Chapter 36 #2
His smile, for once, didn’t look as genuine as usual—or maybe I was just panicking a little bit. Hopefully.
“Um…so, what exactly is this place?” I muttered, hoping to take both his attention off Rune—and mine. Just for a moment, so I could get myself under control.
Which then made me angry because this was fucking insane.
I was an adult, damn it. I didn’t have to hide what I felt or who I felt it for!
“The Hollow was actually once a place of sacred trials where fae warriors proved themselves worthy of guarding the royal family. However, my great-grandfather, King Morin, felt we needed a better vetting process for our guards after his father was slaughtered by one in his bedchamber, so the Hollow remained empty, just waiting to be used. So, the selection became an actual sport, and the best swordsmen and women in Verenthia now join the game for a chance of winning—and the price is three bags of gold coins.” Lyall waited for my reaction when he said that, like he thought I would know exactly what that meant.
That was probably a lot of money, but the way he was talking…
“And the loser?”
“There are no losers. You either win or you die in the Hollow,” he simply said, and my heart fell all the way to my heels.
“Are you serious? You put people in there to die?”
This surprised Lyall. “To play a game—and they willingly participate. In fact, people train for years to be accepted in the Crown’s Gauntlet. Winning doesn’t just make you rich—it makes you respected.”
“My God, Lyall, that’s… barbaric. ” I turned to the arena again, terrified of what would come out of those large wooden doors I could see on the other end.
“It’s a sport,” he said, not a hint of amusement left on him.
“No—it’s an incentive to kill. You celebrate murderers.”
“It’s a game.”
Rune’s voice rang in my ears. My head whipped to the side. His eyes were ahead as he spoke, but his attention was on me.
“Fae are brutal creatures. We are not like mortals. We look for reasons to die. Forever is a long time. Death doesn’t have the same meaning here as it does on Earth.” His words were calm, his voice almost a whisper.
My ears adored it.
I turned to look ahead, too, and swallowed hard. “Right.”
“Rune is right. We are brutal. And we celebrate strength, not murderers,” Lyall said.
“This arena has seen many fighters, weak and strong. Shifters, vampires, fae—the best of the best have fallen in the Hollow, but today is a special occasion. Today, we’re going to present a creature that hasn’t been part of this game in a very long time. ”
I looked at Lyall. “What? What creature?”
He smiled—sneakily, like he knew all the secrets of the universe, and he was about to unleash them on me right now.
“You’re just going to have to wait and see.”
He was genuinely excited.
Suddenly, the ground beneath us shook violently, and it sounded like a goddamn monster’s growl.
I’d lie if I said I wasn’t scared shitless. My hands locked tightly around the armrests, and my entire body froze in place, eyes wide open and looking ahead, though I had no clue what the hell I was even expecting.
Every person who’d been screaming or cheering or laughing in the arena stopped. The Hollow fell silent. Even Lyall wasn’t moving, wasn’t breathing at all.
Then, with another groan that rumbled through the stone like the very bones of Verenthia were shifting, the doors at the far end split open.
Darkness spilled out first—thick, unnatural, and I was willing to bet anything that it would be cold as hell, too.
Then something moved out of it, something big, and the whole damn world heard his footsteps as he came.
At first, I thought it was a trick, a magic spell, an amplifier or something, just part of a show—but no. This wasn’t for show at all. When he emerged out of the darkness, crouched over even though those doors were huge, I forgot how to breathe completely.
There was no need for anyone to tell me what that was.
A fucking giant , at least three stories tall, muscles knotted like tree trunks beneath cracked, stony skin. He moved with the weight of mountains, each step causing the arena floor to tremble even more now that he was out in the open.
But it was the heads that made my blood run cold—yes, head s , plural.
He had two of them—one snarling and beastly, with golden eyes, the other eerily calm, its expression blank but for the twitching smile at the edge of its long lips.
Both heads wore collars around the necks chained together for whatever reason, and he had what looked like bones linked into a chain like a belt around the hips.
More metal chains clinked as he moved, dragging a weapon behind him—a massive, curved blade made of brass-colored metal, wide enough to cleave a carriage in half. He wore leather and rags on his body, and open toed boots, which went up to his shins, on those large, monstrous feet.
The next moment, the crowd erupted into cheers and gasps and laughter.
Meanwhile, I had to remind myself to breathe.
“That’s Borg Bigol from the Giant Mountains.
I only made a deal with him before the Whispering Ball when we caught him in the Eternal Water,” Lyall said from my side, and the fae on his other side were clapping their hands, obviously impressed.
Even the queen had a smile on her face as she stretched her neck to better see the giant.
Only Rune didn’t clap, didn’t move, wasn’t surprised at the sight—because he knew. He probably knew the giant was here all along.
“What do you think, Nilah? Is he not impressive? I had never seen a giant before Borg. He’s quite something, isn’t he?”
I looked at Lyall for a moment—he was actually asking me that. “It’s a giant, Lyall. Maybe I’m mistaken but a giant should not be here at all. Do you not see how big he is?! It’s…it’s…” horrible, I wanted to say. Not impressive—horrible.
But my panic only made Lyall laugh. “He’s harmless, I assure you,” he said, then thought better of it.
“Out here, that is. In there, he’s pretty vicious, I’m told.
Don’t worry, Nilah.” His hand closed over mine on the armrest, and the hair on the back of my neck stood at attention.
“There’s nothing out there than can touch you when you’re next to me. ”
There was something about the way he spoke, the arrogance in his voice, in his eyes, the smile that stretched his lips—it irritated the hell out of me.
I pulled my hand down on my lap, and it took all of my willpower not to say something stupid involving Rune, and it wasn’t easy. It was hard as fuck to hold myself back, but I did it.
I even smiled, though I’m sure I looked insane with how I was feeling inside.
“I’m not worried about my safety, Lyall.
I made it all the way here with Rune, didn’t I?
And I survived in Mysthaven all by myself.
I’m not as helpless as you seem to think.
” I batted my lashes at him and let that sink in for a second.
“I’m just saying, it’s pretty reckless to bring a creature that size into your court.
If things go south, the damage he could do, the lives he could take, would simply not be worth it for…
what exactly are we going to be looking at here? ”
“A fight,” Lyall said, his voice just slightly rougher. “We’re going to be looking at a fight.”
Shivers ran down my spine. “And you don’t think things could escalate and the giant could somehow make it out of there and try to escape?” He’d said it himself—they’d caught him in the Eternal Water.
But Lyall wasn’t worried in the least. “It’s the Hollow, Nilah. If only you were more patient, you’d see it for yourself. The Hollow, once it activates, doesn’t let anyone out of it. The magic is too strong even for a fully grown giant. ”
That actually made me feel a bit of relief, not going to lie.
“No way out,” I whispered, almost like I was reassuring myself.
“No way out—except victory,” Lyall said with a nod. “Or death.”
There went my stomach again, twisting and turning, but before I could even think of something to say, Rune jumped off the chair on my other side and said, “Care to make a wager, friend? Come, let’s see the fighter.”
And without a glance my way, he went near the edge of the box and looked outside, his shoulders relaxed, his hands in his pockets.
Lyall didn’t even hesitate. “Please excuse me for a moment, Nilah.” And he went to join Rune.
The queen’s eyes were on the side of my face, and the weight of her attention was too heavy not to turn and look at her. See what her expression said this time, if she was still thinking up ways to take my life.
But this time, she looked different, I thought. Though I could very well be mistaken, she looked…curious. More in disbelief than anything else—which was absurd.
And the crowd cheered again the next moment when a loud roar filled our ears, so both of us turned to the giant.
Not enough air went down to my lungs—and it had nothing to do with the illusions that apparently kept this box shielded from the outside. It was just the sight of that creature with its heads raised to the sky, both of them roaring the same sound at the same time.
Two heads. Two fists. Chains still clinging to those wrists like ornaments—and the crowd cheered so hard my ears hurt.
A fight. It was a fight to the death of whoever was going to be fighting that giant, and the people were cheering.
They knew it was a fight, yet they cheered like they were about to witness a miracle instead.
“Normally, I’d give a speech right now to encourage the people to support each fighter individually,” Lyall said, turning his head toward me for a moment from where he stood with Rune.
Rune turned to me, too, just a quick glance.
“Oh,” I forced myself to say, and held back all the other thoughts buzzing in my head.
“But today, the circumstances are as they are, so we’ve hired a commentator to announce Borg’s opponents,” he continued, and he was still smiling.