Page 39 of Dance of the Phoenix (Cloak of the Vampire #3)
Aileen
Dancers filled the floor of the arena for an intermission, but I hardly watched any of their routines.
Because on the other side of the arena, I was watching my former League mates, a feeling of dreadful terror filling up my stomach.
How did Eleanor, Fareez, and Oz end up participating in the Hecatomb? That made zero sense to me. They were relatively new members of the Atalon League. There was no reason for them to be chosen as participants to represent the Atalon League as a whole.
Of course, the fact that Ragnor had decided to let his members choose their participants didn’t mean that Atalon did the same. I had a miserable hunch that Atalon had brought them here for one reason only.
To show me who was really in control here.
I didn’t want to end up facing any of them. I didn’t want to kill them.
But even if I didn’t, someone else would. Because this was the Hecatomb, and while surrender was an option other than death, in reality, it really wasn’t.
Someone tapped my shoulder and slowly, as if through a dream, I turned around to see Ragnor sitting right behind me. He must’ve switched places without me noticing, since I was still reeling from the shock of finding out who was going to face us, and probably die in the process.
“What’s wrong?” he asked in a murmur, leaning forward so his voice would reach only me.
I parted my lips, but no sound came out. I couldn’t speak. I had nothing to say. Too many things were wrong with what was going on here. Where could I even begin?
Whatever he saw on my face made him grimace.
“Atalon is going to pull all kinds of tricks while the Hecatomb is underway,” he told me quietly, guessing correctly what was on my mind, as the music of the intermission slowly faded, indicating its pending end.
“Don’t let it get to you. Don’t get distracted. You can’t afford to be.”
I gave him a jerky nod that meant basically nothing. Don’t let it get to me? How?
Isora appeared next to Ragnor. “My Lord,” she said quietly, her face pale, which made her blue eyes paler than usual. “Three of the people on Atalon’s team were the newcomers bought with Aileen and me in the Auction.”
Ragnor’s face darkened. “I see,” he said, before turning to me. “It doesn’t surprise me that he would do something like that. Still,” he added, jaw hard, “my words stand.”
He nodded to Isora before rising to his feet, walking back to his designated seat.
Isora gave me a grave look. “You have to protect yourself first and foremost,” she told me, putting her hand on my shoulder. “Don’t try to be a martyr, Aileen.”
“And now, ladies and gentlemen, it is time to decide which pairs are going to fight to the death tomorrow!”
Renaldi’s disgustingly cheery voice brought my attention back to the arena. The dancers were gone, and the floor was taken by Renaldi and his Lieutenants, along with a large, round object that held a few notes. It looked like those lottery machines used on TV.
“Let’s start, shall we?” Renaldi grinned from ear to ear, his face spread across the arena’s screens as he relished the situation, as if it was all a mere game.
When Renaldi played the lottery orb, I felt Logan tensing next to me. Zoey, on my other side, went very still too.
“Drumroll, please!” Renaldi called with a flick of his fingers, and a dramatic drumroll played in the arena, reaching a stop in the crescendo when he pulled a note out of the orb.
As he cleared his throat, his grin widened, and I almost felt as if he was looking in my direction when he said, “Logan Kazar and Aileen Henderson! Let’s see who they are against, shall we? ”
My heart beat so loud, I didn’t even hear the second drumroll until Renaldi pulled out a second note and made my heart stop.
“Eleanor Simmons and Jebediah Ackerman!”
“This has to be rigged,” I said, pacing back and forth in our League dorms’ lounge. “There’s no other explanation as to why I’m going to face Eleanor out of all the Atalon League participants. My luck is shitty, but it can’t be that shitty.”
Isora, who was sitting miserably on the sofa, watched me with tears in her eyes. “You know,” she said quietly, voice shaking, “I thought that after Renaldi, no other Lord could be as cruel. And yet Atalon seems to contend for the grade A asshole spot.”
I stopped my pacing and buried my face in my hands, taking a deep breath. “I have to come up with a plan,” I said, mind reeling. “I ... I can’t kill her, Isora. I’ll have to ... to surrender, or—”
“No, Aileen,” Isora cut me off, angry. “You are not going to surrender—”
“ Then what do you want me to do?! ” I snapped, seething. “What the fuck should I do, Isora? Kill yet another innocent person with my own fucking bare hands? Is that what you’re suggesting?”
Isora clamped her mouth shut and looked away, tears trickling down her face.
A door opened, and I saw Logan coming out, wearing sweatpants and a tank top similar to mine. He watched me and Isora, as we were the only ones currently in the lounge, and seemed taken aback. But then he said, “It’s time for our training.”
Of course we had to train, since tomorrow was the day we’d been preparing for. But what a day would it be, if I ended up killing a friend?
“Yeah,” I said bitterly, “let’s go train.”
The arena’s training rooms were not far from our dorms. They were smaller than the ones at the Rayne League and were obviously not designed for long-term training sessions.
When we arrived at the room, Logan started stretching, obviously expecting a rigorous last session before the money time tomorrow, but I had a different plan. “Logan,” I said, drawing his attention, “we’re going to change our plan.”
His lips curved downward, showing his evident displeasure. “And what do you mean by that?” he asked in a dangerously low tone.
“Instead of taking the pair together, we’re going to split the duties,” I said, my voice resolute. “I’m taking Eleanor. You’ll take Jebediah.”
Logan glared at me. “And why, dare I ask, would you want to do that?”
Instead of skirting around the truth, I decided, for once, to be up-front about it. “Eleanor is a friend,” I told him, capturing his gaze with mine. “I’ll decide what to do with her, not you.”
It seemed my words struck a nerve. “It’s not up to you to decide,” he hissed, walking toward me. “We’re supposed to be a team , Aileen. After you berated me all those times about putting my issues with you aside to take this on, now you want to go back on your words?”
My hands curled into fists. “It has nothing to do with you.”
“It has everything to do with me!” Logan snapped, reaching me and grabbing my arm.
“You don’t get to change the plan at the last minute because of a personal issue.
You’re supposed to cover my fucking ass, Aileen.
What if your ‘friend’ comes after me? Will you let her kill me because she’s more of a ‘friend’ to you than I am now? ”
I threw his hand off me. “She can’t even harm you, Logan,” I snapped, my emotions getting the better of me. “You’re Gifted , for God’s sake, and she’s a mere Common!”
“Unless she has great teamwork with her Gifted partner!” he snapped back, grabbing my shoulders now. “Whatever she means to you, I refuse to let you fuck me over because of your personal feelings!”
“Let me go!” I yelled, grabbing his arms and attempting to throw him off me again, but he persisted.
“Not until you come to your fucking senses!” he seethed, and I suddenly realized he was in my face, and my back was touching the wall. “It’s not just about you or even me, Aileen! We’re representing the Rayne League members! We’re representing our Lord! The very Lord you mess around with!”
I glowered at him. “This has nothing to do—”
“Jesus, Aileen, everyone has everything to do with this shit show!” he cut me off with a growl, leaning so close his nose touched mine.
“I don’t care if you decide you have morals.
I don’t care if she’s your friend. The Hecatomb isn’t just about you.
We all have to survive this fuckfest, and that means we need to fight tooth and nail to get out alive! ”
He released me so hard, I flailed for a moment before balancing myself, watching him as he headed to the middle of the room. “Now, stick to the fucking plan, Aileen, so we can both get to see another day.”