Chapter Twenty-Six
Tomás
Once my feet touched solid ground, I ripped off the blindfold. The horse and rider took off, kicking a trail behind. I shoved the blindfold into my pocket just in case. Although it was early afternoon and the sun should’ve been bright in the sky, under the canopy of trees time didn’t seem to matter. Some parts of the forest floor were darker than others. As if in the span of a few steps you went from noon to evening. It fucked with my head.
I hated the woods. I hated Arcadia. This fucking bullshit of being cattle to entertain the fuckers who pulled our strings. And I hated being afraid.
I missed the city sounds, the streets filled with people, even if someone wanted to put a bullet in you. I missed the smell of exhaust and the sound of dogs barking. Sometimes a rooster in the morning.
I hated this green silence bullshit, but here I was anyway.
I figured I had to go opposite where the guy had headed off to. I pulled up my sleeve to look at the compass Fox had given us. We were to head north. The castle was carved into the cliff face. I’d seen it from a distance, shrouded in trees. I’d been rounded with half of the chosen for this round. Ashton included. The horses would be back with the others
Fuckers.
The faster I got to the castle, the better, so I started walking. I pulled out my bokken. I felt like an imposter samurai wannabe, but it felt better to have a weapon in my hand than nothing. I used it to swipe at the tall grass. With my luck, I’d fall in a hole or worse.
Stupid. So fucking stupid.
If I wanted to get killed, I shoulda stayed in Chicago.
Fucking Maddox. I hated him.
Spring brought a mixture of rain and snow that had turned the ground into a hard slush. It also made walking slow and exhausting. I should’ve done more exercise than I had in this place. Who fucking knew I had to one day be fit to survive the damn woods. I’d thought the war games were that—a damn game.
I walked for a few hours, listening to birds and small critters move around me. The sun had started to dip and dark clouds slid in its place. The temperature fell with it. I was thankful Fox knew firsthand about survival and had layered us in warm clothing and boots. We also wore a vest with a water bottle, snacks, and a solid first aid kit. Just in case. If we needed a real medic from the school, we were screwed until tomorrow. Our sacks also had a fresh pair of socks, gloves, insect repellant, tinder and a lighter. Everything a grown man needed to stay alive in the fucking jungle.
The whole place seemed deserted until I heard a whistle. I stopped, my senses focused on the sound. I heard another whistle to my left. Then another up ahead. Movement of leaves and brush. A ca-caw. And then a scream.
The scream made the hairs on my body stand on end and I ran. Toward it, not away from it. My bokken tight in my hand. No one ever called me smart, but I couldn’t just ignore that scream. It’d haunt me for the rest of my life.
I broke cover just twenty paces from Zarek, one of Ashton’s goons. He stood over Micah who was writhing on the ground. The fucker had a bat in his hand, laughing. He’d obviously used it to hit the guy. He either was stupid enough to think I was part of his group, or didn’t hear me over his laughter, but he didn’t bother looking up at me when I broke through the trees. Not until I was in his face, swinging my bokken in a two-handed swing to the back of his knees. I couldn’t kill him, but I needed to immobilize him. Legs were a solid, no kill, hit.
With a grunt, he fell on both knees, but didn’t hesitate. He lunged forward in a roll and came up on his feet. His face red, laced with pain and a shitload of hatred, the bat still in his hand. “You, fucker, are going to regret that.”
“Come on, man. It’s just a game. If we don’t fight each other, we all can make it to the castle.” I moved in a circle away from him and closer to Micah who didn’t look well. At all. “I don’t even know you.”
“Yeah, well, I know Kieran. That fucker is going to pay.”
At least it wasn’t about Maddox this time. The thought left my mind when he charged, violence in his eyes. His lips were drawn back, revealing teeth, and he snarled like some sort of wild animal. The two-handed grip he had on the bat made him clumsy and exposed him. I lifted the bokken the way Kieran trained us. It was a safe version of a Katana, long and slightly curved. The whole moment felt surreal. Zarek swung. I moved away from it, already swinging toward the weak spots. Shins, wrists, and ears. They were the safe zones that resulted in more pain without a killing blow. The head and neck could kill someone. I didn’t want to kill Zarek. Even if he had meant to kill Micah. I landed a solid blow on his wrist. He squealed and dropped the bat. Then I lifted the bokken and swung right into his ear. He stumbled. I caught him again at the back of his knees, forcing him to fall face first in the mud. Without hesitating, I landed a knee to his back and slid the bokken under his chin, lifting it up against his throat. “Call it, motherfucker, or I will cut your airway until you knock out. I’ve never done that before and might kill you on accident. You decide.
He tapped the ground.
Thank fuck. Not that I believed him. I dropped the bokken and grabbed his wrists behind him. I pulled a zip tie out of my vest pocket and secured his wrists. I did the same with his ankles.
“You’re going to fucking pay for this.”
“Yeah. Whatever, man,” I said. “It’s just a fucking game .” Why couldn’t these fuckers get that through their head?
“You have no idea what Kieran’s done, how long the list is of the people who want him dead.”
I acted as if that didn’t bother me while I wanted to pound the fucker until he lost his white teeth. “And Micah, asshole? What the fuck did he ever do to you?”
“He chose the wrong side.”
I did hit him. Again and again. And what do you know. He didn’t open his eyes.
Fucking asshole!
I shoved the blindfold into his mouth anyway.
The adrenaline rushing through me a few minutes ago started to subside and my shoulder flared in pain. My hands were bruised and hurting. I ignored the pain, testing out my range of motion. Nothing broken. It could’ve been worse. A lot worse.
I dropped on my knees beside an unconscious Micah. Fuck. If he was dead… I bit off my gloves and pressed my naked fingers against his neck, just under his jaw feeling for a pulse. Please don’t be dead. Please. I didn’t breathe until I felt the soft pulse against my fingertips.
But even that relief was short lived. I had to get him out of there before more came, and by the sound of chaos around us, we had reached the fuck, you’re dead zone. I needed him awake. I slapped him and shook him until his eyes opened. They were bloodshot. Busted blood vessels wasn’t a good thing. “Sorry, buddy, we have to move,” I managed to croak out.
I hauled Micah to his feet, throwing an arm over my shoulder, and fisting the back of his waistband.
He didn’t complain, but he didn’t make it easy either. We walked a few yards before I felt him sag. “Tomás,” he mumbled. “I can’t.”
He became deadweight in my arms, and I had to lower him to the ground. Sweat dripped down my back. My stomach felt knotted, all my insides were practically writhing for me to run. Just run. Anywhere. I could reach Canada if I ran fast enough.
“I’m not leaving you,” I whispered, keeping ears on the voices looming closer. I wasn’t living through another death on my hands. After Jack and Amir, I wouldn’t survive it. I missed my brother’s voice in my head telling me shit to either rile me up or make me sink. I needed something right now. Anything that would give me a clue on how to save Micah from another beatdown. His face had gone pale, his pupils slightly blown, blood vessels in his eyes popped. And he’d vomited twice.
Think, Tomás. Think. I’d memorized the map. The manor hung off a fucking cliff and we weren’t equipped to go rock climbing. That hadn’t been an option, though Wren had suggested it. Twice. There was another way. It meant retreating where we’d come from on the down slope. It meant following the natural curve of the earth until we came upon a rocky aquifer. It meant going where Kieran had specifically said not to go through.
“The catacombs,” I whispered.
Micah’s eyes widened. “I thought they said to never go down.”
“There’s no one else here. Either they already made it inside or got trapped by something else.” I didn’t want to think about the something else. “We’re going to be caught in a few seconds if we stay here.”
Micah nodded. “Okay. The catacombs.”