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Mika blinked rapidly, almost like his brain had short-circuited and he was doing his best to reboot it. “Wait, what? How is that possible?”
“No time to explain now. We’ve got a lot of shit going on. Stay strong, and we’ll talk later.”
“You bet your ass we will,” Mika said with what I took to be a relieved grin.
I slapped his shoulder and pulled away, laughing and putting on a show. “You’re right about that,” I said, raising my voice so the camera could hear. “I thought that sea serpent had us.”
Taking his cue from me, Mika laughed along. “Yeah, I was pretty sure we were done.”
The wound in my leg already felt better. With a little help from Kira, I stood and watched the other team struggle to finish the challenge. Their boat came ashore with the sound of scraping stones. They were soaking wet.
Chelsey shakily got out of the boat, her fae weapon snapped in two. Abel appeared to be the only one who’d been injured. He cradled his arm to his chest, avoiding the row of punctures from what I could only assume was a merperson bite.
Tate tossed his oar back into the bay in anger. “Fuck you!” he screamed at the water.
The other team hobbled up to cross the finish line. Chelsey’s eyes were wide with surprise when she spotted us. “How the hell did we all get out of that alive?”
She had every right to be confused. That had been an especially lethal arena match. Knowing what I knew now, I would have thought atleastone of us would have died. Apparently, Lady Luck had decided to take us under her wing today.
Almost as if my thoughts had jinxed us, a bright flash blocked out all sight and sound. For a single second, there was nothing, and then that familiar, awful tugging sensation came over me. A moment later, we were all back at the mansion courtyard.
Von walked down the steps from the mansion, slow-clapping as we regained our bearings. “What an exciting match. I think I can speak for our fans when I say I never believed you would all make it through unscathed. Very impressive. It seems that everyone is having a lot of fun and no one wants to be eliminated.”
Sure, that was it. We were having fun—that’s why we didn’t want to die. Did this guy actually believe the words coming out of his mouth? It had to all be for show, or else he’d truly lost his mind over the last few centuries.
Von strolled over toward us, cameras fluttered all over the place, recording every possible angle. “Now that you’ve all returned, I can give you the good news. It’s exciting.”
“Oh no,” Abel groaned from behind me.
I had the exact same thought. “Exciting” meant bloody and dangerous in Von-speak.
“That was only the warm-up,” Von said. “A simple and basic challenge to get you ready for an even bigger and more thrilling task.”
Tate pushed through the front of our group, looking like someone had just pissed in his cereal. “No way, man. We’re exhausted. We need a break after that. We almost died out there.”
Von, oblivious to Tate’s anger, laughed and shook his head. “Oh, Tate, you give yourself very little credit. We all saw how well you did out there. To me, and probably everyone at home, it looked like a leisurely morning row on the water. A little cardio to get the body ready for the rest of the day.
“As much as everyone enjoyed watching that last little display of strength and wits, our fans crave danger and zeal, and danger and zeal we will give them. As for a rest, I think that can be arranged since we still have some preparations to make.” He clapped his hands together. “You all will need to get changed and healed. Thirty minutes should be enough time.”
Tate’s shoulders sagged as he realized his argument wasn’t getting us anywhere.
“Change for what?” J.D. asked.
“Pick out something rather formal. Think of a cocktail party or something similar.” He held up a warning finger. “There will be a fun little twist, though. I can’t wait to get started. Thirty minutes, everyone.”
Something about the way Von said “a fun little twist” turned my insides to ice. He had something planned, and it couldn’t be good.
I sat beside Kira, not wanting to leave her. If something awful was coming, I wanted to ensure I could protect her. My plan ended up being thwarted when a pair of witches came forward and led Chelsey and Kira away from the men to take them to their rooms.
“Gentlemen,” Von said, “I’ll see you soon.”
Mika took the lead and headed toward the mansion. The rest of us followed. None of us looked excited about what was to come. Back in the alpha den, I found a tuxedo in a zipped-up garment bag. The outfit hung beside my bed, and glossy leather dress shoes sat beneath it.
“Are we going to a freaking wedding?” Tate asked as he unzipped his bag.
“More like a funeral,” Abel muttered morosely.
J.D. sat on the edge of his bed to take off his soaked boots. “I’m glad I’m not dead in a casket right now. I never said anything, but I’ve always been freaking terrified of mermaids. I’ll only go surfing on a beach where there are spells keeping them away. Even the friendly ones freak me out, but those things out there?” He nodded to the window. “I’m going to have nightmares for years.”
