I hoped they got the message that this wasn’t something I wanted to do.
This was something I had to do to make it through this ceremony alive.
“I’ll touch each orb and toss it into the air,” I said. “The face of the selected champion will appear in the orb, locking in the decision of who I’ll be sending to the arena.”
A few of them shifted uncomfortably on the sofa. But I kept my gaze on the orbs. I didn’t want anything to change my mind.
I reached forward and grabbed the first orb by the bottom. It hummed pleasantly in my hand. I thought the name of the champion I was selecting first and tossed the orb into the air.
Octavia scoffed from her seat on the sofa. “No surprise there.” She smirked and squared her shoulders, looking as confident as ever.
Even though Octavia knew why I’d selected her, I was required to give my explanation to the viewers.
“Octavia, chosen champion of Neptune,” I said, looking straight at her. “I’ve selected you because you told me during the welcome feast that you were coming for me. Since I’m the first Empress of the Villa, it only makes sense for me to come for you first.”
She nodded, apparently respecting my decision. “Bring it on,” she said, zeroing in on me like a cobra preparing to pounce. “I’m ready. And once I’m back in the villa, I’ll be sure to stick to that promise I made you.”
I didn’t flinch, since she was clueless about what I’d been planning for the past few days. Her threat was an empty one.
She was in for a massive surprise in the arena.
Moving on, I reached for the second orb floating in front of me. When I tossed it in the air, Emmet’s face appeared in the center.
Emmet smiled, turned to Pierce, and gave him a high five. Bridget was right—Emmet loved the attention.
“Emmet, chosen champion of Mercury,” I said. “I’ve selected you because after I dealt the final blow against you in the fight for the horse in the Emperor Competition, you have every reason to be gunning for me. Also, you’re an excellent fighter. I’m looking forward to seeing you battle it out in the arena.”
“Yeah, I am!” He puffed his chest out and gave Pierce another high five.
Octavia rolled her eyes, not looking worried in the slightest.
It took all of my effort not to roll my eyes, too. Instead, I reached for the final orb. “This last decision was the hardest one to make,” I said, and then I tossed it above my head.
The face of the selected champion appeared in the orb.
There was a collective sound of shock from the other champions—especially from the one I’d selected.
She was playing along well.
“Molly, chosen champion of Diana.” I turned to the small girl sitting on one of the armchairs at the end of the semi-circle. My chest was hollow with guilt, even though Molly knew this was coming. “Someone else has to go to the arena with Octavia and Emmet. Your ability to shift into any animal you’ve touched since being gifted with your magic is impressive, as you demonstrated in the first Emperor of the Villa competition. Also, you made no effort to talk with me about the game this week. I have no idea where you stand. So unfortunately, you’re the third champion I’m sending to the arena.”
She simply nodded, accepting my reasoning.
“That’s a lie.” Octavia sat back and crossed her arms, smiling at me smugly. “You and Molly did talk this week. I saw you coming out of the lounge together.”
“Yes, we talked.” I didn’t miss a beat. “But not about the Games.”
Another lie. So much for trying to get through the majority of the Games without lying. But I was doing what I had to do. If that meant lying to knock Octavia out of the Games, then so be it.
Vesta walked over to stand next to me and looked at each of the players. I did the same.
I’d avoided meeting Julian, Cassia, and Bridget’s gazes as I’d announced my selections. Now that I was seeing them, it was clear from their scowls and frowns that they weren’t pleased with my decision. My stomach dropped, and I looked away from them, focusing on the orbs in the back of the room again.
I was going to have a lot of explaining to do later.
“Does anyone else have anything they wish to say?” Vesta asked.
People shifted around again, but no one else said a word.
“Then this Selection Ceremony has come to a close.” Vesta aimed her orange magic at the three orbs above our heads, and they floated on top of the fireplace mantle. The three faces of the selected champions remained on the orbs, where they’d be until the end of the week.
It was a reminder to everyone in the villa—and everyone in the Otherworld—about who I’d selected.
“The three selected champions will remain in the villa until we all go to the arena,” Vesta continued, giving all of us—and the orbs recording us—her familiar warm smile. “I wish all three of you the best of luck!”
14
Selena
I hurried to my suite after the Selection Ceremony ended, making the excuse that I was going to change into more comfortable clothes.
It wasn’t a lie. The gown felt suffocating, and all the gold jewelry I was wearing felt like lead weights bringing me down. I needed to take them off.
Molly came up about fifteen minutes later. Emmet came up fifteen minutes after that, sending Molly back down.
To everyone else, they were coming up to speak with me regarding my selections. It would have looked suspicious otherwise.
Only the three of us knew that everything was going according to plan.
I was still chatting with Emmet when there was a knock on the door. I walked over to look through the peephole.
Julian was out in the hall. He stood straight as a board, his eyes focused into the door so intensely that he could have been shooting laser beams at it. I half expected him to smash it open to force his way inside.
“It’s Julian,” I told Emmet. “He looks pissed.”
“Let him in,” Emmet said. “Your jealous boyfriend is a good reason for me to go back downstairs.”
Irritation coursed through me. Emmet was clearly trying to get a rise out of me—and it was working. “Julian’s not my boyfriend.”
“Coulda fooled me.” Emmet jumped off the sofa and opened the door. “Hey there,” he said to Julian, sounding as relaxed as ever. “Good timing. I was just leaving.”
Julian stormed inside, not bothering to reply. He watched Emmet stroll out of the suite, spinning around to face me once the door was closed.
He didn’t sit down. He just stood there in the center of the room, glaring at me.
My heart pounded faster, and I nearly stopped breathing. I’d expected Julian to be mad that I hadn’t kept him and Cassia in the loop. But it was different now that I was facing the consequences of my actions. I hadn’t realized I’d feel so guilty at the sight of how betrayed he looked.
“What was that about?” His voice was measured and calm. Too calm. Like he was about to explode at any second.
I wanted to go to him. I wanted to touch him and do my best to calm him down, so he’d stop looking at me with so much disappointment.
But I stayed put. Because as much as my body felt otherwise, Julian wasn’t mine to touch. He never would be mine. I needed to accept that. So I took a deep breath to quell the sparks of magic that always flared up in his presence, until they dulled to embers under my skin.
“Do you want to sit down?” I motioned to the sofa and chairs surrounding the coffee table.
“No.”
Okay, then. If he was going to stand, then I was going to remain standing, too.
He stayed like that for a few more seconds, like he was reining in all the control he could. “Me, you, and Cassia are a team,” he finally said. “Bridget, too—at least for the next two weeks. We all sat up here figuring out the best strategy for making sure Octavia would be the one to go. Then you turn around and select Molly as the third champion, without even talking to us a
bout it? I don’t get it.”
“Yes, I chose Molly,” I said, refusing to show weakness by looking away. “I lied when I said we didn’t discuss the Games when we were hanging out in the lounge.”
“I figured as much,” he said. “Octavia did, too, judging by her comment during the Selection Ceremony.” Some of the tension left his body, and he walked over to sit on the sofa.
I did the same, sitting down next to him. It felt so natural that I didn’t even realize how close we were to each other until I’d sat down. Half a foot, if even. Close enough that my wings brushed his steel gray ones and electricity buzzed through my body.
From the way he froze when I sat down, he either felt it too, or was annoyed that I was sitting so close to him. Probably the latter.
Crap. That was a mistake.
But I couldn’t switch seats now. At least not without making things more awkward than they already were.
I needed to act unfazed.
So I leaned back in the sofa and crossed my legs away from his, so our wings were no longer touching. “You wanted me to send Felix to the arena,” I said. “Bridget wanted me to send Pierce—”
“Pierce?” Julian interrupted, his eyes wide. “That’s idiotic. Pierce isn’t a meathead like Emmet. Pierce is the sort of guy who holds a grudge. Sending him to the arena would almost be as dangerous as sending Cillian. He’d come after you. No question about it.”
“I know,” I said. “I think Bridget was only looking out for herself with that suggestion. I trust her to keep her end of the deal we made, but that doesn’t mean she’s truly on our side. She was trying to get me to send Pierce to the arena so he’d come after me, and she’d continue to be off of everyone’s radars.”
“I agree,” Julian said. “Which is why Felix would have made the most sense. Especially given the way he and Cassia act around each other. Obviously, his feelings for Cassia aren’t real, but he wants her trust. And she clearly likes him. You could have convinced him to work with Emmet to take out Octavia.”
I worried he was right about Cassia’s feelings for Felix. But that was a conversation I needed to have with Cassia—not with Julian.
“Except that Venus’s champions are notorious for being the worst at actual fighting,” I reminded him. “There’s no reason to think Felix is an exception. Plus, Octavia likes Felix. He has no reason to want her out this early. And I highly doubt Emmet would go for the idea of pairing up with Felix to take out Octavia, especially after Felix and Octavia shared a horse in the Emperor of the Villa competition.”
Julian sat perfectly still, saying nothing.
Was that his way of admitting I was right?
With things quiet between us once again, the electricity I always felt around him crackled, firing up under my skin. Felix’s words from the other day echoed in my mind.
My magic would work on you unless you’ve met your soulmate.
My fingers instinctively brushed where my clothes covered the clover birthmark on my left hip. If I had a soulmate, his birthmark would be identical to mine, down to its exact location.
A part of me wanted to come out with it and ask Julian if he had a matching birthmark. He’d say no, and I could put the insane notion that he could be my soulmate away for good.
But if I asked, he’d know I felt something for him. Something so intense that I believed there was a chance we were soulmates.
I’d never be able to live down the humiliation after he told me I was wrong.
So I just sat there, watching as he processed everything I’d said.
“Fine,” he eventually said. “But why Molly? Why not Antonia? She’s the chosen champion of Apollo. She’s an expert with a bow and arrow.”
“I considered it.” I automatically leaned forward again, making every effort to stop myself from smiling because Julian had basically just admitted I was right. “But when Octavia and Antonia fought each other to get that horse in the first competition, Octavia won. Easily. And I observed their interactions when I was downstairs this week. Antonia follows Octavia around like a puppy. She wants Octavia’s favor. It didn’t seem likely that she’d agree to team up with Emmet to take Octavia out.”
Julian didn’t say I was right, but he didn’t say I was wrong, either. Which I suspected was his way of saying I was right.
“Molly, on the other hand, is a lone wolf,” I continued. “She wants people to work with her, but she’s shy, and she’s having a hard time breaking into any groups. The moment I found time alone with her and proposed the plan, she was open to considering it. Especially after I said that if she agreed to be a pawn this week, I’d do everything I could to keep her out of the arena in the weeks following this one. She agreed, as long as Emmet was on board, too. So when Emmet came up here to speak to me—which no one noticed, since everyone except for Cillian, Octavia, and Molly came up here sometime in the past few days to talk about the game—I proposed the idea. He was happy to go to the arena with Molly to take down Octavia, because it would let him show everyone in the Otherworld that he was a force to be reckoned with.”
“And you did all of this without bothering to consult any of us?” Julian asked, anger flaring in his eyes.
But I noticed something else. Worry.
Was Julian worried for me?
No, I thought, shaking off the notion. He couldn’t be. I had to be imagining it.
“I did ask all of you,” I reminded him. “Cassia said she’d support whatever decision I made. You and Bridget were both adamant about what you wanted me to do. I considered your opinions. But at the end of the day, this is my week. I had to do what felt right to me.”
“And that was choosing Molly.”
“Yes,” I said. “Emmet brought Molly up here secretly last night, when everyone was asleep. The three of us talked. They’re both on board. This plan is going to work.”
Somehow during the conversation, Julian and I had moved closer to each other until we were both in the center of the sofa, nearly touching. Electricity exploded under my skin. It was just like it had been the first time I’d met him, right before we’d kissed. His pupils dilated, and I could have sworn he wanted to kiss me again, just like he had at Trevi Square.
If he did, I wouldn’t have the strength to pull away.
So I scooted as far from him as possible, not giving him the chance to try anything.
Julian cleared his throat, as if trying to get ahold of himself. “Emmet’s a loose cannon,” he said. “But for your sake, I hope this plan works.”
“It will.” I stared at him, trying to will him to believe it.
We remained there, eyes locked, neither of us saying a word.
A knock on the door brought me back into focus.
I got up to see who it was, relieved to have a reason to move away from Julian. Being close to him did weird things to me, and I didn’t like it.
I opened the door and saw Cassia and Bridget standing outside.
Bridget was as unreadable as ever. Cassia just looked confused.
“I’m glad you’re both here.” I let them in and shut the door, continuing before either of them could voice their anger, disappointment, or whatever they were feeling. “I just finished telling Julian the reason for my decision. Sit down, and I’ll explain everything.”
15
Torrence
Our next destination was the kingdom of Utopia. Utopia was a hidden island off the coast of New Zealand’s north island. The residents of Utopia were only women—female vampires and female witches.
The only men on the island were humans the vampires used for their blood. Unlike in some of the other vampire kingdoms, the humans on Utopia were treated kindly.
But the women of Utopia were notorious for not trusting men—especially supernatural men. So Thomas and Reed were going to remain in the Haven while Sage and I went to Utopia. And even though it went unsaid, I suspected that Thomas and Reed were going to do some more digging in the Haven to see if there was anything they could find
out that would help our quest.
Mary had a witch send a fire message to the leader of Utopia—Elizabeth—to let her know we were on our way. Elizabeth replied a few minutes later, saying she looked forward to meeting us.
I took Sage’s hands and blinked us out.
Two witches waited on the small island outside of Utopia’s boundary. They wore clothes of animal skin, as humans had dressed back when they were hunters and gatherers. They did the obligatory blood check to confirm our identities, and then they teleported us inside the boundary.
We landed on the top of a tall, beautiful mountain. It was much larger than any mountain on Avalon. But as I gazed out at the lush landscape before me, there were no signs of living spaces. Just a beautiful waterfall crashing into a lake, sheep scattered throughout the grass, fields full of crops, and lots and lots of bushes.
I turned around, expecting to find a town, a village, or something.
Instead, I saw that the top of the mountain wasn’t a peak at all. It was a crater.
“We’re on a volcano?” I asked.
“Mount Starlight,” Harper—the more talkative of the two witches—said proudly. “Our home.”
“You live in the volcano?” Sage looked just as confused as I felt.
“Mount Starlight is dormant,” Harper said. “It hasn’t erupted for over four thousand years. Our ancestors discovered it when Queen Elizabeth was searching for a location for her kingdom. They used their magic to clear the magma from the chambers, and we’ve been safely living inside it ever since.”
My eyes widened, since I never thought I’d hear magma chambers described as safe. I also didn’t love the idea of going inside a volcano. Small spaces weren’t exactly my jam.
The Faerie Pawn (Dark World: The Faerie Games Book 2) Page 5
