I couldn’t do this.
“You should quit. You’re nothing but a pathetic, whiny child. Prove me right,” Jinx’s voice sounded in the deepest recess of my agony-rendered mind.
Fuck you, I snarled back.
I wouldn’t quit, just so I could show her she knew nothing about me.
I spat an unknown substance out of my mouth.
Darkness pressed all around.
But I didn’t stop.
I’d show Jinx.
Step.
By.
Step.
An eternity passed.
How have we not crossed the line yet?
I blinked my eyes open furiously, white patches sparking in my vision. We were about twenty yards from the finish line.
Twenty-nine seconds.
I turned my head. John was next to me, holding up most of Scorpius’s body weight.
We weren’t going to make it.
Faster. Muscles as hard as bones, vibrations slamming my teeth together, I leaned forward and hauled the dead weight as fast as I could.
John moved faster next to me.
Fifteen seconds.
We weren’t going to make it.
John started to run, and he dragged me along.
My ears and neck burned like they were being shredded to pieces.
Ten seconds.
So close, but we were still too far.
John ran quicker.
Five seconds.
A few more steps.
Too many steps. We wouldn’t make it.
Three seconds.
The weight lifted off me as John threw Scorpius’s body across the line.
Two seconds.
The momentum carried them both past me. John turned around midair, and his eyes widened.
As if in slow motion, he reached his arm backward and grabbed the fabric of my shirt.
One second.
John’s momentum pulled me forward.
The timer read, “0:00.”
The agony stopped.
I was lying on hard rocks.
I’d made it.
We made it.
I blacked out.
Consciousness returned as my muscles cramped. The pain refused to let me have a single moment of respite.
Lifting my trembling fingers, I wiped at my face, and my fingers came back streaked with red.
A ringing noise echoed, and muffled sounds battered all around.
Everything was a blur.
Suddenly, Lothaire was hauling me to my feet and wiping blood with his shirt. John stood next to him and stared at me with worry as he tried to tell me something.
I couldn’t hear what he was saying.
Everything spun as I looked over his shoulder. A lone figure was slumped on the lawn.
Holy sun god.
My stomach plummeted.
Long angel wings were spread beneath him.
He’d been left by his teammates.
Gore exploded across the field as the body exploded.
He’d been left to die.
I looked down at where Scorpius was stirring at my feet. That could have been him.
Muffled screams with a horrible high-pitched feedback noise had me covering my ears.
Around us, every member of the angel legion fell to their knees and covered their ears. They bowed their heads.
The angel captain, who had two different-colored eyes, twitched violently. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he mouthed like he was speaking to someone in his head. “I accept the punishment.”
He convulsed on the ground like he’d been electrocuted.
I was in too much pain to care about what was happening to them. After all, he’d left his teammate on the field.
Lothaire stopped holding me up, and I staggered to support myself. John said something as he leaned down into my face, but he didn’t make a sound. Blood poured out of his eyes and ears.
He looked heinous.
Lothaire’s enchanted voice boomed so loudly that it broke through the high-pitched noise that was ringing in my ears. Still, it sounded like he whispered, “Arabella was the loser of the competition.”
Goose bumps erupted across my arms as my knees gave out. John lunged forward and caught me before I collapsed.
“The gods have ordered her punishment. She is to…” Lothaire trailed off and didn’t finish.
The ringing feedback made me wince.
I broke out in a cold sweat.
There was the sound of a scuffle, and someone shouted, “No!”
Lyla’s smooth voice replaced Lothaire’s, and she said, “For her punishment, the gods order Arabella to have penetrative intercourse with her legion mate John on the field until completion. Now.”
No.
John pushed me away, and I fell to my knees.
Cold rocks stabbed against my numb skin.
“Failure to comply will result in her being removed from the competition,” Lyla said with no inflection.
Please. No. Not this.
“Begin.”
I vomited up partially digested eggs.
Chapter 23
Aran
DARK CONSEQUENCES
The Legionnaire Games: Day 33, hour 10
Everything was numb.
I couldn’t feel my arms or legs.
Someone pushed John and me forward, and we stumbled onto the blood-soaked lawn.
The sound barrier had been restored, and it was eerily quiet.
Vision blurry, I barely made out the carnage coating the far side of the field where there was a pile of mangled wings and legs.
A buzzing sensation burned my ears.
I wiped at the substances caking my face, fingers shaking as I tried to compose myself.
Then I turned slowly to my only true friend at the academy. The man I’d cuddled with and laughed at every day.
The half a foot of height he had on me was suddenly overwhelming.
I couldn’t find the will to tilt my head up and look at his face.
I couldn’t face him.
Wind screamed as it whipped with a fervor, and I shivered. Dark clouds moved in an unusual pattern and cast the realm into shadows.
They’d said a storm was coming.
But it felt like it was already here.
Behind us the ocean roared as it crashed against the obsidian rocks of the shoreline. Salt and sulfur stained the air. Light from the eclipse tinted the world in shades of scarlet.
I reached slowly into my pocket, shoved my pipe between my lips, and inhaled smoke like it could save me. My teeth chattered around the pipe. I wasn’t cold.
We had to do this, or I’d be skewered on the sacred tree.
I took a deep breath and reached my shaking hand toward John.
To touch him.
I took a step toward him.
Nausea rose with such visceral force that I dropped my hand and took a step back, head spinning as a cold sweat dotted my forehead.
I couldn’t breathe.
Felt weaker than I’d ever felt in my life.
Closed my eyes.
How could I even consider doing the unthinkable to my friend? How dare I sacrifice him for myself? How could I be so selfish?
I was just like Mother.
“No,” I croaked out roughly. Swallowing thickly, I fell to my knees and turned my face upward to where the representative watched us on a platform. “No, I remove myself from the comp—”
A hand slapped across my lips.
It squeezed my cheeks.
John fell to his knees in front of me, and his dark eyes were intense as he leaned forward. Blood and tears stained his cheeks. Our faces were inches apart.
He opened and closed his jaws like he was trying to pop his ears, then he said, “Don’t you dare.” His voice was gravelly like he’d swallowed nails, and it sounded like he was talking underwater.
Black war paint was smudged down the side of his neck, and his dark hair was messy.
He looked ferocious.