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If something is truly wrong, I need to keep my head in the game instead of wallowing in past failures.
I turn my head so my lips are perched just above Liam’s ear. “No matter what happens, I need you to stay at my side,” I whisper intently while I try to discreetly look around so I can spot what’s triggering my high alert.
When I can find no reason for my unease, I clutch the hilt of my trusted knife and turn my attention back to the arena. The guards have departed the area, making it so Gus and Elena are the only ones left.
As Arthur stands up yet again, I glance over my shoulder to make sure Kai is okay. My lips part on a gasp when I notice two guards dressed in all black, unlike the others, standing much too close to my husband. Our gazes collide and I try to mimic for him to look behind him, but with his mask in place I can’t read his expression and I have no idea if he knows what I’m trying to wordlessly convey.
“Let the challenge begin!” Arthur shouts. Then he sits back down, draping one arm across his fiancée , Gwenda’s shoulders.
Elena is holding her sword up while she circles Gus with a cocky expression on her face. I take a relieved breath as I take in her movements. She may be dressed like a Knightess, but it’s abundantly clear that she’s no fighter. Her posture is stiff, and each step is unsure. There’s no real purpose or ingrained rhythm, so this should be a breeze for Gus.
When she lunges at him, he sidesteps her easily enough. His boisterous laughter reaches my ears, and I smile as he swiftly kicks at the knee she’s using to keep her balance. Elena stumbles back, her grip on the sword slackening.
Gus’ lips move, and I wish I could hear what he’s saying while he’s circling her. The shift between them is instantaneous, and Elena is no longer donning an expression that portrays that of someone who believes in herself. Instead, she looks like she’s already lost, which she has.
Elena tries to strike again, but with lightning quick movements Gus wraps his hand around her wrist, squeezing until she drops the sword that falls to the ground. I don’t know whether the scream she lets out is one of frustration or pain, but whatever it is offends me.
How dare she scream when she’s being treated with kid-gloves? Gus has barely touched her. It’s clear that she’s in way over her head, so why the hell did she think she could take me on?
“I don’t like this,” Liam says through clenched teeth as he abandons all pretenses, clearly scanning our surroundings.
Unable to look away from the arena for long, I just hum under my breath. “I can’t shake the feeling that this is the calm before the storm,” I whisper just as Gus punches Elena so hard in the face that she trips over her feet, falling backwards onto the unyielding ground.
Despite the sword being out of her reach, she moves one hand like she’s desperate to get the weapon back. My mind and body are warring, caught between contempt and the tragedy that it is to watch the siblings fight—especially since it’s pointless. She’s no match for Gus, she’s no match for me. So the question remains, why the hell did she challenge me?
“It could have been a distraction,” Liam says as though he’s heard my inner musings.
He’s probably right, and maybe that’s why I’m so on edge. Not from the merits of his suspicion, but because nothing is happening. When no other shoe is dropping, it’s completely pointless and… I don’t trust it.
Gus makes quick work of ending Elena’s life. There is nothing heroic about the way he strangles her, turning her alabaster skin a sickly color as her body is robbed of oxygen. She barely puts up a fight, and my heart breaks for him.
The atrocities committed in the name of the Kronos Society are sickening.
Instead of hanging around after the challenge is completed, I want to go back home—luckily, my men agree. After saying our goodbyes, we’re blindfolded again during the car ride to the small, private airport we’re flying from.
As soon as the plane is in the air, Gus says, “Something happened between Kai leaving and me entering the arena.” The tone of his voice is so grave I stop making googly eyes at Liam, and sit up straight. “Did you notice anything unusual about the guards?” my cousin asks my husband, who shrugs in return.
“What about them?” I heatedly ask, idly wondering if they hurt him. When he walked into the arena, I knew something was wrong, but he didn’t look hurt. “Did they attack you?”
Gus grunts and shakes his head no. “They didn’t hurt me… but they had wyverns shaped like an infinity symbol on their shoulders.”
“A wyvern?” Kai asks, incredulous. “A dragon, in other words,” he adds, sounding deep in thought.
“Are those the ones that look like a fucking sea serpent with wings?” Liam chimes in.
The description is so accurately wrong, I can’t help laughing.
“That’s not the point,” Gus says, looking at all of us like we’re disappointing him. “First off, why would Hatt guards wear a dragon insignia when their animal is a lion?”
“Maybe it was adrenaline that messed with your head?” Liam suggests, though his tone makes it clear even he doesn’t really believe that.
My cousin balls his hands into fists and levels an angry stare at my consort. “Yes, because it’s so easy to confuse a fucking lion for a wyvern,” he drawls while looking two seconds from punching him.
Feeling the need to diffuse the situation, I ask Gus to explain what he’s getting at. He explains the insignia in perfect detail before feeding us the damning line. “Just before I stepped into the arena, one of them said,‘Drákon to ápeiro den koimátai pia’.”
What the hell?
No one but a Drákon should ever say those words—not our guards or the other people we employ, no one but a member of the family.
