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The sound of the portal snapping shut behind me made me jump, and Lachlan gripped my hand tighter.
Then the four of us looked up to take in our new surroundings.
I hope we didn’t just step from a nightmare into hell.
Chapter Twenty-One
Cold wind gusted by me, sending my messy hair flying all over as goose bumps popped up on my skin. My boots crunched on stones and rocks beneath my feet, and I turned in a slow circle, surveying the landscape around us.
We were halfway up what appeared to be a mountain, the ground sloping beneath our feet and the shadowy landscape of the godly realm spreading out below us in the distance.
I didn’t see any immediate threats, although that didn’t make my muscles unclench even a little bit. I’d learned the hard way in this place that the worst threats were the ones you didn’t even see coming. The ones that snuck up on you while you were moving hot and heavy toward a four way with three gorgeous men.
Which, admittedly, was one of the dumbest things I’d ever done.
Not the act itself, necessarily, although I still wasn’t quite sure what it meant for the four of us. But the timing. That had been atrocious.
“Gods.” Trace groaned, bending over and putting his hands on his knees. “What kind of fucking competition is this? I know none of us are kids, but we are in school. We’re supposed to be learning how to use our magic in a safe environment. This is fucking ridiculous. I know there’ve been casualties in the Gods’ Challenges before, but it’s a miracle anybody survives these damn things.”
“That’s why I didn’t compete either semester last year,” Merrick replied. “It didn’t seem worth it. But the admins all push it so hard, and they make it sound like meeting the gods is the best way to level up after graduation. I couldn’t pass it up all three years. But you’re right. This is insane.”
“How many people usually make it through?” I asked, a cold feeling trickling through my body.
Lachlan grimaced. “It depends. Last semester, seven of the ten made it back.”
My eyes flew wide. I’d known people had died during the challenges before, but from the way Merrick was talking, it sounded almost like it was an expectation that not everyone would make it back.
“I can’t believe the admins are okay with this,” I muttered. “It’s bullshit.”
“Well, I always hear Dean Frost say greatness is forged in fire,” Trace said, straightening up and rolling out his shoulders.
“I don’t know if the challenges are the same for everyone, or if they base it off of your skill level. But we’re all pretty tough and skilled, so it doesn’t surprise me that everything we keep meeting head-on is extremely challenging.” Merrick blew out a breath, running a hand through his white-blond hair. A cloud of rock dust rose up from the strands, glittering in the dim moonlight. “We have to be close to being done.”
“Fuck. I wish I’d known how deadly this all was. What will happen to Chetna and Knox?” I asked, wrapping my arms around myself to fend off the cold. “Are they supposed to kill each other? And since the portal collapsed, what then?”
The guys all looked at each other but didn’t reply.
My stomach twisted. I didn’t want to think the worst. I refused to think the worst.
In almost every challenge we’d faced so far in this realm, there had been a way out, a solution. It might not’ve been easy, but there had always been some way forward.
I had to assume the same was true in the cave where we’d left Chetna and Knox—that some alternate way out would present itself. I would never have left them behind if I thought we were sealing their doom by doing so.
“No.” I shook my head, trying to convince myself as I spoke. “That’s ridiculous. There’s probably some other portal that will allow the others to escape the cavern. Why would the gods let everyone get trapped in there?”
Lachlan’s face went a little soft, and he nodded. “You’re probably right. There’s probably a whole network of portals. The gods probably give them out as soon as they believe the competitors have earned them.”
The other two men nodded, but I couldn’t tell if it was for my sake or because they actually believed what he’d said.
Normally, that kind of reaction would piss me off. I wasn’t the kind of girl who needed to be placated and coddled, but after seeing everything I’d just seen, I wanted to believe there were other portals.
It was stupid to push my fears into the background, but I had never known this kind of exhaustion and desperation in my life. It had been weeks since I stepped through the portal into the jungle, and I felt like in those weeks, I had completely changed as a person.
I didn’t like the idea of Knox and Chetna dying for this stupid challenge, and I couldn’t stand the thought of any of the men around me getting hurt. Seeing Trace injured had just about wrecked me.
I needed to believe that we were all getting out of this place. That it was just a matter of who got the prize first.
Not who lived and who died.
