Chapter 21
21
W e were forced to set up camp when the sky grew dark overhead. All of us prisoners picked the same open valley, but everyone set up their tents in a mirror of the mess hall—all the cliques bunched their tents together, creating a clear delineation of who was aligned with who. As we rode in, I took note of the different alliances as we slowed to a stop by an empty area of camp.
When Tristen helped me down off our horse, I saw Callum standing by an outcropping of trees, waiting.
“Don’t pick a fight with him,” I said to Tristen over my shoulder as I strode to Callum.
“Me? I would never,” Tristen said, but I could hear the smirk in his voice as I headed to greet Callum.
As I reached him, Callum stepped forward and swept me up in his arms.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“Just… no more entering deadly trials on my behalf, okay?” I pulled away, frowning.
“Trust me, knowing you were riding with him was crueler than any trial could be.”
“I’m not trying to hurt you.”
“I know,” Callum said, and we started walking deeper into the camp together, the flickering of campfires beckoning us closer with the smell of burning wood.
A snarl ripped through the dark forest just as Rachelle leaped from her gorgeous lioness form into her human one. She still had blood on her lips, and she grinned at Callum and I as she shifted.
“It feels so good to hunt in the wild,” she said, wiping the blood from her face with the back of her forearm. “And a good reminder that any of these contestants could become dinner if they cross me.” She waggled an eyebrow at Callum.
“He’s not a meal,” I teased.
Callum looked warily at Rachelle. “Hello, shifter.”
Rachelle looked him up and down. “The King’s Royal Commander-turned-contestant. How’d his majesty take it?”
Callum’s face darkened. “The island’s rule supersedes the King’s rule, as the island’s will is that of the gods.”
Rachelle flipped curls of her red hair over her shoulder. “Well, I’ve heard the rules state that dashing gentlemen should be the ones to set up a lady’s tent. Will you do the honor and set up the one Saffron and I will be sharing tonight? I left the saddlebags with the tent over there,” Rachelle pointed to the edge of camp.
Callum sketched a bow. “Of course.” He gave my hand a squeeze before walking away, eyeing some of the other prisoners watching us as Rachelle and I settled on a log by one of the fires.
“So, we’re sharing a tent?” I asked—secretly grateful she had claimed me. There was so much… baggage between Callum and I—especially now that I knew he was keeping his own secrets from me.
Rachelle waggled her eyebrows. “Unless you and the Commander had plans tonight. But I did see you ride in with tall, dark, and unstable over there, so…?”
“I’d be delighted to share a tent with you,” I said. But then something prickly crawled up the back of my mind. “But I… I was also thinking about tomorrow.”
“Oh? Going to stay up late practicing riddles?” Rachelle teased. “I’ve heard this trial is notoriously difficult. The Oracle doesn’t go easy on us. She wants us to be worthy for what’s ahead.”
“There is something I could do. To ensure I could get the answer. Or, rather, read it. And then maybe find a way to share it with you and some of the others.”
Rachelle’s gaze snapped to mine. “Read… you don’t mean?”
I bit my lip. “Having the powers of a mindweavyr would prove rather useful tomorrow. And I can’t trust that Tristen would use them to help us, so…”
Rachelle’s mouth dropped. “You want to copy his powers.”
“I don’t want to. Gods, I just want us to survive this trial,” I said.
“You’d have to get close enough to him for a long enough period of time to have his powers still be useful by tomorrow’s trial. Which means… that’s a lot of skin-to-skin contact.”
I winced. “I—I just can’t see you get hurt. Any of you. Now that Callum’s in the ring, too, I just…”
“You know we’re all going to die, right? Only one of us is walking out of here,” Rachelle said softly.
I met my friend’s gaze, seeing the pain there that was reflected in my own. “I’m not ready to lose you. Everyone I know and care for in the world is in these trials. If you die… a piece of me will die with you. I’m not—I’m not ready—” I sucked in a breath and fought my tears off.
Rachelle just quirked out her pinky, holding it out to me. “Friends to the end?” she asked.
Understanding, I twined my pinky with hers, and we shook. “Friends to the end,” I echoed.
The embers and crackling flame of the campfire lit up Rachelle’s red hair and freckles, giving her an ethereal glow as she let my pinky go.
“Callum won’t like you spending time with him. It might break him.”
I thought back to our interrupted evening in the cottage. How Callum had constructed a piece of my past—just to try and help me. “And Tristen is married, if you weren’t aware. So I don’t know if I can even get close enough to… absorb enough of his power. But I have to at least try—for Callum’s sake, just as much as yours and mine. None of us will fail this next trial—I can’t let us. I’ll fight with every scrap of power I have. Or can… borrow .”
“Callum should still think you’re sharing a tent with me. However you decide to get close to Tristen tonight to try and borrow his power, Callum shouldn’t know. And… be careful. Some of the others have their hearts set on taking out the biggest threat before the next trial begins. You don’t want to be in that crossfire.”
I nodded, and Rachelle reached into her pack and pulled out some small tins of dried meats, cheeses, and apricots. I huddled close as Rachelle and I ate our small meal, talking and scoping out our competition huddled all around us. It was almost normal. Almost.
Callum came over as the others had finished their meals and were starting to turn in for bed.
“Your tent is all set up,” he said with a bow. “There’s a stream nearby if either of you would like me to escort you there for a dip.”
“I’m good, thanks,” Rachelle said. “Saffron will have to enjoy my scent au naturale as we tangle in the sheets tonight. Right, Saffy?” Rachelle said, jokingly running a hand down my arm as if she were my lover.
I laughed, pushing Rachelle’s arm away. “Well, I’m going to bathe,” I stood, hooking an arm around Callum’s. “Show me the way.”
He beamed down at me, and I swore the boyish excitement on his face lit up by the lantern he held underneath the vast night sky.
“This way, milady,” he said with mock formality, leading me deeper into the forest as we walked arm in arm.
As we walked, a branch cracked and I froze. Callum paused with me, scanning the forest, but then he tugged me onward.
“It’s not the sounds you have to fear in the forest,” Callum said. “You should fear when all of the creatures in the forest fall quiet.”
It wasn’t quiet I heard next—instead, a zip of metal flying through air whispered past my ears.
I turned just in time to see a wobbling dagger embedded in a tree at my back.
Callum had his sword out and was pushing me behind him just as one of Ajax’s cronies stepped out from the dark. The man had a tattooed snake that climbed its way up out of his shirt, up his neck, and across his face—the black ink rippling with the curl of his menacing smirk. I remembered his name from roll call—Viktor Lynch. He crept toward us, as if he was ready to turn into that creature tattooed on his face at any second.
“You missed,” Callum said.
Viktor’s grin just widened. “Did I?”
Suddenly, I heard a burning and creaking noise. I whirled just in time to see the dagger—which I realized had been coated in some sort of acid—had put a hole in the tree and it was now falling toward us—toward me .
“ Saffron !” Callum pushed me out of the path of the falling tree, and he barely had time to stumble back before it fell in front of him.
I yelped as I landed against something, and then felt cold steel around my throat as Viktor pulled me to his chest. The hand that wasn’t keeping the dagger poised at my throat was wrapped around my midsection, holding me to his lanky body. I went to try and pull at Viktor’s powers, but none of my skin was touching his. His clothes covered every part of him that touched me—even his blade was the only part of him at my exposed skin.
I wasn’t going to be able to use my Siphon powers to get us out of this. And from what I’d seen of Callum’s shield? He could cover a radius—but couldn’t be so precise that he could shield me and not Viktor.
“Let her go and I’ll consider letting you live,” Callum said, stalking around the fallen tree, his sword outstretched as he approached us.
Viktor tsked at Callum. “That is close enough, Commander . But you weren’t a commander when we first met, were you?”
“I meet many soldiers. I don’t remember every face.”
“You’re right. But I knew you when you weren’t commanding armies—just a militia in a small neutral village.”
Callum froze, his eyes roving over my captor’s features. “ Viktor . I didn’t think… It can’t be… You died in Riverleaf. No one from your unit made it out alive.”
“I was guarding the armory that was hidden in the hills. Y’know, the one that both Luminaria and the rebels weren’t even supposed to know existed? ‘ This is a very important job, Viktor. This is what will keep Riverleaf safe, Viktor .’ You were my hero,” Viktor spat out, his anger boiling as he mocked Callum. “Tell me, how did everyone die in the militia—everyone except people who were fighting by your side? Not only that, but you were sworn right in as Commander to one of the enemies at our borders. Isn’t it funny how the timing of that worked out?” Viktor jerked me as he grew heated, and I held back a cry as his blade prickled the skin at my neck.
“Careful,” Callum warned. “I don’t give a fuck if you call me a traitor, but if you hurt her, your next breath will be your last.”
Viktor looked down at me, his wild eyes flashing. “You have many enemies in these games, Callum. If you survive this, they’ll be delighted to know that getting to you is as easy as cornering your favorite plaything.” His tongue slithered out, threatening to melt my cheek. "Would you still love her even if she was unrecognizable to you? If her pretty face was as marred as your soul?”
“Stand. Down,” Callum growled, taking a step closer.
Viktor laughed, the cruel sound making the snake tattoo on his face and neck undulate as if it was preparing for its next meal. “It’s time for you to join your fallen friends, Commander Wells.”
Callum lunged just as Viktor, in one swift motion, withdrew another dagger with his free hand—and licked the blade with his tongue.
It dripped with saliva, but also with something that sizzled. As he held the second blade aloft, a drop of his acid saliva landed on my arm.
I couldn’t stop the scream that tore out of me as the acid burned my forearm. I shook it off before it could go too deep, but my nostrils were filled with the smell of burning flesh— my flesh.
Callum skidded to a stop in front of us just as Viktor threw the dagger—but Callum threw up his shield just in time for the dagger to glance off it.
Viktor pulled me back another step into the forest. “I can kill her by dagger or even with just a kiss,” Viktor taunted, tracing his mouth over the column of my neck. I wanted to shirk away from his vile touch, but his dagger was still keeping me unable to move lest I sever my own neck. “Lower your shield and your sword, or she’ll drop like the tree did.”
Callum lowered his shield.
“No!” I yelled, but Callum was already setting down his sword.
“That’s it,” Viktor hissed. “Too bad, she dies anyways.”
Before I could blink, Callum took a handful of soil and tossed it at Viktor’s face, the dust blinding him.
Viktor stumbled, and it was enough for me to twist free of his grip.
“GET DOWN!” Callum bellowed, and I hit the earth just as Callum’s shield shot out, blasting Viktor back against a tree. Viktor slumped forward, groaning as Callum lowered his shield and went to me.
Callum kneeled by my side, his fingertips brushing my neck. “You’re okay,” he said, as if reassuring himself just as much as me.
I nodded. “Thanks to you,” I managed to force out as adrenaline continued to roar through my blood.
“I know how to fight dirty, one could say.” Callum kissed the top of my head, going for his sword on the ground. Then, he walked to Viktor, who was already trying to scramble away from him.
“Have mercy on your fellow militia man, please,” Viktor begged.
“Any chance at mercy disappeared when you laid your hands on her,” Callum said, and with a swing of his sword, Viktor’s head rolled off into the ground, blood pooling as the snake tattoo became forever separated.
Callum cleaned his sword on a nearby patch of grass before sheathing it and walking over to me, holding out a hand.
“Let’s go get washed off,” Callum said.
“Okay,” I said, taking his hand. “But tell me about what he was saying back there about what happened in Riverleaf.”
Callum stiffened. “I had a choice that day to go and rally with the additional troops of Riverleaf and those of a neighboring village, or to stay and try to find you.”
My mouth went dry. “What did you choose?”
“I went after you.”
“And they all died? The men who were left in the Riverleaf militia.”
“I never found out,” Callum confessed.
Something didn’t sit right with me, but I didn’t know what else to ask. My stomach churned as I followed Callum through the rest of the dark forest. Was I just missing too much context from my past life to make sense of all that had happened?
We kept walking, but I chose to set aside my spiraling thoughts as the sound of running water reached my ears.
As soon as we broke through the treeline and reached the bubbling brook, I nearly stumbled. Flying above the slow-moving stream was a sky of fireflies. They flitted from the long blades of grass surrounding the water, flickering like the stars in the night sky above us.
“Pretty beautiful for an island trying to kill all of us, isn’t it?” Callum asked, his voice warming as the adrenaline from the fight finally started to ebb.
I nodded, taking another step forward into the sea of fireflies. I yelped as a few of them landed on me, a giggle slipping from my lips as they tickled my skin as they jumped off me and took to the wind.
I turned back to Callum, and he was watching me with an expression so full of emotion my heart skipped a beat.
“What?” I asked, but he sucked in a breath, just taking a single step toward me.
“Hearing you laugh…” He smiled to himself, scrubbing a hand over his mouth and his stubbled chin as he drank me in. “It undoes me. Tears me apart.”
“Why?” I asked, the word bobbing like a lump in my throat.
Callum stared at me for a moment, but then his words started rushing out like a dam had broken. “Because I love you with all my being, Saffron. I love you to the moon and the stars and to the gods who put them them there. It’s been you—it’s always been you. I've sacrificed everything in my life for you. I left home. I lost my friends. Lost the soldiers who fought beside me in Riverleaf. I did everything I could just to be sure you’re okay. I’d sacrifice the world for you and everyone in it if I knew you'd be safe.”
“Callum…” I said, my head swimming. I felt the whiplash of my poor heart, unable to stay steady as it rode the waves of everything that had happened—everything that was happening.
Callum took another step toward me, his eyes searching mine. “And that still isn’t enough for you? I don’t know what else to give for the person I’m supposed to spend the rest of my life with. Today, I was chained to a reality where you were held by a man more vile than all the demons in hell. I’m trying to respect you and your process, but it’s tearing me apart inside. I am a man with nothing but the clothes on my back, sentenced to death for the woman I gave it all up for. Tell me it’s not for nothing. But even if it is… I’ll fight for you until my dying day, even if I’m not what you want. Just know it was all for you.”
Every word felt like a weight, dragging me under the surface, pulling me to the depths of my soul. Especially knowing what I would have to do tonight to try and secure our victory in the next trial—my emotions were too tangled for me to even begin to unspool how I felt and what Callum truly meant by his words.
“Callum?”
“Yes?” he said, hope flashing in his eyes.
“Tell me this another day. Please.”
I saw that glimmer die in his eyes, and with it—a piece of me. “If you wish.”
He set down his lantern by the shore, and then turned and walked back to camp, leaving me standing cold and alone by the bubbling brook.
The water washed the tears from my face as I tried to scrub the guilt and pain from my skin.
It didn’t come off.