continued. “It’ll be just what he needs to let him know his place in the Games.”
“His ‘place?’’ I asked, recalling how Julian had acted all territorial when Felix had talked to me and Cassia on day one. Well, when Felix had flirted with me and Cassia. “What exactly is his ‘place?’”
“He thinks he can use his magic to get into the hearts of all the females in the Games and manipulate them into doing whatever he wants,” he said, each word clipped and angry. “Sending him to the arena—and talking to him privately to make sure he knows he’s a pawn—will show him that you won’t fall for his tricks.”
As we spoke, the glowing, golden orbs buzzed around us, recording every moment of the conversation. The viewers must have been eating it up like candy.
“What kind of history is there between you two?” I asked.
“There’s no history,” he said.
“So why’d you act so weirdly toward him when he was talking to me and Cassia in the library?”
“Because he was using his magic on you,” he said quickly. “His magic makes him dangerous.”
“His magic didn’t work on me.” I sat straighter.
“Not yet.” Julian narrowed his eyes, like he was challenging me to continue being immune to Felix’s magic. “But it will eventually. Venus’s champions excel in using their magic to convince the opposite sex—or anyone else attracted to them—not to send them to the arena. It gets them far every time. Some have even won because in the final fight, they’ve used their magic to make the other person love them so much that that person takes their own life instead of battling it out. Felix’s magic is more dangerous than you realize.”
“But he’s not a physical threat,” I said. “He didn’t even try to fight anyone for a horse in the Emperor of the Villa competition. He just let Octavia take him with her.”
“Then why would he be on board with the plan to take Octavia out?” Cassia asked. “Obviously there’s something going on between them.”
Was it just me, or did she sound hurt when she said that?
Hopefully she wasn’t falling for Felix already.
“Felix might have Octavia wrapped around his finger,” Julian said, although Octavia didn’t seem like the type to get wrapped around anyone’s finger. “But from what we know about Venus’s champions, he doesn’t return those feelings. He’s using her. I’m sure he’ll be on board with the plan, since it means saving his own skin.”
“What about Cillian?” Cassia said. “He has some of the strongest magic in the Games. If anyone has what it takes to take out Octavia, it’s him.”
“Cillian isn’t someone I want on my bad side.” I shuddered just from thinking about it—and because of the warnings my trainers had given me regarding Pluto’s champions. They were notorious for being unhinged. “Plus, he doesn’t seem open to deals with anyone. If I send him to the arena, he’ll survive and come after me later.”
“He will,” Julian agreed, his eyes fierce. “You can’t send him to the arena.”
My stomach fluttered at the intensity in his voice. It was almost like he couldn’t bear the thought of me being in danger.
Which was silly. Because everyone playing in the Games was in danger.
It was just a question of who’d die sooner, and who’d die later.
Before I could respond with another suggestion, someone knocked on the door.
I walked over to look through the peephole. It was Pierce—Vulcan’s chosen champion. He was a big guy, with muscles so huge that the veins p
opped out of them.
Yet, Julian had beaten Pierce in their sword fight for a horse in the Emperor of the Villa competition. The image of Pierce on the ground with the bottom halves of his arms lying lifelessly next to him still hadn’t left my mind. I didn’t think it ever would.
I opened the door, although I didn’t let Pierce in. “Hi,” I said, hoping I sounded casual. “What’s up?”
He glanced at the ceiling and scratched his head. “What do you mean?”
Right. The faeries had left Earth for the Otherworld in the fifth century. Their language had progressed alongside ours, because their realm existed parallel to ours. But they didn’t know modern-day slang.
“Sorry.” I stifled a chuckle. “I mean, what’s going on?”
He glanced at Julian and Cassia. “I was hoping to speak with you alone.”
“Of course.” I opened the door to let him in. “Julian and Cassia were just leaving.”
With that, Julian and Cassia stood up to leave my suite.
Julian gave me a final look over his shoulder—like a warning—before leaving me alone with Pierce.
2
Selena
Pierce strolled in like he owned the place and plopped down on the sofa where Julian had previously been sitting.
I straightened my empress wreath and perched on the end of my bed, waiting for him to tell me why he’d come.
“I know that you, Julian, and Cassia worked together to defeat Cerberus.” He stared at me head on, like he was challenging me to deny it.
“Why do you think that?” I asked instead, not ready to confirm or deny.
“Don’t act stupid,” he said, and I sat back, stunned at how strongly he was going on the offensive. Especially since I was the one deciding who to send to the arena this week. “Octavia and Felix were the last two to arrive at the Tomb before you, Cassia, and Julian. They saw all the players who’d gotten there beforehand, unconscious from Cerberus’s blood. Which means it had to have been you, Julian, and Cassia. We all know. So you can stop pretending otherwise.”
The golden orbs hummed closer to our faces now, clearly loving the tension.
“Fine.” I squared my shoulders, refusing to let Pierce intimidate me. “You’re right. Julian, Cassia, and I teamed up to get past Cerberus.”
“So the three of you are working together?”
“We teamed up to get past Cerberus,” I repeated, even though I knew what he meant. He wanted to know if the three of us were in an alliance.
As if I’d give away any alliances I’d made that easily.
“The three of you had to have made a deal—at least for this week.” He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his thighs. “You wouldn’t send either of them to the arena after working together like that. And you definitely wouldn’t send Cassia to the arena, since the two of you fought Emmet together and shared a horse.”
I kept my expression neutral. Because he was right.
But not about all of it.
He—and apparently all the other players—didn’t know that Bridget had told us how to get past Cerberus. Which meant they didn’t know that the four of us had a deal, and not the three of us.
“I’m weighing my options,” I said casually, avoiding answering his question. Unlike full-blooded fae, half-bloods could lie. But I’d always prided myself on being an honest person. My biggest lie had been when I’d pretended to be Torrence to sneak out of Avalon, and look how that had turned out. So I didn’t want to lie in the Games until it was absolutely necessary.
It would be necessary, at some point. My trainers had warned me that no champion had ever won the Games without lying. But I still wanted to avoid it as much as possible.
“Good.” He nodded.
“Did you have anything else you wanted to discuss?” I asked, trying to politely end the conversation.
I wanted him out of my suite.
“You heard what Julian told me when I let him have that horse, right?” he asked, his eyes gleaming.
I pressed my lips together. Pierce had hardly “let” Julian have that horse. But I had heard their conversation right afterward.
“Julian promised that if he won Emperor of the Villa this week, he wouldn’t send you to the arena.”
“Yep.” Pierce lit up a fireball in his hand, passing it back and forth from one hand to another. The fire reflected in his eyes, and his message was clear. Anyone who messed with him would get burned. “Since you needed Julian’s help to get Empress of the Week, I think it would make sense for that deal to still stand.”
It took all of my effort not to scowl.
Instead, I called on my lightning, feeling it crackle and pop under my skin. But when I tried to form a bolt between my hands, nothing happened. It was like my magic had a mind of its own, refusing to show itself unless I was under extreme duress.
I lowered my hands, not wanting Pierce to see my weakness. “Right after submitting to Julian, you came after me and Cassia,” I reminded him.
“I had to try,” he said. “I’d look weak if I didn’t try.”
“Maybe.”
The more I talked to him, the more I realized that even if I asked him to work with Emmet to take out Octavia, I wouldn’t trust him to follow through on his word. Octavia, Emmet, and Pierce were ruthless and out for themselves. The third person I chose had to be a team player.
Pierce wasn’t that person.
His fire burned higher, from both hands now. “You might not be willing to promise that you won’t send me to the arena, but I can promise you this,” he said, his face a mask of deadly calm. “If you send me to the arena, I won’t be the one who loses. And I’ll be coming for you. You’re a wild card, Selena. Everyone’s already threatened by you. The last thing you need is another player gunning for you.”
“And if I don’t send you to the arena?” I raised an eyebrow, challenging him to give me a good offer.
He snuffed out the flames, smoke drifting up above his head. “If you don’t send me to the arena, I’ll return the favor if I win Emperor of the Villa.”
I nodded, although at this point, I might as well push it even farther. “And will you do your best to make sure your allies don’t send me to the arena if they win?” I asked.
“I don’t have an alliance,” he said, which I knew was a lie. I’d seen him with Emmet and Octavia enough to know they were close. It was also why I couldn’t be sure what the three of them would do if they were in the arena together. “But if anyone I have sway over gets Emperor of the Week, I’ll do my best to convince them not to send you to the arena,” he continued. “Although at the end of the day, I don’t control them. They’re going to do whatever they want.”
“But you’ll try,” I said.
“You have my word.”
I knew to only take his word with a grain of salt. But this was a good deal. It wouldn’t do me any good to let him think I doubted him.
“Thanks.” I gave him what I hoped was a friendly smile. “I’m glad we had this talk.”
“Me, too.” He studied me, as if wondering how far he could push this. “Now that we have that covered, who are you thinking about sending to the arena?”
“I haven’t decided yet,” I said, since it wasn’t a lie. I still had no idea who the third person was going to be.
All I knew was that I had to take my shot at Octavia before she could take a shot at me.
3
Torrence
Two days.
That was how long it had been since I’d seen Selena.
Those two days felt like a lifetime. My worry for my best friend and my guilt for pushing her to go to Earth consumed me. If I hadn’t given her that stupid transformation potion, she never would have been kidnapped to the Otherworld. She’d still be home on Avalon, where she belonged.
Queen Annika and Prince Jacen were right when they said I thought I was above the rules. I’d always thought rules were meant to be broken. Breaking them was exciting—thrilling, even.
I took a deep breath, trying to calm the butterflies going crazy in my stomach. Then I raised my hand and knocked.
The doors swung open. The Earth Angel and the three mages sat around the fireplace, old books open on the coffee table between them.
She and the mages were the only ones other than myself, Jacen, and Bella who knew the true story—that Selena, Jacen, and Bella had not left on a short vacation to finally show Selena the world beyond Avalon. Of course the Earth Angel needed to seek comfort somewhere.
Just as I did.
The mages wore their typical medieval style dresses, while the Earth Angel was casual as always in jeans and a t-shirt. In moments like these, I had to remind myself that despite looking nineteen, the Earth Angel was actually way older.
Her sharp golden eyes met mine, her powerful aura descending upon me. Worry for her daughter was etched all over her face. “Torrence,” she said, her voice hollow when she said my name.
My heart sank into my stomach. She hated me.
“Earth Angel.” I lowered my head slightly in respect, although really, I was just glad to have a reason to look away from her. “I was hoping to speak with you in private.”
“No.” The word was sharp and abrupt. “Anything you have to say to me can be said in front of Dahlia, Iris, and Violet.”
I twisted my hands together and shuffled in place. Apologies weren’t exactly a strength of mine. And now I had an audience of four instead of one.
Iris raised her hand, and green magic burst out of it, shutting the doors behind me with a bang that made me jump in place. “Say what you came here to say,” she said. “The sooner you’re out with it, the sooner we can return to our research.”
“All right.” I stood straighter and met the Earth Angel’s eyes. “I keep thinking about what you told me the other night, and you were right. I’ve always thought I’m above the rules. But after what happened to Selena, I realize that most of the time, the rules might be there for a reason.”