Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The forest on the platform isn’t what it seems.
Not a big surprise. I should have guessed by now that nothing the fae show us is as it seems. It’s all half-truths and almost-lies, tricks and illusions.
The trees growing out of the thick soil aren’t trees at all. At first, upon approaching the grove, I thought they might be enormous mushrooms, but no, they’re something else altogether, their rustling canopy forming vertical fans of white and red filigree.
A coral forest out of the water mimicking life on land.
Pieces of coral are strewn on the ground underneath them, too, I realize when my bare feet crunch on them.
A man cries out and falls to the ground. His leg is streaked with bright red blood.
Corals out of the water, broken up and sharp as blades.
My feet already hurt when I entered the trials, and now I’m leaving a crimson trail, starting to limp. I can’t keep walking on shredded feet. So I strip another band from the hem of my dress, leaving it somewhere about my knees, and bend down to bind my bleeding feet.
Better.
The noise of crashing among the giant corals tells me that the other contestants have entered the grove. We’re all making our way toward the tower.
Before the petrified trunks block my view, I glance back one last time, despite myself, in case Jai—I mean Athdara—has made it across, but I can’t see him. The heaviness in my chest is sudden and overwhelming, stopping my breath.
It’s annoying.
Incomprehensible, really.
I have way too much resting on my shoulders without having to worry about that annoying, absurdly attractive man.
Who saved your life , the voice in my head pipes in helpfully. And the lives of those other humans. And who entered the games for no discernible reason, except…
Well, that is his business, not mine. I shouldn’t give a damn.
A shrill scream, very close to me, has me hesitating.
It cuts off sharply.
Bending again, I pick up a sharp piece of coral and strain to hear while holding it at my side. Was that an accident, an animal attack, or was it a human act of violence?
Another scream, and I realize the ground has started to writhe.
Gods above. Snakes! The ground is covered in them.
One of them raises its triangular head and hisses at me, long fangs bared. I throw the sharp coral piece I’m holding at it, and it cuts its head and flings it away.
But around me, more heads rise, graced with small horns and long fangs, forked tongues flickering.
There’s no remedy to this. The only solution is to run. Outrun the snakes. My cut-up feet sting and throb, my tread ungainly, ending in a limp-and-lurch kind of jog. I keep the hiss behind my teeth as I make myself continue.
Don’t stop. Keep going.
A pale mist winds among the trunks, near the ground, wisps and tendrils wafting toward me. Lights twinkle in it like fireflies. Where it touches the ground, the coral fragments seem to ignite.
It’s a pretty sight.
A tendril of mist touches my hand, and I gasp, recoiling. It wraps around my arm, and where it touches my skin, it burns, blisters forming instantly.
Hissing, I back away and try another path. Glowing poisonous fog? Trust the fae to create deadly, pretty things to torment us with. The damned fog follows me, and I duck under low coral fans, searching for another way.
Birds screech overhead. One of them dives down suddenly, and I duck around a trunk, my heart pounding harder. Another bird screeches and dives down, batting its wings between coral fans. It’s colorful like a rainbow, but its beak is long and crooked, not to mention strong, judging by how it’s using it to hack through the coral fan.
More screeching birds descend, diving between coral trees, trying to get me, and I’m so focused on avoiding them that I almost step onto a snake.
I only realize because it hisses and grazes my shin with its fangs.
Fire spreads through my leg as I limp away, cursing silently. My arm throbs where the mist touched me, while my leg hurts more and more as I hurry away, and that’s not counting the hurts I accumulated earlier.
If this is an accurate recreation of the original world of the fae, then it’s no wonder they left it behind.
I know it’s not an excuse for what they’ve done, enslaving an entire world, suppressing the humanfolk and finnfolk, killing and maiming and torturing, taking over the towns and temples.
But right now, none of that matters—history, righteous rage, thoughts of revenge. Right now, I need to get through this hellish coral forest, run for the tower, and hope to survive.
The tower seems to oscillate over the coral trees.
I’m standing in a small opening, and it looms over me, elegant and strange.
I can’t remember why I stopped running. It could be because my bitten leg is pure agony, fire racing up my knee and hip with every limping step. I cradle my wounded arm to my chest and just… stare up.
Towers shouldn’t sway like that. Whether it’s the poison from the snake’s fangs in my veins or the poisonous mist making me see things that aren’t there, towers just… don’t sway.
Is the tower even there, or am I imagining it? For a moment, I thought it had vanished, but now there it is again, a creamy-white spindle rising toward the sky, black markings spiraling around it.
Something about its shape is… odd. Organic, with subtle curves and undulations, it’s almost as if the line down its middle is a mouth, curling into a smirk…
Gods, I’m delirious. It’s a godsdamned tower , that’s what it is, made of stone and iron and maybe spellwork, and I’ll have to scale it, or break into it, or perform some other such feat.
Spells. Magic. This whole place tastes of sweet apples, a sign of earth magic, with a hint of bitter air power, the fae king’s domain.
I was right. Earth has to be the theme of this trial. And reaching that tower is part of the game.
“Be careful. This trial isn’t over yet.”
Why do my eyes burn at the memory of his words? Where is he?
A sting on my leg, close to the ankle, has me gasping and whirling around. I find that the poisonous mist is reaching tendrils toward me again with white, spidery fingers.
I shouldn’t have stopped. I jolt away from the questing mist and run between the coral trees. A bird screams like a dying soul, diving down toward me, and I jerk aside, barely avoiding getting impaled on its long beak.
Heart in my mouth, I run and run, only slowing down to check I’m heading in the correct direction.
The tower beckons. It flashes like a beacon in a sea of danger. I’m not naively believing that reaching it will save me, but the way the games are set up, it’s probably the only temporary haven around here as the surface of the island becomes more and more hostile.
Snakes hiss and lunge at me as I run so that I knock against sharp protrusions on the trunks, my feet getting cut up on the shards littering the ground despite the flimsy protection of the fabric I tied around them.
The poison in my blood sings.
It sings like the mermaids in the sea.
I see the boy I used to love, his gray eyes luminant and clear like gems. His gaze is full of affection and hope, and it pours into me until I’m a crystal goblet full of light. I fall to the ground, and Mars bends over me, frowning.
Mars…
“We have to run,” he says, his hand engulfing mine. “There’s a dragon. I felt it.”
Mars?
“Come now. We have to go.”
It’s not Mars. No, this one is a taller, broader man with eyes like a stormy night, dark markings on his cheekbones, and blood seeping out of his clenched mouth. He pulls me to my feet and under the canopy of the coral trees, stumbling, then catching himself before he falls.
Jai? I mouth his name. The relief I feel is undeniable, layered over the guilt I feel for leaving him behind.
When did I go from calling him Athdara to this? And why does using his name—a simple sound, a simple name—make him seem so much more real?
So much more human?
But despite the blood dripping down his chin, he’s fine, up and walking, and that’s all that I need to know. I pull my hand away from his, and when he doesn’t reach for it again, I follow behind him.
We’re both going in the same direction, and I tell myself that he’s not my problem anymore. Not that he ever was, except for being a thorn in the humans’ side, a problem for all of us.
His tall form, clad in black, is startling against the pale backdrop of the hazardous forest. It takes me a moment to realize he’s talking as he walks, as he changes directions and ducks to avoid attacking birds.
“I hope we won’t have to kill the dragon to escape,” he’s muttering. “What? No, it’s not that simple. Stop… Untether the platform. That’s an idea. No, no killing, Phaethon. Godsdammit, I said no! Eos wouldn’t want this. Just… shut up.”
Why does he sound like he’s having a dialogue with someone?
No killing whom? Who is Eos? And I heard the name Phaethon used before.
My original plan got thrown out the window the moment I entered the arena, shredded by circumstances. Ι was supposed to ace this and reach the palace—not easily, but at least with a certain degree of certitude.
Stumbling after the fae King’s Sword through a murderous coral garden wasn’t the idea.
Amphitrite, what have you done? Did you trick me? Was this your aim all along?
Having to deal with one close call after another, I didn’t stop to wonder if this is her doing.
And now, as the base of the tower glimmers between coral trunks, a whiter white with hints of gold, I can’t stop, either. Can’t slow down.
Except, the fire crawls through my veins with each pounding step, rising through my chest, through my head. My sight wavers, edged with sparkling darkness. The poison is getting to me.
We burst into a clearing with the tower standing in its middle, other people already climbing it. We’re just a few feet away from it…
Just a few feet away, when I stumble and fall in the dirt, darkness closing over me like water. I sink into the depths of the ocean inside my mind, knowing I’ve failed.
No matter the excuse, it won’t change anything. I’ve failed, and this is the end.