AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I don’t know,” I said, eyeing Tate out of the corner of my eye.
“If there’s one thing I learned growing up in Algrave,” Trevor smiled. “It was how to take a beating. And it’s not like we’ll be fighting forever, right? We take the throne, and it’s done. After that I can retire. I don’t ever need to do it again.”
I took a breath and exhaled slowly, then squeezed his arm. It wasn’t the worst option, and it’s not like we had others.
“I’m in,” Trevor said, turning back towards the others. “What happens now?”
Augustine snapped his fingers and Gemma stepped up to the platform. She was dressed differently tonight, like some kind of priestess, with a dark dress with leather straps and black studs. A single slagpaw claw hung against her collarbone, and pads of coarse gray fur graced her shoulders.
“We can show you,” Gemma said, stepping up to the side of the platform. “It is within our knowledge. However, we have an initiation, a protocol of sorts.”
“More tests?” Luke asked.
“Not in the sense you think. It’s not a judgment, at least not from us. We just want to make sure your body can handle it, that you really want it.”
“Like signing a suicide waver,” Trevor joked.
“There’s just one more thing,” Augustine said, standing up. He held my gaze, and I nodded at him. He raised an eyebrow, so I mouthedI accept your terms.
His lips curled into a smile, and he shook Trevor’s hand, but glanced at me over his shoulder. Conspiratorial, like we were both in on a shared secret.
Trevor and I followed Gemma, while Luke and Camina stayed behind with Augustine. Another man joined us, one of our drivers from before. Gemma introduced him as Nathan. He was thin and wiry, with a goatee and bright blue eyes.
We had at least another hour before midnight and I was still having trouble wrapping my head around what we were about to do. I studied Gemma in the lights as we curved behind the stage into a new area of town. She was older, with curly dark hair. Short, but confident, pretty in her own way, but tough. She reminded me a little of Jazmine.
“What are all the rings for?” I asked, nodding to Gemma’s necklace. I saw Nathan’s lips curve into a smirk.
“It’s a running joke,” she said. “Rings are easy pickings in the badlands, find a corpse and check the fingers. When one of the boys finds one, they propose to me. I’ve started a collection.”
“Are you joining us?” Trevor asked, turning to Nathan. “To fight, I mean.”
“Not sure yet, I’m more of a scout than a fighter. We go out on missions, gather resources or information. But we stay pretty far away from the compounds or the kingdom.”
We stopped a block away from the strip. I was surprised how dark it became off the main street. We were in some kind of repair shop and junkyard. I spotted a few of the newer hoverbikes near a pair of motorcycles and a classic car. Half the space was covered by a rusted metal awning, but the other half was open to the sky. A short patio was edged with bricks and weeds. It had been fitted into a practice yard, with dummies made from rubber tires. A few guns from what I could see, but mostly lead pipes, clubs tipped with nails, and chains and machetes that dangled from hooks along the wall.
None of it seemed like it would be effective against an elite or a slagpaw. But maybe they had something else, nets or traps or something. I hoped I hadn’t overestimated the value of Augustine’s support.
A misshapen basketball hoop was fixed against one wall. Across from it, an altar made of melding candles and the ancient remains of a slagpaw, with scraps of dried flesh peeling from the skull. The stench was faded and old, but it still triggered alarms in my subconscious, and I squeezed my hands into fists as my heart beat faster.
Half a dozen men were hanging out in the back, drinking beer and watching a game on TV. Gemma nodded to the other side of the open warehouse, featuring a beat-up couch and small coffee table.
“I wish we had a better place to do this,” Gemma said. “But just in case you become a bull in a china shop, we thought we’d start here. Even so…”
She nodded to the men, and they turned off the TV and stood around us. Two of them grabbed a pair of heavy chains.
“What is this?” I asked, standing in front of Trevor.
“We’ll take them off after the transformation, when we know he can control himself and isn’t a threat to anyone.”
I felt a whisper behind me and looked over my shoulder, to find an elite barring the entrance. I hadn’t seen him before. He had straight, blond hair that fell to his shoulders and bright gray eyes, like cracked ice.
“And who’s that?” I asked, when he made no move to introduce himself.
“Insurance,” one of the men said. “In case he goes full slagpaw and has to be put down.”
“Augustine didn’t say anything about this,” Trevor said.
“Augustine can be careless,” the elite said, his palm resting loosely on his sword. “I’m not.”
