Page 27
Muscles tight and trembling, I turn away from Sam, and see the truck that was parked back at Madame Beaumont’s compound backing in through an opening below. It comes to a stop, and three of the guards I recognize, one of them Henry, climb out and round the trailer to the back. They swing back the door, and something caught on one of the grates catches my eye.
Teal. Flowy. It flutters as it dangles from a sliver of the trailer’s wooden grate. Bright red dots are scattered across the fabric, sending a sinking feeling to the pit of my stomach.
Oh, God. Yasmin.
The three guards wheel a large, steel box into the stadium, to just beneath my feet.
“Welcome, my beloved patrons, to the Battle of the Monsters!” Madame Beaumont’s voice thunders from somewhere above, and I search the crowd to find her. “Every tournament, I try to procure a worthy prize, and this year, I have a special treat for you! One I think our Champions will find most enticing!” In a sea of stillness, I catch sight of the rippling fabric of her outfit, where she stands on a platform at an adjacent section of the stadium. From here, I can see the wicked smile that I’d love to slap right off her face, when she waves her hand toward me. “Behold, the Virgin Daughter of Szolen!”
The roar of the crowd below steels my muscles, and I back away from them, until the glass wall behind me presses into my spine.
“You know the rules. Six Champions will fight to their deaths,” Madame prattles on, and I turn to find Sam is still standing behind me. “If all six fail, she will be awarded to the monster as a sacrifice for good fortune and health!”
Another round of deafening cheers.
“Sam …” My voice wobbles in my throat. “What does she mean? Awarded to the monster? What monster?”
The crowd silences beneath a loud beeping sound that skates across every nerve ending in my body. A woman’s robotic voice follows.
‘Danger. Please step back. Please step back.’
A door on the silver box below me clicks forward, then slides open on a gust of smoke. Long translucent claws curl around the edge of a box, before a terrifying creature steps out of it.
Breath held, I step forward, staring in awe at the enormous deformity below me. I’ve never seen anything like it before. It has the form of a human, but mutated to something else entirely, and its height nearly reaches the crossbar of the goalpost.
The creature hobbles forward and turns its small black eyes to me. Soulless eyes. It leaps into the air, and I tumble back onto my ass, kicking away from it. Too high up, the creature can’t reach me here, but when it leaps again, I can’t help flinch.
The crowd breaks into a riot of shouts and cheers, some of them climbing the fence that divides the seating from the field. They remind me of riled animals in the presence of a bigger predator.
Their shouts seem to excite the creature below, who scrambles about the field on all fours, bounding upward for the spectators.
“I have to go,” Sam says behind me.
Snapping my attention toward him and back to the creature, I shake my head. “Wait. Get me out of here.”
“I told you, Thalia. I can’t. I don’t know the code.”
“Well, try, dammit!”
“I’m going to. I’m going to fight the monster in your honor.”
Slamming my hand against the glass, I stare at him through the translucent barrier. “I’m not a virgin. I’m not what they think I am! They’re fighting for nothing.”
“Do not say a word of that in front of her. Hear me? They’ll sacrifice you for that alone.”
“You can’t beat that thing, Sam. It’s huge!”
“We’re allowed all weapons except guns.”
A weapon might give him a slight advantage, but my muscles still burn with the fear and anxiety of having to watch it.
“Please. Whatever you do? Don’t die. Okay?”
“I promise. And, Thalia? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to come to this. I’ll make it right.”
Chapter 9
Face plastered to the glass, I watch as the first contender, David, steps onto the field. He wears a helmet that reminds me of the gladiators back at Madame Beaumont’s home, and everything clicks into place. This woman is so obsessed with that time period, she’s resurrected it from the past.
