Chapter 22
The first whispers of things going awry in Arnold’s class filter into the arena only a couple hours after I left Briar with Kage. I know someone is dead, but not much else, other than it wasn’t Briar. I felt her through our bond, plucking at strands of emotions I have little experience with, like vulnerability, humiliation, and being violated. The last one was the hardest to ignore. It takes every bit of my concentration to stay in the arena and trust Kage to take care of her.
I watch the clock. She will meet me in the arena when she’s finished, which is both a comfort and a torment. The minutes tick by so slowly, I begin to wonder if there isn’t a god messing with time to fuck with me.
When novices gather around a male who just entered the sand, I listen in on his recount of being in Arnold’s class. “It was insane. Doyle would have killed her with the first shot, but she just stood there like he didn’t try to fry her heart.”
“He and Syn grew up together,” a dark-haired female defends, searching the faces around her.
The same male snorts. “He was also fucking her.”
“No, he wasn’t!” she snaps back, but her denial lacks conviction. When she doesn’t receive any support from the other novices around her, she storms away, causing several snickers.
“He was fucking Syn, but so were about five other guys. I don’t know why she cares so much, since she’s fucking Micah.”
“She’s just pissed Doyle wouldn’t try to kill anyone for her. She wants everything to be about her. What else happened?” If this didn’t involve Briar, I never would have entertained this bullshit, but I find myself eager for the male to continue.
“Everyone in the class had a go at her, and Syrinx just stood there and watched.” He whispers the last half of the sentence while looking around like she might show up.
“Then what happened to Eli?”
“Fuck, that was…”
I’ve moved near enough that I can see the wince on his face.
“I’ve never even seen some of the shit he sent at her—huge-ass spiders and bugs with so many legs, I’m going to have nightmares.” He rubs the skin on his arm like he’s imagining the things crawling on him. “You couldn’t even see her at one point, they covered her completely, and then the next thing you know” —he claps his hands, and several of the novices jump— “Eli is screaming.”
“She fought back?”
“I thought so at first, but it wasn’t her. It was Kage.” You can tell by the grin on the male’s lips that he loves all the attention he’s getting, so he’s dragging this out for dramatic effect. “I didn’t even see him move, but Syrinx knew it was him right away.”
“Kage killed Eli? Did he get in trouble?”
“She tried to force him to touch the new girl, but he wouldn’t do it. He said he’d rather use his ability against Instructor Arnold.” The male chuckles darkly. I doubt he would have the nerve to defy such a demand, but I’m not surprised by Kage’s refusal. I have no doubt he would have killed Arnold and anyone else before he got close to Briar.
“I wonder why he wouldn’t touch her. I mean, none of the other magic worked on her, so…”
“I heard he was cursed, not gifted with magic,” a new voice chimes in. I’ve often thought the same thing.
“He was protective of her right from the start, but he acted like he killed Eli because his bugs touched him.” He shrugs.
“He probably killed Syn too.”
“Maybe she tried to fuck Kage.” The male sniffs, looking for approval from the others.
“Maybe if there was some kind of second skin to keep him from killing you… He’s gorgeous.”
“Gods, Julia!” another female remarks.
“Oh, shut up, Greta. Don’t act like you haven’t thought about it.”
“I haven’t.” Greta looks around, but I see several eyes roll in response, like they don’t believe her. I would love to make each and every one of them mute if it meant I wouldn’t have to listen to this shit anymore.
“I have. Lots of times,” Julia continues without shame. I’m about ready to rip my own ears off.
One of the males finally gets to the point. “Did he get in trouble or what?”
“Nah, Syrinx made some threats to the girl, but that’s about it. It didn’t seem like there was much she could do, considering Eli did attack him first.”
“I wonder if the other instructors are going to do the same thing to her?”
I tune them out after that. Briar should be here within twenty minutes, and I can get the rest of the story from her.
Lunch with Kage is a new experience. He eats twice as much as I do, and that’s saying a lot, considering my appetite has only grown since I got here. Between bites of food, I ask simple questions, like how old he is and where he’s from, but it starts to feel like an inquisition after he gives single word responses, so I let up after only a few questions.
I have to count the fact that he’s sitting at the same table as me—although as far from the table as his arms can reach—as a win. When my plate is clean and I know it won’t be long before we leave, I finally say, “Sorry about what happened in there.”
“Sorry?” he questions.
“That he didn’t control his bugs and you had to get involved.”
Kage places his fork down on his plate and meets my eyes. “I didn’t kill him because his bugs strayed. I killed him for what he was trying to do to you. I told you, I should have killed them all.”
“It’s a nice thought, but it wouldn’t be worth the trouble,” I reply dismissively.
“The only thing that stopped me was knowing they would find a way to kill me if I did. I can’t die until after the Undertaking, when I know you will be safe.”
His words make my heart pound with concern. He seems so blasé about his death, as if he’s already accepted it will happen. “No.” It’s my turn to give a single word answer.
“No what?”
“No, you can’t die after those stupid games or any time after.”
“Never?” His eyebrows rise.
“Never.” I sound petulant, but it’s how I feel about his death.
“I’m not immortal.”
“Then you better be really careful,” I retort.
“We need to get you to combat,” Kage says softly after a long pause, effectively changing the subject.
“Where will you be going?” I ask as I gather my empty tray and rise.
“I’ll be in the arena, but I train alone.”
“I wish I could train alone,” I gripe under my breath.
“It’s boring,” he says as we walk toward the exit. He’s still several feet away from me, but it’s easier to deal with now that I understand why. There’s a big part of me that wants to reach over and grab his hand, to prove I won’t die if we touch. If there’s one good thing that comes from what I am, this could be it, but it feels wrong to force him. I know what it feels like not to have a choice, and I won’t do that to him.
“It has to be better than getting clobbered by a giant, boring or not. I swear I ate about a pound of sand, and I know he was pulling his punches.”
Kage gasps. “He punched you?”
“No, not really. He just knocked me down a whole hell of a lot and made me draw a bow about seven million times.”
“You need to be able to defend yourself,” he agrees.
“Or figure out how to take others’ powers like the other void could,” I disclose.
“That would certainly be useful. Have you ever tried?”
“Not really. I thought about it, for sure, but before the other day, I didn’t know it was even possible.” I turn around to face him while walking backward. “Earlier today, when I heard bug boy screaming, for a split second, I thought I’d turned the tables on him.” I laugh softly.
“Were you trying?”
“I don’t know how to really try, but I was imagining them turning against him. He was so mad after he sicced his bugs on me last time and it didn’t work, he tried to attack me. That teacher stopped him though, and now I know why.”
“What?” Kage asks, reminding me he has no idea that wasn’t the first time I met bug boy.
“They came to my father’s. He did the whole bug thing then too. I’m guessing he’s the reason I’m here.”
“I should have killed him sooner. Have you encountered anyone else from Ivy?”
I spin back around to watch where I’m going before answering him. It would be mortifying to trip or slam into a wall. “Not that I know of, but it’s not like I could remember them all anyway.”
“Tell me if you do.”
“Why?”
He waits so long to answer, I don’t think he is going to, but eventually, he says, “I want to know so I can make them pay for what they did to you.”
“Most of them didn’t do anything, Kage, they just tried.”
“But they wanted to.”
I can’t really argue with his statement, but I don’t know that every person who tried to test me really deserves to die either.
When we turn down another hall, familiar doors come into view. I may not have known how to get here, but I know where we are. My emotions war within me. I’m excited to see Ziv and feel his eyes linger on my skin, but there’s no part of me that wants to join him in combat.
“I hope I don’t have to do anything after this.”
“You don’t. You have combat for the next three hours.”
I gape. “Three hours!”
“It will go by quickly,” he promises, but I hear the lie.
“Only if I lose consciousness.”
Kage hauls the large door open, and the muffled grunts grow louder, along with the thuds of bodies hitting the sand. Ziv’s face is the first one I see.
The urge to run over and throw myself at him tightens my muscles, but I force myself to take slow strides into the arena. His eyes roam over my features, warming every inch of skin they touch, but his face remains stoic.
I’m still aware of Kage behind me, but I would be lying if I said Ziv’s alure wasn’t stronger. I tell myself it’s because I know Ziv better, but I don’t really know him at all, not the little things. I know his soul though, because it’s intertwined with mine.
His hands, hanging loosely at his sides, ball into fists as I make my way across the ring to meet him. He’s more than imposing with the brutal backdrop of sand and bodies littering the field between us. I stop three paces away, sensing a proverbial wall around him. This isn’t the same male I woke beside this morning.
“Go find your bow,” he instructs. No pleasantries or even a hello. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this, and it takes my mind a second longer than it should to process the change in him. “Go!” he barks, and I jump into action, but I have no idea where to begin looking, because we didn’t work in this room last time.
“You don’t need to be a dick,” Kage chastises him as I scamper through the sand.
“We’re here to make sure she survives, not hold her hand.” I understand the sentiment, and had I been prepared for it. I could have taken it in stride or at least pretended to, but the sting of rejection hurts.
I jog to the wall and open the first cabinet I see. It’s filled with blades and knives, so I move on to the next and the next until I finally find a longbow and quiver. It only takes me seconds to grab and head back into the ring.
I know exactly where Ziv is standing, since he hasn’t moved, but I allow my gaze to bounce around, taking in the row of targets behind him and the other novices in the immediate area.
Kage steps into my path and stops me. “I won’t be far.”
“Okay, see you in a few hours.” I move past him, adopting Ziv’s cool demeanor. I feel his eyes on my back as I work to get through the sand, and there’s a part of me that feels bad for how I dismissed him, but I shove the notion down, right along with my own hurt feelings.