The Last Trial (The Sanctum)

Prologue

Warren

Icouldn't hear what my sister was saying.

They'd pushed her toward the tenth tunnel as soon as she emerged from the ninth. I had only a moment to see the new band she’d earned, to marvel once more at all nine of them running up and down both arms from shoulder to elbow, before the crowd converged and moved as one toward the Tenth.

She stood with her back to it now, eyes sweeping through the mob, posture defensive like a caged animal.

I couldn't hear what they were saying, could barely see over the head of the person in front of me to watch what was going on, but something in the pit of my stomach turned acidic at the look on my sister's face.

Cosmo was saying something to the rabble and my sister was shouting back, but it was all lost in the distance between us, the murmurs of the horde surrounding me.

"What's happening?" a familiar voice spoke to my left. I knew, without looking, it was Sophie. "Why can't we get through to see her? Why are the priests and acolytes blocking her off like this?"

That pit in my stomach yawned ever wider. Something was wrong, very wrong. Anna's face flashed through my mind, and her voice, the words she’d spoken against my subconscious just before they'd killed her, before he had ordered her killed.

I have the diary. We can do this, Warren. We can—

I flinched in memory of the moment the spear entered her gut. I’d never forget the surprised expression on her face as her lips popped open, the blood pouring from her abdomen as the guard removed his weapon and she slouched to the ground, dying too fast to save.

"We need to get through," I spat and pushed forward, heedless of the crowd pressing in around me. "We have to get to her."

"Warren," my older brother's firm tone emanated from behind me, but I ignored him.

Maurice wasn't a fighter. He would be content to wait it out, to see what happened, to let Adrian handle this herself.

It wasn't that he wasn't protective of her. In fact, Maurice was probably the most protective of us all, but he had far too much faith in his siblings as well and, as the older brother, knew when to take a step back and allow us to learn a painful lesson. This wasn’t the time for that.

Cosmo wasn't about teaching lessons. He was about power and pain.

Nothing else. I'd be damned if I watched another person I loved fall to his particular brand of evil.

A woman hissed in irritation as I pushed her aside and a child darted out of the way as Dahlia pressed up next to me, clearing the path forward without a word.

I glanced at my wife and gave a grateful nod.

She returned it and kept shouldering through the crowd.

Sophie muttered apologies to those we uprooted as we went but she and Harrison were both forcing the crowd apart as well.

They felt it too, I could see it on their faces and in the slanted set of their brows.

Something wasn't right. Something was brewing. Something was going to happen.

“Tell them, won’t you?” I nearly stumbled at the sound of Adrian's voice crying out above the throng.

I redoubled my efforts at the fear I heard plainly in her tone. I shoved now, threw elbows and growled and pushed my way ahead by any means necessary. That was my sister. My sister needed me.

An instant later, we broke through the front of the crowd to find ourselves stopped by an impenetrable line of priests and acolytes just ahead.

Some stood facing the tunnel. Some stood facing us.

I met the gaze of the one directly ahead of me.

Lips set in a somber frown, he shook his head once in warning.

Craning my neck, I peered over their heads to find her.

She was still there, standing at the entrance of the tenth tunnel.

She was looking at someone further down the line of priests.

I followed her line of vision to see Bria amongst the acolytes, tears streaming down her red face as she shook but held the line.

“Tell Maurice and Warren. Tell my mother. Tell them I did it; I won the Trials. Tell them I’m better off and that I love them,” Adrian's voice cracked and my heart cleaved in two. “Tell them not to mourn for me.”

Bria nodded once. With a roar, I surged forward.

"Warren!" Maurice shouted as a cluster of priests converged upon me, shouting for me to get back, shoving me with robed arms, and kicking at me to force me away from her.

"Adrian!" I screamed. "Adrian, we're here! Come here! Come home!"

But she was gone. I saw the tenth tunnel over their heads as the priests wrestled me back from their line. It was empty.

She was gone.

I slumped, defeated, breathing heavily from the exertion of fighting off six men. I shook my head, not understanding.

"And so go another pair to serve the gods," Cosmo announced, bowing his head.

Every priest and acolyte in the line before us bowed their heads as well. I stared at them, slack jawed in wonder. Serve the gods? What was he talking about? Where was Adrian? Where was my sister?

"Assholes!" someone screamed.

Cosmo's head lifted slowly, deliberately, as his gaze swept across the crowd. His serpentine eyes narrowed on our pocket of disheveled priests and out of breath Third Ringers and a chill ran through me.

It was Harrison who'd said it. The crowd pulled away from him, whispering and wide-eyed as they glanced from Harrison to Cosmo and back.

The patriarch of House Viper cocked his head as a glint of danger entered his gaze.

In it, I saw the man who'd ordered the execution of the innocent people in white who'd simply proclaimed a belief in something other than his precious Geist, who'd worshiped my sister and her partner as saints returned.

Now, their blood stained the cobblestones of the Deck not far away.

"Who dares question the will of the Geist?" Cosmo called out calmly..

"Is it the Geist's will? Or yours?" Harrison spat back.

The crowd pulled even farther away, leaving him to his fate, but I saw the fire ignite within my wife's eyes the moment before she stepped up to his side and raised her chin in defiance of the patriarch of House Viper.

Gasps arose as, a second later, Maurice stepped up next to him as well.

Then I yanked my arm out of the lingering grip of one of the priests and strode up next to Dahlia.

Sophie was next, arguing softly with Graham who begged her not to go.

Then Felix and Noah joined, jaws clenched as they glared at Cosmo.

The patriarch of House Viper’s lips twitched as his eyes scanned the line of angry lower ringers who’d stepped up against him.

His gaze swept to a man on the far side of the Deck who stood elevated on the stairs.

That man was in his middle years with dark reddish hair and deep burgundy clothes.

He shook his head ever so slightly and Cosmo growled.

“It is not our place to question the Geist, boy,” Cosmo spat, glaring at Harrison who stood strong in the center of us. If looks could kill, Harrison would be dead a thousand times over, but they couldn’t.

"The Geist aren’t the ones who pushed her into that tunnel, old man,” Harrison called back, his tone dropping to a low threat I’d never heard from the boy before. “You are.”

Beside me, my wife tensed and stepped closer to me in expectation of a fight. In front of me, the priests did the same, closing ranks and glaring at our little band of misfits while awaiting their orders.

"It is not your place to question me," Cosmo corrected.

I saw the tick in Harrison's jaw, even as Graham reached for his shoulders and tried to pull him back, and knew this wasn't over. It was going to come to blows right here, right now. The Vipers had pushed and pushed and they’d finally gone too far.

My fists clenched at my sides as I glared at the self-proclaimed holy men in front of me, wondering which of them I'd hit first.

"Is there a ceremony I wasn't aware of?" a serene voice called over the crowd.

Everyone around me peered up at the stairs to find the matriarch of House Avus standing at the top, being helped along by her ever-present grandson.

I recognized him. He was the one with the curly hair, the one who'd become Adrian's friend while she was living up there with them, the one who'd attended her birthday party.

I watched him as he frowned down at all of us before assisting his grandmother on the stairs.

I didn't know much about the boy. I'd only spoken a few short sentences to him here or there, but Adrian had known him and she'd trusted him enough to invite him to our home, enough to call him a friend. That was all I needed to know.

"Nascha," Cosmo said the matriarch's name in greeting but his tone made it sound like more of a curse. Even I could tell he wasn't happy to see her.

"What's the meaning of all this, Cosmo?" the matronly figure asked as she took her time getting down the stairs. "Priests and acolytes facing down Third Ringers? This isn't how justice is done in Sanctuary, you know that."

"That boy—" Cosmo spat, pointing at Harrison.

Dahlia, Maurice, and I all closed in protectively around him. The others squeezed in next to us.

"Spoke the truth," Nascha interrupted. "Or do you, indeed, intend to declare yourself the gods’ newest prophet here before the pious?"

The priests in front of us shifted uncomfortably and glanced at one another.

It was the first crack of uncertainty in their wall of servitude.

I turned my attention back to the old woman.

There was something more to the gentle matriarch, something clever I hadn't seen before.

My gaze slid to Milo whose jaw was clenched as he helped Nascha down the last stair and stepped aside, folding his hands in front of him and raising his chin to glare at Cosmo as well.

"I never claimed to be a prophet, Nascha, only to follow the will of the Geist," Cosmo answered, regaining some of his composure once he realized he was losing the crowd.

"As these do not. Dear boy, you can't possibly understand the ancient rites taking place before you now.

The gods must be served and you must be kept from interfering. That is our only purpose here today."

He spread his hands wide and offered an oily smile intended to put us at ease. It didn't.

"Let's put an end to this conflict," he said, though the disdain was evident in his tone. "For Adrian."

My jaw clenched. I wanted to tear through those priests until I reached him.

I wanted to punch him right in the mouth so hard he couldn't say her name ever again.

But he was smiling and holding his hands wide and offering peace.

He knew we couldn't refuse, not without becoming the instigators and earning ourselves a criminal charge and a humbling if not an execution.

Harrison just scoffed, shook his head, turned, and pushed through the crowd behind us.

He was already on his way up the stairs when Graham called out to him and Felix and Noah rushed to join them.

My gaze slid to Dahlia who simply shook her head once.

I nodded, exhaling a breath before striding through the crowd toward the stairs.

Nascha's voice rang out behind us again as we left but I couldn't hear what she was saying.

By the time we reached the top of the stairs to the Third Ring, the crowd below had dispersed. The priests made their way back up to the upper rings and the lower ringers muttered amongst themselves as they went back to work.

"What was he thinking?" Dahlia hissed as soon as we were on the stairs up to the Second.

I turned to her, lifting a brow in surprise.

"You were pretty quick to defend him for someone who doesn't agree," I said, keeping my voice low.

"I will always defend friends," Dahlia answered firmly, that fierce determination I hadn't heard in so long lacing her tone. My chest swelled with something I didn't dare identify just to hear it. "Besides, how could I not when my husband is already punching his way through a line of priests?"

It was her turn to raise a brow in my direction. I only barked out a laugh and clutched my stomach as we began to climb.

"I've always wanted to hit one of them," I told her. "Thought you'd be in agreement with me on that, Dahl."

"I'd do worse if I could," she replied, her tone turning dark in a way that cut off my laughter entirely. "But I can't. And you shouldn't either. You know what they could do to us. You saw what they did to Adrian."

Just like that, my bad mood returned.

"When Adrian comes out of that trial, we'll tell her what happened. She'll have more pull around here as a Champion. She'll be a hero. She'll be able to call Cosmo out on his shit and no one will be able to say a word about it. Gods, they might even move us up to the First Ring."

Dahlia wrinkled her nose and I couldn't help but chuckle again.

"We'll never be one of them, Dahl," I vowed. "I'd never—"

"Warren," someone else spoke.

I turned, stopping just before the gate outside of our Second Ring house, to see Milo standing behind me. Had the boy followed us all the way from the Deck? I blinked at him, brows furrowing in confusion.

"Milo?" I asked, dropping my hand from where it had been reaching for the latch. I turned to fully face him and saw the expression on his face for the first time. My heart tripped over itself. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"There's something you need to know," he said.

I swore I could see tears gathering in the corners of his eyes as Bria emerged from the stairs behind him and her eyes met mine. The sorrow in her expression nearly knocked me off my feet as Milo spoke again.

"It's about the Tenth Trial.”