Page 87

RUNA

“I’m going to kill him,”I muttered, glaring at the back of Victor’s silver head. Oblivious to the daggers I stared at him, the vampire rode ahead of me in the bucket of a golden chariot. Once again, Idris paraded us about the pit, each contestant riding in their own magical, driverless chariot.

After my night with the vampire, I’d woken to an empty bed, which wasn’t all that surprising. What shocked me were the burn marks on my sheets. Spread around me was a starburst of thin black lines. On closer inspection, I realized they were burns. As if one of us had literally detonated at some point. I had a vague memory of seeing sparks but never imagined it wasreal.

Victor had some explaining to do, especially since the bigger issue wasn’t the sheets.

Horns blared, and confetti and streamers rained down on us. The chariots formed a tight circle, and we disembarked.

I stomped across the sand, coming to stand directly in front of him. Fists propped on my hips, I gestured to my throat and the shimmering handprint that marked my skin. There was no wayhe hadn’t seen it, leaving me to deal with the consequences alone.

“Are we not going to talk about this?”

Custodis stared over my head. The only indication he’d heard me was the clenching of his jaw.

“This isn’t the time.”

“Not the time?” I screeched. “We’re about to die. There may be no other time. You branded me.”

“Not the time, Runa,” he repeated in that disdainful voice I’d come to hate.

I slapped my hands on his chest. “Did you notice the burns on my sheets?” When he ignored me, I slapped him again. “You owe me an explanation. What the hell is going on? Did you know this would happen?” I pointed to my neck.

This time, he at least had the decency to glance in my direction. As the weight of his eyes slid over his mark on my flesh, something primal flashed in his gaze. Just as quickly, it disappeared behind that frigid mask he liked to wear.

“I did not,” he intoned, his words so icy I wondered if I’d imagined that flash of emotion. “And lower your voice. There are no less than five thousand eyes and ears on us.”

“Oh,nowyou want me to be quiet,” I said through gritted teeth. Last night, he’d demanded I shout his name to the rafters. Today, I was the dirty little secret he didn’t want revealed. Was bedding a criminal below the illustrious lord? Did I embarrass him? Despite the fact I knew I was a skilled thief and powerful sorceress, my heart still took a hit. Filthy bastard! I was the one with the reputation to uphold.

“What’s wrong?” Drazen trotted over to my side. “Thorne told us the plan, and we need to be ready when the challenge starts.” He frowned and glanced at me, then at Victor, before whipping his eyes back to me once more.

“What the…” He glanced back at Victor and snarled. “You did this?”

For some reason, he took Victor’s blank stare as confirmation. “I’ll flarking kill you!”

Drazen charged as the trumpets blasted. Sand shifted. The three of us whipped into the air. I dropped to my knees as my stomach sailed into my toes.

Beneath each of us was a semi-transparent, glowing disk. Each floating platform was the length of five paces. I held my arms out and carefully rose to my feet. Scattered throughout the pit, the other competitors floated on similar disks, like we were pieces on a game board.

Idris approached the front of his royal pavilion, a crown of branches gleaming on his silver-blond head. “Welcome, loyal citizens of the kingdom, to the final span of the Fallen Trials. First, our challengers faced Carcerem’s land. Then her people. Today,” he paused dramatically, “they will face her beasts.”

A sudden, unsettling rumble made me whip my head around, my heart pounding in my chest. Yesterday, where there were massive statues, today, there were gigantic gates. Gears squeaked, the bars of the metal doors shuddered, and slowly, they lifted.

My issues with the vampire forgotten, I trembled at the sight of those massive cages opening. “Flark, but I have a bad feeling about this,” I muttered under my breath.

“Good people, I present to you my beautiful menagerie,” Idris boomed. “A rare and unusual collection that I’ve spent years assembling.”

He rattled off the exotic names of his creatures as his “pets” emerged. One snarling monster at a time, Idris’s beasts made their grand entrance. Some charged out of their cages only to be brought up short by the chains on their necks. I’d little faith the restraints would remain in place for long.

Most of Idris’s pets I’d never heard of before due to their rarity. Regardless, each was more terrifying than the last. Every one of his enormous beasties had a combination of fangs, claws,spikes, and who knew what else. Goddess forbid the false king keep a collection of cuddlycottonpelts.

The swords each of us had strapped to our backs would be little protection against Idris’s monstrosities.

“And last but not least, I present to you the prize of my collection.”

Golden energy flashed in his palms. Beneath the royal pavilion, a massive gate materialized, this one larger than the rest. From the darkness, a pair of reptilian eyes took shape, framed by a coarse muzzle and a maw of bone-crushing teeth.

Ice scraped through my veins. No. It couldn’t be. They were rumored to be extinct.