26. The Third Game
THE THIRD GAME
Seraphina
I’m catapulted back to the worst day of my life.
I’m thirteen years old. It’s my birthday. My mother and I are hiking the towering white cli?s of Industria. They cast permanent shadows over the village below so the sun never fully shines on Tidecrest.
The long walk is what I requested we do for my special day. And as always, my mother obliges me.
We reach the ruins of a once quaint lookout castle, built many centuries ago at the edge of the highest point, overlooking the sea. We could enjoy the full strength of the sun up here.
My mother races o? to hide among the old stones.
I cover my eyes and start counting to ten.
One, two, three. . .
My mother laughs, the sound beautiful as she searches for the perfect hiding spot, while I know it’s her way of subtly reminding me she’s still close by.
Four, five, six. . .
I don’t make it to the all-important seven.
The earth shakes. Soil liquifies. The ground crumbles away beneath our feet.
The section of cliff that my mother and I had been playing on falls into the ocean.
My mothers broken body balancing on those rocks in the Celestial sea...
My utter astonishment to be flying… to have wings keeping me out of reach of the violent, crashing waves around her.
The pride in her eyes and the strain in her voice as she used her final breath to confess my father’s name—
“Scarvo!” Khali calls, pulling me from the heartbreaking memory as she yanks at the leather strap of my top in one swift tug backward.
I open my eyes at the exact moment Diana is swallowed by the lava.
She’s not screaming anymore.
No. The screams are coming from me.
“Seraphina!” Khali tries again. “Sera. Stop. She’s at peace now. We can mourn her later, at The Valley of Fallen Blades. We will mourn her. I promise.”
The darkness inside me is struck by a match, rage is set ablaze, and my eyes shoot to Lilliana. “You killed her!”
There’s no rules here against killing the bitch.
“I told her to jump!” Lilliana snaps back. “It’s not my fault she was born with two left feet!”
I try to breathe through the wrath.
“Calm down, Angel girl. She’s not worth it,” Az says, then looks at Lilliana. “What happened to waiting to see what happened when Aes’s cadets tried it first?” he demands. “Impatient fucking brat. You’re a liability to Ferrum.”
Az is so furious, it helps me contain mine. Almost.
If Lilliana weren’t holding onto Reiva, a known friend and ally of his, I wouldn’t be surprised if he threw her into the lava.
“I’m a liability?” Lilliana scoffs. “That nephilim was a liability. Just like this one,” her glare lands on me.
I want to kill her.
I’ve never wanted to kill anyone so badly.
Not even the worst of my marks.
But there’s not enough room on this ledge to make it anywhere near as slow or painful as what she deserves.
Not without risking the others falling.
We are all pushed even closer together, forced to hold onto one another as the last of Ferrum company stumbles through the hellgate, and Silver steps out after them.
I’m still seething as he closes the gate with a flick of his wrists, trapping us here.
Then the most incredible wings snap out from his back and he hovers above the bright lava, which shines through the thin leathery, reptilian skin stretched out over bone, making every vein and tendon visible.
The vast span of his wings blocks my view of Aes and Stannum completely, and I wonder briefly if the two Sisters stepped out of their hellgates with Yuvi and Zaheer the way Silver did.
Part of me hopes they haven’t. Because right now, I’m not sure what I’ll do, but I know it’ll be sloppy and end badly for me more than them.
Then it occurs to me.
He’s flying.
How is Silver flying?
I don’t know, but he’s hovering higher than our ledge now, his wings beating in slow movements as he crosses his arms over his hard chest.
Anger boils inside me like the lava bubbling below.
“You said flying wasn’t possible!” I’m not sure who I’m shouting at.
Reiva, or Az maybe. Anyone and everyone who dismissed Diana’s idea to fly.
“You told her it wasn't possible,” I accuse. And now she’s dead.
I can’t bring myself to say it out loud.
“I thought—” Reiva starts. “How are you using your wings?”
“I’ve proven my worth to this game before,” Silver explains. “It no longer wields any power or control over me.”
The Overlord slowly lowers himself down, his boots finding purchase on the narrow stone pathway in front of us that’s one poorly placed step away from collapse.
Cracks glow faintly beneath his feet, lava light bleeding through them like an open wound.
I try to look around him to where the Sisters must be, needing somewhere to channel this rage if not Lilliana.
“Eyes on me, Scar,” Silver demands and I snap my gaze back to him. “And get control of your emotions. I only intend to go over the rules once. Got it?”
My nostrils flare, but after a deep breath, I nod.
“Good. Welcome to the third game. The building behind me is your salvation. Only those who reach it get to walk out of here.”
The chains creak as the building swings slightly. I glance down and the lava seems to bubble louder. The building doesn’t look like salvation, but compared to the thin ledge beneath too many feet right now, and the even thinner path ahead, it’s certainly something better.
His eyes scan over us, like he’s suddenly noticed who’s missing. He shakes his head as though disappointed but not surprised. Then begins to walk backward over the pathway.
“The path is a precarious prick, but passable with good enough balance, core strength and the kind of discipline our morning kata’s and training have been preparing you for.”
I hold my breath as he moves like it’s solid ground and not cracked stone hovering over a death drop. But then again, if it snaps, as a section of it did for Aes company, he has wings to save him.
Like you did on the cliffs above Tidecrest.
The intrusive reminder of my mother and her death, how it had been the Sisters fault, or at least their evil influence that led the angels to punish us and the lands to crumble away, suffocates my grief over Diana’s loss.
Still, I’m more determined than ever to survive as I add Lilliana’s name to my list of people who need to die while I’m on the Iron Isle.
“If you’ve been using R&R time to research the sins and virtues wisely, you will have already worked out what this game is designed to test you on. Did anyone recognize what this building is a replica of?”
“The castle in Superbia,” Lilliana answers casually, like she didn’t just kill someone.
Says the holier than thou assassin.
Shaking the thought away, I wonder if Superbia, where Scelus’ most prideful noble family and self-absorbed residence live, is where Lilliana originates from.
I didn’t see her wings properly during our duel to know for sure, but it would make sense for them to have the purple hue of pride.
Then again, it would make as much sense that they have the red hue of wrath, or green of envy, or gold of greed.
I guess she’d feel at home in all of the sinful regions of Scelus.
Shame she’ll be dead before ever stepping foot on Scelus soil again.
“This version of the castle is much smaller than the real one,” Reiva says, whose purple wings were already pointed out to me by Diana, indicating he was from Superbia, the capital of Scelus.
“Correct,” Silver confirms.
A ripple goes through Ferrum. Particularly where Khali, Az, Reiva and I stand.
So the game is to test our pride and humility?
Yet we’ve been using R&R time to train together instead.
Sure, my demon allies asked me questions about Virtus, and I’ve answered as best I can, seeing no reason not to educate them on how to be more virtuous. The angels know I’ve been trying to work on my own virtue for years.
But Ferrum’s best fountain of knowledge when it comes to demonology, the one who may know how to defeat this game, just fell to her death.
Not fell. Pushed.
Murdered.
My stomach twists, and Silver’s eyes flick over us, sharp and assessing. “Like the last game, this is not about who is strongest. Rather, this one is about who knows themselves.”
He steps back blindly, again and again, until he is on the bridge that attaches the path to the building.
The bridge holds and a moment later, rather than open the grate and go inside, he jumps up to a balcony on the second floor, his wings glamoured away upon landing.
Do you know yourself, Seraphina?
I thought I did. Back home in Virtus, I really thought I did.
But I’d be a liar if I didn’t admit that this place has made me question things. Questioning what I’ve been taught to be true about demons. About good and evil and what makes a person one or the other.
Can all demons really be evil?
Can an assassin really be good?
The chains supporting the castle creak under Silver’s weight, but don’t snap. Then, as though on Silver’s silent command, the grate below him opens.
I go cold, ice filling my veins.
Seven hellhounds step out, slowly skulking over the bridge, and across the pathway toward our ledge.
They stop suddenly as I feel a scuffle behind me.
Reiva and Lilliana.
If she tries to pull a stunt with him like she did Diana… she will lose.
That dark part inside of me wants her to test it.
“Now for the real test,” Silver says. “The hounds respond best to certainty, not fear. Not hesitation, nor self-doubt. And definitely not arrogance. Too little confidence, and the hounds will chase you off the edge. Too much, and you’ll piss them off and become their dinner.”
As if on cue, a hellhound snaps its jaws, drool dripping from its mouth onto the path, making it sticky or slippery, I’m not sure which. I hope to make it far enough to find out.
“For the game to end, every cadet in Ferrum must cross or die trying. You must go one at a time,” he finishes and someone swallows audibly beside me.
One at a time.
That explains why Aes had lost a chunk of their path and two cadets with it.