I aggressively grabbed my calves and pressed my forehead to my shins as I stretched.
A stitch popped.
You’re in the arena. It’s the day of the third competition. Stay present.
It didn’t work.
The day after the party, Malum had watched me climb out of his bed with a worried expression.
Like he cared. Men were so audacious.
For the next three days, we’d trained like our lives depended on it. We’d run until our feet cramped and lifted boulders until our hands were blistered.
Malum had kept asking me if I wanted to rest. He’d even offered to let me sit out of the runs so I could heal. Orion kept holding doors open for me, and Scorpius had stopped sneering at me and started sneering at people who bumped into me in the halls.
So. Bizarre.
In response to Malum’s inane question about needing rest, I’d sprinted the fastest and set the pace. The kings had run beside me in companionable silence.
So strange.
Everything was getting all jumbled.
Each night since, I’d fallen asleep on the floor by the hearth as flames screamed expletives at me.
No one talked about the three men who were brutalized because I’d consented to their touch.
Yesterday, I’d seen one of the blue-haired men walking alone in the hallway. The other men were probably recovering somewhere.
His face was so swollen that I wouldn’t have been able to recognize him if not for his blue hair. He’d whimpered when he’d seen me and quickly limped away.
I’d tried to go after him and apologize.
Luka had blocked my path and said, “He got what was coming to him.” At his words, my limbs had gone numb.
Orion had nodded and whispered, “Are you okay, sweetheart?”
Before I could say no, Scorpius had sneered, “Those men were scum. Do not let it get to you.”
“Don’t waste your energy on them,” Malum had said gruffly.
I’d turned to him with surprise. Arched my brow at him.
Had he really been trying to console me?
The tops of his sculpted bronze cheekbones had flushed maroon. He’d pulled at the neck of his shirt, and he’d looked away.
I’d been so surprised by how the kings were treating me I’d forgotten all about the blue-haired men.
I hadn’t known what to say, so I’d put my head down and smoked my pipe.
Now, as air slapped against my cheeks, I noted dispassionately that it was windier than usual.
The ocean crashed against the shore and sprayed salty water. Droplets peppered my clammy flesh.
I inhaled enchanted smoke.
All the competitors stretched on the field and waited for Lyla.
Vegar said something to Zenith, and Luka nodded in agreement. The three of them stretched on the grass beside me.
Loud music played, and bones crunched. A femur snapped beneath Scorpius’s feet.
I blinked.
Rubbed at my eyes.
Wind whipped my unbraided curls into a frenzy.
Mother lit me on fire.
I lay back on the grass and stared up at the sky. Dark clouds drifted in front of the eclipse and cast the realm into darkness.
I closed my eyes and rolled them back in my head until my brain went fuzzy and it felt like I was spinning.
The planet rotated beneath me.
“Are you ready, Aran?”
I opened my eyes.
My three teammates stared above me and waited for a response. I wasn’t sure who had spoken.
“Yeah.” My voice cracked, dry and rough because I hadn’t spoken a word in three days.
I stood in the middle of a party.
Blue flames swallowed me.
John gripped my tattooed hip.
My back cracked and burned.
“Sinful blood,” an angel spat.
I shivered on the floor of the fae palace.
Malum, Scorpius, and Orion kissed one another.
Red flames burned my skin off.
I held a strangely shaped ice dagger.
A villager sobbed. I stabbed them.
I screamed as I tried to leave the kings.
Jinx’s eyes went black.
“WHORE” was written across my back.
Malum conditioned my hair.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Vegar asked as he stared down at me with a frown.
It felt like I lifted a million pounds as I forced my lips up into a smile. The wind whipped around us.
“Of course.” I forced out a chuckle and asked, “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Three sets of eyes narrowed.
I laughed louder. “Seriously, I’m good.”
The demons shrugged and walked away, but Luka kept staring at me.
My smile dropped.
I contorted my body forward, grabbed both my feet, and pressed my nose against my knees as I stretched my hamstrings.
A manic chuckle escaped my lips, and I pressed them into my knees to silence the noise.
Is this how my mother went mad?
Had the haze warped her time and cut her reality into pieces?
Had chunks of her life passed without her noticing, while the worst moments stretched painfully long?
When she was fourteen years old, had she also woken up one day to find that the world was a colder place?
Had everyone watched her with nervous expressions as she’d lied to their faces?
I would ask her, but alas, I’d ripped out her heart and eaten it. So that wasn’t an option.
“Stay focused.” Luka squatted and clapped his hand across my back encouragingly.
I swallowed a scream.
Pain lanced my spine like I’d been stabbed with a hot poker.
Lothaire’s enchanted voice boomed around the stadium, “This challenge is very specific. Daggers, swords, and talons are the only weapons that competitors can use. These weapons must also be manifestations of a competitor’s power. No outside weapons are allowed. You cannot share your weapons with a teammate. Everyone must use their own.”
The student section murmured with excitement.
Lothaire continued, “The goal is to draw a competitor’s blood. When blood is drawn, an enchanted black X will hover in the air above the injured person’s head. The first team whose members are all injured will be the losers. They will be punished.”
I stood up.
His words washed over me, and reality clicked into harsh focus.
Everything was crisp.
The individual strands of vibrant green grass swayed in the wind.
I pulled the fractured pieces of my psyche together. Pushed my shoulders back and flexed my butt for stability.
Adrenaline pounded through my veins, and my heart pumped frantically in my chest.
I looked around the arena and studied who we’d be competing against.
The angels and leviathans also had four competitors each. The assassins, shifters, and devils had two competitors each.
More competitors means we have more chances to draw blood but also means it will be harder to protect one another from attacks. It will be easy to separate us. We’ll have to stick together in a formation and focus on offense. Attacking first will be our best strategy.
“Present your weapons now,” Lothaire ordered. “Daggers, swords, and talons only. If you do not present it for inspection, you cannot use it.”
I tucked my pipe away in my pocket and concentrated on the well of rage inside me.
It was disturbingly easy.
There was a twinge across my back, and two familiar ice daggers shimmered into existence in my hands.
I flipped the irregularly shaped weapons into the air. They were light and sharp. I felt safer and more competent holding them.