Chapter 4
After breakfast the next morning, all the competitors were called to the commons area, and the Game Master pointed to a computerized board.
"You will see the mission on this board sometimes, and other times, you'll be transported to a place where the games will begin, and then I will announce the game. "
Stone wished they would all be listed on the board before they left the facility, but he guessed that was part of the suspense of the challenges.
The Game Master said, "Also, as a safety precaution, I need to tell you that if anyone finds themselves in real trouble, they can push an alert button that you will always wear on your person.
It is only sensitive to your touch, so if another fae pushes it in a retaliatory way, it won't work. If another fae pushes the button to save you, this will alert us immediately, so if the person truly does need help, we’ll be there. "
Stone touched the button on his shirt, hoping it wouldn't go off at the slightest touch!
"As far as the leaderboard goes, at the end of the task, you will see where you stand against everyone else.
That board will remain visible for the whole time that you're here.
Since you can't transport yourself anywhere while you're involved in the games, unless we determine your life is in danger and you need to vanish in the fae way, you will have to get to the mission any way that you can. "
Stone glanced at Rune. She was frowning.
"In some cases, we will take you to the mission because it's too far away to reach it on your own."
Stone wondered which one they faced this time.
The Game Master cleared her throat. "The first game involves taking a baby at 101 Sunshine Street, and then you must turn him into a changeling. You'll have to figure out a way to reach the house and get inside without alerting the police or the parents."
"We're all going after the same baby?" Maeve asked, sounding as though she didn't think that was fair.
"Yep. And no fae travel. You have until midnight to snatch the baby who will become a changeling."
Stone was imagining a free-for-all as the other fae tried to grab the baby and turn it into a changeling. The changeling would be bound to the fae who turned the baby into one. He wasn't about to win this challenge.
But he was curious how it would play out, and he wanted to know who would win. So reaching the baby's room first was his goal so he could see what happened.
“You will have free time to do what you want until it’s time to do the mission at eleven tonight.” Then the Game Master vanished.
“What do you want to do?” Stone asked Rune. Seeing her frown at him, he smiled. “Separately?”
“Car simulation and weapon training. We need all that we can get.”
They did the car simulation. No one was in there, and they practiced in their own vehicles until lunch, then ate separately.
Then they went to weapon training and practiced their sword fighting again with two different instructors this time.
Stone noticed no one was there either, which made him think that he and Rune were the only two who still needed lots of training.
He did wonder what everyone else was doing in the meantime.
After dinner, he and Rune retired to their own rooms until it was time to start the first of the games.
At eleven, he met her in the commons where all the other fae competitors arrived, and the Game Master said, “You know the rules. Go!”
Then Stone hurried out of the building and grabbed the first car he saw, a little red hatchback. Before he could turn the key in the ignition and take off, Rune jumped into the passenger seat and slammed the door shut as a couple of other fae ran toward the car.
"Go!" Rune said.
Stone laughed. "Who said I was taking you with me?"
"I did. Just go!"
He saw another car driving to catch up to them.
Then Rune said, "Wait, how do you know how to drive a real car?"
"I don't. I'm learning as I go."
Rune glanced back at the Buick. "Are you trying to let them get there first?"
Stone started the car. He sped down the road while Rune entered the house address into the GPS.
“That’s magic,” Stone said.
“I agree.”
Even though he had no plan to turn the baby into a changeling, he might as well get there first, mainly because, though he wanted to deny it, he didn't want Rune to believe he couldn't reach the place first.
As soon as they saw the two-story, blue house, with flowers in flowerbeds all along the front porch, he parked curbside. It was dark, and no lights were on inside. It appeared everyone had gone to bed.
He raced across the front lawn and tried the front door, but it was locked. Rune was trying to open the windows, but there was no entry that way either.
He went around to the side of the house, and she followed, amusing him. Didn't she have a plan of her own?
He headed around to the back of the house and saw a wrought-iron trellis fixed to the side of the home, a yellow climbing rose growing on it and reaching a second-story window. The breeze was blowing the curtains around the open window.
Why did people think they would be safe if they left a second-floor window open, particularly when they had the perfect ornamental ladder that would take would-be thieves straight up to the window?
He reached the top of the ladder, getting pricked several times by the thorny yellow roses.
He peeked in and heard Rune right behind him.
Perfect. It was the baby's room. He climbed into the room and then assumed Rune would change the baby into a changeling, win the challenge, and be stuck with the changeling forever.
Rune peered in at the sleeping baby in the white crib, dressed in an infant sleeper featuring blue baby elephants. They heard someone else coming up the trellis. Didn't anyone else have their own plans to accomplish this?
He sat down on the rocking chair near the crib and rocked it.
But as soon as Fang poked his head in through the window, Rune shifted into her wolf, surprising Stone. He thought she would just grab the baby and turn him.
Though he didn't really know how that was done.
Fang's canines looked like a vampire's wicked fangs, which gave him the name. There was something magnetic about the way Fang carried himself—dark-haired and sharp-jawed, his cobalt eyes scanning every room with a predator's instinct.
But for now, he advanced on the crib, ignoring Rune, but she was all hackles and fur raised, her tail straight out, her teeth exposed in a vicious snarl. When Fang didn’t heed the warning, she bit his arm. He yelped, jumped back, and scowled at her.
Now this wasn’t what Stone had expected at all.
The baby was still sound asleep, and another fae appeared at the window. “What the hell? Why hasn’t someone already turned the baby?” Maeve rushed forth as if she thought she could get to the baby when Fang couldn’t.
“Be my guest. Rune already bit me,” Fang said.
“She’s an idiot.” Maeve nearly reached the crib, but Rune attacked her, biting her in the leg.
“Ohmigod, you wretch!”
The baby woke up and began to cry.
Stone smiled, and he swore Rune was wearing a wolf smile.
Someone was coming to check on the baby, the floor creaking with hurried footsteps. The fae rushed out through the window, Rune waiting at the last, though Stone was planning on following up the rear. But she was still protecting the baby in case Stone had it in mind to turn it.
He climbed down the trellis as the other fae took off in the cars they had borrowed for the game. Rune was right behind him. They heard the father talking to his son, comforting him, rocking him in the chair, and the baby stopped crying.
Once they were in the car he’d stolen, he said to Rune, “I thought you were going to change the baby and win the challenge.”
“I did. I saved the baby from being turned into a changeling. Everyone will hate me, I know, but I can’t imagine anything worse than being tied down to a changeling baby when we’re wolf shifters. Or for the baby to lose his family and how horribly stricken they would have been to have lost him.”
Which made him think of Rune and him losing their own families when they had left them for dead. “My thought exactly. The others just wanted to win the challenge. I was surprised Fang didn’t go after the baby again after you bit him. I didn’t think that would deter him enough.”
“I bit pretty hard. I broke his skin, but not hard enough to break a bone. But that would have been next if he’d tried to go after the baby again.”
“He was sure pissed. So was Maeve.”
“Yeah, well, she should have known I meant business and not to trifle with me.”
Stone chuckled. “I’ll have to remember not to get on your bad side again.” He would never forget her biting his nose when they were young.
When they returned to the facility, Maeve and Fang were treated for their bites in the medical center, though they would heal in half the time humans took.
Stone thought the advisors would penalize Rune for her actions, but the Game Master said, “Well, that was a creative conclusion to the first challenge. No one won the game, but sponsors are beginning to come forth to support some of the participants. They’ll be speaking with those they’ve chosen right after we speak. Go to your advisors’ rooms now.”
Stone knew he wouldn’t be sponsored. Rune was so unpredictable that she might. He was curious about what the sponsors would offer participants. He suspected none of the fae who hadn’t made it into the baby’s room would be considered for a sponsorship.
Then they all split up and went to see their advisors.
Stone walked into his game advisor’s office. Kentner shook his head. “I can’t believe you got a sponsor.”
Stone raised his brows. “Seriously?”
"Yeah. She likes your cocky style, and she has met you before. Ena? She's a dragon fae assassin."
Rune knew she’d pissed off the other fae for stopping them from turning the baby into a changeling. Stone was another story. He’d gotten there first and then lounged on the rocker as if he belonged there.
When she entered her advisor’s office, Ondine smiled at her. “Well, you have a sponsor.”
“I do? I thought everyone would believe I’d messed the whole mission up.”
“Everyone has a different way of handling things. Brett, Ena’s mate, is your sponsor. Ena and Brett are Dragon Shifter Fae.”
“I’ve heard Brett’s a mage. Why would he sponsor me?”
“He liked the way you turned the tables on the others. He has had a harrowing life, and he sees you as a power to be reckoned with, even if he is a mage and you are not. Great job!”
Then Rune was dismissed to go to bed. She knew the other participants would mistreat her after what she had done.
But she didn’t care. She was being forced to play in these games, and she would do it on her own terms. Just like Stone was doing, it appeared.
After being cold all night under the thin bedspread on the bed, she was forced to shift into her wolf that night. The next morning, Rune headed into the great hall, where everyone was grabbing trays of food.
They didn't know what the next game would be, but she saw that she was listed at the top of the leaderboard: Stone after that, Fang next, and Maeve after that.
The others were listed according to how fast they had gotten their transportation, which hadn't been fast enough, and how close they were to the house when the game ended.
Rune was getting near the buffet when Maeve stuck out her foot and tripped her. Thankfully, Rune hadn't had a tray of food in her hands. Rune fell and sprawled out on the floor, irritated to the nth degree, but at least she hadn’t hurt herself.
Instead of acting angry, which she was, she jumped up and smiled. "I wonder what my sponsor would want me to do in a situation like this? Take you down? Or just laugh it off?"
Maeve smiled a slow, satisfied smile that never quite reached her cold jade eyes. "You don't have a sponsor."
Maeve's gold hair cascaded in perfectly coiffed ringlets that never seemed to frizz or tangle, as though each strand had been individually enchanted to remain flawless even in the most humid conditions. Rune wished her hair was like that!
“Yeah, I do have a sponsor. Don’t you?” Then Rune stalked off and grabbed a tray for her food, loading it with eggs, bacon, and hash browns.
She saw Stone at a table, eating an omelet, toast, and fried potatoes. He was watching her and smiled a little when she caught his eye.
Was he amused that Maeve had tripped her up? Or getting a kick out of Rune’s response to Maeve? She shouldn’t have cared, but he was the only other fae there that she really knew and truly liked.
Rune walked over to a table to eat alone.
Suddenly, the smallest fae of the group joined her with a tray of French toast. “Can I sit here? I’m Lolita. I heard what you did.”
“Yeah, sure.” Rune took a bite of her bacon. She was happy to do without the company, but she suspected Lolita, being as tiny as she was, wouldn’t have any friends among the other competitors. If they partnered up, they would want stronger fae than Lolita appeared to be.
“You’re Rune. Everyone knows your name. And Stone’s.”
“You didn’t reach the baby’s room.” Rune ate some of her eggs.
“Nope. Neither did seven of the other fae. So why did you bite Maeve and Fang? They sure are mad about it.”
Rune saw that the two of them were eating together across the room and glowering at Rune. It seemed her action had led them to decide on a partnership. “Yeah. You know what happens when you turn a human baby into a changeling, don’t you?”
“You win the challenge.”
“Right. But you are bonded with him or her for life; you’re responsible for the changeling in our world.”
“Aww, okay, sure. I never thought of that. But then why not let someone else win the challenge?” Lolita dug into her French toast.
“Because I don’t believe in stealing a baby from humans and taking them from their world to ours. That’s why. It wasn’t just about the challenge.”
“Well,” Lolita said, scooping up a forkful of French toast, “so your move got you a sponsor?”
“How do you know about that? Oh, you overheard me talking to Maeve.”
“Yeah, when she tripped you. I thought you would make her pay for it.”
“Doing the unexpected can sometimes get better results.”
“Fang and Maeve are plotting to get you back. Not just for messing up their plans to grab the baby, but for biting them.”
Rune shrugged. “So how do you know they’re plotting against me?”
“Most of the time, being small is a disadvantage, but for eavesdropping? No one even notices me.”