Page 55

Neith

“I s everyone here?” Evander asks immediately.

Sounding absolutely exhausted, Ransom replies, “Yeah, we’re all here.”

“Thank fuck,” Reed rumbles.

“That was not fucking fun,” Raiden adds.

River nods, but before he can say anything, my stomach makes itself known, loudly, and quite frighteningly if I’m being honest.

River smiles, “You can use my shower to get warm and change into dry clothes, and then you can tuck into this food.”

I start to say thank you when I realize that we’re in the castle and we’re no longer being filmed, so instead of saying thank you, I run and jump at him.

River catches me with ease as my lips slam down against his, and our tongues dance together. Fucking hell, I have missed kissing River.

Hell, I’ve missed kissing all of them.

They all realize the same thing as I do, because I’m tugged from River’s arms and into Doc’s, and then around all of the others as well.

By the time that I’ve kissed them all, I can’t remember my own name, let alone what I was supposed to be doing.

“Go shower, Nene,” Evander reminds me, with a proud smile.

My stomach grumbles, “Right, shower then food.”

I lean down and grab my bag, which was left in the front room, and then head down the hallway that leads to all of the bedrooms. The guys all follow me as they split up to go into their separate rooms to shower and get changed.

We haven’t showered in two days, we haven’t eaten either, although we did have water with us, we could share.

Evander pulled what he could out of the air to fill up the canteens, but we had to use them sparingly since the realm was so hot that it wasn’t that easy to do.

Fortunately, supernaturals are capable of going for prolonged periods of time with no food and little water, and apparently that stretches to me, too.

That doesn’t make me any less hungry, though.

River winks at me.

“I would say, do you want some company, but I think that would be far too tempting, and you’re not fully supernatural, yet,” his eyes blaze. They dull slightly as he adds, “Plus, we’re tired and hungry. It’s never a good idea to have sex when you’re hungry.”

I burst out laughing, “I wasn’t aware of that rule.”

“It’s a River rule,” he smirks. His smile falls into a frown as I shiver, “Go and shower and warm up. Feel free to go through my stuff if you want to wear something comfy, remember we’re not going to get called again.”

My eyes widen, “Holy fuck, I forgot about that.” Grinning, I add, You, my friend, are about to be robbed.”

“Friend?” River asks with his eyebrow raised. “I rather hoped we were more than that.”

“I’m good with that,” I reply, trying to sound casual, and not freak out, and be all giddy as the butterflies take flight in my stomach.

I’m good with being more than friends.

His smile is beautiful, and I decide that I’ve pushed my brain- to- mouth filter far enough and turn on my heel heading into River’s room.

After rummaging through his clothes, I decide to pinch one of his giant hoodies and then head into the shower.

I am far colder than I realized because the warm water stings my skin, and it takes me a moment to warm up.

I rush through the shower, and getting dressed, and then quickly make my way back out to the front room, finding all of the guys there, including River, all freshly showered.

River’s eyes heat as they see me dressed in his hoodie, but my gaze is purely for the food.

The guys make amused sounds as I plop my ass down on the floor close to the food, and practically inhale it. Ignoring them entirely.

∞∞∞

The next day we spend resting, all of us are absolutely exhausted from the whole ordeal and really fucking hungry.

Fortunately, Mabel and the others had absolutely no problem letting us eat in our room, and that’s pretty much all we did.

We stayed in comfy clothes for the first time since we arrived, since we realized that we weren’t going to get called at any time, and everyone took really long showers for the same reason.

Then we piled into the front room, ate, slept, and just recharged. It was fucking amazing. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if Coen were with us.

We did emerge from the comfort of our room at one point because I wanted to go and find Ribit, but no matter where we looked, she wasn’t there.

Raiden said that there’s a chance that because she used so much power to put the ghost mark on Kylen’s face, she needed to recharge and rest for a while.

I’m still hoping that I’m going to be able to find her before we go.

Waking up this morning surrounded by my men, and without the fear of being pulled into a trial, was pretty fucking awesome, but nerves soon took over and now I’m just a wreck.

I know that we’re a good team, and I know that I belong with the guys, but there’s a small, terrified part of me that’s telling me that I’m going to be put on the Draconian team, and filling my head with thoughts of all that could entail.

It's fucking terrifying.

There’s a knock on the guy’s door, and River pulls it open to find Mabel and a couple of other people standing there holding trays of food.

“Eat up, it’s almost time to go to the chamber for the scroll reading,” she says and then grins. “You’re dressed, that’s good, only one of the other team was even up.”

Three guesses who that was.

“What can we expect from today?” Doc asks, and then adds, “I know that you won’t be able to tell us a lot.”

Mabel nods, “I will take you to the chamber, which is in a separate building on the castle grounds, along with the Draconian team. You will all enter it together. Inside, someone will read the scroll out for you. The team that doesn’t get Neith will then exit the chamber, and the team that is then a bonded Warrior team will receive their extra gifts.

There is a silencing spell placed on all who enter, and no one will be able to get around that. ”

“Whatever happens in the chamber cannot be discussed with anyone outside of it?” Evander clarifies.

Mabel nods, “Yes, but more than that, the losing team will not be able to discuss or write down, or anything similar, any of the events that happened in the chamber. It’s for safety reasons, as the losing team or teams, in some cases, tend to harbor ill will toward the winners.

It was a problem in the past, so it was implemented a few hundred years ago. ”

“That’s a really good idea,” Griff says.

“Definitely, the Draconian team would definitely spout shit if they were given the opportunity,” Ransom says.

Mabel nods, “Exactly. Now eat up, you haven’t got very long, and I will be back for you.”

We all nod and thank her again before we take our seats and start to eat.

I have a heavy feeling in my stomach, something is going to happen, I can feel it. I have no idea whether it’s going to be good or bad, but maybe that’s because it doesn’t know yet.

I don’t know who it is, maybe the universe, maybe the Gods, who knows, but something more than what we think is going to happen.

Hell, maybe it’s nerves, I am quietly panicking that I won’t be put on the guy’s team. In fact, my nerves are beginning to get to me, so much so that I can’t eat very much at all.

After pushing my food around my plate for a while someone finally knocks on the door.

“Let’s do this,” Griff says, as we all stand up.

Doc pulls open the door, and Mabel smiles at us, “The Draconian team will meet us down in the main hall by the front door. Freddy has gone to get them.”

Evander nods, “Great. We’re ready.”

Mabel smiles again, and we follow her through the castle.

She doesn’t seem tense or nervous, but then again, why would she be?

She’s probably seen hundreds of these. This is just a normal workday for her.

Hoping to distract myself from the swarm of butterflies in my stomach, I look out for Ribit on the way.

I was really hoping that I would be able to find her and say goodbye.

I should get a chance to say goodbye after the whole scroll thing, but I’m not sure how long we’ll have before we have to leave. No one’s told us that, and I’m not really in the mood to ask.

When we get to the main hall, the Draconian team is already there.

Kylen looks pissed, but the rest of them all look apprehensive, and Coen looks absolutely exhausted.

If possible, he looks even more tired than he did when we finished the last trial.

He doesn’t look at me as we all follow Mabel and a couple of others out of the door, and through the grounds, but I notice that he’s moving stiffly.

Far stiffer than he should be moving, considering he’s just had an entire day of rest. I don’t like it, and judging by the frown on Doc and River’s faces, they have noticed as well and don’t like it either.

There is fuck all that we can do about it right now, we’re surrounded by the Draconian team, and if I remember correctly, Sully said that they film this bit, but not inside the chamber.

Not that we could do anything about it anyway, I think bitterly.

“Here we are,” Mabel announces with a smile.

She stops outside a set of ornately carved wooden doors that are so big that they could have been made for actual giants, and I’m not even exaggerating.

“Wow,” I mutter in awe, and Mabel smiles at me.

Kylen huffs and rolls his eyes, “Come on then, let’s get this over with, and find out that the cunt is supposed to be on our team.”

Kylen hits the floor as Coen’s fist comes out of nowhere and knocks him clean out.

There’s a moment of shock before everyone, including Fetrick and Rupert, starts chuckling.

“Oh dear,” Mabel says. “Does someone care to wake him? We really should get inside.”

Evander grins, “Say no more.”

Kylen sits bolt upright, spluttering and coughing, as Evander drops water over his face to wake him up.

“What happened?” he immediately demands as he stands up.