The Legionnaire Games: Day 33, hour 10
John, Scorpius, and I trudged forward to meet our fate.
Malum and the demons headed toward the stands, while the three of us headed toward the side of the arena where the other competitors were waiting to begin.
Lothaire stood on the side of the arena. He gestured for us to stand on the edge of the lawn.
Across the arena, students waved their arms and opened their mouths, but the sound didn’t travel.
The academy loomed behind them like an evil specter on the horizon.
Even the wind was quieter than usual.
Around us, posts jutted into the dark cloud cover, and the usually gray-red sky was almost black. It looked like it was going to rain, which hadn’t happened since I’d been in this realm.
“Students are speculating a storm is coming, and I think they might be right,” John said as he gestured toward the sky.
Everybody thought they were weathermen these days.
Personally, I had bigger problems to worry about than the clouds. But maybe that was just me.
John looked grim as he tipped his head back and stared at the gloomy sky. “But I hope they’re wrong. No one wants that.”
“Oh yes, I can practically taste the increased humidity in the air,” I said sarcastically. “Very concerning.”
“You can feel it too?” John asked excitedly. “I thought the dew point was higher lately, but I wasn’t sure.”
Sometimes it was hard to be a good person.
Lothaire shouted, “Line up competitors behind this white line.” He pointed down at paint that was streaked across black rocks right before the lawn began and nodded up to Lyla and Dick.
The representatives sat on their platform, which floated above the stands.
After he was satisfied we’d all lined up behind the line, he walked around the perimeter of the lawn toward the other side of the arena.
Why wouldn’t he just walk across?
Lothaire seemed to take forever.
Nervous apprehension bubbled in my gut as I tapped my foot, picked at my lip, and waited for the hammer to fall. I hated not knowing what we were about to do, and my knees and feet ached more the longer I stood still.
I wanted to take a nap.
My breath was slightly uneven, and we hadn’t even begun. Great.
As we waited for Lothaire to make his way slowly around the arena, I studied the other competitors. Upsettingly, I was the only person who’d also been in the last competition.
Sadie’s mates, Cobra and Ascher, stood beside John and me.
Ascher gave me a friendly thumbs-up, and I tipped my head to him in solidarity because I was too nervous to return the gesture.
Next to him, Cobra mimed slitting my throat in the universal “you’re dead” symbol.
I mimed grabbing his balls and ripping them off.
Ascher glared at both of us.
Instead of being intimidated, Cobra took it as a challenge. With a few well-placed hand and feet movements, he graphically depicted shooting me in the forehead. Then he mimed stomping on my corpse.
I rolled my eyes at his lack of creativity.
Last time I took a man seriously, I lost my will to live. Yes, it was my tutor when I was a child. No, I still had not gotten over it.
My personality traits were: (1) spiteful, (2) bitch.
When Cobra started making another explicit hand gesture, Ascher smacked him and turned to me. “Sorry about him. He’s not house-trained yet.”
The look Cobra gave him would make lesser men faint.
Ascher just grinned and patted him on the back with a tattooed hand, his smile not dropping even when Cobra’s eyes gained slit pupils and the jewels in his skin flickered to shadow snakes.
It was still one of the great mysteries of the realms how my darling Sadie had seen the psychotic snake bastard and thought, That one’s mine, I love him.
It was one of the main reasons I insisted she go to therapy.
Since she hadn’t left him yet, the therapy was not working. Sure, they were fated mates with a soul bond connecting them or something disgustingly sappy like that. I understood exactly what that meant.
She had the perfect opportunity to crush his spirit.
He’d be so devastated.
Cobra opened his mouth and began to say something vulgar, but John forcibly turned me away from the shifters.
He had a strange, pinched expression on his face. “Ignore them. It’s all going to be fine.”
John switched positions with me so he was next to the shifters and I was standing next to Scorpius.
Scorpius sneered, “No, it will not be fine.” And I jumped as he spoke. “Stay behind me when we start,” he barked.
I blinked.
Then blinked again.
Did he really think I was going to hide behind him for protection? Did he really think I was that type of woman?
John grunted in disagreement at the absurd idea.
Although, I had to go with the evil blind dude for the first part.
You could taste it in the air.
You could see it in the dark clouds.
You could hear it in the unnatural silence.
Something awful was about to go down, and we were caught in the middle of it.
Lambs to the slaughter.
The silence from the normally loud student section made the hair stand up on the back of my neck.
My skin prickled with warning.
I crossed my fingers and my toes as we waited to hear what the challenge would be.
Please let it be physical combat. Battle I could handle. Hell, a little adrenaline-driven bloodshed might even be therapeutic.
Or maybe it was a race? That would also be nice.
Finally, Lothaire stopped walking around the perimeter of the area. He stood directly across from us in front of the bleachers, and his voice boomed like he was speaking from directly above us.
“The last person to cross this line loses.” He pointed to a white line on the rocks at his feet.
I exhaled with relief.
It was a race.
Easy enough.
Lothaire continued, “Anyone who remains on the lawn after five minutes will perish.”
I choked.
Well, if that wasn’t ominous.
Huge black numbers appeared, floating in the air above Lothaire: “5:00.” Five minutes.
“BEGIN!” Lothaire’s voice boomed from above.
There was no time to process what was happening. All of us bolted forward off the white line and—
Pain.
As soon as I stepped onto the lawn, I fell to my knees like I’d run into a wall.
I writhed.
Gagged and grabbed the sides of my face.
My neck burned like it had been set on fire and pumped with bullets. At the same time.
My eyes watered.
Muscles tensed.
Brain ached.
Bodies contorted on the ground around me.
Hyperventilating for what felt like an eternity, I saw a glimpse of the timer through my throbbing eyes. Four minutes, forty seconds.
My senses struggled to process just what was going on. I reached shaking hands forward but didn’t feel a physical barrier.
Somehow it hurt to move forward.
Around me blurry competitors tried to crawl.
Pain. Pain. Pain.
I blacked out for a second, then opened my eyes. Four minutes, ten seconds.
The worst pain was on the sides of my neck, and my stomach churned as I pushed my fingers against my skin. I pressed harder, and the pain lessened for a second.
My hands crawled upward to my ears. Something warm and sticky was pouring out of them.
Nausea, dizziness, muscles cramping.
It was too much.
Face pressed into the ground, I sobbed as once again I blacked out.
Consciousness returned in a tortured rush.
Squirming, I continued writhing on all fours, desperate to ease the discomfort.
Wrenched my neck back to look forward. Three minutes, thirty seconds.
I pressed my finger into my ear, and the pain went from a one thousand out of ten to 999.
Sound.
It’s sound.
My thoughts were like sludge, like I was squeezing them through a tiny straw, but some subconscious part of my brain put the pieces together.
There were dark enchantments that violated the Angel War Crime Convention. Enchantments that broke the sound barrier and incapacitated entire cities during war. Broke eardrums and ruptured arteries in brains.
A painful way to die.
The enchantments were activated in a closed environment, then air particles were accelerated until they reached the speed of sound.
The effects were horrific.
And I was experiencing the trauma firsthand.
Liquid streamed down my face as I looked up to see Cobra hauling Ascher forward across the lawn in front of everyone.
The jewels embedded in Cobra’s skin had transformed into hundreds of shadow snakes. He glanced back at me, snake eyes flickering.
He mouthed, “Get up and move.”
Snakes didn’t have ears. Was that helping him? He seemed unaffected.
Meanwhile it felt like I was dying as I tried to move forward.
Cobra’s ascent proved it was possible.
I clapped my hands over my ears and staggered to my feet, moaning at the agony of moving. The ultrahigh sound pounding against me was so horrendous that it felt like wind was pushing me back.
My skull vibrated, and everything trembled.
The decibel level was so extreme that it had physical properties.
I whimpered. Knowledge of what was going on didn’t change the reality that I was vibrating in the middle of a field with blood gushing from my burning ears. It didn’t lessen the agony.
John was writhing on the ground next to me.
Slapping at his hands to get his attention, I showed him my covered ears, and he mimicked me. Nodding in understanding, he dragged himself up.
The timer counted down mercilessly. Three minutes.
All around us, competitors were hobbling to their feet and trying to pull up their teammates.
Cobra and Ascher were the only ones who had made any progress. They were already halfway across the lawn.
Two minutes, fifty seconds.
How was time going by so fast when every second felt like hell?
I swallowed down my panic and shuffled forward. The finish line was about a hundred yards away, and we would have to walk fast if we were going to make it.
I took three jagged steps forward, then glanced back.
As my neck screamed in pain at the jerky movement, my eyes widened.
Scorpius was passed out with a large pool of blood spreading beneath his head. His large pale body was completely lifeless, blind eyes wide open, staring at nothing. Even the eye tattoo on his neck was shut tight.
Tara stared at me with sightless eyes; Horace gurgled as he went still; Sari glared at me with disgust.
Fuck.
I looked back at the timer. Two minutes, thirty seconds.
Other competitors were trying to help up their teammates. Some were puking blood, while others sobbed and refused to move.
The vibrations shaking through my bones were making it hard to see. Thick wetness poured down my face, and I knew it wasn’t tears.
My already weakened knees screamed in protest as I moved.
If I tried to carry Scorpius, I might not make it.
A headache split my temples like an ax was being bashed against my brain.
There was no time to plan.
I trembled with adrenaline and pain.
John motioned for me to move forward, then grimaced when he saw what I was staring at.
Two mammoth furry creatures hobbled past. They had wiry gray hair, long snouts, and mouths full of jagged teeth. They dragged themselves on all fours across the field. The leviathan competitors.
I ignored them and strained every pulled muscle in my body as I staggered toward the pale devil. Fell on my knees beside him.
Vision wavering.
Head splitting.
Arms shaking.
I dragged Scorpius’s arm across my shoulder and hauled us both upward.
It was like lifting three boulders at once. Stitches popped, and blood gushed down my limbs. We vibrated together, and his immense, muscled physique was the heaviest thing I’d ever supported.
He was dead weight.
Vomit dribbled from my lips.
His blood mixed with mine.
I squeezed my thighs for power and dragged his heavy body forward. One step at a time. Toward the other side of the arena.
One minute, fifty-nine seconds.
Dark spots dotted my vision.
I could barely make out competitors walking forward in front of me like they were fighting through an invisible wind.
Cobra carried Ascher across the white line and collapsed on the far side of the field.
That was the last thing I saw before I closed my eyes. It hurt too much to see.
I just concentrated on one step.
At a time.
I shoved us through the vibrations that hurt like pain but blew like wind.
The weight leaning against me lessened. Either Scorpius started walking or John was helping me. I didn’t open my eyes to check.
As I pushed forward, my toes cramped, then my calf muscles, then my quads.
Each step was like stabbing my foot down across metal spikes.
Everything hurt.
The vibration got worse.
Sweat, blood, and tears poured down my face.
I trembled.
Just wanted to collapse and give up, lay myself across the lawn and accept death.
Why did I want to live so badly? I couldn’t remember.
Hands dragged me forward, and if it weren’t for the support, I would have fallen to my knees in misery.
It was like walking underwater, but the water was lightning electrocuting my cells, a thousand hits per second.
I couldn’t do this.
“You should quit. You’re nothing but a pathetic, whiny child. Prove me right,” Jinx’s voice sounded in the deepest recess of my agony-rendered mind.
Fuck you, I snarled back.
I wouldn’t quit, just so I could show her she knew nothing about me.
I spat an unknown substance out of my mouth.
Darkness pressed all around.
But I didn’t stop.
I’d show Jinx.
Step.
By.
Step.
An eternity passed.
How have we not crossed the line yet?
I blinked my eyes open furiously, white patches sparking in my vision. We were about twenty yards from the finish line.
Twenty-nine seconds.
I turned my head. John was next to me, holding up most of Scorpius’s body weight.
We weren’t going to make it.
Faster. Muscles as hard as bones, vibrations slamming my teeth together, I leaned forward and hauled the dead weight as fast as I could.
John moved faster next to me.
Fifteen seconds.
We weren’t going to make it.
John started to run, and he dragged me along.
My ears and neck burned like they were being shredded to pieces.
Ten seconds.
So close, but we were still too far.
John ran quicker.
Five seconds.
A few more steps.
Too many steps. We wouldn’t make it.
Three seconds.
The weight lifted off me as John threw Scorpius’s body across the line.
Two seconds.
The momentum carried them both past me. John turned around midair, and his eyes widened.
As if in slow motion, he reached his arm backward and grabbed the fabric of my shirt.
One second.
John’s momentum pulled me forward.
The timer read, “0:00.”
The agony stopped.
I was lying on hard rocks.
I’d made it.
We made it.
I blacked out.
Consciousness returned as my muscles cramped. The pain refused to let me have a single moment of respite.
Lifting my trembling fingers, I wiped at my face, and my fingers came back streaked with red.
A ringing noise echoed, and muffled sounds battered all around.
Everything was a blur.
Suddenly, Lothaire was hauling me to my feet and wiping blood with his shirt. John stood next to him and stared at me with worry as he tried to tell me something.
I couldn’t hear what he was saying.
Everything spun as I looked over his shoulder. A lone figure was slumped on the lawn.
Holy sun god.
My stomach plummeted.
Long angel wings were spread beneath him.
He’d been left by his teammates.
Gore exploded across the field as the body exploded.
He’d been left to die.
I looked down at where Scorpius was stirring at my feet. That could have been him.
Muffled screams with a horrible high-pitched feedback noise had me covering my ears.
Around us, every member of the angel legion fell to their knees and covered their ears. They bowed their heads.
The angel captain, who had two different-colored eyes, twitched violently. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he mouthed like he was speaking to someone in his head. “I accept the punishment.”
He convulsed on the ground like he’d been electrocuted.
I was in too much pain to care about what was happening to them. After all, he’d left his teammate on the field.
Lothaire stopped holding me up, and I staggered to support myself. John said something as he leaned down into my face, but he didn’t make a sound. Blood poured out of his eyes and ears.
He looked heinous.
Lothaire’s enchanted voice boomed so loudly that it broke through the high-pitched noise that was ringing in my ears. Still, it sounded like he whispered, “Arabella was the loser of the competition.”
Goose bumps erupted across my arms as my knees gave out. John lunged forward and caught me before I collapsed.
“The gods have ordered her punishment. She is to…” Lothaire trailed off and didn’t finish.
The ringing feedback made me wince.
I broke out in a cold sweat.
There was the sound of a scuffle, and someone shouted, “No!”
Lyla’s smooth voice replaced Lothaire’s, and she said, “For her punishment, the gods order Arabella to have penetrative intercourse with her legion mate John on the field until completion. Now.”
No.
John pushed me away, and I fell to my knees.
Cold rocks stabbed against my numb skin.
“Failure to comply will result in her being removed from the competition,” Lyla said with no inflection.
Please. No. Not this.
“Begin.”
I vomited up partially digested eggs.
