Page 13

Neith

L ooking around the room, I’m disappointed to see that the guys aren’t in here, which probably means that they are still on their task.

In theory, I should be able to watch it, but I have no idea how.

I guess I could find Mabel and ask her, but the first thing that I want to do is shower and put on some clean clothes.

We didn’t get the chance to do anything like that this morning, since we had a slow morning, enjoyed breakfast, and then Mabel came to tell us that we were doing tasks.

We pretty much got pulled straight in after that.

Well, I did. I don’t know about the guys.

Grabbing another outfit that is pretty much the exact replica of the one that I’m currently wearing, minus the burn holes and dirt, I head into the bathroom and get into the hot and steamy water.

As I let the water wash away all the dirt and grime, I realize that the trial that I have just done hasn’t taken very long at all, which means that I should be able to enjoy the shower without fear of being pulled into a task.

It also means that I may be able to explore the castle a bit more.

Maybe I’ll be able to find more paintings of my parents.

Or perhaps even books? That would be really interesting and give me proper insight into who they were.

It also means that as long as I can find Mabel, I should also be able to watch the guys. Although if their tasks are anything like mine, I’m not sure how well I’m going to cope with watching it. I think I would rather watch it than not watch it.

I think.

The voices seem to start murmuring in an amused way at my circling thoughts, and I roll my eyes.

I’m going to focus on one thing at a time.

The first is the shower, which I am absolutely determined to enjoy because it is very likely that I’m not going to get to enjoy a shower like this until we get home.

Then I will go and find Mabel and ask her how I can watch the guys.

I am assuming that I can watch them since they can watch me.

It would be a bit one-sided if they could see me whenever I did a personal task, but I couldn’t see them.

I tilt my head as I think about it, temporarily forgetting that I’m in the shower, and ending up spluttering and wiping the water out of my eyes as I nearly drown myself.

That may have been an exaggeration.

By the time I get out of the shower, I am well and truly ready to see the guys' task, or even see if they’re back yet.

The more I think about it, the more worried I am about them.

Because of this, I get dressed quickly, being careful of the burn on my arm, which, although painful, is manageable, and then head to the door of my room to find Mabel.

Coen

I wonder if I could leave them all here, and allow their own stupidity to kill them? If one of them dies, does that mean that we all fail?

Musing on that thought for a moment, I decide that it isn’t something that I want to risk, despite wanting to see them dead. I can’t risk that one of them dying would mean that I fail as well, and that I wouldn’t be able to see Neith and the guys again.

“Where the fuck are we?” Jamie asks, as he looks around the deep gully that we’ve been portaled to.

The cliff sides rise steeply on either side of us, going straight up and reaching toward the red sky.

Red sky?

The telltale hue of the sky is the giveaway for me, and I immediately know what realm we’re in and that we need to move.

The creatures that reside here are wild, untamed, and like to eat any supernatural that is stupid enough to set foot in their territory.

They don’t simply kill either, that would be a blessing compared to the slow and torturous ways that they prefer to kill.

“We need to move,” I growl, as I start walking.

Predictably, all of them, apart from Kylen, begin to follow me. I have saved their lives enough by this point that they have no reason not to trust me. Of course, Kylen has a problem with that.

“You are not in charge. I am the leader, and you do what I say,” he practically growls.

I sigh, but stop moving and turn back around to face him.

There is no point in arguing with him, and actually, if I do, then he’s going to take it out on me later on.

I’d like to avoid that as much as I possibly can.

Plus, I would really like to check on Neith, and I can’t do that if I’m trying to heal from the wounds that Kylen has inflicted on me.

I wish I could have stayed with her last night, but Kylen was demanding that I return using the control that he has over me. The power that fucking necklace gives him. I knew that she would be alright with the guys though, and that’s the only reason why I didn’t completely freak out.

I’m just so incredibly grateful that I was there for her when she needed me and that I was able to help her.

That Dimitri and I were able to help her.

She is going to have so many questions about that, I know she is.

Hell, I have questions. She was more than aware that Dimitri was there, more so than she usually is when she’s in the midst of a panic attack.

I also know that what happened had a profound effect on Dimitri, he lost it.

After what he’s put her through over the years, the fact that she can still take comfort in him, even if it’s through me, says a lot about her character and our connection. It says a lot about our bond and how strong it used to be before everything went to shit, in more ways than one.

“That’s better,” Kylen replies like the asshole he is.

“What should we do then?” Fetrick asks. “Do you know where we are?”

Kylen tenses. He clearly has no idea, or he wouldn’t be standing around doing nothing, he’d be fucking moving.

Fortunately for me, I love fighting and I’m really fucking good at it, so if he wants to stand here and wait for the big ass scorpion-like creatures, that are the size of fucking cars, with two poisonous tails and four pincers to get here, then by all means we’ll wait.

Maybe I’ll get lucky and one of them will get jabbed by the things. I frown as I cross my arms over my chest. Oh yeah, I already decided that would be a bad idea.

My mood darkens. I may be able to fight, but fighting of a pack of the oversized scorpions while trying to protect a bunch of fuckers that really should be better fighters than they are, is not easy and I no longer want to hang around and listen the absolute shit that is about to come out of Kylen’s mouth.

Unfortunately for me I don’t have a fucking choice.

“What do you think we have to do in order to pass the trial?” Rupert asks, his eyes flashing to those of his dragon and showing his unease.

“I imagine that it’s got something to do with getting out of here,” Jamie replies thoughtfully.

My eyes move to our surroundings, and I become tense as I realize that my fears have come true, and we’ve been found. Now we really need to fucking move.

“There’s something coming, we need to move,” I try again. Hoping that it will be one of the rare occasions that he will listen to me instead of arguing or thinking that he knows better.

“We need to figure out what the goal is first. There isn’t anything coming, you’re just being dramatic,” Kylen replies flippantly.

Kylen may not be willing to listen to me, but I’ve been right enough times in the past that the others are immediately on edge and looking around trying to spot what I can sense.

Kylen opens his mouth, presumably to say something ridiculous to his other team members, but before he can the ground starts to rumble with the skittering of scoriouses, as a herd of the scorpion like creatures turn the corner, heading straight toward us.

“What the fuck are they?” Kylen yells in panic.

Without waiting for an answer, he starts running, quickly abandoning the rest of his team, he even goes so far as to push Rupert over in a very deliberate move to ensure the creatures get distracted by him, and give himself a chance to escape.

There is absolutely no mistaking that he is an asshole.

A fucking stupid one at that because this isn’t a normal mission where no one but us can see how he’s behaving, most of the supernatural world is watching, and he either keeps forgetting that fact or, he is that blinded by his own fucking ego that he doesn’t realize how fucking wrong he is.

If I had to bet on it, I would say that it’s the second one.

Everyone races after him, none of us are surprised by the way that he treats all of us now, although I am sure that they’re all grateful that he takes the bulk of his frustrations out on me and not them.

They even enjoy joining in occasionally, especially Rupert, so there is absolutely no love lost between us.

As we run, barely staying ahead of the creatures behind us, it becomes apparent that there is no way out of here but up the steep cliff walls.

“There!” Rupert yells, pointing to what looks like a large cave opening near the top of the cliffside up ahead and on the left-hand side.

There are no other caves that I can see, and I know from past experience that the Scoriouses won’t follow us up there. They are known to climb, but not that high.

“Go now! It’s the only way out,” I yell.

I stop running. There is no way at all that they are going to get up the cliffside and to the safety of the cave if I don’t stay down here and fight the fuckers off, fortunately for me, Scoriouses run in relatively small packs.

There are only five currently barreling in toward me, unfortunately for me, they run in small packs because they are deadly as fuck and don’t need there to be any more of them to hunt effectively.