Xerxes grimaced and averted his eyes. “Try to put weight on your feet. You just have to make it off the arena, and then you’ve survived and it will all be over.”
Liar. It was never over.
Xerxes omega-whined. “Please, Aran. If not for yourself, do this for Sadie.”
My feet touched the ground as he slowly removed his grip.
For a second, I stood straight, then the sparkling field rose to greet me. I smiled at how pretty it was.
Closed my eyes.
Xerxes caught me inches before I face-planted.
He didn’t yell, swear, or get upset like I was used to with the kings. Xerxes picked me up and whispered encouragement as he set me back on my feet.
I nodded.
And fell back over.
Ten tries later, sweat poured down my face uncomfortably and burned my wounds.
“Okay, lock your knees now,” Xerxes said calmly as he took a step away from me.
I snapped my aching legs straight and clenched my butt cheeks tight.
Long seconds passed.
I stood upright and grinned triumphantly.
It was all in the ass.
Xerxes beamed like I’d done something miraculous, and he gestured across the field. The edge of the arena was a long way away.
“Okay.” Xerxes clapped his hands together. “I’m going to go forward and clear the glass. You just follow my path. One foot at a time.”
I shook my head to clear my delirium. I wet my chapped lips and winced as the moisture burned.
“You don’t have to,” I croaked. Awareness that I’d been acting deranged made me flush. “Uh, sorry about yelling stranger danger,” I said awkwardly.
Xerxes lost his composure.
His princely features darkened, and he snarled, “You’re a queen, Aran, and from what I’ve seen, you’re going to make a great one. You must learn to expect people to serve you. Own it. Don’t apologize.”
I grimaced. Men being nice to me made me feel weird.
It creeped me out.
Xerxes wrapped his tattered shirt around his hand and used it to clear a path through the glass.
“Keep your legs locked,” he ordered. “One step at a time.”
I stared at him with exasperation.
“Now. Right leg,” he barked out.
I obeyed.
Salt burned my lips. Blood burned my eyes and coated my feet, making my steps slippery.
It hurt so fucking badly.
Huffing with what felt like punctured lungs, I followed Xerxes.
As I shuffled slowly across the field, I discovered firsthand why Xerxes had led armies for Mother. He was exacting and demanding, but he was also endlessly patient, and I wanted to obey him.
He was a natural leader.
I hobbled pathetically. Tiny shards that Xerxes had missed stabbed through my sensitive feet.
We proceeded at a snail’s pace, but he never shamed me or complained. Not once.
Halfway across, I narrowed my eyes at a strange structure protruding off the far side of the field.
Xerxes looked back and followed my gaze.
He halted.
We both stared.
The bodies of the devil, leviathan, and assassin competitors were piled in a tentlike structure. The devil’s long femur bone propped them all up.
We looked away at the same time.
Xerxes’s voice trembled as he said, “Left leg, step.”
We continued forward.
Neither of us mentioned what we’d seen.
Minutes later, we finally neared the crowd of students and competitors standing at the edge of the arena.
They watched my pained progression with wide eyes.
Horror on their faces.
My harsh breathing was uncomfortably loud in the silence. I nearly collapsed from the agony in my feet, but I didn’t.
In front of everyone, the angel competitor tapped her foot impatiently with a smirk on her face. She was mostly unharmed and looked bored. Around her, the angel legion postured arrogantly with their noses in the air like they were better than everyone else.
They thought they’d be the ones chosen by the gods.
I was half-naked. Frozen. Covered in carnage and gore. Yet I knew in my bones that I’d experienced more in my twenty-four miserable years of life than they had in all their combined immortality.
You could see it in their eyes—wide and clear.
There were no shadows.
You could see it in their actions—the angel competitor had a fifteen-foot wingspan of crystal wings to protect herself with, yet she’d killed the others so she wouldn’t have to suffer.
Disgusting.
The angel competitor fell to her knees as she covered her ears. The rest of the angels winced and covered their heads like they were blocking out some sound.
“I needed to protect myself. I’m sorry.” She sobbed on the ground as she convulsed like she’d been electrocuted. She babbled incoherently to herself.
Just like their captain had after they’d lost a teammate in the second challenge.
Students backed away from the angels.
When I was ten feet from the edge of the arena, students turned their attention to me and whispered. Even the angel legion looked up from their knees to gape at my appearance.
Half of my chest was exposed, and what was left of my pants was hanging dangerously low on my hips.
I pulled my shoulders back.
Yes, my tit was out.
Yes, my feet were throbbing.
I lifted the corner of my mouth in a smirk.
From their expressions you’d think people had never seen a nipple before.
I stared straight back at them.
It wasn’t that deep.
I wasn’t the one on my knees convulsing, after all. I was walking of my own free will. Kind of.
“I just want to say,” Xerxes said quietly so only I could hear, “I’m really sorry about the role I played in your abduction. I never apologized for serving her. I was a coward.”
I licked my cracked lips and tasted copper. “Don’t mention it.”
“No, I really think we—”
“Please,” I cut him off. “Please don’t mention it. We’re good.”
Sun god, were all the shifter men this in tune with their emotions? I’d clearly been around the kings too much because I was having a lot of secondhand embarrassment from him.
Dr. Palmer would just love him.
Who talked about their feelings?
Xerxes nodded and changed the subject. “Right foot forward. You’re close.”
I hobbled forward.
Finally, we walked side by side between two of the towering posts that demarcated the edge of the arena.
We finished.
Lothaire’s voice boomed, and there was an edge of excitement in it. “The fourth competition is concluded. The two legions chosen for the showcase test will be announced tomorrow. The gods will discuss.”
A few feet away, Lyla walked out of the concrete structure and glanced over.
Runes shimmered against her dark skin, and her green hair glowed neon. The tiniest smile curled up one side of her mouth.
I didn’t smile back.
Dick and Lothaire walked out behind her, and Lyla’s expression went flat.
The three of them stepped forward onto an enchanted platform, and they levitated into the air.
My eyelid twitched.
This was why people bullied theater kids. They grew up to do stuff like that.
“Why do they need to float in the air to discuss it?” I muttered.
Xerxes scoffed in agreement.
A small golden body hurled itself at me and Xerxes. It slammed into my frozen flesh with such force that I bit my tongue, and copper flooded my mouth.