Page 16

Dex

T here wasn’t much that could rattle me, but claustrophobia just happened to be one of my weaknesses. The room we’d been brought to was small for normal standards, but cram fourteen desperate contestants inside, and well, I was sweating my ass off.

“Who the fuck has the power of light?” An irritated manly voice asked.

“She fucking died yesterday,” I snapped, the panic of being trapped building inside of me. Died saving me because of that fuckwad, Magnus, I thought bitterly.

“Oh, right.”

“I have fire,” The Pyro muttered, coaxing a flame into their hands. It illuminated his stark white face and dusty blond hair.

It wasn’t much, but it was enough to make out the expressions of the people around me. Most looked freaked as hell, not that I can blame them. The golden glow of their masks in the faint firelight gave them a sinister appearance, reminding me that no one could be trusted down here.

The door was firmly locked and no amount of hitting it with my shoulder was going to knock it down. We had to find another way, and it was taking everything in me to appear stoic, like I wasn’t seconds away from combusting.

I knew coming down here that this would be a possibility.

Tight spaces were a given when you’re dealing with over two-hundred miles of underground tunnels.

There were bound to be small spaces. But I still fucking hated it.

It reminded me too much of what I’d been through to get here, but I couldn’t think about it now.

I needed to focus on how to get out of this fucking room.

There were fourteen of us shoved in here.

It was too much. I was knocking elbows with some sweaty short guy who possessed the power of time and reeked of body odor.

“Let’s find those clues so we can get out of here,” Regis said, acting as leader again. I didn’t mind. I’d let him think he was in charge, before I snapped his neck with my bare hands and took his power. Not that I could act on it now.

Odessa was off to the side, standing with her arms wrapped around her middle and her bottom lip pulled between her teeth. Guess she didn’t like small spaces either. She seemed preoccupied by the casket, not taking her eyes off it for a moment.

“Bring that light over here, I think I found something,” Regis said.

Right. We were supposed to be looking for clues. There wasn’t a lot of room to move but the more my eyes adjusted to the dim light, the more I could make out.

I focused in on the wall. From up close it looked like a nonsensical arrangement of skulls and bones, but from over here, I could faintly make out a word being spelled out by the shape.

It looked like it spelled out the French word for death— la mort .

But with one notable difference. The ’t’ was upside-down.

The fire went out abruptly and more than one person grumbled in frustration.

“Sorry,” The Pyro apologized. “I put my hand down for a second.”

Was the air feeling tighter in here than it was before?

Sweat began to gather at my temples as I slowly started to lose my cool.

As soon as the fire flickered back into existence, my heart rate steadied out.

My eyes instantly went to where Odessa had been standing, but instead of being where she was before the light went out, she was standing over by the casket staring down into its contents.

Her hand hovered precariously over the actively rotting corpse as if debating if she wanted to touch it or not.

“What are you doing?” I asked her, making my way over to where she stood by squeezing past several bodies. No one seemed to know what they were doing and were instead poking around and hoping for the best. Like a clue would jump right out at them any second.

“Why would this be here? It doesn’t make any sense. Most bodies are kept as decoration. Placed into the walls. But this one? It’s displayed prominently. There has to be a reason.”

I swallowed hard watching as she dipped her hand into the open casket, searching for a clue that would get us the hell out of this room.

It was more tomb than room to be honest, and that one singular thought had my panic rearing up again.

You’re not back there, I told myself.

While we were supposed to work as teams, mine were too busy checking the cracked checkered floor.

I stared down into the occupied casket. Who was this person to be granted such an honor as a casket in this place of the gods?

The skeleton was freshly rotted, with most of its face decayed, with the exception of a thin wisp of skin that stretched over the right side of its cheekbones.

It wore a long musty smelling dress that at one time might have been a vibrant blue, but now was a dusty faded gray.

Then I noticed that the skeleton’s gnarled boney hands were clutching onto a small box placed directly over their chest.

“We should look in there,” I declared.

“Well, you’re the necromancer, so move the bones,” Odessa said still searching the fabric laced sides.

I cracked my knuckles and reached for my magick making the bones in its hands release the box.

It did as I willed, giving up the box as if it were handing it straight to me.

Upon further inspection, it had the known insignia of the gods etched into the top of the lid and some words carved onto the side.

Même le dieu de la mort ne peut pas nous séparer.

Not even the god of death can separate us.

Interesting to find something that directly insulted the god of death while we were in his domain.

The box was light in my hands, and I shook it, listening for anything inside.

“Don’t shake that, what if there’s something breakable in there that we need,” Odessa hit my stomach with the back of her hand forcibly.

I chuckled. “What, do you think they hid a glass key in here or something?”

She rolled her eyes. “Well, are you going to open it or not?”

The lid took more force than I anticipated to pry open, but finally after sticking the small bit of my nail into the slit, it was free. Inside laid a small worn paper.

“Hey, Pyro, bring that light over here, would you? I can’t make out what this says.”

They obliged, getting close enough that we could see the word ‘la mort’ written in ink. The ’t’ matching the one on the wall. Upside-down.

“Can we hurry up? I don’t know how much longer I can keep this fire going,” the Pyro warned.

“What do you think it means?” Odessa asked.

“Not sure.” My brain whirled, wondering what the significance was.

If we didn’t solve this soon, the small quarters were sure to send me into an all-out panic, and I couldn’t slip up with the persona I’d been so careful to convey.

If my fellow contestants saw me as weak, I’d be made into their target instead of the other way around.

With two powers now permanently out of the games, I couldn’t afford for any more mistakes.

It was vital I secured as many as possible.

“Hey, what did you guys find? La Mort ?” Regis asked grabbing the paper from my hands.

As soon as the words left his mouth, the wall shook sending dirt and bones collapsing into a heap. The casket disappeared through a trap door and the ceiling began to lower. The only way out was through a small door that had appeared with the toppling of the bones.

“Quick! Through here!” Odessa exclaimed, grabbing my arm on instinct.

She pulled me through the panicking throng of contestants. Each of us trying all at once to get to the same exit. With every second that passed the ceiling grew closer and the room grew smaller.

One of the contestants shoved us hard, and suddenly a deluge of spiders began crawling all over us. Screams erupted as something bit my leg, causing instant numbness.

“I-I can’t. I can’t move.” Every muscle in my body seized up on me, as I was shoved hard onto the ground. Odessa’s grip on me was lost and she was swept through the door, her brown eyes catching mine as she disappeared. More spiders crawled over my skin, as the numbness spread up my body.

I glanced above me and watched in horror as the ceiling dropped closer. The very real possibility of being crushed to death was staring me in the face. No matter how much I willed my muscles to move, they refused.

Suddenly, hands were on my shirt, and I was being dragged through.

My vision swam and I could barely make out who was helping me. Though the soft scent of jasmine clued me in.

Odessa had come back for me, even when I hadn’t done the same for her. Even when I’d been actively plotting her demise along with everyone else here. She came back to save me.

I couldn’t form words, but if I could I’d be expressing my gratitude.

“Holy fucking gods, you’re so much heavier than I thought you’d be,” she groaned, finally getting me safely through the door.

She fell back and it was then that I’d realized we were back in the tunnels.

“Congratulations, Team Spade. You’ve earned yourself a five-minute head start. As for the rest of you, you’ll be starting at the normal time. Now, you have one more day of training, so rest up and refuel. You’ll need all the strength you can get.”

Our team had won, but I could barely find it in me to care. Not when the effects of the spider’s bite were churning through my veins at an alarming rate. I think I could feel my heart rate slowing.

“Let’s get you a healer,” Odessa said.

Her face was the last thing I saw before I blacked out.