by J. Kearston
She completely tunes me out as the smell of burning flesh and fur fills my nose. Her hands are pressed to the animal’s temples, and she’s holding on despite its lashing out until it finally collapses in a heap. Climbing off, she winces before tearing off the tattered scraps of material until she has a jagged pair of shorts left. I bite my cheek; it got her left leg pretty bad and she’s bleeding profusely.
“A little, yeah,” she answers absentmindedly.
I watch in awe as her palm heats and she presses it to the wounds, cauterizing them. “Fuck, you really can’t feel that?”
She looks up at me and winks. “Not the heat at least. Cuts hurt like a bitch, but after the stinging stops, it’s more pressure than anything. I’ll explain better later, if you survive,” she taunts, turning her back on me.
“Why’d you fight it instead of run?”
She bends down and snaps off two of the protruding spines from the animal corpse’s back. “Needed these,” she tosses out casually before leaping off the fucking platform like a damn psycho.
I hear her grunt and look over the side, ignoring the shouts behind me as the others fight the beasts. She has the spines dug into the side of the last narrow column left, one that extends high enough that I can’t even see what’s waiting for us. Following her lead, I snap off two of the spines and copy her movements, starting the seemingly impossible climb up.
She has her legs wrapped around the pillar for extra support as she climbs, giving me a prime view of her ass while she makes quick work maintaining her lead. She doesn’t look down at me, keeps putting one hand in front of the other, but she does shout down to carry on our conversation.
“So what’re you making for dinner?” she huffs out between heavy breaths.
I scoff. “Why do I have to cook?”
Fuck, she’s charming. She hasn’t slipped even once, is hovering a few hundred feet in the air, and acts like it’s a walk in the park.
She pants a little before continuing. “My arms will be sore from carrying that trophy all the way home. You won’t suffer the same burden, so really, what else will you be doing?” she teases.
Sitting on top of this column is a larger, square platform. Now that we’ve reached this high, we can’t go any further. My palms are slick with sweat and I have a momentary spike of adrenaline as I fight the anxiety of being backed into a corner with no way out beyond death.
“They don’t hand out trophies,” I dispute as I feign calm.
I scan everything around us, looking for a way to get over the lip without letting go of the pillar and dying. Short of trying to embed the spines at an angle with our legs dangling, praying for the best, I can’t see an option.
“Piles of money then,” she retorts easily, eyes scanning everything, assessing.
“Direct deposit.”
“I’d flip you off if I could,” she scoffs. “Hey, want to help me do something stupid?”
I grit my teeth, my muscles starting to lock up. “Not particularly, but I’m not doing anything at the moment. What’d you have in mind?”
She looks down at me then, biting her lip. “Trust exercise?”
I narrow my eyes at her, waiting for her to elaborate.
“Sooooooo,” she draws out awkwardly, and I already know I’m going to despise her plan. “You hold on with one hand, I grab the other, you swing me as hard as you can, and I lock my legs over the ledge.”
I don’t know if I should explode and scream at her for being so incredibly reckless and stupid or kiss her for having zero fear of gravity. “Absolutely not.”
She growls then. “You have a better idea?”
I look around, but no matter how many times I look, an answer doesn’t appear out of thin air. Worse, it’s getting harder and harder to hold on. I bite my tongue until I feel blood, the pain helping to ground me so I don’t spiral.
“If you fall to your death, I will never let you forget it.”
She snorts. “That doesn’t even make sense, but I won’t call you out on it since you’re clearly in. Now hurry up, my arms are screaming.”
I can feel the eyes of other competitors on us, waiting to learn from our mistakes before trying anything. I pretend they don’t exist, trying to draw in deep breaths. This is fucking nuts, and I’m likely literally about to throw her to her death. Yet she shimmies back down towards me, so I embed one of my spines deeper, needing it to support both our weight and momentum without snapping.
I use my toes to bow out my body as she slides beneath me, pinning her in place while she adjusts her hand holds. “Aren’t you even a little scared, or did those brothers drop you on your head too much as a baby?” I snap, trying to mask my fear under harsh words.
She sees through me though, far too easily. “Why should I be? You going to drop me?” she retorts in challenge as I grit my teeth.
“I’m not going to fuckin’ drop you; just worry about sticking the landing, you psychotic woman.”
As we start to adjust our grips, the first real bit of fear trickles into her voice as she nervously laughs, “It’s a pretty long way down; Soren would totally have time to get there before I landed.”
I ignore her sweet scent and the way she’s pressed against me, my heart hammering a mile a minute out of fear. “Definitely,” I lie easily. “But let’s not test him just in case, yeah?”
“Right, that’d be rude. I don’t pay him nearly enough for timed races,” she babbles as it becomes clear we’re both stalling.
I center myself, taking a deep breath. “Ready?”
I feel the change in her as she blocks out her fear, her muscles loosening up as she relaxes against me. “Been ready, newblood. Was just giving you time to catch up.”
I release a long, slow breath before tightening my left hand around the spine, gripping her hand in mine as she lets go. She hangs facing me as we test to make sure it can support our weight, and when it doesn’t budge, I start to swing. Her bright green eyes harden with determination and focus, jutting out her legs to help swing her higher with each pass.
My arm is screaming, my body drenched in sweat, yet I don’t let her slip even an inch. When the time comes, it’s like a knife sinking into my gut. Physical pain turns my insides out, the voice in the back of my head screaming and raging at me.
And I let her go.
The back of her knees hit the ledge as her legs curl over, but before she can get a handhold, she starts to dip back down. I nearly vomit, my vision starting to blacken around the edges.
A spine soars through the air at her, cutting through her shirt to pin it to the platform. I hear the fabric tearing as she falls, pivoting to grab the ledge. She hauls herself up, ignoring the way it tears at her shirt in favor of safety. I can’t see her from here and sag in relief, because even if I’m screwed, she made it.
Holy hell, I just aged ten years.
There’s a creak and a groan before I hear her voice, far too close. “Well isn’t that some shit, there’s an access panel.”
I peer around the column to see her crouched down on the platform above me through a square hatch. With my legs wrapped around the column, I spin to the other side and pull myself through the opening, rolling onto my back and heaving.
“That,” I pant, “is some real,” another heavy breath, “bullshit.”
She snorts and my eyes open, locking on her. With her shirt hanging in tatters off the side of the platform, she stands there in a black sports bra and her makeshift shorts fused to her curves. She turns to where the man that saved her is glaring at me with open hostility and disdain, not that I fault him.
“Thanks!” She gives him a thumbs up and a huge smile.
He snorts. “That’s what happens when you trust newbloods, Ezra,” he hollers back. “They nearly get you killed!”
She shrugs, turning her back on him and offering me a hand up. “Well that didn’t pan out like I hoped.”
I scoff, getting to my feet. “You’re worse than Yri.”
She
grins. “You say that like it’s an insult, but it feels an awful lot like a compliment.”
Without waiting for me since there are some other men headed for the trap door now, she takes off for the next obstacle like she didn’t nearly just fuckin’ die. Like the first time I saw her, she’s tightrope walking across to the next platform with her arms stretched out at her sides, this one with a door on one half that leads to a completely sealed room.
“Damn it.”
My arms desperately need the temporary reprieve, so I strive to emulate her, lacking the confidence and grace. I’d feel way more comfortable just crossing like last time, but my arms might snap off at this point and who knows what the hell else is waiting for us?
When she crosses over, I see the decision in her eyes a split second before she brings a flame to her hand. “Sorry; don’t want to be a hypocrite.”
I bend down and grip the rope in both hands as she lobs it behind me, the rope burning away. Cursing, but with a reminiscent smile, I climb up and chase after her, the door left open.
It slams shut behind me, plunging me into complete darkness. My adrenaline spikes and all of my senses go on high alert. I can’t see the way out, but that’s the only sense they’ve stolen from me. This isn’t the first time I’ve been trapped in a dark room, and I doubt it will be the last. While shadows may haunt me, I don’t fear the monsters lurking in the dark anymore.
I killed them once and I can do it again.
I hear the small exhalation of breath and turn, my hand flying out to catch the man’s wrist before he can hit me. I twist it, snapping the bones, and hear a metal clatter at my feet.
Knife then, so no pulling punches.
He howls in pain as his other fist strikes my side, but I don’t give him the satisfaction of crying out. I’m used to the hits coming and it will take far more than that to even faze me.
I slam my head forward, breaking his nose before swiping his feet out from under him. He goes down hard and my fingers curl around the sharp end of the blade, reaching for it. I don’t waste any time on second guessing myself, slashing his throat open and using his body to bar the door before anyone else can follow me in.
I palm the dagger, heading towards the edge of the room and running my fingers along the wall to get a sense of my temporary prison. The walls are smooth metal, but there’s obviously a way out, somewhere Ezra found quickly to avoid a fight with the man. I have no illusions that if he had merely told her where the exit was, she would have left him with anything less than a broken leg. Her brothers may be filthy cheaters, but winning by her own merit is far too important to her.
I hear thumping at the door, but I don’t let it rush my thoughts. With her flames, she would be able to see clearly and get there without confrontation. So it would be easy. I’ve run my fingers along each of these walls, not feeling so much as a crack to indicate a door.
I snort when the answer hits me, cautiously walking to the center of the room and feeling with my foot. When I get to the center, there’s a circular hole and I step right into it.
It curves, becoming a slide, and I need to keep my arms firmly at my sides so they don’t catch on any of the sharp blades embedded above my face or sides. If I so much as rock too far to the side, they slice into my skin, so I’m forced to remain as still as a statue as I plummet to the unknown.
As soon as I feel my feet hit, I clamp my mouth shut before I break the surface of the water. There’s more light here, though it’s artificial. I would have seen a damn pool outside of the arena, which means I’m either underground or in one of the sealed metal boxes.
Something latches onto my leg before I have time to get my bearings, and I strike out with the knife. It sinks through flesh and blood clouds the water around me. I start swimming hastily in case it attracts anything else, kicking towards the surface.
Three more times I need to repeat myself before I can finally draw air into my screaming lungs. Another set of sharp teeth latches onto my thigh and I curse. The water around me is a red haze, mine mixing with whatever creatures are lurking in the pool. I do a quick scan to get a lay of the land, naturally finding a square of sunlight on the opposite wall. Ezra is just hoisting herself into it, water and blood dripping off of her body.
She looks back towards me once and her face scrunches with a brief flash of concern before she hides it. “I’d hurry, there’s more than those small bastards in there.”
I curse, swimming as quickly as possible. “That what happen to you?”
She takes a second to cauterize the massive bite mark over her stomach, but can’t get the right angle to treat the teeth marks on her back. It looks like something latched onto her from the side and tried to turn her into a damn chew toy. Even with treating most of her wounds as she goes, it does nothing to dispel the blood coating her body.
“Aren’t you observant,” she snarks, disappearing through the hole and leaving me alone.
I feel something brush against my foot and push myself as hard as I possibly can, hauling myself out of the water before having to deal with it, thank the Fates. I tumble out onto sand, cursing when it sticks absolutely everywhere.
Ezra’s bright hair catches my eye as she’s in the middle of fighting off three men, but I can clearly tell they’re pulling their punches, not really wanting to hurt her. Unfortunately for them, she notices too and it just serves to piss her off.
Not only does she kick their asses, she makes it hurt. She goes above and beyond just knocking them out, taking time to make sure each punch and kick she lands is directed for maximum suffering before knocking them unconscious.
Which gives me the perfect time to pull ahead.
“You asshole,” she snipes from behind me.
There’s a rope tethered to a ring in the ground that leads directly to the finish line about a hundred feet above us. The rope is at a slight angle at least, thank the Fates, because I’m getting really sick of fucking climbing. I drop the dagger, having nowhere to store it and needing both hands.
“Not my fault you wanted to stop and play.”
She curses, trying to catch up. “They weren’t even trying,” she defends.
I smirk, not that she can see it. “You got distracted, admit it. And now you can’t burn the rope or you’ll fall too. God damn, what is up with this city and rope climbing? This whole fuckin’ Gauntlet, every other thing is climbing!”
She snickers behind me, but her words turn wistful. “It’s the closest we can get to the sky. Most of them will never get their wings, and until I do, this is all we have. We strive to climb higher and higher in the sky, to reach for the clouds that taunt us every day. And even if we fall, we get that brief moment of freedom, of weightlessness.”
I risk a glance over my shoulder, seeing her nearly close enough to grab my ankle as she adds, “We are dragons, even if we never get our wings. Why settle for something as mundane as simply existing when we have the potential to be so much more?”
I don’t slow, pushing my screaming muscles to their limits because I owe her that, owe her my best. “And how many times have you fallen? How many bones have you broken in your quest to get there?”
So close, so damn close to the ledge.
“Does it matter?” she counters on a heavy breath, exhausted. “I’m just going to get back up, no matter how many times it takes. Even if it’s only once, I’m going to look down on the world at my feet. The people, the cities, the problems; they’ll be too small to hurt me, won’t be able to touch me. That power everyone is after, it’s already there, I can feel it. I don’t need my wings for that because everyone forgets the most important thing.”
“What’s that?” I huff as my fingers curl around the ledge at last.
Her hand wraps around my ankle, her nails extending into claws that sink into my skin. With a shout that rival’s a warrior’s, she jerks me back with strength I wasn’t expecting and I lose my grip.
“It takes more than blood to be a dragon.”
My palm burns as the skin is torn away, just barely catching the rope halfway to the ground. She disappears over the edge and I’m forced to climb again, this time with my hand screaming in agony.
I’m sick of fucking climbing, sick of looking over my shoulder for threats. I want to sleep for a goddamn week and just live out my days with my flight in peace. But Ezra’s words echo in my ears with each heaving breath, with each beat of my hammering heart.
When you’re born a dragon, you don’t get a choice. You have to fight for everything you want in this world then fight to keep it because there will always be someone that tries to take it away from you. In a world of nothing but predators, the only way to the top is to claw your way there. You build your castle from bones and surround it with a moat of blood, yet still people will come for you.
You have to be the monster other monsters fear.
I roll onto the platform a bloody, sweaty mess. Each breath I manage to draw lances pain through my chest as I realize just how much I’ve underestimated her. She may have been kept sheltered from the world outside of Hadeon, but still, she sees it clearer than the rest of us. She doesn’t worry about the politics or bullshit, has a firm grasp on what the rest of the world has forgotten.
We’re savage beasts that posture as men and formed societies to keep ourselves in check. Take away the suits and the rules someone made up and we’re nothing more than lawless beasts. Now that so many of our women are gone and society is collapsing, it won’t be long until we revert back to what we once were.
Only the strongest survive and people are already amassing armies to make sure they come out on top. But we have something they don’t; her. And Ezra Veles? She’s a force to be reckoned with.
Chapter 14
Vyrian
“Angel, I applaud your bravery, but seriously; that about killed me. For the love of everything, holy or otherwise, please skip the next race. Just a break, not for good.”
She’s getting a piggyback ride from Soren since after breaking through the finish line, she nearly tumbled down all of the stairs as her body gave out. She may have cauterized most of her wounds, which is a badass flex if I’ve ever seen one, but she couldn’t get all of them. She lost so much blood I’m surprised she’s still standing. Add in how dehydrated she must be and the adrenaline crash she’s likely facing and she’s going to sleep for days.
