Mashed them into my lips beside my pipe and smacked my gums loudly. Held the food in my cheeks.
Time bled away like sand in an hourglass.
My teammates talked.
I forgot that I was supposed to listen.
“Meal’s over,” Malum said loudly.
He clapped his hands in front of my face. I jumped, where was I?
Malum gestured to the door. “Lothaire will come by our room and tell us who’s competing soon. Everyone needs to be ready.”
Chairs pushed back with a loud scrape.
I leaned forward, stuck out my tongue, and spat out all the gross eggs. They tasted like baby chickens.
In my periphery, Malum lunged for me, but Orion held him back. I didn’t mistake his action for kindness.
Scorpius sneered something about me being the problem.
Obviously?
John wrapped his arm around my shoulder and dragged me forward.
Three blue-haired students bowed to me as we passed them in the crowded halls. I saluted them and mumbled, “Thank you for your service.”
One of them burst into tears because I’d addressed them.
I tried not to laugh.
Students jostled one another as they tried to make a pathway for the legions, but everyone had exited the hall at once, and it was cramped.
Lightning flashed, and someone screamed because they didn’t move fast enough away from the wall. Electric.
John yanked me forward as he scoffed at my bowing supporters, and the momentum made me bump into some students.
A woman whispered loudly, “What’s wrong with her? Why is she stumbling like that?”
The man next to her grimaced. “She’s clearly not well. How embarrassing.”
I was tired of pretending to heal, I was going to start traumatizing everyone back. I blew a cloud of smoke in their direction.
They coughed.
I lunged at them aggressively and they stumbled away in fear.
“Ignore them,” John said roughly and pulled me under his other arm so he shielded me with his body from the crowd. “They know nothing.”
He breathed heavily like he was agitated by what they’d said.
“I mean, they’re not wrong,” I said.
John tucked me harder against his warm chest, and I ignored the jolt of pain that zinged down my spine.
In front of us the crowd was blocking the hall. Malum shoved a student to the ground who didn’t get out of his way, and Scorpius kicked him. Orion stepped over him like he wasn’t there.
The demons followed and ignored the fallen student, who scurried backward on all fours into the crowd.
Who was more afraid of the demons than the kings?
Idiots. That was who.
Someone jostled John, and I winced as my still-healing leg buckled under the sharp movement.
“Shit, did they hurt you?” John asked with concern.
Before I could say I was fine （which I was definitely not）， Scorpius was standing in front of us.
He snarled at the students who bumped us, “Move out of the fucking way. Touch my legion mate again and you’re dead.” His milky, blind eyes flashed with violence.
Legion mate. Interesting term.
I was surprised he hadn’t said “slave.”
Students fell over themselves running away.
Malum imitated a bonfire behind Scorpius, and Orion scowled while, you guessed it, he stared at me without blinking.
Whatever. I leaned harder against John.
We made it the rest of the way down the hall without incident.
Well, there was just one teeny, tiny moment where Malum snapped a woman’s wrist because she touched Orion’s hair without permission.
The girl sobbed, and Scorpius told her to “shut the fuck up.”
You gotta love men who empower women.
Very inspiring stuff.
When we finally got back to the room, I collapsed onto the bed like I’d run thirty miles. I stared at the black hole in the ceiling like it contained the meaning of the universe. Plot twist: it didn’t.
Horse flew around the ceiling and cawed aggressively at everyone in a show of pure might while I sucked on my pipe until the room spun.
“Make him shut up,” Malum snarled as he stretched on the floor.
I shook my head. “Horse is not a filthy male like you. Don’t lump him in with yourself.”
Horse cawed louder because he was a genius.
“You just called him a he,” Malum said as he leaned forward and touched his toes. “Idiot.”
“You’re so fucking toxic,” I muttered as I resumed smoking. Sure, I called Horse a he, but that didn’t mean he identified as a man. Malum was the idiot. Sun god he sickened me.
Suddenly, Lothaire was standing in our doorway, speaking. “The competitors chosen this round from your legion are John, Scorpius, and—”
He paused.
He should have read the third name, but he stopped speaking. Lothaire swallowed thickly, and he hesitated like it pained him to read the last name on his sheet.
Wonderful. I knew exactly where this was going.
“Arabella,” Lothaire finally whispered, and his voice dripped with regret like he was overwhelmed with emotions.
Not relatable.
John jolted up from where he was sitting next to me on the bed and said, “That’s not fair. She competed last time.”
I sighed heavily.
Life isn’t fair, and only the lucky few die.
We already knew this.
I wasn’t lucky.
Lothaire scowled as he said, “The gods have spoken. But I agree this is unusual.” He turned to leave. “I will speak to the representatives.”
“Don’t,” I said.
Lothaire stopped at the threshold, his large frame full of tension as he looked back at me.
I nodded like I’d come to a decision. “I want to fight. Don’t say anything to anyone. I want to compete.”
The deep lines around Lothaire’s eyes crinkled. “Are you sure?” He looked at me skeptically. “You’re still covered in bruises and cuts from the last competition. The cut under your left eye looks bone deep.”
I shrugged with a nonchalance I didn’t feel. “It’s all cosmetic and appears worse than it is. Let me fight. Let me prove myself.”
He stared at me with a sad expression, and I could tell he was trying silently to tell me he cared.
I telepathically told him I wished I were adopted.
Personally, I was doing a good enough job ruining my life without a father speeding up the process.
There was a long moment where I thought he’d argue, but Lothaire sagged his shoulders and nodded curtly. “Very well,” he said. “Good luck, daughter.”
Then he walked away.
If that wasn’t a metaphor for my life.
I rolled my eyes and flipped off the door after he left. It helped. A little.
Malum said something derogatory under his breath as he looked down at me with an expression that was close to pitying.
“You don’t want to do this, do you?” he asked softly and clenched his fists. Like for the first time, he viewed me as a person and realized I was suffering.
I looked away.
My silence was answer enough.
He made a pained noise behind me.
Rubbing at my chest, I tried to ignore my disappointment over how quickly Lothaire had believed my lies. Of course I didn’t want to compete. I wasn’t an imbecile.
Did I look like a try hard? No.
I preferred to be a try soft. Life on easy mode was what I was looking for. Sadly, I had not found it yet.