Page 11

One minute I was comforting Sobbing Sally, the next I was weightless in the air as a trapdoor opened beneath our feet. A chorus of screams echoed mine as we plummeted into darkness. Then our asses hit something and were suddenly burning on a metal slide down into unknown depths.

When the slide finally reached its end, we were deposited into a small, square room, lined with knick-knacks and various paraphernalia over the walls.

It looked much like a study, with bookshelves, maps, portraits, and flickering candles that gave the room a dark and moody ambience.

The scent of musty old pages filled my nose and the air was damp.

Goosebumps lined my skin, and I shivered, wrapping my jacket tighter about my waist.

“There’s no door,” Kendra said as she dusted herself off and climbed to her feet. She helped Lou up, then held out a hand to me.

“Or windows,” I said. “But look up.”

A barred ceiling separated this room from the one directly above. The obnoxiously rude problem being that the small grate connecting the two was held shut by a padlock sealing away any hope of a quick escape.

Lou shoved her hands into the pockets of her pink jacket. “We could move the bookshelves to climb up to it?”

“Unless we find a key, we’re not going anywhere,” I pointed out. “Let’s have a look. There’s gotta be something hidden in here somewhere.”

“This is so fun,” Lou squealed as she began rifling through papers and books. “It’s like one of those games people play where they have to solve the clues to get out. What are they called…”

“Escape rooms,” a guy offered as he searched. “To progress you have to solve riddles and find keys to unlock more clues to continue.”

“Only, in this one, our lives are at stake if we don’t get out.” I sighed. “Wonder what kinda death trap they have waiting for us.”

Kendra snorted as she looked around the room. “Maybe they’ll just keep us in here forever, doomed to watch the next batch of Potentials like these old geezers.” She pointed to the various stills of headshots staring at us from gilded frames around the room.

“Wait. Aren’t they previous monarchs?” I asked. “I recognise a few. There’s Augustus Jennings, the mad king who murdered each of his wives, and there’s Julia Renera—she was notorious for being a stabby bitch when someone pissed her off.”

The stern-faced woman in that picture seemed to look down her pointed nose at us in glee as if foreseeing our doom. I made a point of ignoring the way her dark brown eyes seemed to follow me in whichever direction I went.

There were more familiar faces, ranging from old and decrepit to the young and beautiful, cut down before they could shape a nation. The realisation made my stomach do an uncomfortable flip. Even the most powerful Terrulian was never safe. It was bloody brutal out there.

“You’re right,” the brown-haired girl piped up. She wiped a hand across her snotty nose. “These are all past kings and queens. Do you suppose that’s the theme of the room? There must be something in here to begin the hunt.”

“Check behind the frames. Start with the order they ruled,” another guy urged everyone. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Everyone got to work, their faces set with determination. I wasn’t the only one keen to keep moving. As harmless as this room seemed to be, the bars above only served to remind us that we were in a cage.

“Here,” Lou said, carefully peeling a scrap of paper from the backing of a frame. We all scrambled to her, peering over her shoulder. “It’s a list, though I have no idea what it means.”

“Names of past rulers. But they’re not in order,” a girl with cropped blond hair said. She glanced up at me with shockingly blue eyes. “You were right.”

“What do you suppose the symbols mean?” Dick chimed in.

I shook my head. “Not sure. I—”

Something groaned, followed by a steady clunk, clunk, clunk that thudded through the wall before another groan sounded at our feet.

As one, we all looked down, watching as the grate spat out a trickle of water. “Not good,” Dick said. The water increased, the grate now overflowing. “Not good at all.”

“Um, Kendra?” Lou said softly. “Would now be a good time to tell you I can’t swim?”

Kendra’s face paled. “Uh, yeah babe, probably good to know.”

Of course, she didn’t know how to swim. Rather than dwell on the impending likelihood of drowning, I swallowed my fear and began searching like a madwoman.

“It’s not so hard,” I said as I tried the desk drawer, finding it locked, then sweeping through the papers on its surface.

“Just doggy paddle. You know, like you’re pedalling with your legs and hands. ”

“Yeah,” Dick chimed in from where he knelt beside me. “Nothing to it. It’s like riding a bike. Once you get the hang of it, you’re good.”

I risked a peek over my shoulder, finding Lou’s beautiful features easing ever so slightly. The glance I shared with Kendra, however, was not so optimistic.

My eyes trailed to the bookshelves, and I scuttled over, doing my best to ignore the fact I was standing in knee-deep water. The books were all weighted down to the shelves, but my eye caught one that began lifting ever so slightly at the bottom.

My Adventures with a Montague, the spine read. I racked my brain, then realised why the name clicked. Jannis Montague, a name from an alarmingly short line of rulers who died of natural causes. Lucky duck passed in her sleep. A red heart on the spine was the only other possible clue worth noting.

“I found them,” I shouted. “Look for spines with any monarch name mentioned in the title.”

Dick assessed the book I had looked at, then jimmied a few of the surrounding titles. Most were firmly tucked away, whereas the book he touched shifted easily. I pointed to the symbol as well, and he quickly nodded before shooting me an excited smile.

“They will likely be loose titles on the shelves,” he called to the others. “Look for symbols on the spine.”

Everyone scrambled towards me, tripping over each other in desperation. Too many sets of hands began pawing at the shelves, a few elbows coming out.

“Elbow me in the ribs one more freaking time…” Kendra hissed at the guy next to her, but it was no use. Pure panic etched over his plain features, not that I could blame him. The water was up to our waist now.

“Got one,” Dick shouted. “ The Hunt for the Wild Willow. It has a club on the spine.”

“Me too,” Lou yelled, waving a copy of Horticulture and Hogan . I hadn’t heard of any Hogan, but I was more than happy to trust her on that one. “This one has a spade.”

“There’s two more spaces,” Dick yelled. “Two more books!”

“Uh, guys, better hurry,” the brown-haired girl said, backing away from the shelf and towards the desk.

“Not fucking helpful!” Dick roared.

Any other time I might have laughed at his rare use of profanity, but the water was up to my chest now and it was freezing as hell on my tits. Fuuuccckk.

“Lou,” Kendra said, her eyes wide. “Get on the desk.”

“But—”

“Get on the desk, Lou!” she yelled.

“By all the freaking gods,” I breathed, my nails skating over the book spines. “Come on fuckers, where are you?”

“Here!” Blondie yelled, waggling a red tome, just as one of the guys pulled out a green one.

“Now we just need to put them in the proper order,” Dick said, nodding.

“I’ll do it,” the panicked guy yelled, snatching the books from our hands and shoving them haphazardly into empty spaces.

The water climbed to my chin now, forcing me to bob on my tiptoes. “There must be a system,” I snapped. “Think about the order.”

The guy didn’t listen, too busy shoving, his pupils blowing out with undiluted fear.

“Stop!” I cried. I tried to take some of the books from him, but he smashed an elbow into my nose. “Oh, hell no.” Blinding pain flared behind my eyes, and I felt something hot and sticky trickle over my lips.

Dick tried to pull him back, along with one of the girls, but the guy was brutishly strong for such a stick. Probably the adrenaline.

“Ya, okay, enough of this bullshit.” I locked an arm around his throat, tight enough to make him choke as I pulled him back and dumped him under the water. He dropped hold of a few books, and I gasped. “Dick!”

“Everyone take a deep breath,” Kendra shrieked as the water reached our lips.

I inhaled before diving down, finding Dick scooping up the runaway books and paddling to the shelves where he began studying the titles intently. He pointed frantically at Hogan, then Montague, followed by Renera and Willow, then finally Augustus.

Something clicked. If I had my history right, this was in order of succession, give or take a few monarchs in between.

I nodded, swimming over to help when something pulled at my ankle, tearing me back.

Precious oxygen emptied from my lungs at the movement, and I almost gasped as hands clenched up my leg, reeling me in further.

There was no doubt in my mind what it was—or rather who . The guy’s face was a mask of fury as he clawed at me, his hands reaching for my neck. We tumbled, round and round, dizzyingly fast like a gator in a death roll.

My lungs burned, my chest on fire with the need for air. The world dulled, the bright blue of the water fading as spots filled my vision and a haze settled over my eyes. The fingers around my throat squeezed tighter and tried as I might to elbow him off, he blocked all my attempts.

Is this how I would finally die? Murdered by a Potential whose last nerve had finally snapped?

My eyes glazed as they swept over the tiled floor, catching on a small red heart etched into one square.

Another tile with a spade sat beside it, a club and a diamond etched in the tiles above those.

Nestled in the middle of all four tiles was a crown.

Huh. The symbols… What were we meant to do with symbols again? I racked my brain, but everything burned. The colours blurred, fading to nothing, and I let my eyes flutter shut.