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As the guard was unlocking my room, the door next to mine opened. Darnell strode out, and my eyes narrowed on him.
“Haven’t seen you in a while,” I remarked pointedly, but he only smirked and kept walking without a word. He must have been up here with Merden the whole time, and that opened up a hell of a lot of questions.
Then my blood began to heat in the all-too-familiar refrain of kiss or kill, and I looked farther down the hall to see Kana and Kingston exiting from another door. The fae wasn’t with them, but I scented him nearby.
“Hey, wolf,” Kana called, giving me one of her sexy little half-smiles. Fuck, she looked good in that armor. “Merden’s about to start announcing all her bullshit in the main hall.”
“I thought the Trial didn’t start until tomorrow?” I asked, glancing at Vento.
Kana shrugged. “Bitch is impatient. I guess the mist gave her the go-ahead, and I’m all for it. Let’s get this over with already.” She was twirling a knife absently between her fingers, and she looked every bit the badass warrior she was.
“I’ll just drop off my stuff and meet you guys in there soon,” I said, turning away to hide the bitter hollow in my chest. I didn’t deserve this woman’s love in any form. All I’d ever done was cause her heartache, and I had no idea how to fix any of it.
“Relax, pup. This will all be over soon, one way or another,” Vento said as the door clicked shut behind us, blocking out the bustle of the crowds.
Over, yeah. It would definitely be over soon. But there were still too many possible endings I didn’t want.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
KANA
“This place looks way too good for the amount of time she’s had up here,” Kas growled as we made our way to the main hall.
I sighed. “Yeah. She could have been sending workers up here since right after the first Trial. We would have never noticed.”
All the holes in the walls were patched, and I’d seen no signs of those infernal Icicle bats. And while the competitor rooms were pretty sparse, the main hall glittered with fancy furniture, golden candlesticks, and heavy draperies. It was every bit as ostentatious as Merden had made the ballrooms at the palace, and it gave even more credit to Blaise’s idea that she was planning for this to be a permanent move.
“These workers look exhausted,” Kas pointed out in a low voice as we passed a few young vampires serving goblets of blood. Their eyes were hollow and blank, their cheeks sunken.
“More blood magic, just like the slaves,” I whispered, the pit of my stomach feeling hollow as I searched the crowd and found several more servants who looked the same. We’d saved and cured so many in the palace, and still Merden was up here tripling her numbers. When would it end?
“She can’t keep this up forever,” Kas warned, and I knew by his tone that he was reminding himself as much as me to stay focused on the Trial. Unfortunately, nothing was more important right now than the final Trial.
I nudged him when Darnell took a seat next to Jillian, the two of them leaning in to discuss something. Darnell smiled wickedly at whatever Jillian said, and the two of them cackled.
“Think he’s been up here this whole time?” Kas wondered as we took seats at the end of the long rectangular table. Blaise joined us, and then Luca arrived, taking the last seat next to Jillian.
Seeing only the six of us lined up here was startling, even though I’d known all along that this moment would come.
We’d begun the Trials with so many competitors. So many lives had been lost in this quest to force Merden off of her stolen throne. It had to be worth it. It just had to be.
“Welcome, everyone!” Merden called from the front of the hall. People were still crowding in, some looking like they’d just arrived at the Vault. But she really was impatient, and for once we were in agreement.
The mist curled along the walls, giving its silent approval, and everyone quieted down as the late afternoon sun slanted in the windows, casting shadows in the corners and highlighting Merden perched on a raised platform at the front, seated on an enormous, grandiose throne all by herself. Even my father hadn’t been invited to share her moment, apparently.
“Welcome to the future of Saori Sang! I hope you all enjoy your time here in the Vault of Bones, which your vampire friends have been swiftly readying for your stay. And welcome to the final Trial - the Trial of the Thunder Moon - where again, I will demonstrate how worthy I truly am to be your Queen. Here in this very room, we will watch your other competitors fight and die. This is a Trial of strength, magic, and strategy.”
I caught Luca’s eye from down the row, and he rolled his eyes. I smirked, glad to see that despite the blood contract being activated, he was still my same growly wolf. I was missing him something fierce, though I hadn’t come up with a good plan forus to have alone time. Not if I wanted to keep my heart inside my chest.
“Pay attention,” Kas hissed, but he was grinning at me. Merden had stopped wasting time boasting and begun spouting off the rules, though, so it probably was a good idea to listen.
“These one-on-one matches will be chosen by the mist itself. Each match has three rounds. If a competitor is knocked unconscious or unable to stand, they lose. Losing two rounds ends the match, but the mist has provided special options!”
I tensed, knowing what was coming. Grand-mère and I had argued about the option for sacrifice many times, and although I’d never quite agreed to it, she’d been planning to be my sacrifice. Merden had guessed as much, which had turned out to be the whole reason she’d kidnapped Grand-mère at the beginning of the Trials, leaving me with even more difficult options.
“The losing competitor may surrender, although of course that carries grave consequences among vampires. Or... the losing competitor may choose a sacrifice!” Merden crowed, obviously way too into the idea. The crowd was buzzing though, and I knew some of them might even have grandparents who remembered this part of the last Trial. The mist wiped most memories so that future Trials couldn’t be compromised, but the sacrifice was always allowed to live in legend as the ultimate test of loyalty to Saori Sang.
Merden quieted the crowd. “This sacrifice will only be accepted by the mist if a true love exists between the competitor and the individual being sacrificed. Such an action shows a true willingness to put the good of Saori Sang above the personal desires of the Queen.”
