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“Fuck!” I gritted out as the arrow flew from the string and it hit its intended target. The pain in my leg made it difficult to focus on anything. Pulling the next arrow back I shot the man in the shoulder. Shit. There weren’t any more arrows. Throwing down the bow I ran towards them and met the wounded one with a dagger into the side of his neck. The last one was the largest of the guards. He towered over me, grabbed me by the throat, and slammed me so hard onto my back that the ground shook.
I tried to summon my fire magic, but I couldn’t. My eyes closed tightly so my darkness could find something to help us. There was another magic lingering in the air. He was using magic to nullify mine. Interesting. I pulled on his magic and immediately felt it coursing through my veins. His eyebrows shot up as I took away his barrier. Instead of using magic, I grabbed the dagger in my thigh and ripped it from myself before slicing it through his throat.
The man fell next to me, dead. Sybil’s healing magic mended my wounds as I progressed to the next simulation. My eyes were met with darkness again. I glanced around but couldn’t see anything. Cautiously, I took a step and stopped when I felt my legs sinking into something. Mud? The more I struggled to free myself the more I sank into it. Great. How the fuck was I supposed to use my fire to help me? I summoned my fire mist and tossed it out hoping it would catch on something. When it caught around a boulder, I pulled myself slightly out of the mud.
The light where I was supposed to end up mocked me from a distance. I pulled harder as I tried to wrench myself free. My mind raced with ideas for how to save myself. Calming myself, I closed my eyes as I continued to sink and searched for magic to help me. Come on, Haden. Where are you? I felt the frost of his magic hanging in the air around me. There it was. But before I pulled it to me, my head submerged below the mud and the panic made me lose my grasp on his magic. My hand stayed above the surface as I struggled to breathe. I searched deep in my darkness for magic that could save me, but even my fire mist couldn’t pull me out against the mud.
My chest felt like it was being squeezed so tightly that I could hardly hold my breath in. Panic was starting to settle in, but I had nothing to save myself with. The more I struggled, the farther I sank. I held still, my body trying to not use the last breath we had up. My lungs burned with the need to breathe in and on instinct my body tried, forcing mud into my mouth and nose. I tried coughing up the mud, but that only made me sink deeper. This was it. I would die in a fucking mud pit. My head pounded as I slowly suffocated in the mud.
Then I felt an icy coldness touch my hand above the mud before a large warm hand wrapped around mine. The force of them tugging on my hand hurt so badly, but I would take it over dying. Within a moment my head was above the surface again. I was spitting out a mouthful of mud as my body lay on a now-frozen mud pit. Rolling onto my back, I stared up at Haden and Zade, the magicless fae.
“Fucking hell, Thea… Are you determined to die today?” Haden spoke in puffy breaths. He and Zade both looked exhausted. His words lingered with me. I was not doing well in the trials. I was too distracted.
“I owe you both,” I wheezed. My lungs still felt like I was going to suffocate. Haden and Zade helped me up and we walked across the frozen field of mud. When I felt Haden’s magic lingering in the air, I pulled on it slightly and felt the rush of coldness fill my veins. Shit, this was uncomfortable. Was he this cold all the time? When we stepped through the light at the end of the field, we stepped into a room where Kace was waiting.
“Thank the Gods,” he sighed.
“Have you seen anyone else?”
“No, but I just got here.”
The room we were in was small with gray walls and a dark stone floor. There were no windows or any other distinguishable features. A couple of others that I recognized showed up. We didn’t move for some time, and it was nice to catch our breaths.
Thirteen remained. That wasn’t too bad considering we only had two death traps to finish. The door we had been walking through was sealed shut.
“Well, that can’t be good,” someone muttered.
Nothing happened at first. Suddenly a table full of different foods and water appeared. A break within the trials? Everyone let down their guard and walked toward the table. They began drinking the water and only a small drop had hit my tongue before I threw the cup away from me. The first contestant who downed a large glass of water fell over shaking and foaming at the mouth.
“Poison.”
Shit.
“Who drank some?” I shouted, the panic getting the best of my composure. Everyone raised their hands. A small amount had gotten on my tongue and the bitterness was starting to burn. The contestant who fell to the floor was dead. Sybil’s healing magic forced its way to where the poison touched me, healing me quickly. The other contestants were starting to breathe heavily and one of them hunched over holding their stomachs. I reached for Haden first and healed him, then Kace, then Zade.
“Give me that, bitch.” Someone yanked the amulet from around my neck, and it fell to the floor. Sybil’s amulet shattered on the ground below our feet. No. The pretty colors swirled into nothingness. The healing magic was already settled in my chest permanently, but without her amulet how would she get her magic back? A fight broke out. Haden and Kace had started punching the fae that grabbed me.
“You idiot!” I was so angry that fire burst over my skin. My eyes shifted to black as I turned my attention to the man who grabbed me.
Before I could kill him, he fell to the floor, dead. I glanced around and I had only healed the four of us. We needed ten. I closed my eyes as Sybil’s magic surged forward.
“Holy fucking shit.” Haden backed away from me when I opened my eyes.
I was glowing, but I wasn’t on fire. A brightness filled the room as it flowed from me and into every fae still standing. Healing magic. All of the competitors were watching me, and I knew they would know my elite magic by the end of this. It doesn't matter right now. The glow faded away, but my eyes were still dark. Eleven of us remained.
Before we had time to think we were all back in the colosseum. The bright lights blinded us momentarily. We all stood in a small group.
“We did it,” Haden said as he breathed heavily.
“My Love.” Cassius’s voice had me turning towards him. The crowd wasn’t loud, but we could hear them shifting around. I took a step towards Cassius then paused. How many scenarios had we done? The creatures, that was one. The water was two. The guardsman was three. The mud. Four. Poison was five.
This was a trap.
Looking around, I saw each one of the contestants talking to someone, but I couldn't see anyone in front of them. When I turned to Cassius, he smiled at me.
“You did so good, Thea,” he cooed, but his eyes weren’t the right shade of gold. I gave him a once over as a feeling of uneasiness filled me.
I took a step backward and he clocked the movement. His jaw ticked in anger, but he faked a smile that Cassius didn’t normally give me.
