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Kas was leaning far enough forward that I could see his expression down the row, and he looked just as amazed as I was feeling.
She truly thought she was invincible, and all these nobles were dumber than a box of rocks.
The doors opened again, and two lines of guards ushered in a long string of shirtless males with huge golden-brown wings folded along their backs and metal cuffs linking their wrists together. Their faces were blank and resigned, and I knew none of them were here by choice.
“Harpies,” Jillian cried, bouncing excitedly in her chair and looking likeshewas about to smell like piss. My stomach flipped as I put the pieces together. Merden had mentioned a special vantage point for viewing the labyrinth... had she kidnapped harpies, just to give her favorite nobles an air taxi around the death maze?
Fuck, I hated her and how she treated Haret like her own personal playground.
“Good thing she only took the males, or those nobles would be breakfast,” Darnell observed, looking like he didn’t care either way.
“I don’t know. It would definitely add to my excitement to see a female harpy shred a few of those assholes,” I said, and I caught the ghost of a smile before he quickly schooled his face back to neutral. I considered the sparse details we’d been given, already hating this Trial.
“So, we have to fight off fairy tales in a magical labyrinth made by a fae and a mage, probably chock full of potions and glamors, while harpies fly spectators overhead? That soundsjustlike what being Queen is all about,” I said, and my sarcasm must have been a little louder than I meant. Merden whirled on me, looking furious but still only as dangerous as my left butt cheek. I smiled threateningly at her. Idiot.
“Fairy tales with teeth and poisonous claws, dear niece. And maybe not as much magic as you think. Here’s to your demise.” She raised her golden glass of blood-laced wine, and I winced at the sheer number of nobles cheering her on.
Yeah, this crowd really did hate me. It wouldn’t matter when I was queen, though. I’d get rid of them all the first night.
Servants distributed goblets to the competitors, and I sniffed mine suspiciously. For once, it only smelled like small animal blood, not shifters, and I drank in relief, feeling the small boost in energy immediately.
“Some of you will meet your deaths in the labyrinth, and some of you will be eliminated at the end of the Trial. Either way, your success depends on the strength and cunning of your teams. Again, there is no surrender in this Trial, so there is no escaping the Labyrinth of Nightmares, except through the mist!” Merden cried, obviously very excited by herself.
Ugh. I’d always hated the human tradition of haunted houses, and now I was going to have to live in one for a whole month. With Jillian. And Darnell. Triple ugh.
I was about to speak up and ask when this nightmare would begin, when the mist began to rise and swirl closer. It crept up the legs of our chairs, and I scented nothing at all of Nicolas as it wrapped smoky tendrils around my throat.
“Sleep well, dear competitors. And when you wake, you’ll wish you were still dreaming!” Merden cried as the mist draped itself over each competitor, the nobles laughing as a gagging sweetness slid down my throat. My eyes rolled back in my head and my body shook with the effort of resisting the magic.
It was pointless, and for the second time in a week, I felt myself getting sucked into an unexplained, uncontrollable darkness.
CHAPTER FIVE
KANA
This time, there were no visions in the darkness, only a vast, empty black.
