I saved myself? How was that even remotely possible? I had no powers or gifts. Hell, most of the time it was a mission for me to walk in a straight line. It had to have been one of the gods. There was no other explanation.
Siret started to move and I made a motion of getting down, letting him know that I was fine to walk on my own. His grip only tightened further. “I’m just going to need a few more clicks with you in my arms … when you went under that mud…” He broke off and that dead look was back on his face. “I didn’t get to you in time.”
At the edge of the mud pit he hauled me up and onto the land above. My eyes darted around as I searched for Aedan. I owed him some major payback, that shweed.
“What are you looking for?” Siret’s question startled me. He had climbed up beside me much quicker than I had expected, which had shocked me enough that I miss-stepped and began to tumble toward the ground. He caught me easily, barely even batting an eye.
“Could you maybe try not to get killed for the next few rotations?” he asked, his eyes back to their normal vibrant green. “We just need to make it to the end.”
Not die. I could totally do that. Right? “How many more things do we have to go through? And where is Aedan?”
I had been attempting to keep my ire contained, but the moment I spoke his name, the anger spilled over. I reined it in again with a couple of long, deep breaths. I might have been ignoring the death of Johnny, but it was something which would hit me hard later. The image of his arm half chewed-off wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
“Don’t you worry about Aedan. He’ll get what’s coming to him.” Siret’s tone was chilling. It was nothing like I had heard from him before, but he had been channelling Coen ever since he had jumped into the pit, with the stern voice and the dead eyes.
Before I could ask what exactly was coming for Aedan, he took hold of my hand and laced his fingers through mine, before moving toward the next part of the maze. I forced myself to pay attention; I was always extra scatterbrained when one of the Abcurses’ touched me—and my current situation was stressful enough without the added distraction.
As we approached a massive stone wall, I tilted my head back to take it all in. It was blocking the path, shaped like the tip of an arrow, facing away from the mud pit we had just walked through. Resigning myself to climbing again, I took a step forward. Before I could go any further, Siret lifted his right arm and slammed his fist into the centre of the wall, hitting it with so much force that the entire structure, which was many feet wide, thick, and tall, crumbled down into a heap of huge rocks at our feet. Releasing my hand, he lifted me up and over the rubble, and then we were moving forward to the next challenge.
Except there wasn’t another one. We had reached the double doors which led out into the rooms below the arena. Siret strode right up to them and with a solid kick, knocked both of them wide open. They slammed back against the walls with a cracking force.
I scurried along behind him, not wanting to get caught in the arena with all of its traps, and wanting to be away from the eyes of whichever gods sat above us. As soon as we were through the doors, a burst of noise echoed from the stands. They had definitely been using some sort of energy to mask the sound while we were inside the course. Maybe so that they couldn’t warn or distract us. They had the bird’s-eye view, while we were rats in a maze.
The Gamemaster was speaking again. “Looks like three are through in the first round; the next contestants will now be called.”
First round. Oh, for the love of all that was sacred. I didn’t have any more rounds in me. I was barely hanging on as it was, and I still had no idea who had saved me in the pit with the heat energy. Before I could voice my protests, or collapse in a ragged heap, a wall of Abcurses surrounded me, and all of them wore expressions very similar to Siret’s.
Holy shit. They were pissed. Someone was about to die.
“We’re leaving.” That came from Rome, who was standing right before me, his arms crossed, and his body all swelled up in anger. As if he really needed to be any bigger.
Eyes of stone were locked onto me, the sort of tension in his expression that I had seen the last time Rau had tried to mess with us. That made sense, because the whole arena idea was almost definitely Rau trying to mess with us again.
“We can’t leave.” Siret was standing directly behind me, and from the sounds of it, he was trying to scrub the mud off himself.
“We can’t,” Aros agreed, to my right. “But she can.”
“What?” I spun a little to face Aros, almost flinching as soon as I could see his face. He was really angry. They all were.
This might actually have been the angriest that I had ever seen them. And … none of them were meeting my eyes. I glanced down, following the line of Aros’s golden glare, and blinked at my arms.
“Holy shit,” I blurted, pulling my wrist up before my face.
I was covered in … bites. I had no idea what those blacktip things were, but they had tiny little jaws—evidenced by the track of tiny little bite marks spreading all over my skin—all the way to the tips of my fingers. Their teeth must have been sharp, because they hadn’t been that close to me for very long, but I was seeping blood from all of the cuts. I looked like I’d been stuck in a barrel full of hungry rats for a sun-cycle. I was still mostly in one piece, though. Johnny must have won their attention before the mud started to heat up. I supposed that was because he had been bigger than me. And his sol-flesh probably tasted better too. It probably tasted superior, and more blessed.
My flesh probably tasted like dirt.
“Come here.” Aros was holding out his hand, his eyes still on my body, moving from my legs to my arms, to my neck and shoulders.
I quickly put my hand in his, because his eyes were darkening by the click. The Abcurse circle broke for a moment—long enough for Aros to draw me through and toward the other side of the room. There was another white-robed dweller in the corner, and Rome snarled something at him as we passed, making him nod so hard I was surprised he didn’t get whiplash, before he turned and bolted toward one of the many tunnels leading away from our particular chamber.
“What did you mean before?” I asked, finally finding my voice again as we passed into the second room, a heavy wooden door falling shut behind us. “Why would I be able to leave but you guys can’t?”