Page 14

Dex

I could feel her watching my every move. Her eyes tracking me felt like a caress against my skin. Was she worried about me or hoping that someone hit me with a fatal blow?

Probably the latter.

The moment the shot went off, magick came flying at us from all directions.

Immediately, I took cover behind one of the concrete slabs and tried to formulate a plan.

Céline, Genevieve, and Regis had paired off against the opposite teams, leaving the one asshole I ached to take down free for me— Magnus.

He had looked at me like he wanted to snap me in half, but I wasn’t about to let that happen.

My magick was limited to being able to manipulate bones, and without being allowed to kill someone else for their power, I felt constrained in what I could do. I had to think outside of the box. Good thing I was an expert at solving problems.

The rules never stated that I only had to use what was in the ring, and we were in the catacombs.

There were skeletons buried all around us.

Reaching out with my power, I locked onto the closest bone I could find.

It was above us, small in size and embedded in the rounded ceiling, but it was something.

A loud crack echoed in the cavernous space as the ceiling cracked and a partial piece of what looked like a mandible with some teeth still attached careened towards my outstretched hand. Bits of ceiling came down with it, and I dodged them before they crushed me.

A blinding beam of light hit me square in the eyes and caused my vision to instantly become obscured as Genevieve’s magick burst forth.

I dropped to my knees, eyes shut tight as my palms pressed to the outside of my mask, hoping that the damage wasn’t permanent.

Staying low, I attempted to open my eyes only to be met with spots and a large fist crashing into my ribcage by none other than Magnus.

My body went flying with the impact and I felt my ribs become dislodged as his strength pummeled into me.

The taste of blood flooded my mouth as I scrambled to stand.

The area around us had been reduced to rubble. My head swam and my lungs wheezed.

Magnus loomed closer, a sneer coating his cruel mouth, golden mask alight with the singular sunbeam’s fading light. I swallowed hard trying to figure out my next move.

The jawbone that I had summoned with my power lay a few feet away. If I could just get there in time, I could use it as a weapon.

Magnus moved, his size was a burden though, giving me enough time to clumsily scramble for the shard of bone.

The magick beckoned me forward, directing my steps while my eyes were still struggling to adjust. I scooped it up just as Magnus clasped the back of my shirt, yanking me back hard enough that my feet were no longer touching ground.

The neckline of my shirt buckled against my throat, choking me.

My arm swung on him, the jawbone slipping in my weakening grip. But I managed to land a solid punch to his face. Bone hitting bone, his own jaw crunching beneath the mandible causing him to drop me. My ankles twisted on impact, and I went down onto the concrete ground hard.

“You’re fucking dead!” Magnus screamed as blood dripped down the side of his face.

I became vaguely aware of the chaos that surrounded me.

Magick shot out from all around us. Contestant versus contestant were in a bloody brawl, all for the chance of five extra minutes.

I couldn’t imagine what it would be like when the real games finally started if this is how we were acting for a measly five-minute head start.

Magnus reached down and grabbed me by the front of my shirt this time, arm raised and ready to strike.

With his power of strength, it wouldn’t take much for him to punch a hole in my head and I’d be dead upon impact.

My head turned to the side and my eyes caught Odessa’s horrified expression.

Her hands covering her mouth and her dark brown eyes blown wide with worry.

Worry for me, I realized.

With a renewed energy, I used every bit of magick I could access and shoved it out. In that moment I realized that the bones I could control weren’t limited to dead and buried ones, but the very much alive ones.

Magnus’s beady little eyes rimmed with malice, widened the moment I locked onto his skeletal form. He became a puppet in my hands. I made him set me down with ease and I felt my lips quirk up into a smirk at my newfound power. His strength was no match for me.

Cracking my knuckles, he began to move at my command. A lunge here, a pirouette there.

He looked utterly ridiculous and the snickers behind me from the other contestants watching had his cheeks reddening with embarrassment. I fucking loved it.

After a minute or two of exerting my power over him, I finally made him crouch down before me—kneeling before his master. He looked up at me reluctantly and that malice was replaced with the most delicious shade of fear. I had him by the balls and he knew it.

“Do you have anything you want to say to me, Magnus?” My arms were locked behind my back as I stood tall over him. The fighting around us had stalled out. Everyone was watching this moment, wondering what I would do.

I knew I couldn’t kill him— not yet anyway.

“Fuck you,” Magnus muttered.

“What was that? I couldn’t quite hear you?” I leaned down and wrapped my hand around my ear. I knew what he said but wanted him to feel just how helpless he was.

“I said, fuck you,” he spat, and I let him go. His body fell into a useless heap, and the crowd around us cheered. I lifted my arms out wide and took a bow.

My eyes locked onto Odessa’s, and I saw on her face a moment too late that I had let my guard down. Turning my back to a rabid dog like Magnus was a mistake.

“Watch out!” She cried, and I turned around to see a sharp piece of rock lifted in the air and aimed right at me.

Genevieve jumped in front of me, arms raised and light shining, but Magnus couldn’t stop and my magick that I had been wielding was slow to respond. I had no choice but to watch the tip puncture through her chest and come out the other end.

The arena fell into a stunned hush as blood bubbled out of her gaping wound and down the corners of her mouth. It had gone right through her heart. Magnus ripped the makeshift blade from her body, and she crumpled at his feet.

“You!” The captain cried out, pointing her finger at Magnus. “Guards, seize him. The rules were clear. No killing fellow contestants until after the games have begun.”

“It, it was an accident!” Magnus grappled as the guards grabbed him about the arms and cut the ribbons from his mask off. It fell onto the ground with a clang echoing off the ceiling.

We watched on in horror as Genevieve’s still body was carried from the arena, her hands dragging on the dusty ground below. The guards removed the crown of light from her.

She had saved me.

Jumped right in front of the danger. Part of me wondered if it was of her own volition, or if I’d inadvertently been the one to move her there.

Maybe with this mask, I was more powerful than I realized.

While I’d planned to kill everyone in here eventually, the actuality of death was far different than the hypothetical.

“The punishment, I fear, will be your life,” the captain said, removing the blade strapped to her back.

With one strong arc of the blade, it sliced across his neck removing flesh and bone.

His head ripped free from his body with a sickening wet sound, cutting his scream short.

Blood sputtered free soaking the floor and spraying those closest to him, making a few of them retch.

We watched as Magnus’s head rolled across the stage landing at my feet.

His dead eyes were staring up at me while his mouth was stuck open in a voiceless scream.

The entire room went deadly silent.

I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the bloody head that laid at my feet.

The captain strode over to where Magnus’s decapitated head was and gripped it by his dark hair as if she were plucking a flower from the Earth.

“This is what happens when you don’t follow the rules of Nocturne. You’re playing a game of the gods. Never forget that you are but mortals in their realm. You’re all dismissed for the day.”

“What happens to their powers?” Regis asked with more audacity than I could pretend to have.

The captain turned with a feral smirk splayed upon her lips. “Those powers are forfeit. Now get out of my arena.”

She didn’t need to tell me twice. I dipped my head and scrambled to get the hell out of there.

Maybe I was in shock, but all I could think about was what a shame it would have been to die before having the pleasure of tasting Odessa’s lips against my own.

As if she knew my thoughts, her gaze found my own.

We kept doing that. Finding each other in a crowd as if we were the only two that really mattered. I didn’t hate it.