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I quietly lie back down on the hay and slow my breathing.
“I know you are awake,” says a dark, low voice. “Your heart is like a scared little rabbit.”
He can hear my heart. This can’t be good.
I slowly open my eyes and find a human-sized man staring through the bars; however, he is anything but human.
His thick shiny black hair, like threads made from obsidian, cascades to his shoulders. His skin is smooth and pale like frosted glass, almost transparent, and he has the palest, ice-blue eyes I’ve ever seen.
The lower half of his lean, muscular frame is covered in worn black leather pants, but the rest of him is naked. Naked, but not bare. Every inch of his torso, arms, and neck is covered with intricate black tattoos. In the dark, I can’t make out the shapes, but they look like geometric symbols.
Wait. Did I just see them move? I blink, straining my eyes. Maybe it was my imagination, but I could swear his tattoos shifted position like an electronic billboard.
“Who are you?” I ask with a shaky voice, momentarily forgetting what Alwar told me: weakness is shunned in these lands. So I add, “Motherfucker.”
The man’s luscious red lips curl into a slow devilish smile. “They call me Benicio.”
“Okay, Benicio, why am I here?”
He tilts his head to one side, observing me with an inquisitive expression.
“What the hell are you lookin’ at, asshole? Never seen a human before?” I snap, trying to mask my crippling fear.
“I am surprised that the daughter of such a legendary Norfolk does not know why she is here.”
I don’t know what he’s talking about; therefore, I don’t know how to play my hand. Do I even have one? “My parents were murdered when I was young. How do you know them?”
He leans in, grabbing the bars with both hands. “In these lands, everyone knows of them. Your mother died in the Blood Battle, and your father died in an attempt to prevent her from having her day of glory.”
What the…?
“I can tell,” Benicio says, “that my answer has shocked you. Your pulse is accelerated, and your breathing is erratic.”
Yep. “What’s the Blood Battle?”
“Your grandmother did not tell you? Or your parents before they crossed the bridge?”
I’m going to be sick… I’m getting the distinct impression that my entire life has been nothing more than a bucket of lies.
To be clear, I comprehend that a significant portion of reality has been hidden from me. I understood it the moment I witnessed a bunch of bare-chested men popping out of a painting. Now I’m talking about the rest of it. The crap my grandma told me to mask her lies was just more lies.
Lies upon lies. That’s what Alwar said. Is it possible that he was telling the truth about Grandma Rain?
My only strategy at the moment is to play Switzerland. Pretend I don’t have a dog in this fight. “Grandma Rain never told me a thing. All I know is that she died a few months ago. I was cleaning her bedroom when I was pulled through a wall. The giants on the other side wouldn’t tell me anything.”
“You’re lying.”
“Am I?”
“Your pulse quickened just now.”
“I’ve been taken to a world I never knew existed. In the space of a handful of hours, I’ve discovered that giants aren’t just something you see on a can of string beans and dragons actually exist. Which reminds me, how am I not bleeding right now?” I run my hands over my torso. There are little holes in the fabric of my flannel shirt, but my wounds are completely healed.
“My Blood People have our ways.”
Blood People. Where have I heard something equally strange? Alwar mentioned the Blood King. “You’re their king, aren’t you?”
His lips curl into a sadistic grin.
I’m going to take that as a yes; he’s the Blood King.
“Alwar said he was coming to see you,” I say. “Is he here?”
“No. And he did not come to see me. He issued a formal challenge. For the Blood Battle.”
I don’t like the sound of this. “What do I have to do with it?”
“Dear woman, you truly are naïve.” He laughs. “Your only purpose is to do battle in the great blood fight, as your mother did before you. Unfortunately for Alwar, you are my guest now, and he will have to retract his challenge. He has no proxy to enter in the fight.”
Proxy? My mind swishes and churns, attempting to make sense of any of this. Right before Alwar pulled me through, he was talking about me. He said I was a proxy.
“Alwar brought me here to fight you?”
“That would hardly seem fair.” Benicio laughs. “You would battle my proxy. To the death.”
Hell no. “Why would I do that?”
He rubs his chin, looking as confused as I am. “You truly do not know?”
