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“Come back to me, my love,” he whispered.
“I will.” I turned to the gaping faces of contestants and guardsmen. Haden gave me a grin so big I could feel my cheeks blushing.
“This is the final trial. So, let's get it over with.” Cassius spoke while staring straight at me.
The ground rumbled around us, but no one yelled or screamed. We were expecting it this time. We all stood as tapestries and walls shredded into nothingness. The bright light of the colosseum blinded us as the crowd cheered at us. Twenty of us stood in a group waiting for the king to step forward onto his balcony. When he did, Cassius stood next to him with his golden eyes watching me. The crowd roared at the sight of the king before they quieted down. He was dressed in Crimson red from head to toe. His black crown sat upon his head of dark hair. How had I never realized how similar they looked?
“The final trial!” He boomed as the crowd tore into a new frenzy. My eyes never left Cassius as he watched me closely. He gave me a small smile as the noise died down.
“You have all been impressive to watch. This trial is the most difficult to get through and will likely take the lives of several of you.” The king’s eyes flicked to me momentarily before continuing. “The top ten will travel to Cerithia to return the witch's bloodstone to our Kingdom. For six years we have tried and failed. No one has returned alive.”
The tension from the crowd was palpable. Looking around I tried to make out the faces watching us but with the bright light shining from behind them, I couldn't.
“The next trial will be a simulation of the fates of those who competed before you and died. When the bodies were returned to the Crimson Kingdom a seer performed a sacred ritual that revealed how each of them died. We have created a magical simulation that will test six deaths they faced to see who can come out of them alive.”
We have to survive six death traps. Six. The number seemed like so much in this context. I understood the reason for the task, but what if we all died trying?
“Once you have escaped a simulation it will put you into the next until you have completed them. You will be rated mostly by who can actually get through the task. If more than ten emerge, the fastest ten will get the points. Once the simulation starts, we cannot stop it until it completes the entire series. Less than ten of you will likely be standing at the end of it.”
No one cheered at the news.
My eyes glanced at Cassius’s stoic face, and I knew we were both wondering if this could be the last time we saw each other. I would do this for him. For us. For Exile. I gave him a bright smile to show him I could do this, to assure him that he didn't need to worry about me.
“You may be in the simulation at the same time as other contestants. You may choose to work together or not, and magic is to be used. Best of luck to each of you.”
Haden sighed heavily next to me. My eyes remained locked on Cassius as his figure slowly faded away along with the colosseum.
We were all standing in a field. It was black as night, but we could make out the silhouette of trees around us. My eyes tried adjusting to the darkness. There was a small break in the forest where the light shined through it. We must be heading there. Pointing to the light, Haden looked and nodded, but none of us moved.
I wondered what was lurking around, waiting for us to move or make a noise. Those creatures from the first trial flooded my mind. Nothing seemed to be watching us or lurking in the field. As soon as I took a step forward a snapping noise broke through the ground and echoed around us. The land below us shook so violently that it split into two. Haden slipped, but I grabbed him quickly and hauled him back up. A shriek sounded from the crevasse that split the ground into two. Shit. Large, winged creatures flew from the ground and straight into the air. We all held our breath to see if they were noise sensitive like those other beasts. They started barreling towards us. They knew we were here.
“Run!” someone yelled and everyone scattered towards the light in the trees.
I shot my flames out in front of me, burning the creature before it grabbed me. They were fairly small but could kill us with their long sharp talons. I gawked at the small translucent-skinned beast on the ground. It had ears, eyes, and a mouth that held thousands of tiny razor-sharp teeth. Someone’s scream cut short as the creature ripped into his chest. I stood horrified that his insides spilled out of him onto the ground.
Don’t get distracted, I told myself.
I could incinerate all of them with my fire magic, but it would likely drain me for other tasks. Haden was struggling with a creature. His frost lurched into the night sky and froze the creature solid. The monster shattered into a million pieces when it hit the ground. We were running as fast as we could. Grabbing Haden’s hand on the way by I yanked him along with me. He would survive this with me. Another shriek from the creatures put me on high alert.
They were headed straight for Haden and me. I pushed Haden as hard as I could to the left and he tumbled out of the claws of the creature. The claw scratched my shoulder, but I kept running. My ears rang as I heard another contestant’s yell cut short. Focus. Focus. Focus. The light in the trees is getting closer and closer. We were almost there.
Haden was quick on my heels. When a creature swooped for me, I stumbled falling into the crevasse. I was freefalling into the black depth of the ground. My mind was blank on what I should be doing. All I could think was I failed Cassius and Exile…again. The free fall had my hair whipping around me. The wind whistled loudly in my ears. How long would I fall before the ground caught up to me? I closed my eyes tightly so I wouldn’t see my end coming. A moment later I realized I was not falling; I wasn’t moving at all.
When I opened my eyes, my fire mist was circling all around me in a cloud of fire, but it twisted with dark shadows. The darkness in my chest hummed with power as I lifted toward the darkened sky above me. My magic wouldn’t let me die so easily. Thank the stars above because I had thought my end was here. Once I reached the top of the crevasse. I could see Haden looking over the edge as if he had been watching me fall to my death. My magic laid me gently on the ground so I was staring up at Haden. A creature swooped at him, but Haden had frozen it within a moment.
“Thank the fucking stars, Thea, I thought you were dead.” Haden sighed heavily.
Taking a deep breath as I lay on the ground, I smiled when I saw a small animal crawling towards me. Kace. I stood up and scooped him up in his small animal frame. He wasn’t as fast so I could help him, but he was likely undetectable being so small. Fire burst out in front of us as one last creature tried to stop us. It was dead before it hit the ground.
Haden, Kace, and I slipped into the light of the trees, and I felt dizzy as the light blinded me. I looked around not understanding where I was. All of a sudden, I was in a cage, chained and locked shut. Haden, Kace, and a few others were in similar ones. The room we were in was stark white. The walls, the floor, and the ceiling were white with no other markings. More contestants kept appearing in the room, also locked up in separate cages. I counted them. Seventeen of us. Suddenly the room started filling with water. Fuck. Were we going to drown? Our hands were tied as the water filled the room quickly.
Haden was across the room from me. Kace was already shifting into a small animal creature. He slipped from the bars and was gone in the blink of an eye. My eyes shifted to the man next to me. He had been on my team during the maze. The man held no magic, and I could see panic in his eyes. He would not survive if I didn't help. He tugged on his restraints, but they didn’t budge.
My fire bloomed across my skin as the water rose. The chains melted from my hands, but before I let myself out. I held my hand toward the magicless fae next to me and melted the chains from his hands. He looked at me with awe as I melted the lock off the cage he was in. I couldn’t let him die. He disappeared as he left the cage. Haden’s cage was already empty. Holding my breath as the water rose above my head, I melted the cage open and left it.
When I opened my eyes, I was lying on my back. The hot sun beat down on me so fiercely that my clothes were nearly dry. I stood up but saw no one else with me. I glanced around and saw a group of six Guardsmen in front of me a short distance away. They all held weapons that pointed at me. Great. Slipping my dagger from my boot without them seeing, I stood.
The dagger left my hand so quickly that the fae it hit in between the eyes fell dead to the ground before the others had realized I had thrown anything. They launched arrows at me, but with a flick of my wrist, my fire burned them. One of the men charged me with his sword. Grabbing my other dagger, I moved towards him. I dodged the blade easily and dug my dagger in his back. Stealing his sword from his dead body I met the next man blow for blow. My blade pierced into his stomach, and he fell. Relief flooded me when I saw the bow he had. As I racked an arrow a throwing knife lodged into my thigh.
