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Sybil took a step at me, but I moved my dagger towards her to keep her back. Her blue eyes held a sadness I had never seen before.
“All you need to know is we are on your side,” Kai whispered.
“No, not good enough,” I growled. “Tell me or I’m leaving.”
No one said anything so I ran out the door and towards the border, worried that they would try to keep me from leaving. Sybil demanded that the twins stop me, but I didn’t look back. My lungs burned in the thick hot air. The twins were faster than me, but I was so close to the boundary. Kaz was the one to finally tackle me to the ground. I landed a punch to his face, and he tumbled off me. I crawled towards the boundary, but Kai grabbed my leg and yanked me back. They both stood over me glaring down at me.
“Thea, we aren’t your enemy,” one of them snapped.
“You guys know more than what you’ve said to me. I can’t trust you.” I slowly crawled back from them and closer to freedom. When they looked at each other I stood and ran, but right before I fell through the boundary Kai and Kaz yelled, “Captain, wait!”
But it was too late. I was through the boundary, air was knocked out of me once again. I lay in the flowers while I waited for air to return to my lungs and stared at the stars. Why the fuck had they called me Captain? Maybe I had misheard them. Tears filled my eyes. Why were they lying to me? Even as the air returned to my lungs I laid in the flowers and stared at the stars. Something in my mind wanted to break free, but it couldn’t, and it made me cry.
What was wrong with me? The Wisp was a dark blue as she moved closer to me, but I didn’t stand up. She didn’t seem to care as she floated close by and waited patiently for me to get up. Eventually, I did because I didn’t want to be too close to Exile. The Wisp led the way through the woods, and I hardly watched around me for any sign of a threat.
I should have been paying attention because I would have seen the Wisp turn the darkest shade of black as a warning. But I had been so preoccupied with everything that I didn’t see Leer until it was too late. When I met his gaze, he sneered at me.
“We can’t kill each other,” I reminded him.
“I’m not going to kill you.”
Before I could defend myself, he threw some sort of powder in my face. My eyes burned, and I dropped to the forest floor trying to rub it away. My eyes burned painfully from whatever he threw at me. My skin felt like it was being stabbed by a thousand tiny pinpricks.
“But I can make it so you’re an easy meal for monsters,” he laughed. “You’re going to be very tired in a moment. At least you don’t have to be awake when the monsters eat you.”
My eyes cracked open when something wrapped around my ankles and wrists, forcing me on my back. Leer’s eyes glowed green as the roots of trees wrapped around me making it impossible to break free.
“Have a good nap.”
The darkness of the night helped him disappear as his laugh faded with him. The tiredness he talked about hit me. My eyes were fuzzy as I saw some sort of movement, but a moment later I realized it was a Wisp along with several others. They were circling me as if they would protect me, so I stopped trying to fight the darkness and gave in to the exhaustion.
An odd noise caught my attention as I opened my groggy eyes. The forest was orange and yellow from the setting sun. I went to stand up but stopped when I remembered Leer had trapped me here. Dark clouds were moving over the pretty sunset as I lay on the forest floor feeling weak.
My eyes scanned the woods as heavy rain began to soak me. It wasn’t completely dark, but the rain made it gloomy and difficult to see. Something moving on the ground coming towards me quickly caught my attention. My fire magic didn’t surge forward as I tried my hardest to call it. A creature crawled towards me with hissing snarling noises. It had thick brown fur and long horns that would kill me if it stabbed me. It ran on four legs, but it was maybe only knee height. I had never seen one of these before.
It was small, but the razor-sharp teeth it snapped towards me told me it would rip me apart. One of the Wisps floated in front of me and the creature stopped immediately and stared at the bright blue flame. As soon as I did, two more small creatures popped out of nowhere. They seemed faster than the last one. They both screeched as they headed towards me. One of them launched at me and dug its teeth into my shoulder.
The scream I let out shook the trees around me violently as the monster tore apart the flesh of my shoulder. The creature was ripped from me by a black flamed Wisp. Warm blood spilled from the wound, and I worried the smell of my blood would attract more monsters. My eyes closed tightly as I searched deep within myself for my magic. It floated in my chest not moving so I tugged on it.
When I did, it exploded from me in a blast that ripped trees from their roots. My hands lifted into the air when the heat from my fire magic warmed my skin. It rippled across me in small orange flames, burning through Leer’s magic.
The Wisps and the small creatures were gone when I tried to stand, by my legs gave out, so I resorted to crawling. Why hadn’t I been pulled from the trial? If the sun had been setting when I awoke that means I survived the night. Shouldn't I have been pulled? The pain from my shoulder intensified as blood dripped down my arm. There was too much blood coming from my wound. Those little shits had the sharpest bites I had ever seen.
A long while later I saw the Wisps floating in the trees near me. They were all black as if they were angry. My eyes focused on the black castle in the distance. It would take me days to crawl there. I tried summoning Sybil’s healing magic, but I was too weak to use it.
“Thea?” Grabbing a dagger from my boot, I held it out to the Crimson guard who appeared from behind the trees. His eyes widened with shock.
“Captain!” The man bellowed so loudly that I covered my ears. A moment later dark shadows swirled in front of us, and Cassius stepped through them in his black uniform. His normal golden eyes were gone and replaced with pure black. His focus was on the guard before he pointed to me. Cassius’s body went rigid.
“Little Viper?” He breathed as he knelt down, not caring that I had my dagger drawn. “You’re alive.” There was a tone of relief in his voice.
My body shook violently from the cold, or from the fact that I had lost large amounts of blood. Either way, I couldn’t respond to him, but he lifted me into his arms and stepped into his warm shadows. Dizziness overtook me as we stepped from the shadows to reveal we were in front of the castle. Cassius burst into the doors and was met by a group of contestants, the king, and other guardsmen.
“Thea?” I thought it was the king that sounded confused.
A commotion followed us as he hurried through the castle. Suddenly I was on top of a table with my shirt being ripped from my shoulder.
“Fuck.” Cassius muttered as he inspected the wound. “What bit you?”
