Page 49

We had been so close. So freaking close to completing our mission. I didn’t know how it had gone so wrong, but it didn’t matter anymore. Nothing mattered now except making it out of this final tournament alive.

Luna was right when she warned me. We should have gotten the hell out of dodge when we had the chance. Now, our reckless plan meant we’d failed at retrieving the weapon on top of losing all hope of winning the crown. Everything we’d done, every battle we’d faced… was for nothing.

Fuck this place. And fuck Celeste. She’d lamented all the death, yet here she was, pinning this monstrosity of a tournament on us. A fight to the death? I mean, fuck, hadn’t this place claimed enough of us already?

I looked around as the guards marched me through the Damascon Hollow streets where old buildings loomed, half crumbling or in complete ruins.

If they weren’t providing weapons, there’d be enough debris in this place to work with.

Broken windows, metal sheeting, rusted poles and wiring.

It was almost laughable. Until I saw who I was fighting.

Then I really did laugh, if only out of disbelief.

“Crystal? You’ve got to be kidding me.”

The person opposite looked entirely different to the curvy blond who’d once assaulted me in the communal bathroom.

Her once-perfect hair was dull and cut short.

The makeup she’d put on did nothing to hide the dark circles beneath her blue eyes.

She’d lost weight, too. It was evident in the hollowing of her cheeks and the lack of curves she’d once flaunted.

“Hi, Fallon,” she said. Her voice was notably tired and drained.

“No snide remark or insult for me tonight?” I said in a lame attempt at lightness.

She smiled sadly. “What would be the point? There’s no one to impress anymore. All my friends are dead. Hell, one of them tried to kill me in the last trial.”

The guard shoved me forward with a grunt. “Enough chatter. You’re to fight to the death. Use your surroundings as you wish. Good luck.”

He left without another word, leaving me alone with Crystal and a drone that hovered nearby. Fuckers were probably airing this across the country, delighting in our pain like this was some kind of action movie.

I didn’t even contemplate running. Celeste would have ensured there was no escape, and besides, I was no coward. I sighed. “I’m sorry about your friends, Crystal. Everything that’s happened in these trials… no one deserves to go through what we did.”

She looked away, collecting herself for a moment before looking back at me.

“I’m sorry for the way I treated you before.

I’m not… I’m not a bad person.” She pointed to her purple jumpsuit and the body beneath it.

“Where I come from, if you’re not born into money or clever enough to make it, you have to use what the gods gave you. ”

I hadn’t realised she was from DH. I guessed life hadn’t been kind to her.

Not if she’d had to sell her body in some form or another.

From what I’d heard, there weren’t many other options for young girls in DH.

It made sense now, why she was so comfortable flaunting her nakedness; why she used her beauty as a tool to get what she wanted.

It was what she’d done to survive in the past. She probably thought it would help her survive here too.

I realised she likely didn’t have the kind of training I and so many other Potentials had in combat.

It made her presence here at the end of it all more impressive if I was honest.

Pity pulled at my heart, but I shrugged.

This wasn’t exactly the time for sympathy.

We’d left that too late. “Don’t sweat what happened in the past. This place makes us do crazy things.

..” I thought of Zane and wondered briefly what it was that made him snap and betray my trust. But I couldn’t afford to be distracted by that.

“Hey, if you make it, promise to give them hell, okay? Do it for all of us.”

She lifted her chin and I saw a fire alight in those eyes. Good . I couldn’t fight someone who wouldn’t fight back. I just couldn’t. At least if she had a purpose, she’d give as good as she got.

“I’d say the same but… I’m leaving here alive, Fallon.”

I grinned. “‘Atta girl. You ready?”

She didn’t respond. But a pole suddenly lifted and was hurled straight at my chest. I dove, narrowly escaping the corroded end as it flew past my head.

“What the fuck?” I blinked, panting a little as I jumped to my feet. Her eyes glowed a deep purple, which was strange. My eyes didn’t change colour when I used power, though maybe the crystals that had stained them bronze had something to do with that. “You have telekinesis?”

“Not quite. I can mirror others’ power.” She whistled under her breath. “It helps when my opponent is as strong as you. I see how you made it this far. I could get used to this.” She flexed her hands open and closed again as if relishing a new sense of strength.

“I wouldn’t get too comfortable.” I moved, running towards her at full sprint at the same time I sent a barrage of broken glass towards her body.

She grunted, holding a hand up to stop the jagged pieces, catching all but a couple of tiny shards as they embedded into her arm. She was so focused on the projectiles she didn’t even block as I reached her, wrestling her to the ground.

We rolled in a tangle of arms, legs, and gritted teeth until I managed to get on top, straddling her on the spot.

My fists met the hollowness of her belly, followed by a wheezing from her lungs.

Once, twice, thrice, I struck fast as an asp.

I just needed to weaken her enough to take the fight out of her.

Before the fourth blow could land something crashed into my side.

Pain wracked my body as a clump of hardened dirt exploded, sending me toppling off Crystal’s body.

I groaned, curling up on the ground as she staggered to her feet.

Blood dripped down her arm and from her fingertips. She panted with narrowed eyes directed at me. “That. Fucking. Hurt.”

“No shit.”

My ribs sent fiery bolts down my body as I rose. Something was either fractured or broken, but I didn’t have time to register that. Not as she used her power—my power—to rip multiple metal sheets from a nearby roof and thrust them at me.

I discarded them easily enough though. But a scream escaped me as an extra sheet she’d sent after a slight delay sliced through my calf.

Pain roared through me as I hopped back, somehow managing to keep on my feet.

I didn’t dare look at the wound, not as I could feel blood gushing down my leg and onto the dirt.

My body wilted, fighting against the gravity pulling me harder to the ground. I struggled to stay standing straight.

With her stolen magic, Crystal raised some bricks from a pile nearby, keeping them hovering beside her as she stalked towards me with a smug smile. “I’ll miss your powers, Fallon. But I told you I’m leaving this place alive and that means you won’t be.”

I winced as her shadow towered over me. If those bricks hit me at force, I was a dead woman. “You’ve quite the talent for adapting my powers. But you made a mistake, Crystal.”

“Oh?” She looked down at me with suspicion. “And what’s that?”

“Never, ever, expose your back.”

A shoddy iron rod peeking out from the ground nearby wiggled, then slipped free from its confinements to shoot through her lower back.

The pull of my power was so strong, it sank through her flesh to protrude from her stomach.

She screamed so loud a flock of birds took flight from the forest in the distance.

“I’m sorry, Crystal,” I said as I hobbled closer. “I truly didn’t want this.”

Her eyes flickered from purple to blue as the power in her veins faded away. Blood bloomed where the rod pierced her stomach, staining her jumpsuit. Her hand shook as she curled her fingers around the metal.

“Don’t,” I warned, realising she meant to try and take it out.

She looked at me, gritting her teeth as she put both hands around the rod and pulled.

A strangled cry escaped her. Blood dribbled from her lips, staining the teeth from her open mouth.

Her eyes were glossy like she wasn’t seeing me anymore but the ghosts of everyone she cared about.

All the people who’d died, instead of the people who should have.

“You’ll bleed out!” I cried. “Don’t do this to yourself.”

“I’m already dead, Fallon,” she hissed. “They broke something in me… There’s something broken inside you, too. Something… deep down… is twisted and monstrous.”

I shrank at those words because I knew it was true. “Stop, Crystal. You don’t have to do this.”

“I do…” She ripped the rod from her stomach and a strange sort of calm settled over her features, even as the blood poured in rivulets from her wound.

There was so much of it. Too much. She beheld the iron in her hand, twisting it like it was the answer to all her prayers.

“It’s okay, Fallon… We can go together.. . I’ll help you.”

I hobbled back a step, grimacing at the fresh wave of pain that movement produced in my bad leg. “Crystal, stop. It’s not too late…”

“It will be over quickly,” she promised, taking an unsteady step toward me. “It’s time.”

My brain took several seconds to catch up on reality.

But when it did, I looked down to find the rod now embedded in my stomach, though it wasn’t nearly as deep as her injury.

“Well, fuck.” I laughed softly, a strangled kind of bewilderment lacing the sound.

I blinked between my injury and the girl opposite me.

I couldn’t blame her. We’d never been friends, and she was probably half delirious from blood loss.

But I hated that after everything we’d been through her death would be just another source of entertainment for everyone watching. I’d make sure it was a short show.