Chapter 36
THIRTY-SIX
athena
I’d never gotten dressed faster in my entire life. My dress had been torn to shreds, so I pulled the large shirt and pants directly over it. Sinner tossed a pair of socks to me and found boots, which I yanked onto my sore feet without hesitating.
Anything was better than being practically barefoot and naked in this place.
And by the way things were going, we’d be involved in another fight at any minute.
As Karlyle stepped into the room, Sinner—Elijah—stepped in front of me, shielding me from him.
I shoved the note into my pocket last.
“Did you write that?” Elijah asked, his tone dark.
“Doesn’t matter. But you should go.” He glanced at me. “You both should.”
Enough said. Alexander hadn’t given me any reason not to trust him. But that note put a sinking hole in the pit of my stomach.
So we were getting the hell out of there.
Boots tied, I started for the door, though Karlyle and Elijah were blocking it, frozen in a manly standoff.
“I knew I shouldn’t have trusted either of you,” Elijah gritted out. “What was all this?” He threw an arm out. “You were following me to get to her? Is that it?”
Karlyle tilted his head up, mouth squeezed shut.
“Right,” Elijah growled. “That’s what I fucking thought. You’re just two more fucking pawns in the Ministry’s game, and you figured it would be best to be on Athena’s good side.”
I stepped out beside him. “Let’s just go.”
Elijah remained tense, his face only inches from Karlyle’s—until I stepped forward and grasped his bicep.
“Fine,” he said. “I’ve been wanting to ditch these two since the fucking start anyway.”
He plowed into Karlyle, forcing him to stagger back, and we moved past him.
The air shifted in a way I couldn’t put my finger on. Karlyle…he was different now. He didn’t say anything else, but his energy had changed. He no longer looked like the polite, docile man I met back at the barracks.
He was a fighter.
And all my instincts flared up at his presence.
I ducked my head and remained tight on Elijah’s heel, ready to escape into that decimated city of ruins.
But nothing was ever that easy for us.
Alexander stepped around the corner as Elijah hit the bottom step, causing him to smack directly into him.
Before me, both men straightened. Behind me, Karlyle loomed, watching, his expression tense with the reality of what was about to happen.
We wouldn’t all make it out of here alive.
Elijah easily would have killed Alexander, but I was faster.
I focused all my attention on Alexander, and before he had time to even consider what was about to happen, I sent the singular intention of death through my bond with Elijah.
His phantoms roared in excitement and hissed out of his skin, enveloping the air around Alexander.
He never stood a damn chance.
His body—whatever was left of it anyway—collapsed to the floor. Elijah tugged me back so the mauled flesh didn’t hit my boots.
Karlyle’s gasp split the silence.
I surveyed him, noting the terror in his eyes. No, I didn’t have to send shadows after him. This was warning enough.
“Leave,” Elijah ordered. “If we see you again, we’ll kill you.”
Without waiting to see what he’d do, Elijah slipped his hand into mine, and the two of us waltzed into the sunlit, decaying ruins.
“He could move stone? As in, shift the earth?” My mind raced.
Elijah had explained the incident on the roof with Alexander and Karlyle, but I was still wrapping my head around it.
Smirking, he squinted against the sun and nodded. “That’s what it looked like, yep.”
“Wow,” I mused. “I’m sure that came in handy in a place like this.”
Elijah shrugged. “I didn’t see any more magic from him after that, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a few other tricks up his sleeve. I never fucking trusted that guy.”
“Yeah.” I rolled my eyes. “So you’ve mentioned.”
He shot me a dirty look. “I’m not the one who put that note in my pocket.”
I sagged. “You really think it was Karlyle? Why would he leave you a note instead of just telling you?”
“Who knows?” He surveyed our surroundings as we continued on. “Maybe he didn’t think he could get away from Alexander long enough. They were practically glued at the hip.”
I considered his words and shook my head. “I’ve seen them separated plenty of times. Karlyle probably had a dozen chances to warn us.”
Elijah stepped over a fallen stone pillar in the middle of the street and reached out to help me over. I slid my palm into his, ignoring the way my heart jumped out of my chest. He held on for a few seconds longer than necessary before letting me go.
“All I know is that we can’t fucking trust anyone here,” he said, more adamant this time. “We have to assume everyone is fighting for the Ministry.”
“And what if they’re not?” I asked, my chest tightening. “What if there are more like Leon out there? More working for the defiance?”
“Then we trust that they’ll make themselves known when we need them.”
We walked on in silence for the next couple of hours. I had so many questions and not nearly enough answers. There were too many unknowns.
But for now, we had to focus on surviving these games.
Once this was over, we could find a way out of the Ministry’s clutches.
While my boots were too big and my socks clung to the broken flesh on the bottom of my feet, I was grateful for them. We covered a lot of ground, and this was far better than being barefoot.
As we approached the top of the hill—the peak of the entire city, Elijah’s footsteps grew quieter. He scanned the distance, his eyes more alert, and his phantoms—those enchanting little tendrils of shadow magic—wisped around us, a telltale sign that he was on edge.
And he was right to be.
Because at the very top of the hill, standing in front of the tallest building in the pile of ruins, was Simon.
With a depraved, stomach-churning grin on his face.
“What the hell is this?” Elijah’s shadows whipped around again, tangling in my loose hair and trailing around my hips.
“I can’t say I’m surprised you’ve made it this far. You two are the fan favorites, after all.” He stepped forward with that grin still plastered on his face.
“Is that it?” I asked. “It’s over?”
“Almost. You made it through the city, but that was just your warm-up. Now it’s time for the real challenge.”
My stomach churned. I’d been half naked and on the verge of crumbling to death just yesterday. But that was just a warm-up? Sure.
“What’s the real challenge?” I asked, keeping my head high. “Being dropped in the middle of nowhere with absolutely no direction wasn’t enough?”
“You survived. That was exactly what you were supposed to do.”
Elijah growled beside me. “Was that all real?”
It’s not real. It’s not real. I hadn’t worked up the nerve to ask what he’d meant—what he’d seen. But whatever it was, he wasn’t letting go.
It had messed him up.
Simon tilted his head annoyingly. “You were tested. And you’re doing great so far.”
“That doesn’t answer my fucking question.”
Without responding, he stepped to one side so we could see what lay behind him.
I sucked in a breath.
The city we had come from was in ruins. Dust and debris and rubble. Rotting and dead and decaying.
But the city ahead of us?
Life overflowed from the streets below. Life and light. Not light created by the sun, but the kind that only smiles and people and realness could emanate. The city glowed with happiness, with movement, with peace.
My chest warmed. It was the most beautiful sight. That sense of peace was short-lived, however, when I remembered that this was a test.
And these were the war games.
My heart sank.
“No,” I breathed.
“This is a city of earthlies,” Simon explained.
“Though not a real city. This is simply a test, of course, but for the purposes of this test, everything you experience will feel entirely real.” He scanned the horizon.
“Your mission is to make it to the other side of this city. Director and the rest of the Ministry’s executive mystics will be waiting for you there. ”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “We just have to walk through there?”
“Walk,” Simon said, his eyes flashing with excitement, “and fight.”
There it was. There was the other fucking shoe finally dropping.
“You want us to kill them,” Elijah stated.
“I don’t want you to kill them,” Simon said.
“This has nothing to do with my preferences. They’re earthlies, and your mission is to get through here.
” He extended an arm. “They want to kill you. The Ministry is assessing your usefulness in war. Don’t forget that.
It’s in your best interest to take out as many enemy earthlies as possible. ”
“And these are our enemies?” I asked, unease washing over me.
Simon blinked. Then his gaze shifted to me. “All earthlies are your enemies.”
I stepped back, vomit rising in the back of my throat. “This doesn’t feel right. Look at them. They’re not exactly charging at us with swords in their hands.”
“Earthlies want mystics dead,” he stated. “All mystics. It isn’t about you two, it’s about the entire species.”
Words escaped me. Beside me, Elijah stared straight ahead, jaw tight and fists clenched.
“The final test begins now,” he said. “You aren’t alone out there, either. The others who’ve made it this far were given the same objectives.” He took a few steps to the side and dipped his chin. “Good luck to you both. Long live the Ministry.”
Then he was gone. He simply evaporated, likely jumped out of here by a mystic we couldn’t even see.
Exhaustion tugged at my bones as I studied the city ahead. It was at least five miles long—with winding roads and hundreds if not thousands of earthlies simply living their lives.
“Can you believe this?” I asked. “They want us to go down there and slaughter our way through an innocent town.”
When Elijah didn’t answer, I turned to him, frowning.
“Are you listening to me?” I asked.
He still didn’t respond, so I stepped in front of him and slid my hands on either side of his face. “I really need you to not space out on me now.”
His eyes were fixed on the city behind me, but he finally said, “It’s not real.”
I blinked. “What?”
“It’s all a simulation,” he said. “I experienced something like this earlier. Before you found me. He said it himself—it’s not real.”
I spun around, searching for what he was seeing. Did this look different to him?
“Do you actually believe that? You think they have enough power to simulate an entire city like this?”
“They don’t have to create an entire city,” he muttered. “They just have to play with our minds until we believe there’s an entire city there.”
The nausea rolled in my stomach again. “I don’t know. What if that’s just what they want us to think?”
Jaw tightening, he finally forced his attention to me. “We have to make it to the end anyway, right? I’m not entirely sure we have a choice about how that happens.”
There it was.
The sickening truth I tried hard not to admit to myself.
We would have to make it to the end whether it was real or not.
So I really, really freaking hoped he was right and they’d manipulated our minds into seeing this.
“Fine,” I said. “But it’s been a long damn day, and my feet are killing me. Let’s find a place to rest for the night. We can make the final pass through the city tomorrow.”
He nodded, then slipped his warm palm into mine. “Tomorrow. It’s all over tomorrow.”
The look he gave me was deep, intense. His phantoms purred out of his skin and slipped over my hand, crawling and circling up my arm.
My heart fluttered, and a smile crept on my face. As the phantoms ghosted over my neck, tickling me, I choked down a laugh.
“They missed you,” he murmured.
Turning, he tugged me along and headed back down the hill.
“Some people would be seriously freaked out if your shadows slipped around their bodies like that, you know.”
“Some people.” There was a lightness in his voice. “Not you, though.”
This time, I didn’t hide my blush. “Nope. Not me.”