One moment, I remained in that standing daze, allowing the Hell Fae King to play mental gymnastics with my mind.
And in the next, I was on my ass on the black sand ground of the auditorium, gaping up at the Hell Fae King.
Silence fell heavily around me. Even the males in the stands were quiet. But no one noticed me excepthim. The devil himself.
Because the others were all stillenchanted.
What. The. Fuck.
My body shook with exertion, like I’d just run a marathon. But as I stared into a pair of midnight eyes, I realized it wasn’t a marathon at all. I’d just broken from a majestic web of some kind.
And the irate gleam in his glowing irises told me that’d been the absolute wrong thing to do.
Because I’d just gained the attention of the devil himself.
While everyone else remained studiously quiet and hypnotized around me in the field.
“Warden,” he said, his voice whisper-soft. “Inspect Number Sixty-Six.”
“As you wish, my lord,” Ajax replied, his hand grabbing my bicep and yanking me to my feet. “Good job,cupcake. You just earned yourself a night in one of my cells.”
CHAPTERTEN
AJAX
“Not a smart move,”I said to Camillia as I led her out of the arena.
“What was that?” she demanded, not at all contrite or concerned. “He had us all under some sort of enchantment. Like… like we were watching a movie that wasn’t real.”
Az snorted as he joined us. “Did she really just liken Lucifer’s magic to amovie?”
“She did.”
“Hope he didn’t hear that,” Az drawled.
“I sort of hope he did,” I replied. “She could use a lesson on respect.”
Az nodded, his thick hair shifting in a breeze that seemed to follow him everywhere. I suspected it had something to do with his Phoenix energy. “Indeed she could,” he agreed. “Perhaps we could administer the initial course?”
“Or maybe you could talk to me rather than about me when I’m walking right here, between you,” she interjected, her annoyance a spike to my senses.
Az glanced at her, a note of surprise touching his usually stern features. “You really do have a death wish, hmm?”
I grunted. “She certainly has something.”
“Still right here,” she reminded us, like I couldn’t feel her skin burning beneath my palm.
Curling my fingers around the long silver chain down Cami’s back, I tugged her out of the amphitheater.
She wanted to behave like an animal? Then that was how I would treat her.
Her adorable growl suggested she’d known the purpose of this chain. Good. She needed to learn her place here. Just as she needed a firm introduction to my role in these games.
I circled around to the back of the arena to the area I typically used to corral monsters into the portal. However, the open field had been partially repurposed for the trials. I hadn’t expected to make use of this path so soon, but I should have known that Camillia De la Croix would be my first prisoner.
I muttered a spell to unlock the magical doorway, causing the air to swirl as it opened before us. The long, dark path of stairs appeared ominous and cold, something that gave me temporary pause, as I wanted Camillia to see her lingering fate.
She tugged against my pull. “You’re not taking me down there.”
