Or if Lucifer was done being merciful, thus making this a reality.
The screams of dying candidates suggested it was the latter. Or maybe none of this had ever been a mirage and the magic I sensed was something else entirely.
Regardless, we needed torun.
The Elites were hot on my tail, sprinting along the landscape and shoving one another out of the way. One of them caught my side, knocking me into a sharp rock. It spun me around, forcing me to take in the carnage in my wake.
Blood soaked into the ground, and Hell seemed to greedily suck up the moisture. I couldn’t take my gaze away from the broken body lying underneath a trample of hooves.
Then the Centaurs did something strange. They began to fight over the corpse.
The massive beasts hurled their full body weight against one another. Their antlers slammed together, sending a massive clash ringing across the landscape.
While the other candidates took the opportunity to run down the illuminated path, I crouched behind a rock and watched the scene unfold with a mixture of fascination and horror.
The hum in the air was stronger now.
What’s going on?
I should run. I knew I should run. But I couldn’t seem to stop watching. The Centaurs were no longer chasing. They were too busybrawling.
More magic warmed the atmosphere, causing my nose to twitch with the need to sneeze.
Then the girl on the ground split into two, similar to when I had seen Lucifer both standing and giving his speech but, at the same time, sitting and looking bored.
He hadn’t seemed to appreciate that I’d been able to see through his enchantment.
So I doubted he would be all that pleased with what I could see unraveling before me now.
Because the entire landscape was unfolding before my eyes.
A gruesome scene of a slaughtered female.
And another of the ground swirling around a perfectly unharmed female. She wasn’t broken into pieces or even bloody. At least, not this version of her.
Instead, she looked confused and disoriented.
A Centaur wrapped his arms around her and held her against his chest. He’d been the one fighting seconds ago. But he appeared to have won.
The girl stared up at him when a long, pink tongue slithered out from the shadows that hid his face and grazed her cheek.
She… giggled.
She fucking giggled?
The Centaur seemed pleased with her response of being licked in the face and pulled her onto his back as if she were riding a horse. He offered his long mane for her to hold on to and she took it, a look of bewilderment crossing her face.
A white aura glowed around the Centaur, and the shadows around his face briefly fleeted, revealing handsome features. His red eyes were still menacing, but I inexplicably knew that this was one of the good ones.
Well, maybegoodwasn’t the right term. There was still something I was missing.
The circular wave of murky power at their feet yawned open, and the girl screamed as they dropped into the darkness.
What the actual fuck?
With the white-aura Centaur and candidate gone, there wasn’t anything to distract the remaining herd.
A sea of red eyes swiveled toward me.
