“Be careful,” Scorpius snapped at me as he started to climb.
I stabbed unnecessarily hard into the wood and called back, “Worry about yourself.”
“Stop talking. You’re wasting your energy,” Malum snarled angrily.
I tipped back and yelled, “Okay, got it!” as loud as I could just to make it clear I was wasting energy.
Malum growled, and I smiled. The four of us stabbed our claws into the posts and hauled. Upward. Straight into the cloud cover.
Unlike the first time I’d climbed it, it wasn’t easy.
Every pull of my muscles reopened stitches on my back, and the irrational fear that my organs were going to spill out of my numerous wounds had me breathing roughly as I climbed.
When I finally made it to the top, I collapsed onto the post with a relieved gasp.
Fluffy white clouds drifted below, and everything was eerily quiet and still.
There was no wind up this high.
The eclipse appeared ten times larger. If I reached my fingers up, I reckoned I could touch it. Instead of its usual dark red, the air was a light pink like a sunset at a beach in the fae realm.
Everything was prettier up high.
Softer.
I wanted to close my eyes, spread my arms wide, and take a nap on the fluffy cloud below.
Across the way, there was a commotion as Jinx climbed off Sadie’s back.
Jinx collapsed onto her butt and tucked her legs against her chest. She shook back and forth, and her teeth chattered with fear.
An angry bear roared as Sadie flung her furry body off Jinx’s post. She sailed at least twenty feet through the air toward an empty post.
My heart went into my throat.
Sadie’s momentum pulled her over the side of the post.
At the last second, her claws stopped her progress and hung still. She clawed herself up and plopped her fluffy white ass down. Her tongue lolled out of her mouth as she delicately licked her paw.
She delicately stuck out her hind leg and licked her privates.
No one ever accused her of being classy.
I let my head fall back with a crack.
At this rate, I was going to have heart problems from too much stress.
“Now the showcase truly begins,” Lyla said from a floating platform nearby.
I didn’t bother to look over and acknowledge that inane statement.
If the next word out of her mouth was “jump,” then I was joining the underground radical atheist fae cult. I’d secretly always liked their message about how we were all going to die and no one was going to save us.
It really rang true with me.
If I jumped now, I’d be bedridden for weeks. My bones still hurt from the first competition, and I’d been much healthier back then.
No way was I jumping.
They’d have to push me.
No one could convince me to subject myself to that type of pain.
Not again.
Lyla said, “The gods have requested that the three kings showcase their powers right here and now. They want to see if you can fight alongside the shifter legion without unanticipated casualties. They want to see if your legions are compatible.”
My stomach dropped. Unanticipated casualties.
“What?” Malum asked incredulously as he stood up straight. “We can’t.”
I sat up.
Sadie finally stopped grooming herself.
“You will release your powers now, or you will be treated as a deserter,” Lyla said with no inflection.
I lay back down and cracked my head on the post.
I prepared for the worst.
Chapter 46
Aran
THE SHOWCASE
Rebirth—Day 58, hour 11
For a long moment, Lyla’s words hung in the still air and nothing happened.
No one moved.
Click. Click. Click. The gold hardware atop each of the kings’ ears floated upward and separated into shards of a crown.
Their eyes darkened, and the talons on their nails lengthened.
Unlike before, that wasn’t the only transformation the kings underwent.
Malum said roughly, “As the Ignis from the illustrious House of Malum, I invoke the power of my mates.”
My skin prickled with warning.
Malum put his fingers to his flaming neck. “As the crowned King of the Sun God, I invoke the power of my mates.”
A long, wickedly sharp silver dagger appeared in Malum’s hand.
No.
The dagger hadn’t appeared.
My jaw dropped.
His tattoo was gone. He’d pulled the dagger from his flesh.
“Venimus!” Orion shouted in a loud, lyrical voice. “We came.”
My eyes snapped over to the quiet devil as he spoke the word tattooed across his shoulder.
Pink cherry-blossom petals drifted off Orion’s neck and swirled in the air around the posts.
Scorpius said, “Vidimus. We saw.”
The eye tattoo on his neck blinked open and looked around. At the same time, his milky blind eyes started to glow.
Malum growled roughly, “Vicimus. We conquered.”
He held the dagger high above his head, and flames poured off him, filling the air.
I was so busy staring at the kings that I almost missed it.
A flame about the size of a fist hovered in the air above everyone’s heads, including my teammates’ and the judges’。
The kings were the only ones who didn’t have one.
I tipped my head back, but there was nothing above me. Maybe I couldn’t see it?
Every person’s flame was white.
Déjà vu ripped through me.
Back in the beast realm, when I’d been high, smoking my enchanted pipe for the first time, I’d sworn I’d seen a white flame hovering above Sadie.
What is going on?
My hands shook as I pulled my pipe from my pocket and slammed it between my teeth.
I waited for an explanation.
A commotion.
The only sound was the whooshing of flames as they poured off Malum.
I turned and said, “John,” but my friend didn’t stop staring straight ahead at the kings and gave no sign he’d heard me.
Everything was so still that I had half a mind to think time itself had stopped.
I brought my shaking fingers to my temples.
No one else moved.
“The day of wrath is here,” Orion sang loudly, and his voice was unbearably sweet, like poisoned honey.
The decibel level sent goosebumps erupting across my skin and all the hair on my body stood up.
I whipped my head in his direction and shouted, “What are you doing?”
White-blond hair floated with cherry blossoms around Orion’s golden head. He looked possessed.
His voice was beautiful as he sang, “The day of wrath is upon us.” His voice was so perfect that it stroked a part of my brain but so haunting that it hurt my chest and made it hard to breathe.
I understood with disturbing clarity why he always whispered.
His voice was enthralling. Literally.
Scorpius tipped his head back to the sky. Bright light shot out from all three of his eyes.
The white flames above everyone’s heads flickered.
Scorpius turned his head and looked at everyone with his glowing three eyes. His powers did something to the color of the flames.
It hit me like a punch to the face—he’s judging their souls.
Jax’s and Lyla’s flames were the only ones that stayed pure white.
Everyone else’s changed color.
The edges of the flames above the demons, twins, Sadie, Ascher, and Xerxes turned black.