Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
Iwas going to die.
Death by cardio. Put it on my tombstone and bury me—dead. Inscribe it right next to the orgasms, so the world would know I’d perished doing something I loved and something I despised.
“Holy shit,” I breathed as the Pyramid Wall came into view.
Wooden slats spaced evenly apart led to the top, with an identical set on the other side to climb down.
It spanned the length of the floating dock, blocking any way onto it except to go up and over, and no way off it except to swim.
As the sun beat down on my face, my overheated body begged for relief.
A nice, cool dip in the lake sounded great right about now.
When I reached the obstacle, sweat poured down my face. My breathing had grown erratic at best, but using my inhaler with Kingston had helped. While my heart danced the Samba in my chest, I stepped beside Paul and counted the twelve wooden beams I’d need to climb to keep going.
I wanted to curl up on the floor for a minute. Take a little power nap. Succumb to death.
But I’d made it halfway. I’d collected three of the cyphers waiting for me and only had six obstacles to go. I could do this.
I would do it.
With a nod from Paul, I grabbed a beam at eye-level and one above my head. I hoisted my body up and secured my footing, climbing as fast as possible without pushing too hard.
Our standing in the Courage Challenge had determined our starting order for the Obstacle Course, but it wasn’t a race. Our goal was the cyphers, not beating each other.
To be honest, nothing about the setup made sense to me. Aside from the mini courses I’d completed during my sessions with Paul and Austin, and the fact that mud was a mixture of earth and water, and therefore used the elements, our training sessions had barely prepared us for what we faced.
But I’d given up on understanding the point of these challenges a while ago.
With my eyes on the prize, I focused on getting through it.
Even as other girls passed me, I hustled, not wanting to lose whatever lead I might get when they had to deal with their parents, but I didn’t stress.
The sooner I finished, the sooner I had everything I needed to solve my clues, but being safe and strategic meant keeping a steady pace.
My legs burned with every step. I swiped sweat from my brow with a weak forearm. Muscles turning to jelly, I reached the top of the Pyramid Wall and swung my leg over. After climbing down, I glanced at Paul for confirmation, and when he nodded, I dove into the lake.
The cool water didn’t outweigh the exertion of swimming.
Or the fear gripping my throat with every stroke.
I couldn’t watch out for danger in the lake, and I needed my bearings to avoid anything unexpected. The guys hadn’t said it, but they worried about interference.
And since I’d been half-drowned once in this lake already, I wasn’t taking any chances. Each time I lifted my head to breathe, I scanned my surroundings, but when that slowed me down too much, I pushed to the end without stopping.
On the other side, I lugged my body onto the shore on hands and knees. I dragged in deep breaths before I stood.
Up ahead, Tristan stood beside a tall wooden wall. With planks on either side to stabilize it, it stood erect and bare. No footholds. No ropes.
I’d need to make it up and over.
And I did not know how to do that.
But I couldn’t overthink it, because as soon as I got to my feet, a large booming sound came from the woods on my left. Branches jostled. Rustling grew louder as whatever had made that noise grew closer.
I squinted at the tree line.
Large, white teeth dripping with saliva appeared in the leaves, followed by pitch-black eyes I’d seen once before.
“Brutus,” I whispered his name and froze, my mind racing through my options and coming up blank—before I did the one thing Tristan had been teaching me not to do for a week.
Ran.
Sprinting toward the wall, I shot off like a rocket. I faltered once at Brutus’s bark, but I kept going. His paws pounded on the grass behind me. Moist, panting breaths grew louder. And he closed the distance between us far too quickly.
I didn’t look back, and I didn’t look at Tristan.
Eyes trained on the wall, I did what I’d done when this all started.
I jumped, reaching for the ledge at the top and sending a thank you up to the patron saint of monumental idiots when I latched onto the top edge with my right hand.
I pulled up, kicked my right foot against the wall, and my left on the support beam beside it, using the corner of the structure to give me leverage.
As I scraped my feet against the wood, Brutus bounded up and nipped the back of my leggings.
“I yield!” I screamed, right as I swung my left leg over the ledge and pulled up to straddle it.
Panting hard, gasping for breath, I hugged the slice of wood digging into my chest down to my pubic bone.
I shifted and turned my head to peer down.
Brutus sat beneath me, his big paws planted in the grass, and his huge, wrinkly face staring up at me expectantly.
His tongue lolled out of the side of his mouth, and drool dripped onto his paw.
“Brutus, return!” Tristan barked the command, and Brutus bounded up and back over to the woods.
My chest heaved, ragged breaths digging into the wood with each inhale, but with the threat happily trotting back to his starting position, I breathed easier.
“So…I guess, sometimes, running from the bear does work,” Tristan quipped.
I huffed a laugh and leaned toward the other side of the wall, terrified of teetering to the wrong side and having to do that all over again.
Easing my body over, I dropped my legs off the side, holding onto the ledge to keep from falling right to the ground like I’d done when Brutus chased me up the tree.
Look at that.
Growth.
On the ground, I brushed off my clothes and waved to Tristan before heading for the woods, spurred by the sudden burst of adrenaline. But I stopped in my tracks at the sight of the Round Tableau, gripped by a different kind of fear.
A memory popping up like the Ghost of Christmas Past.
Hello, trauma, my old friend.
Clenching my hands into fists, my whole body tightened. Tension radiated through my limbs as I stomped past.
If I never had to set foot inside that building again, I’d be glad for it. The image it conjured when I first arrived, as if it had fallen off the pages of one of my dad’s old storybooks, had been replaced.
Now, I pictured the creepy house from that old fable. The one that the kids ran toward in the woods before the witch tried to burn them alive. Hansel and Gretel.
Shaking it off, I appreciated how far I’d come. How I’d learned and adjusted and grown through all the bullshit this place had thrown at me. Yes, when the scary dog came out of the woods and chased me, I still ran.
But I ran faster.
I shouted I yield sooner.
When I couldn’t veer off course and carve a new path through the woods, I adjusted my stride.
Proud of my progress, I stared at the cage before me.
I groaned. Austin leaned against it while Angela traversed the monkey bars. I hated the monkey bars.
These had been rigged with weight-bearing bars that snapped off as soon as it was grabbed. They snapped back into place once released. Sabotage in a torturous exercise cage.
How fun.
Unlike the monkey bars we’d used during our training sessions, this was a steel cage. With steps leading to a small opening, we had to climb up and inside. The bars on the sides of the cage were spaced pretty wide apart but appeared sturdy enough to hold weight.
“Go ahead,” Austin directed, nodding at me to enter. “Make it across the bars to the other side.”
My brow furrowed at his phrasing, wondering why no one went across the sides. “Does it matter how we get there?”
He shook his head, staring off behind me.
A little too casual.
I stepped back from the entrance when Vivian walked up behind me. Huffing, face red with exertion, she looked nothing like the put-together Ice Princess she normally embodied.
Wearing a sweatband I’d only seen in workout videos from the eighties, her hair stuck out of her headband where it strapped across her forehead.
But since I’d been wiping sweat from my eyes every five feet, I had to give her props.
While I scrutinized her, she asked Austin the same questions I had. Then, with a glance at me to figure out what I was doing, she shook her head and climbed up.
As I watched her progress, she slipped in the middle when the first trap bar released.
“What the fuck is this!” she shrieked, covered in mud from the pit below.
“Climb back up and keep going!” Austin shouted before he turned back to me and arched a brow. “You good?”
“Yeah, just…”
Deciding he could always stop me if I wasn’t allowed, I climbed the ladder, and instead of using the bars, turned to face the cage and began sidestepping around the outer wall of it. With my eyes on my path, I only chanced one glance back in Austin’s direction.
He smiled and winked before turning away, a serious expression back on his face.
I picked up speed as I went, surpassing Vivian and Angela, who were still trudging through the mud to climb back up. When they spotted my progress, Vivian’s eyes narrowed.
Angela whooped. “Yes, Quinn! Great idea!”
She pushed through the mud with more determination, climbing up the other side and taking a page out of my book. Vivian huffed, but even she couldn’t deny I’d had a good idea.
“What, Vivian?” I taunted, too pleased with myself to be annoyed. “They didn’t have monkey bar cages in your fancy rich kid school?”
“Of course, they did,” she snapped.
I peeked over my shoulder as she followed Angela.
Lips pursed, she glared over her shoulder at me, but her voice lacked its usual derision. “We were just expected to do them the right way.”
“Ah.” I nodded, smirking as I reached the other side and climbed down. “Guess all that love came at a price, huh?”
Angela snorted, shaking her head with a laugh, and even Vivian tried to fight a smile.
That was good enough for me.
Turning away from them, I proceeded through the woods to where Max waited.
My heart raced, and palms grew slick. Arousal coiled in my belly despite the gravity of the situation. Despite his fake fiancée closing in behind me.
The second he came into view, the urge to run straight for him, jump into his arms, and wrap my legs around his waist hit full force. I wanted his arms around me. I wanted his voice in my ear, calling me Princess, and telling me what he’d shared last night as we’d fallen asleep.
I had to drag my feet as I walked to keep from running over to him. And the look in his eyes, unguarded and out in the open for the first time since the challenge started, assured me he felt it, too.
When I reached him, he shoved his hands in his pockets.
I clasped mine behind my back, teasing to break the tension. “I’ll share mine, if you share yours?”
He glanced over my head, and I peeked over my shoulder. Vivian and Angela were closing the gap, almost out of the cage. When I turned back to Max, his pained expression nearly broke my restraint.
“It’s even harder now,” I admitted. “Not that I thought it’d be easier or anything, but—”
“Quinn—” His voice broke, and his expression hardened. “Quinn, I can’t let myself go there. Not when she’s here. Not when this isn’t over. If I—”
“I know.”
Tears threatened to spill, but footsteps behind me told me we were running out of time.
I forced a deep breath in and let it out slowly. “Tell me what to do. What’s next?”
“The ropes.” He gestured to where they hung from branches within the trees.
Spaced apart, the only way to get from one to the other would be to climb up and step on the branches to move from rope to rope.
“You start here and need to make it to the end of the forest. Make sure you hit each rope in the middle.”
“Oh, great.” I exhaled a shaky laugh. “Easy enough.”
He huffed a laugh, giving me one last meaningful look before schooling his expression.
“You’ve got this, Princess.”
Waiting for my nerves to settle, I shook out my limbs. “You know, when I win this, they say that will make me Queen.”
He shook his head. “Not to me.”
I met his gaze.
“No matter how this ends, you’ll always be my Princess.”
Tears filled my eyes, and he swallowed deeply before nodding toward the rope.
I hated accepting our fate, but my heart broke over the anguish in his expression. And I had to trust him.
“Go on. It’s time for you to finish this.”
Lifting my chin, I swiped my cheeks and faced the obstacle in front of me as he stepped toward the other girls. Remembering what he’d said about using each rope, one of my cyphers had to be somewhere within the trees.
As Angela and Vivian reached Max, I grabbed the first rope and started climbing.
And I didn’t look back.
Every ounce of my attention was on getting through the course. I’d find the cyphers, solve my clues, and end this.
For him.
For us.
For good.