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"Isaac, please—" I began, but he cut me off, his frustration boiling over.
"Seriously? You're defending him?" Isaac spat, his green eyes blazing with anger. "He and his girlfriend just stood there while that tree almost crushed us!"
"Enough!" Santiago intervened. "Now is not the time for petty arguments. We need to find shelter and regroup."
Isaac's face turned an ugly shade of red as he clenched his fists, but he said nothing more. Meanwhile, Samael and Isabela appeared unfazed by Isaac's hostility, offering a slight nod in agreement with Santiago.
Why does Isaac despise Santiago so much?I wondered. They’d always been civil before. I imagined it probably related to his comment about me caring for him. Little did he know that I was friends with Santiago for Magda alone.
The last tremor caused a series of massive rocks to tumble off a cliff. Their impact created mini-avalanches of snow that moved fast, catching another competitor, one from the Quinta Isla. Red blossomed in the snow.
"Everyone all right?” Isaac asked.
“Yes,” I called, trying to regain control of my golden limbs. "But we can't go that way now."
"We'll find another route," he said firmly, his determination shining brightly amid chaos. "We won't let this stop us."
"Right," I agreed half-heartedly.
Then I strengthened my resolve. Isaac was right. We had come too far to be defeated by quaking earth and falling trees.
Isaac’s eyes flicked between me and the devastation before us, torn between his duty to protect me and his desire to help those in need. But his decision was made as another tremor shook the ground beneath our feet.
"Everyone, stay together," Isaac barked, pulling me along as we forced our bodies to move, to leave behind the destruction that threatened to consume us all.
The air rang with beeping devices, begging someone to retrieve the fallen.
As we trudged through the snow, the haunted faces of our fellow competitors swirled around me, their expressions reflecting the same chilling realization that had taken root in my mind: In this cruel, unforgiving world, it was becoming increasingly difficult to tell what would be dangerous, and what was benign.
And even as my heart ached for the fallen competitor, I couldn't help but wonder how many more would meet a similar fate before the end.
The snow seemed to grow deeper with each step, a treacherous terrain that sought to ruin us. I tried to focus on the rhythmic crunch of our snow shoes against the frozen ground, but my thoughts kept returning to the life that had been snuffed out in an instant.
"Damn it," Isaac muttered, his breath a cloud of frost in the air as he glanced back at our path. "We're losing time."
His words echoed my innermost fears, and another piece of me shattered beneath the weight of them. How could I hope to win when the earth itself now conspired against us?
Survival—the word held a hollow promise that seemed to mock us as we continued our journey through the snowbound wasteland. I clung to Isaac's arm to make it over the larger rocks.
"You see why staying with me is a good idea?" he whispered, his breath warm against my ear.
And for a moment, with the icy wind biting at our faces, I didn’t push him away. But that didn’t mean I was accepting my fate. “I will never understand the reason for being forced to marry someone I don’t want.”
He tightened his jaw and pulled away, leaving me to walk alone.
Chapter24
When We All Gather Around The Fire
The moon hung low, casting a silvery glow on the path ahead as Isaac, Santiago, Samael, Isabela, and I finally reached the base of La Doncella. Our breaths came in tired gasps, and our limbs ached from the constant trekking through the dense, abnormally wet, warm forest. But despite our exhaustion, we couldn't deny the relief that washed over us at making it.
“¡Bienvenidos!” said a plump woman with the same thick material covering most of her body as us. “Check in here. There are bathrooms to the left if you need to bathe.”
Isabela wrinkled her nose. “Fantastic. I need to get out of this.” She gestured to her thermal suit.
Samael laughed and leaned in to whisper something, barely making a smile crack on her usually grumpy face.
I nodded politely. Changing clothes sounded nice. I could’ve sworn the scent of sulfur was in the air while we stood in line to register our numbers. As we went, Trabajadores checked the buttons looped onto our belt holes to make sure we could be collected if continuing with the tournament was impossible.
