For now.
I knew someone was going to die tonight. Glowering up at Istvan, his arms behind his back, smugness over his features. I realized how well he had done his research. He knew every player he wanted in the arena to be pitted against each other.
Scorpion, Ash, Killian, Kek, Maddox, Birdie, Wesley, Kitty, Hanna, Rosie, and Lukas.
Istvan didn’t pick them by accident. Every one of them was personal, meant to hurt and punish me. This was the ultimate game of survival, showing the truth of people’s character. Who you really were when it came down to life and death?
“How far, Brexley, are you willing to go to survive?”
The stadium was filled with inmates and all the HDF soldiers, the energy a strange mix of hunger, fear, excitement, and horror. There were no songs for blood, no chants for death, but the prisoners up in the stands knew how easy it would be for them to be thrown in with us if they fought back, if they vocally retaliated.
They happily made us the sacrifice to appease the god before them and so played along.
Figures moved from the doorway behind Istvan’s private balcony. Olena and four others came from the shadows up to the railing, gazing down at us, covered in their finery and entitlement.
As if I ran into a wall, everything stopped. My head spun, and it took me longer than usual to understand. To grasp the people near Istvan. To make the connection.
Olena was next to Istvan, looping her arm in his, with a conceited smile painting her red lips. Caden moved in on the other side of her, his arms behind him, his face expressionless. The jolt of seeing my old best friend wearing the new HDF uniform, the marker on his breast and arm declaring he was only a rank below Istvan, should have been enough to tip everything sideways.
He wasn’t. It was the three on the other side of Istvan, two men and a woman.
“Ty vole!” Fuck! Shit! No way! Lukas’s entire body jerked, stumbling back, a hiss sliding through his teeth. His green eyes filled with shock and confusion. His gaze locked on the stunning blonde woman up on the balcony.
The same bright green eyes looked back at him.
The lover of Prague’s leader.
Sonya.
Lukas’s mother.
And standing next to her was the Prime Minister Leon. My brain couldn’t even connect the dots before the fourth person stepped up into view, arrogance perfuming off him, almost knocking me off my feet.
“Iain.” Killian breathed out his name, his expression a mix of shock, disgust, and bewilderment.
The cute young guard I taunted and teased when Killian first had me locked up in the palace stood at the railing, peering down with smugness. The one I so easily brushed off as naïve and sweet. The way he looked at me now, I realized it had all been an act.
The boy who blushed around me was a lie.
“It was you.” Killian snarled. “You were the spy. You blew up my palace.”
Iain smirked, his head dipping with pride and affirmation.
My jaw dropped. Iain was the one who planted the bombs?
It made sense. He was close enough no one questioned his motives or presence. Someone who almost wasn’t seen or thought about because of his rank and shy demeanor. He purposely made himself part of the background, unnoticed and unquestioned.
Iain’s mouth curled into a cruel smile. “Your arrogance made you blind, lord.” He spit on the title. “You thought yourself so smart, so above the rest. Always ten steps ahead of everyone else, dismissing anyone you deemed below you. Well, look who is beneath me now.”
Killian’s jaw tightened. “Why? You throw your lot in with humans? You really think the fae are going to be all right with a human taking over?”
“No. That’s why they have me.” Sonya spoke. She didn’t look much over thirty, with creamy skin and caramel blonde hair. Her bright green eye popped like emeralds. The more I looked at her, the more I saw Lukas.
“They might not take a human, but they will take another noble fae, descended from Queen Aneira’s court, sitting on your throne.” She touched Leon’s arm.
Pieces started to snap into a picture.
Killian huffed, his head shaking. “The worst foes are those who have no side but their own.”
Sonya let out a peal of laughter.
“That’s rich coming from you.” She leveled her attention on Killian. “The one who murdered the rightful successor to get where he is. The one who came from nothing to become leader of the fae. I know who you are, Killian, and what kind of low-grade thieves you arise from.”
Killian’s chest expanded, the lock on his jaw tightening.
It was all beginning to make sense, though everything about it scared the hell out of me. Istvan and Leon were working together, putting Sonya, Leon’s fae lover, in Killian’s place. It gave them all the power with none of the fight from the fae in Budapest, while they continued to advance and strengthen their army.
It was why I didn’t recognize so many soldiers in here. They were Leon’s men. We all thought their egos were too big, and maybe they might clash down the road, but they decided to work together for this. And with Olena, they had Ukraine.
We were fucked.
“I should have seen this coming. From both of you.” Lukas curled his hands into balls, his glare darting from his mother to Iain. “Can’t stop wanting Mommy’s approval, can you, Iain? You’re so fucking pathetic,” he scoffed.
“Look around, little brother, at who’s the one up here and who’s the one about to die?” Iain snapped back.
My head jerked between them, shock widening my eyes. “Brother?”
“Half.” Lukas scoffed, his head shaking. “Way before she met my father, before she used my dad, crushed his heart, and walked out on us when I was a child.” Sonya flicked her eyes with annoyance, as if the topic of Lukas’s father bored her. She seemed little phased at having one of her sons in the pit about to fight for his life. “She was whoring herself to a married noble fae, got pregnant with this bastard.” Lukas motioned to Iain. Now I noticed they had the same coloring and blond hair.
Every piece had been meticulously planned and perfectly executed—who Iain was to Sonya and how they were moving her in to take over Killian’s role.
Game. Set. Match.
I had to hand it to Istvan. He played this out faultlessly.
My gaze slid toward the general but paused on Caden. You could see nothing in Caden’s expression. At one time, I could read him like a book, now I saw nothing but a wall. How did he feel about Istvan marrying his fiancée? What about his mother being missing? I know Caden loved her dearly, but could Istvan’s power over his son sway that?
My gaze bounced back to Istvan, his focus on me, as if he were watching for every revelation to unfold on my face. Our eyes locked, his superiority inching his frame taller, his eyes brighter.
“My friends, I know you came to see some entertainment.” He spoke to Leon and Sonya but stared at me. “Let me not keep it from you any longer.”
The gate squealed behind me, the sound of a heavy object hitting the dirt, spinning me around.
At Boyd’s feet, a huge, bloody, dirty mass lay on the ground. It took nine of them to carry the beast in. Boyd winked at me before they all retreated behind the gate.
“Warwick!” I screamed, my legs already running. My knees scraped the ground as I fell next to him, rolling him onto his back. “Warwick?” I brushed the knotted hair from his face, my hands on either side of his head. A sob stuck in my throat, seeing how much worse he was in the light. His face was so puffy from the trauma I could hardly recognize him. “Farkas…” I leaned closer, trying to put as much energy as I could into him, taking on a heavy dose of his pain, attempting to heal him.