Page 49

Neith

“N eith,” Raiden says gently.

My eyes immediately ping open, “I’m up.”

“Shit me that was fucking terrifying,” Raiden replies, looking slightly shocked.

I chuckle as I sit up, “Sorry, I wake up easily when I’m in this kind of situation, and especially after last night.”

Raiden’s eyes narrow, but he doesn’t comment purely because this is the Choosing and we’re being watched.

I’m getting so fed up with thinking that, but I feel like if I don’t remind myself regularly, I’m going to forget, and there would be some pretty big consequences if I forgot. Ones that I don’t want to deal with.

To be honest, I’m good with that because I absolutely don’t want to relive the events of last night.

I can’t believe I managed to get back to sleep after that.

Although granted, I did fall asleep sitting up with my back against the wall, River’s giant kitsunefront of me, Doc on one side, and Reed on the other, with the other guys all around me and closely packed together.

The Draconian team clearly took Doc’s threat seriously because they put Kylen as far away from me as possible, and then put themselves between us, with Coen the closest to us.

His eyes glued to me, and murderously angry.

“It’s nearly morning, you’re the last one to do a shift. As soon as the light comes up, send Ransom to lie down, and wake the rest of us,” he says instead, and I nod as I get up and carefully step over a sleeping Evander.

The men are all in different places than they were when I went to sleep, having switched as they did their shifts, but they’re all still around me and keeping me safe.

When I glance over at the door to the cave, I’m surprised to see Coen sitting next to Ransom, looking far more relaxed than he has been for a while.

“Hey,” I say as I sit down on the other side of Ransom.

Ransom grins, looking surprisingly awake considering the time and how long he has been awake for, although his grin is interrupted by a huge yawn.

“Coen decided to keep me company, he’s been here since Kylen pulled that creepy as fuck shit,” Ransom tells me with a smile.

I smile and open my mouth to say thank you, when I realize that it means that he’s been up all night and hasn’t gotten any sleep. I study Coen as my eyes narrow.

He deliberately avoids my gaze, which has Ransom hiding a smirk behind his hand.

“Shouldn’t you get some sleep?” I ask him.

Coen pulls a face, “Nah, I’m good.”

He smirks, he knows that I can’t say anything else without giving anything away. Which pretty much means that I can’t make him get some sleep or chew him out for not getting any sleep like I usually would do.

It does occur to me that there is probably a reason why he won’t go to sleep, other than the fact that he wants to make sure that Kylen doesn’t pull any creepy shit again.

“So, did anything interesting happen while I was asleep?” I ask, as I look out into the night.

“You snore,” Coen mutters, a familiar argument that brings an instant grin to his face.

Indignation lights my tone, “I do not.”

Ransom chuckles, “Yeah, you do. But River snores louder.”

I huff and then end up chuckling quietly and decide to change the subject instead of carrying on this argument, which in past experience has ended up lasting quite a while. “What about the creatures?”

“They keep trying to attack every now and then, but the ward is holding strong, and it’s only one or two that are trying. The majority of them are out hunting, I would assume,” Ransom replies.

“Well, at least that’s something,” I reply.

“That mark on Kylen’s face is really something, huh?” Coen asks after a moment of silence.

I try not to let my surprise at his words show in my expression.

Ransom nods, “Yeah. It’s pretty nasty. It will keep burning too until the spirit that inflicted it takes it back. He must have pissed off a pretty fucking powerful spirit.”

I don’t say anything as I continue to stare out of the cave entrance as the sky slowly begins to lighten.

They definitely did that on purpose, giving me information that they both knew that I would be curious about, albeit in a slightly out of the blue way.

I had sort of guessed that Ribit had done it, I had no idea that it had the effects that it does, and I can’t help but smile that the handprint is going to cause him so grief.

I’m going to give her the biggest hug when I see her next.

We all sit in companionable silence, although there is so much that I want to say, and quite honestly, I would much rather be sitting between them rather than at the end.

“I should probably get some sleep,” Coen mutters as he gets up and stretches. He nods at both of us and then heads back to where he was when I first fell asleep, lying down and facing the other way.

“Did any of the Draconian team come and help keep watch apart from Coen?” I ask Ransom after a moment.

Ransom shakes his head, “Nope, none of them have even stirred. I don’t understand how they are SID agents. They’re lazy, combative, and refuse to work as part of a team.”

I frown, “I have a feeling that today is going to be interesting, to say the least. They’re going to have to chip in at some point. That was the instruction, and more than that, if they aren’t putting any effort into keeping themselves alive, I won’t either.”

Ransom chuckles, “Well said. I think that’s a fair enough assessment. Although the instructions also said that we all had to get through the portal alive. I get the feeling that Coen is going to carry the weight of the team.”

I frown, we know that they’re a problem, and we know that Coen gets treated like shit.

In the last trial that I did with them, I was too busy trying to stay alive to witness much of the way that they interacted.

I haven’t even seen them together for that long, since the majority of them have been asleep, but what I have seen has pissed me off.

If I make it through today without punching one of them in the face for the way that they talk to and treat Coen, I will be incredibly surprised.

I’m going to have to be really careful, because if I do react to something that strongly, then Kylen is going to realize that I know Coen or at least suspect something is going on.

I absolutely don’t want that to happen. Kylen will use it against Coen, and I won’t allow that.

It’s getting closer and closer to sunrise, and as it does, more of the creatures are returning to their caves.

They’re flying a lot slower than they were when they first woke up, and although a couple of them glance at our cave, they clearly don’t think that it’s worth trying to attack us as they all fly into the cliffside.

The higher that the sun rises, the fewer of the creatures we see until we don’t see any at all.

“The sun is almost up,” I point out after a moment of silence. “You should get some sleep while you can.”

Ransom sighs and nods as he watches the sun crest the horizon. “I am pretty sure that they have all gone back now. I’ll wake Doc up. He can keep watch with you until everyone else gets up.”

I nod, “Okay, sounds good to me.”

He stands up and then leans back over, dropping a kiss on top of my head, without even thinking about it.

I smile up at him as his eyes widen slightly when he realizes what he’s just done.

To be honest, the guys have all kissed my head or the back of my hand by this point, and I really don’t think that it matters.

People will think what people are going to think, and like I decided yesterday, it may distract them from some of the other things that we do need to hide.

Ransom clearly thinks the same thing because he shrugs and smiles sleepily at me.

“Go and get some sleep,” I order when a blink lasts just a bit too long to be considered a blink.

“Yes, ma’am,” he grins, lazily saluting me and then heads to the guys.

When he tries to wake Doc up, several of the others wake up as well, apart from Raiden, who has only just gone to sleep. Van comes and sits next to me, nudging my shoulder with his as he looks out over the incredible view and the sun rising higher.

It only takes a couple of minutes before the golden ward that has kept us safe all night drops, and I smile as I realize that it must mean that Ransom has fallen asleep.

It’s clear when the ward drops that it’s not the only job that it was doing, and the warmth from outside smacks me in the face.

Considering that I noticed last night that it got hotter as the sun went down, rather than cooler, I think Ransom’s shield saved us from sweating buckets last night and not being able to get the rest that we needed to get.

“Are you okay?” Van asks me.

I nod, “Yeah, I’m good. You?”

Van grins, “I’m ready for this trial to be over. I wonder why Mabel didn’t warn us that there could be a task that we would all have to do together.”

“Maybe, there isn’t supposed to be,” I mutter as the wheels in my head begin to turn.

“I mean, we passed the task together, and then the other team turned up. This is the last day of trials, so technically, that would make it the Draconians’ team trial.

Maybe there was a glitch that meant you guys didn’t go home, or maybe there was another reason why the Choosing decided to put both of the teams together. ”

I don’t want to say it out loud, but I’m really hoping that Van is following my thought process.

It takes him a moment, but to be fair, he has only just woken up. I know he is on the same wavelength as I am when his eyes widen slightly and his head tilts to the side curiously.

“You know what, Nene, I bet you’re right,” Van replies carefully. “Although that also suggests that we were right, and that’s a concern.”