Chapter 21 #2
Fieran didn’t mention my attempt to shame him in front of the clan as he led the way out into the arena, taking me into the enormous stands so I could see the vastness of the arena.
Colossal rings of stone terraces wrapped around a sunken valley. Shimmering training fields rose up the outside of towering columns, linked by floating stairs that made my stomach drop as if I were already falling. Glassy pools reflected the swiftly-changing sky.
It was beautiful.
Terrifyingly beautiful.
Especially since it had all changed from the day before.
From where we were standing, other people would watch us in the future…and judge me.
“I’m showing you the arena because you’ll be here for the first two combats of the Recruits’ Trials within the week. We’re going to be careful when you’re seen.”
I didn’t answer. My fingers curled around the railing of the overlook, cold iron biting into my skin. “A week? How many years did you train before you came here?”
“The first trial is just for recruits, and it’s not deadly. Probably painful, for you. Combat against your fellow recruits. Combat against the monsters.”
How promising.
I cut my eyes toward him. “Do you have an idea what it’s like to be thrown into something like this with no training, no skills, when I’m not even the right species?”
He was silent for a moment, the wind stirring his dark hair. “What are your skills?”
I shook my head, looking away from him. He was mocking me.
“Cara.” His voice was low, commanding. If he weren’t such an asshole, it would’ve made something inside me clench with need.
“This first part. It’s just hand-to-hand combat between recruits, right?”
“Just that,” he said, as if we both didn’t know I was going to go down like a sack of potatoes, rolling loose underfoot. “Until there’s one shifter standing.”
“Which won’t be me.”
“I’d assume not, no. Unless you have some superhuman skills you haven’t yet revealed…”
I had no fighting skills, supernatural or otherwise. I shook my head, and his eyes sharpened in a way I didn’t like, as if I’d confessed more than my lack of skill.
“You were smart and fierce protecting others. I’ve seen what you can do.” He tilted his head, crossing his arms. “Are you going to try as hard to protect yourself?”
“I’m going to do my best not to get beaten to death in the arena.” I dreaded that they expected me to stand there and fight back while these tall, powerful immortal beings bore down on me. I knew my instincts would be to run and hide.
And they were good instincts, too.
“All you have to do is show them who you are,” he told me. “No one expects you to win this fight. But the stands will be full of not just Fae, but mortals who will be inspired by your bravery.”
That was a very optimistic prediction.
“What we can do in a few days is limited. But you’ve got more power than you realize, Cara.” He started walking, clearly expecting me to follow, once again.
And, of course, I did. “Is that so?”
“We’re going to find a private place to train so you can surprise those Fae and mortals,” he told me as he led me into a labyrinth of halls.
“You want to keep my presence here a secret, but once I walk into the first trial, everyone will know who I am. So what do you gain?”
His lips curved. “The theatrical entrance that the first dragon-marked mortal deserves.”
He went left, down another passageway. We were moving steadily downward.
There was a distant roar that echoed through the halls, and even though the sound was faint when it reached us, I stiffened like a deer about to take flight. “What was that?”
“The zoo.”
“The zoo?”
“The monsters.”
I shuddered. I hadn’t slept well last night to begin with, haunted by vague unsettling dreams I couldn’t remember now. “The monsters are here beneath where we sleep?”
“Don’t we all bring our monsters to bed with us?” he asked.
I came to an abrupt halt. I felt sick at the thought, but I had to see them. “Show me.”
He hesitated. “And then you’ll work hard for me?”
I gave him a withering look. “I don’t want to die in the Trials. Even though it’s tempting sometimes, to escape you.”
His lips quirked. “All right.”
He led me down more hallways dug out of stone and earth. At one point, windows opened up to the sea, and when I stopped and looked out, white-capped waves slapped the rocks just below us. I stopped for a second in wonder, tasting the salt air on my lips.
Fieran was studying me. “You never saw the sea until you came here.”
“I know, I’m an ignorant mortal, it’s so amusing.”
“It’s impressive how you always hear an insult,” he observed as we continued walking down the roughly-chiseled hallway. Lines of mica glowed within the rock, brightening the dim light as we left the windows behind. “Believe me, I am perfectly capable of mocking you if I want you to feel insulted.”
“Perhaps I just hear them because I’m always thinking rude thoughts about you,” I retorted.
That earned me a grin that was slow, wicked, and entirely deliberate. Heat crawled up my neck, and I looked away quickly before he could see it.
The next retort withered on my tongue when he led me through a wide stone archway.
The air shifted—colder, heavier, carrying a faint metallic tang. I blinked as my eyes adjusted to the dim light. Rows upon rows of cages stretched before us, each separated by thick bars that glowed faintly with runes. The space seemed endless, disappearing into shadow.
The nearest cage held something massive, its hide glistening like wet obsidian.
Its chest rose and fell in slow rhythm, as though asleep.
Farther down, something with too many wings twitched in its slumber, the faint rustle of feathers scraping against metal.
A low, almost-human whimper echoed from somewhere in the dark.
“They’re sleeping or suspended,” he told me, quiet and serious now. “Sometimes they dream, and we hear them. Roaring. Screeching. Screaming, perhaps. But they can’t harm you.”
“And if they wake?”
“We are below sea level. So the zoo can be flooded, if need be.” He sounded grim. “I would hate it if it were ever needed.”
I tore my gaze from the cages and studied him instead. The stern set of his mouth, the weight in his eyes. “Even though you would’ve killed them, if you hadn’t been forced to bring them here?”
“Killing to save a life is different than this,” he said after a pause, his tone quiet but firm. His gaze swept over the creatures again, something almost sorrowful in it. “This feels like punishment. For all of us.”
For a moment, thick silence stretched between us.
Then he turned from the railing, slipping back into that effortless command that always grated against my nerves. “Come on. You need to learn to defend yourself.”
I blinked. “Against them?”
A ghost of amusement flickered across his mouth. “Well, you already have. But let’s start a little smaller.”
He started walking, and I followed, the echo of my boots chasing his near-silent steps down the corridor. Behind us, one of the sleeping creatures let out a long, shuddering breath that sounded almost like a sigh.
Even when we stepped back into the sunlight-dappled hall, I could still feel the rumble of it in my bones.