Page 24

Dex

P lans of what I needed to do swarmed deep in my mind. The darkness enveloped us as the platform lowered. The smell of damp and mold permeated the air. And something else that I couldn’t place, almost acidic in nature like a chemical.

There were three of us left on our team. Regis, Céline, and I. Genevieve had been eliminated early on, and now I carried her power of light in my veins. Our masks were firmly tied about our heads and our packs weighed heavy upon each of our shoulders.

Odessa had looked downright terrified up there, and it twisted my gut seeing her like that.

But she had every right to be terrified.

A part of me felt it too. That anxiety coursing inside me, only I would use it as fuel to help me win.

No amount of winking or my smiles could help her now, though.

We were in it, and we’d be lucky as hell if we both made it out of here.

It’d been done before, but rarely. Even if we both made it out, there could only be one winner.

The platform rumbled to a halt and a faint, dim red light illuminated a long tunnel ahead.

There were two narrow concrete paths on either side of some water that ran the length as far as I could see.

The top of the ceiling was rounded, and the walls were made of pure bone.

I could feel my power awakening down here, strumming to life with electric energy.

A sudden burst of red light from above sliced through the air with a loud booming shot, and a male sounding voice echoed off the tunnel walls.

“The Games have begun. You have a five-minute head-start. Use it wisely. If you shall perish, may your soul be granted the God of Death’s favor.”

Here we fucking go.

The lights went out for a moment, and we all stood there struck dumb or too scared to move. But then the dim light returned with a flicker and Regis, always the first to take charge, leapt into action, plunging into the water from off the platform, only to scream out in agony.

Smoke rose from the part of his legs that were touching the water as he thrashed around, scrambling to get out.

“Help me!” He cried, falling to his knees with a rotted hand outstretched.

His skin was sloughing off his body and his bones were beginning to poke through as he became engulfed by the steaming water in seconds.

It splashed onto Céline and hit her square in the thigh.

That one round splotch ate through the cloth on her pants, burning her skin with a sickening sizzle.

And right before our eyes, Regis was eaten away bit by bit by the water.

Acid water , I thought, remembering the guard’s conversation from the night before. There wasn’t time to grab him out. He’d just perished, the water bubbling like a stomach digesting a large meal.

The rest of the teams would most likely make the same choice— to trudge straight through, not knowing that the water was a death trap.

Odessa was all I could think. Someone had to warn her.

“Are you coming?” Céline asked, making her way on the right side of the tunnel. It was a narrow fit, but she could place her feet side by side comfortably enough. The slope of the ceiling might be a problem for me with how tall I was, but I couldn’t make my feet move.

Odessa would be down here at any moment, and I couldn’t let her end like that.

“No,” I responded, my hand reaching out and engulfing her small neck.

“I’m sorry.” Her eyes were wide with terror as I yanked her mask off and pushed her into the vat of acid with a scream upon her lips and a sinking in my gut.

I knew the cost of being down here, and it was kill or be killed.

And there was only one way Céline could be parted from her magick.

I rolled my shoulders as her body disintegrated with a sickening hiss. I didn’t want to look as she died, but I couldn’t look away. That fear and betrayal that flashed in her eyes before the light went out of them. The power to control liquid was now mine.

If the gods weren’t entertained yet, they would be soon.

The tainted water was practically roiling now while it ate through the two bodies of people I’d called my teammates.

I wondered how many more would be its victim.

From the sixteen we’d started with we were now down by five.

There were just eleven of us left and the odds of winning were getting better and better with each passing moment.

If only I could make it to the end, wherever that lay hidden.

Now I just had to sit here and wait for Odessa’s team to get here, and hopefully I could intercede before she wound up walking straight into a trap.

I knew I didn’t owe her anything. And my goal hadn’t changed.

In fact, now that the games had officially started and I’d already bagged another power, that desire to have it all was only growing.

But there was no reason I couldn’t bring her along with me while the others floundered amongst themselves.

A mechanical clicking sound alerted me to the three other platforms being lowered.

Fuck, which one was she in?

My eyes strained as I watched intently, wanting to spot her before any chaos erupted. And it would too. With three teams converging on a small tunnel that was filled with acid, there were sure to be casualties.

I could see the tips of feet appearing. Her team had four people so that immediately eliminated the platform in the middle. There were only two other possibilities, and each were on opposite ends.

Legs appeared next, and to the right I spotted her with a small, almost unnoticeable bump on her leg. That fucking dagger.

I dashed over to where her platform was lowering just as they hit the bottom.

“Games are now commencing,” that same voice said, drowning out all the other voices. The red light pulsated, and Odessa’s eyes found mine before we were plunged into total darkness.

Screams started filling the air from all around. Small hands gripped onto my forearms and pulled me down. Fire ripped through the area, making us duck and roll in the small landing space as the scent of burnt flesh stung my nostrils.

I cradled the small figure against my body and knew immediately who it belonged to. My hands wrapped around her braided head of hair, protecting her.

“Stay out of the water. It’s full of acid,” I warned, loud enough for her to hear.

Her whole body was fucking shaking under me.

“Follow me, now, Odessa.” I pulled her to standing and shielded her as best I could from the magick that was being thrown about without a thought of who or what it might hit.

Tell-tale sounds of people being gutted and thrown into the acid rang out between screams and the moans of the injured. I pulled Odessa by the wrist onto the lip of the tunnel.

The lights flickered then in that ominous red hue that made everything around us look sinister.

My feet moved quickly as I dragged us out of the fray. Her team members were right on our heels, but that was fine. As long as they didn’t attack us, because I wouldn’t hesitate to end them.

“How do you know about the water?” Odessa asked when we were far enough away from the fighting. A rogue bit of magick went whizzing past, barely missing us.

Sweat gathered beneath my jumpsuit where the pack pressed down onto me.

“My team. They both went in. They didn’t come out.”

“Are you kidding me? What a crock of shit,” Killian responded from the other side of the tunnel.

“Feel free to test it out yourself, but don’t come crying to me when the acid eats your flesh and bones.”

Killian swallowed, but kept moving, his eyes darting from the the small path in front of him to the water below.

The further we went, the more distant the voices and screams from the other teams became.

I wondered how many were lost. There was no way to salvage their powers, and I’d made peace with that. There were plenty of powers still up for grabs. Two more and I would tie for the record number that had been acquired.

Odessa still clung to my forearm. I didn’t even know if she realized she was doing it, but I didn’t mind.

It warmed some cold dead part inside me to know that I brought her comfort.

During our time here, she’d burrowed beneath my defenses and brought out a protective side that I didn’t even know I possessed.

Maybe it was the way she looked at me, or her fight against herself to hate me that did it.

All I knew was that we were here now, and I wasn’t going to let her go anytime soon.

She was the only one in Nocturne that could claim they were safe from me.

No matter how many times I went over it in my mind, I couldn’t bring myself to envision her any harm.

Doing so sent me into a panic worse than what I experienced in the tombs.

Leaving without her wasn’t an option and I’d kill anyone that dared to cross us.

I’d even foiled my chance of getting more powers just to make sure she didn’t plunge into that river of acid.

No one had ever come between me and my goals before.

It shocked me that I was able to compartmentalize those feelings of loss, moving quickly to assure myself there would be more opportunities. And there would be.

There were at least three powers in my vicinity now that I could take for myself, but we had to keep moving to get out of danger first.

Gods only knew what other traps might lay ahead, but for some reason a part of me felt that getting through the beginning was the easy part.