Chapter 33 #2
Kal begs me to sacrifice him, a solidified peace in his expression.
Axl is clearly angry with the situation, muscles bunched, but when I meet his eyes, he winks at me, assuring me he’s fine with whoever I choose.
Pierce nods his encouragement, like he has no doubt I’ll make the right choice.
And Jax? He’s ice-cold, staring at his father with narrowed eyes, body completely still and relaxed as if he’s already accepted his demise.
My heart rips into pieces. I can’t possibly choose—
“Choose,” One snaps, making me jump.
“I can’t,” I admit on a loosed breath.
“Weak.” One stomps back to the platform, climbing it in a few powerful strides. “Pathetic.” He kicks the platform beneath Pierce. It sets him off-balance, the noose around his neck tightening so much he groans.
“Stop!” I race toward the platform.
Two and Three dart into my path again, but this time, I’m ready.
My muscle memory from avoiding enforcers in the Ashlands kicks in, and I evade their attempts to grab me.
Pulling on my training with my mates, I swing, landing a punch to Two’s side that makes him double over. A kick knocks Three off his feet.
Fuck choosing. I’ll tear through these enforcers and get my mates back myself—
Two wraps his arms around my neck, shoves me to the ground, and pins me down by the throat. I can’t breathe for all of five seconds before I wiggle free of his grasp and swipe his legs out from underneath him.
A hit jerks my head to the left, a sting erupting across my cheek from Three’s backhand.
The Legends roar from behind their gags. It’s fuel to my pursuit.
I’m on my feet again in seconds, drawing two blades from the holsters at my thighs. “I don’t want to kill you,” I say to the elites. “But I will. Release them.”
One laughs. “I like your spirit,” he says from where he remains on the platform. “But it’s not enough.”
The words hit some raw, stinging thing inside my chest.
“Choose one,” he says again. “Or they all die.” He kicks Kal’s platform, and he flinches as his noose tightens.
Goddess, they don’t have much time. Will the kings really kill their own children for the sake of a task?
From the horrified expressions on Lucas, Jullian, and Brooks’s faces, I believe so.
Am I really about to lose them all because I can’t choose one to save? What if I do choose one—will that end this horrific test? But I love each of them. There’s not one I love more than the others. Not one’s life I value more than another. This is an impossible task.
Tears well in my eyes, angry and hot.
One kicks Axl’s platform. Then Jax’s.
They’re all fighting against the ropes, struggling as their faces turn red from the tightening nooses.
My stomach roils. I can’t choose. I would sooner cut out my own heart—
“Take me!” The answer rips from my lips. “Take me,” I say again, breathing heavily.
One goes still where he’d been about to kick Pierce’s platform again. “You?”
“Yes. Me.” I walk toward the platform, looking up at One. Two and Three follow me but don’t attack. “I’m a princess of Lumathyst,” I say, doing my best to sound confident. “I’m worth more to you than them.”
“What makes you think that?” One asks.
My powers. They don’t know about them. But if an enemy realm did? They’d go after me, not the Legends.
“As their mate, I hold more value to the Legends than anyone else in the realm.” Their love for me is one of my greatest strengths. I use it, pulling it into every fiber of my being to try to end this.
One turns to look at Baydel again. I do, too.
He shakes his head.
I focus on One again.
“You won’t choose?”
“I choose me,” I say. “Take me. My life for theirs.”
One hesitates, pacing the length of the wooden structure before he stops and nods toward Frenrick, who’s sitting near Baydel.
Another burst of green flame, and the last remaining elite enforcer, Four, comes in from the left, dragging something behind him.
No, not something. Someone.
The man is cringing against the hold Four has on him, and he yelps as Four tosses him to the ground like he’s no more than a doll.
“This Ashlander plotted to kill your beloved princes,” Baydel says from where he sits. “He also happens to be a demi.” A flick of Baydel’s wrist, and the man stands awkwardly enough that I can tell Baydel is using his power to force him to. “Measly power, but enough that it made him bold.”
I glance from my mates to the Ashlander and back again.
Four shoves the Ashlander toward me. The man is blubbering, tears streaking his dirt-lined face.
He’s malnourished and squinting against the golden torches lighting up the arena, as if he’s been in the dark for a very long time.
Could be from the mines, but more likely, they dragged him from the dungeons for this task.
“You won’t choose,” Baydel says. “So, I’ll offer you a deal to end this. Kill him. Execute him for his crimes, and all four of the princes shall go free.” He casts a look to One. “Do you find this fair?”
One dips his head.
Of course he does. He never really held any power in this experiment.
Baydel moves his hand again, and the Ashlander flies to his knees before me.
“Please,” he stutters. “I didn’t—” His words abruptly cut off, his lips pressed together like some invisible force snaps them closed.
Hatred slices through my veins like ice as I glare up at Baydel.
“Kill him and save our sons,” Baydel implores.
I grip the blade in my hand so hard it trembles.
Groans sound behind me as One kicks the platforms out from under the princes one by one.
They can barely touch with their toes now, struggling against their restraints as they fight for strength to balance to keep the ropes from tightening fully.
They won’t be able to maintain this for long before they suffocate.
This can’t be real.
I’ve slipped into a nightmare with no end.
And for what? A list? To prove I’d make the right decision should we find ourselves in this situation?
But we wouldn’t. The princes would never break a peace treaty or allow themselves to be captured. I’d never allow it.
The kings separated us, and our defenses were down because we thought this no more than another task on the Kings’ List.
Which it is. A test of how I’d react to such a situation. They’ve risked their own sons’ lives to test me. I don’t know why I’m surprised. Their cruelty knows no bounds.
I stare up at my mates on the platform, their faces going purple now as they struggle to balance on their tiptoes, and fire rages in me.
They want to know how I’d act as queen in such a situation?
Then so fucking be it.
I raise the blade, looking down at the Ashlander before me. Bile creeps up my throat.
“This is one of our people,” I say, angry tears in my eyes as I hold that blade at the ready. “And I will not condemn him for a crime not yet proven.” I spin, flinging the blade, just like Jax taught me. I grab my remaining three, rapidly firing each of them, and hit my targets.
The Legends hit the wooden structure beneath them in a heap, immediately ripping the nooses over their heads.
I’m unarmed as Two, Three, and Four grab me, forcing me to my knees despite all my efforts to throw them off. They’re too strong, and without using my power, I’m truly no match for them. I’m not desperate enough to expose myself to the kings just yet.
One jumps off the platform just as my mates get to their feet. He races to me, a blade drawn as he shoves the other enforcers off me, putting that knife to my throat as he hauls me up and in front of him, my back to his chest.
“You want her?” Baydel roars from the stands, clearly agitated by this turn of events. “Then kill the Ashlander.”
The breath stalls in my lungs. I go entirely still in One’s hold, my eyes on the Legends stalking toward us.
I part my lips to speak—
“Don’t,” One whispers in my ear, like he doesn’t want anyone else to hear him.
His grip tightens, his left arm so tight around my middle, it feels like a vise threatening to crush my ribs, and that blade is perched against my neck.
One wrong move and I’m done. “You can’t afford to say or do anything stupid. ”
“Kill him,” Baydel is yelling now, as if that will prompt the Legends to act more quickly. “Or she dies.”
“Let her go.” Kal speaks directly to One. “This has gone on long enough.”
One doesn’t budge an inch.
“You know what to do,” Baydel says, but the elite doesn’t move. “One.” He says his name with more of a threat.
“Be very still,” One whispers before he jerks me backward against him. I yelp, but the blade at my throat somehow doesn’t slip.
“He will kill her,” Baydel snaps, “if you don’t do as you’re commanded.”
The Legends share a look, that silent form of communication they’re all so good at, even without Pierce’s powers.
Baydel wants to break us. That’s what this is about. First with him trying to make me choose, and now with this senseless demand. He knows I won’t forgive them if they choose me over an innocent person.
They won’t do that, though.
They won’t.
I know them better than Baydel does.
He can’t break us. Nothing can break us.
Jax lunges, scooping up the Ashlander in the span of a breath, his hand at his throat.
My heart stutters, and I try to move, to speak, but One holds so firm I can’t.
Axl, Kal, and Pierce don’t move to stop him.
“Yes.” Baydel’s grin stretches from ear to ear. “That’s right, son. Do it.”
I’m not sure I’m breathing. Jax knows Baydel’s cruelty better than anyone. He, like me, doesn’t doubt his father’s desire to kill for sport. Jax knows I can easily become a victim of this madness.
My heart cracks as Jax’s indigo eyes meet mine. There’s such agony there.
Don’t, I silently beg. Don’t let him break you. You’re better than him.
Jax blinks, glaring up at Baydel. “This is one of our people.” He lets the Ashlander go. “And I won’t condemn him for a crime not proven.”