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Or at least, none that I’d seen around the perimeter.
I scratched my chin, thinking about what I had seen from the treetops. It’d been hard to tell from so far away, but I was pretty sure there was a hole on top of the dome.
Of course. Why would anything in this godsforsaken place be simple?
“A door with a handle? Nah. Too easy! Let’s put the door at the top.”
Fucking assholes.
I glanced around, suddenly a little nervous that maybe the gods could hear me talking shit about them in my head somehow. It seemed unlikely, but what the hell did I know? This was their realm. Who knew what was possible?
Well, no
help for it. I had to at least check.
I pulled my pack off, grabbed the rope out, and tied it around my waist. I had never been climbing, but I had watched climbers before, so I knew that it would probably be smart for me to tie myself along the way, just in case I fell. Of course, I had no real idea how to tie a rope strong enough to hold my body weight if I fell, but it was better than nothing.
Until I could figure out how to use my magic to fly, which was very unlikely, I needed to remember I was human—and breakable.
After putting my pack back on and tightening it down, I began to climb.
The surface was slightly slick from humidity that hung in the air, so I used my magic to create a layer over my fingers and palms that adhered to the surface like a suction cup. Once I did that, I began to move faster.
As I reached the crest of the dome, I looked back, and my eyes flew wide.
Movement caught my attention down on the ground, and as I squinted, I realized there were several other contestants making their way through the jungle toward the dome.
Shit. And I thought I was the only one who decided to come here.
They saw me at the same moment I saw them, and my heart lurched in my chest. I’d been unsure if coming here was the right call, but the fact that others had headed this way too made me a lot more certain I was on the right track.
Which meant I couldn’t let them get ahead of me.
Immediately, I began to climb faster, glancing back down to see the others using their magic in different ways to move up the side of the structure.
I stopped tying myself every few feet and just let the rope dangle from me. There was no time for that—I had to get to whatever was inside before anybody else did.
The others were catching up to me pretty fast, and they were all much more in control of their magic than I was. I’d made it through the qualifiers on scrappiness and fighting ability, but my magic skills weren’t exactly top of my class.
Still, I wasn’t gonna let that stop me from trying.
I sent the energy down to my legs and put a layer of magic across my boots. This helped to keep my feet from sliding as we raced up the side. About three feet below me and fifteen feet on either side of me, I could see that Trace and Merrick had arrived.
They both sneered at me as they put on an extra burst of speed.
Fuck. Now I have to win.
I managed to get to the top first, finding a large hole in the dome just as I’d expected I would.
Peeking over the side, I found that the floor was a huge drop below.
Shit. There’s no way I can jump. I’ll break my legs.
Not for the first time today, I wished my new magic had given me the power of flight.
But, no such luck. I’d have to do this the old-fashioned way.
I cracked my knuckles and took a deeper look at the dark interior of the structure, running my gaze along the inside of the dome. All across the curved ceiling and walls were heavy, twisted ropes, crisscrossed to make a sort of rope ladder.
