CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Maverick’s offer swirled in the back of my mind as I eyed the chair I’d wedged underneath the doorhandle.
I needed to play my cards right. No one could know that I’d been given an opportunity to leave the castle grounds.
Sleep was out of the question. Any attempts proved fitful at best, and by the third time my eyes had snapped open at the possible sound of voices, I worried I might have already passed my window of opportunity.
Maverick said quarter past two, and I had no idea what time it was. But I knew where I might find out.
Rallying a deep breath, I unwedged the chair from its position and carefully set it to the side. Stars, help me.
I expected someone to charge at me from down the corridor. Or for a blast of magic to knock me off my feet.
What I wasn’t expecting was another person to fill the threshold right as I cleared it in my haste to leave.
There was barely enough time for me to freeze in my tracks before bumping noses with Theia.
“Sorry!” Theia whisper-shouted. Her hands lifted in placation. “I was about to knock.”
“What are you doing here?” I asked accusingly, keeping my voice low. Then I remembered. It was her room. “Never mind. I’m the one who should be sorry.” Both ends of the corridor appeared empty. But people could be anywhere, listening.
“Brannon snores. And Kodhan wouldn’t speak to either of us after you left. He locked himself in his room and hasn’t opened up since. I couldn’t sleep.” She shrugged one shoulder before sparing an equally dubious look towards our surroundings. “And I wanted to come and check up on you.”
“I couldn’t sleep either,” I admitted. “But I’m alright. No one has tried to come in.” I forced relief into my voice, if only to camouflage the nerves threatening to claw their way out of my stomach.
“That’s good,” she nodded, but her brows lowered. She wasn’t buying it. “What are you doing? It looked like you were going somewhere.”
“I thought I heard something,” I lied.
“I know a woman on a mission when I see one. And you have that look,” Theia pressed. “I won’t alert the boys, if that’s what you’re worried about.” My gut feeling told me she wouldn’t move until I told the truth. And I didn’t have time to waste trying to convince her of otherwise.
Sighing, I checked both sides of the corridor once more for good measure. “I can’t tell you any details.”
“So you are going somewhere.”
“Yes.”
“Unless there’s a secret room I’m unaware of, there aren’t many places to go while avoiding an encounter with other competitors. If you’re headed somewhere dangerous, I need—”
“I can’t tell you,” I repeated, struggling to keep my voice low. Theia meant well. That much was clear. But I couldn’t argue with her, especially not here.
“Then don’t. But I’m coming with you.” A statement that wasn’t up for negotiation.
I tried to come up with a plausible excuse but came up short. Maverick would be livid if word of this got out. But then again, if I died in the next trial, his anger would be wasted on thin air.
“Fine,” I ground out, already aiming for the grandfather clock. She matched my pace with a bright, innocent smile. Almost gleeful. “You can’t tell a single soul about this.”
“Understood,” she replied, mimicking the motions of locking her lips shut with an invisible key. Just like Brannon. I almost smiled.
I wanted to be alone. Time to breathe properly. But maybe her company wouldn’t prove entirely terrible.
The grandfather clock sat in the same abandoned hallway, untouched. I nearly wept in relief. Its hands had stopped its mindless spinning, pointing to actual numbers. It didn’t matter that they were crooked, bordering on upside-down. Two-seventeen, the hands read. Perfect.
“Let me guess. He gave you another hint?” Theia asked.
“Something like that.” I tilted my head for her to follow. “Come on.” We had to take advantage of every single remaining minute.
“He seems to have a thing for time, doesn’t he?” she pondered.
He did seem to favor time where his hints were concerned. But his hints kept me alive, and therefore I had no real reason to question them further.
Someone who wasn’t careful would’ve already lost themselves in the maze-like corridors.
But I was desperate. If I remembered correctly, only a few of them separated us from the exit leading to that alcove.
I could already taste the fresh air, crisp and clean compared to the thick layers of dust smeared across the walls, constantly floating up my nose.
At our next turn, any hope I had was instantly shredded into a million pieces of disappointment.
My boot scuffed loudly against the floor as I halted, inches away from the crossed arms of another competitor.
Three of them stood shoulder to shoulder, like they’d been waiting for an unfortunate soul to stumble upon their web. And we’d walked right into it.
Behind my back, my hands clenched into tight fists. Now our chances of making it outside were close to none. Running into trouble was one thing. Being outnumbered was another. Just our luck.
“What’s this, then?” the first one asked, eyes brightening like he’d been handed a trove of gold. “Trying to sneak away?”
The second elbowed the third and said, “That’s against the rules. I wonder who will punish them? The king certainly doesn’t seem to be around.”
“Darion. Elias. Lachlan. A pleasure, as always.” Theia dipped her chin in greeting, her voice lacquered thick with false sweetness. She placed herself between me and the three of them, far from subtly.
Albeit hearing their names for the first time, I recognized those faces.
They were the ones who reached the end of Strength first alongside the woman who could manipulate the vines.
The woman who Kodhan had burned right in front of me.
The man who’d spoke first, Darion, was the one who’d glared at me like he wished he could tear me apart with his bare hands.
“Cut the false pleasantries. The company you keep speaks for you.” Darion advanced a step, but Theia didn’t budge an inch, lifting her chin at him instead. Though he was taller, the way she looked down her nose at him made him seem several inches shorter.
“The company I keep is none of your business,” Theia replied evenly.
“I’m afraid that’s where you’re wrong, darling. That bitch behind you is the reason why Leyah is dead.” Tiny hairs lifted on my arms at the sheer venom he infused into the word dead.
They hadn’t been just allies, then. The wrath he sported spoke of something else entirely.
“Leyah got what she deserved. It looked to me like she asked to die.” She examined her nails casually, as if discussing the weather instead of a brutal killing.
Darion’s face contorted into an ugly snarl.
“Kodhan made himself very clear where Eloise is concerned. If you need a reminder, I’m sure he’d be willing to give it to you. ”
“The bastard can go fuck himself,” the man on the left, Elias, said.
Lachlan, on the right, added, “The Second can’t save him down here.”
Kodhan hardly needed any saving from his father. He’d proven that several times during Strength.
Darion’s eyes slid over Theia’s shoulder, landing directly on me.
Prompting me to palm Kodhan’s dagger. He laughed, a full-bellied thing that bounced off the walls.
“Do you truly believe that blade is going to save you, mutt? The three of us could kill you before you even thought to swing. In fact,” he glanced over at his friends with a hungry smile.
The same hunger I’d wanted to avoid. “I think this is the perfect place to finally wipe Aedreath clean of its biggest stain.”
Panic chilled the blood in my veins. The corridors were too narrow, the exit too far. I still didn’t know what Theia’s element was, and even then, we were outnumbered.
“This is between you and I. Theia has nothing to do with this,” I interjected, stepping out from behind her.
It wasn’t because I was used to these kinds of threats that she deserved to deal with them, too.
I could only hope that she would be fast enough to retrieve Brannon and Kodhan to even out the fight before they slaughtered me.
Or she could save herself, and just leave you here, a traitorous voice whispered in the back of my mind.
I stomped on it vigorously. Refused to believe it.
I was fast. Excellent in hand-to-hand combat. But I almost always had the element of surprise—that fleeting moment where one didn’t have the mind to summon their magic. There was no surprise here, and these three were primed with magic—strong magic.
Darion took all but one more step forward before he gasped suddenly, slamming both palms against his temples and stumbled to his knees. Elias and Lachlan fell closely after, agony written across their faces.
Lachlan cried out—terror mingling with pain. Elias merely whimpered, eyes vacant and staring at nothing at all.
Like the man that attacked Kodhan during Strength.
“Help me,” Darion choked. “Make it stop!” He clawed at his temple, tugging on his coal shaded strands so violently that some of them rained down onto his vest. It was almost as if he was trying to pull whatever affected him directly out of his head.
Frowning, Theia bent at the waist to whisper into Darion’s ear, her words perfectly clear despite his begging, and Lachlan’s cries.
“The kingdom’s bitch is currently on his knees, weaker than a newborn fawn.
I’ll let you pick yourself up. Hopefully the next trial will dispose of you appropriately.
And next time you call me darling,” she added, straightening, “you will not get up at all.”
“Witch,” he hissed weakly, eyes snapping back and forth rapidly between things I couldn’t see.
I fought the urge to take a step back.
A heavy accusation, and a rare one, at that.
Witches had roamed freely prior to the rise of Aedreath, before the creation of the Veil.
They were human by blood, but chose to rally with the creatures beyond—the Dark Ones—sourcing their magic directly from the veins of the earth. Or in other cases, from the dead.
Aedreath amplified its magic thanks to the gods—from Maverick.
The gods used him as an endless well, filling him to the brim so that the rest of the kingdom could prosper, collecting from him year after year.
It is because of him, the original founders, and every Starlight Champion since, that everyone within the Veil grew stronger.
And because the witches wielded magic from something other than what the gods intended, any caught hiding within the confines of the Veil were butchered from the very beginning.
Too unpredictable, history books read. Their kin banded with the enemy and therefore they are also the enemy.
It didn’t matter if they were trapped accidentally, unwillingly.
They’d been granted only one escape; death.
There were none left. At least, none that were known. There’d always been fear that some of them had managed to hide their children before being discovered. A legacy meant to prevail even the most brutal reign.
I never believed in the rumors. It meant watching those executed on baseless accusation all the harder to stomach. But what Theia was doing, manipulating their minds as easily as Maverick when it was completely unheard of…
I shook my head. Above everything, time was still ticking. Answers would have to come later. I darted around the three men, all who were completely unaware of my movements.
Trepidation breathed heavily down my neck.
Who, exactly, had Khodan forced me to be allies with?