AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I bit my lower lip instead, finding a small piece of skin to chew on to distract my raging mind and prevent myself from flipping the switch and losing control.
“You like it?” Maksim asked, watching me closely. “You seem excited, and your lip is bleeding. Perhaps you’d like to try fighting some of them yourself. There are always openings available when somebody is killed.”
He smirked at this, imagining me as weak and ineffectual, but in reality, I would probably be happier in the pits than I was with him. I would probably be safer in the end, as well. I could at least watch an opponent and determine their next moves through careful examination. With Maksim, there was no rhyme nor reason behind his fits of anger. He was simply a rabid dog who wanted the taste of flesh when he was in the mood. You could study him all you wanted and never know what set him off.
Some part of me wanted to make the leap right then and there. To jump into the ring and start fighting just to earn my escape.
I couldn’t, though, not until I understood more of what was happening. And definitely not until I knew where my Kings were located.
“To the death!” Ilya screamed at the men in the pit. “A hundred thousand dollar bonus to the last man standing!”
Maksim gripped my hand so hard it hurt. I felt bones grinding against each other, and he jerked it around like he was a toddler excited over a new toy.
“Father is going to make this good just for you,” he chortled and held my hand up as pain radiated down my arm. “He’s showing you how much he loves you by putting on this show.”
“I’d rather he didn’t,” I said with a flat voice.
“Why are you always so fucking unappreciative?” Avery snapped on the other side of me. “You’re such a fucking bore!”
I ignored them both, their cries of excitement and their spinning insults directed at my head. Ilya got the crowd going wild by promising an additional hundred thousand dollars to the pot for better, and soon the sound was deafening and drowned out my thoughts of escape.
I could only stand there and watch, disgust filling my throat like bile, and the only thing in the world I could think was how, seeing this level of depravity, I was probably going to die.
If this went on for much longer, I would welcome it.
CHAPTER9
We watchedthe fighters for a few more minutes before Ilya called Maksim from across the pit. I wasn’t sure what he was saying, but he gestured emphatically for us to hurry to his side.
Maksim took my wrist in his hand and dragged me behind him, but the crowd wasn’t yielding for me at all, and I was pulled against one person after another. They would part for Maksim and even get out of the way for Avery, but it was like they were targeting me deliberately. One woman in a Chanel dress with ice-cold blue eyes even elbowed me in the ribs, and a man in a tailored black suit with dark, penetrating eyes tripped me. As I fell, he pushed me so I would hit the ground faster, but Maksim still had me by the wrist, and my arm was wrenched backward.
“Keep up!” Maksim scolded me and pulled me back to my feet. “This is important!”
I tried to tell him what had happened, but when I turned around, the man was gone in the crowd, and I sounded like a babbling lunatic. I pressed my lips into a thin line and tried to keep up.
All around me, the scent of sweat and blood permeated the air, and everything felt moist from the steam rising and the spittle flying from the crowd’s screaming faces. I began to overheat and was desperate to tug at my teeshirt as it clung to my damp body. I felt fevered as if I was getting sick, but in this case, the only sickness was the rage and despair I carried with me at all times now.
Twin predatory emotions are sitting heavy on my heart, choking my joy and hope right out of me. Draining me of any brightness, leaving me devoid of happiness as I fought against the darkness that was creeping back into my head. The darkness that used to whisper self-destructive messages into my ear back in high school. The very darkness that used to have me pulled a razor blade across my flesh when I needed to feel something.
And then my Kings had replaced it, had lit up my inner world with so much love and lightness that nothing else existed inside.
But now, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to stave it off in this environment.
We finally reached Ilya’s throne-like chair, and Maksim waved his hand at one of the house staff. They dragged another chair over, a smaller and less ornate throne, befitting the prince, I supposed while leaving the king higher and dominant.
“Tell your bride to sit at your feet,” Ilya said with a deep chuckle. “Your woman can sit at mine.”
Avery hunched over, and her eyes rolled in their sockets as she tried to catch Maksim’s attention. “Come on, babe, let me sit with you,” she whined.
Maksim shrugged and placed his hand on my shoulder. He pushed me down until I was crouched on the floor. He stepped over me and flopped onto the chair, placing his feet on either side of me, essentially caging me in.
“Get your ass over here,” Ilya growled at Avery, and she gave in, looking like a beaten dog. She sat on her haunches and curved her back, so she looked more like a gargoyle than a human woman. She wrapped her arms around herself and stared directly ahead at the fighting pit.
Maksim squeezed his knees tighter and squished my shoulders between them. He tightened them to the point that it hurt to breathe, but I refused to give him the satisfaction of whimpering at the pain.
There were only two fighters left in the pit, the two men who had been wrestling. The dirt was spotted with blood and scuff marks from feet and bodies flailing around. Ilya and Maksim started roaring and yelling, each one choosing different men. It didn’t last long, one man finally got the other in a chokehold, and he kept the pressure on the neck until he passed out.
Ilya stood up, and everybody watched his reaction, waiting for him to make a judgment, like a Roman Emperor in the old days. Ilya watched the two men, one of them passed out and the other with his face red and filled with murderous intent.
