Metamorphosis—Day 55, hour 10
“Welcome, competitors, to the fourth competition.” Lothaire’s loud, enchanted voice warped and crackled as it filled the arena.
My eyes watered from the punishing winds.
I leaned forward, thigh muscles straining as I fought to stand upright. Hair whipped my face, and I wished I’d taken Sadie up on the hair braiding.
Across the field, a new one-story concrete structure sat ominously.
It was comically small compared to the towering posts it was positioned between. The new building shimmered with the telltale blue of enchantment, and it had floor-to-ceiling black glass facing the field.
It was a one-way mirror.
At least it wasn’t a window. The gods had spared us the humiliation of having to see everyone gawking at us from safety.
The students, judges, and the rest of the competitors were inside the compact structure.
Six of us stood on the outside.
Unprotected.
Discarded by our captains and thrown into the storm to suffer.
Lothaire spoke from somewhere inside the building, and his enchanted voice echoed across the field. “All competitors must stay within the arena bounds until five a.m. tomorrow. There are no other rules for this challenge. You can use any powers you might need. The competition begins now.”
Doesn’t sound too bad. Although, that is a lot of hours.
Thunder boomed.
The grass shook, and I pressed my hand to my chest as my fingers trembled from the rumble vibrating through me.
Black clouds rolled angrily above me.
For the first time since I’d been at the academy, the realm wasn’t scarlet. It was black like night had fallen.
Visibility was shit.
I couldn’t see the ocean at all, even though I knew it was only a hundred feet away. But I could hear it. Waves bellowed as they slammed against the rocky shore.
Sometimes darkness was peaceful.
This wasn’t.
Malevolent noises seemed to multiply in the shadows, and they screamed at me from all directions.
I was hyperaware of how out in the open the arena was. We were sitting ducks with no protection.
Five a.m. tomorrow was hours away.
One, three, five. I counted upward in odd numbers and tried desperately to clear my mind.
The panic remained.
A frigid gust of wind pushed my feet backward, and I dug my heels in as I slid across the grass. Falling to my knees, I scraped my fingernails against the soil to keep myself from being blown away.
I shivered.
Breathed out a puff of frost.
When I’d first stepped outside ten minutes ago, my breath hadn’t condensed.
The temperature of the realm was plummeting.
Rapidly.
“We just have to survive a few hours out here. It shouldn’t be too bad!” someone bellowed to my right, and their voice was swallowed by the wind.
I pushed my whipping hair out of my face and squinted.
Long blond hair billowed around a muscled figure. The man looked up. Glowing purple eyes met mine.
Sadie’s mate Xerxes was hunched over on all fours a few feet away.
I shuffled toward him.
Tensed my abs and dug my numb toes deeper into the soil for purchase. It was excruciating.
By the time I was by his side, my leg muscles were cramping with exhaustion like I’d run thirty miles.
Xerxes’s eyes flickered over my abused skin with pity.
I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. I didn’t know what to say. Out of all four of Sadie’s mates, Xerxes was the one I was the least comfortable with.
He’d been my mother’s assassin.
He’d been the one who’d betrayed us and brought us to the fae realm.
He was the reason “WHORE” was carved into my back. Not that he knew it.
Ascher had at least apologized to me for the part he’d played in kidnapping us into the fae realm. Xerxes had never said anything.
The man hunched over in the wind beside me was the one who’d walked beside my tormentor.
Served her faithfully.
For years.
Xerxes was inches away, but he screamed to be heard. “How could he make you do this when you look like…” He gestured to the bruises and stitches on my face.
For a second, I felt an irrational urge to defend Malum.
I shrugged and yelled back, “It was between me and one of the devils. They’re mates. I never had a chance.”
It didn’t hurt to say the truth aloud.
I felt nothing.
Blank.
Emptiness.
Purple eyes narrowed, and Xerxes scoffed like he disagreed.
“How about you?” I asked.
Xerxes watched me fight with my hair warily, then said, “It was between me and Ascher. I didn’t let Sadie choose. I decided.”
My eyebrows rose with surprise. “Really, but isn’t Sadie usually the one you protect?” Xerxes lay down until his stomach was flat on the grass, and I followed his lead as I yelled over the wind, “I’m sure Ascher could handle himself fine.”
Xerxes jerked his head to the side at my words.
His face pinched as he shouted, “He’s my mate. It doesn’t matter what he can or can’t handle. What matters is that I can suffer so he doesn’t have to.”
Sun god. That was romantic.
Thunder boomed, and the grass shook.
“Must be nice,” I whispered, then closed my eyes and started counting.
There was nothing to do but wait.
Two hours later, the wind and thunder stopped.
I blinked open frozen eyelids.
The lawn was covered in a layer of frost.
Visibility was slightly better. The sky was a light shade of gray, and the realm was no longer shrouded in complete darkness.
Xerxes sat up beside me.
I tried to join him but convulsed with chills. My limbs refused to cooperate, and I manually repositioned my legs beneath me.
Xerxes sighed out a cloud of frost.
My teeth chattered with so much force that my jaw ached.
I knew the signs from my time in the shifter realm.
Hypothermia was setting in.
My clothes were a light material that was stretchy for fighting. It offered no protection from the cold.
Rubbing my hands over my arms, I asked Xerxes, “D-D-Do you think-k-k the s-s-storm is over?”
He offered his hand and helped me up.
“I don’t know,” he said with a grimace.
The four other competitors were spread out across the field. Everyone was looking around warily as they stood up.
I dusted frost off my clothes.
BOOM. SHHHHK.
I went still.
It had sounded like thunder, but there’d been a strange crashing noise at the end.
BOOOOOOOOOM. SHHHHHHHHKKKK.
That was the only warning we got.
Snow fell from the sky in flakes so small they were barely perceivable.
I dusted it off me, water pooling beneath my fingers as it melted.
I turned my hand over.
Stared.
Bright red streaked across pale skin.
My brain glitched.
I gasped as I realized what it was.
Holy mother of the sun god.
I stumbled backward and hyperventilated as I ducked my head low and shielded my eyes.
Xerxes studied my hands and asked, “How did you hurt yourself?” Tiny streaks of crimson trailed down his face.
“I-I-I-It’s-s-s-s.” My teeth chattered from both cold and fear.
“Take a deep breath.” Xerxes coached like I was a weak woman that needed his protection.
Red trailed down his hands.
“Glass,” I whispered as I looked up at him.
Wetness poured down my face.
Xerxes stopped.
Purple eyes widened.
He looked at my blood-covered face in silence as he touched his own crimson-streaked cheek.
“W-W-We need a p-plan.” I took a step toward him and winced as particles of glass lodged in the bottom of my feet.
The visibility was getting worse.
Glass was falling like snow and piling onto the field.
If we left the arena, we failed.
A humorless laugh bubbled up my throat, and my shoulders shook from the cruelty of it all. It was hopeless.
We had to stay out here until morning.
It was freezing.
It was raining glass.
We had no shelter.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.
Xerxes and I startled as the loudest rumble yet burned my eardrums.
We stared at each other.
A shiver racked my frame, and I doubled forward with my arms wrapped around my body.
This was so much worse than the other three competitions.
Across the field, the angel competitor pulled two feathers off her wings and sprinted toward the devil competitor. The devil turned and brandished a flame sword, but he was too late.
She slit his throat with the feathers.
He stumbled.
Fell over.
The angel stabbed both daggers through his neck and pinned the devil to the lawn. Then she sat down beside the body.
I blinked with surprise.
She warmed her hands over his sword. Then pulled the dead body up and over her for protection.
I stepped closer to Xerxes. What a savage woman.
I wished I’d thought of it.
The assassin and leviathan competitors whipped their heads back and forth frantically as they realized how dire the situation was.
My fingers throbbed from cold wounds.
“Think, use your brain!” Jinx’s voice screamed in my mind.
“D-D-Do you think-k-k she’ll sh-sh-share the sword-d-d?” I turned to Xerxes.
“No,” he said. “We need to keep our faces pointed downward so we don’t get glass in our eyes.” He wiped blood off his face ferociously. “And we need a plan.”
I nodded like I was thinking as I stared at the ground.
I had zero thoughts.
We were fucked.
Xerxes nudged me, and I realized he was expecting a plan. When did I become the mastermind of this operation?
I pressed bloody fingers against my temple.
Think, Aran.
We had no resources. The angel had just murdered the devil competitor. The three other competitors were going to get desperate, and desperate people were unpredictable.
We needed protection.
Think.
Wait, there was one resource we could use. I pointed to one of the towering posts on the edge of the arena.
Xerxes grunted in agreement as he understood my meaning.
I took a step backward and stopped as glass cut the bottom of my foot. Xerxes did the same and stilled.
We were about fifty feet away from the post.
“O-O-On three,” I said as I stared at the ground. I didn’t look up to see if Xerxes agreed with me.
I took a deep, fortifying breath.
“Three,” Xerxes said.
We sprinted forward with our faces tucked downward. Shards of glass particles whipped across our exposed skin. It was seconds, but it felt like minutes.
Finally, we collapsed in front of the post.
Trails of blood marked our path across the lawn.
The wind picked up, and we hunkered lower, the post offered a small amount of protection.
It was better than nothing.
I wrapped my arms around my legs and buried my face in my knees. “N-Now we w-w-wait,” I said.
The pinpricks of glass lessened, and I squinted.
Xerxes was sitting in front of me protectively.
“Y-You d-don’t have—”
“Keep your head down,” Xerxes ordered.
He wasn’t an alpha, but his tone had no room for argument, and I immediately complied.
With my bloody cheek smashed against my thigh, a warm feeling grew. Expanded. It filled my chest.
I was so grateful for Xerxes.
So glad I wasn’t facing this alone.
I was so used to living with the kings that I’d forgotten there were people in the world who helped others even if they weren’t close with them.
Glass particles fell from the sky; the temperature continued to drop; wind blew in a frenzy all around.
With nothing left to do but endure, I resumed counting.
And time crawled forward.
Painfully.
Four hours later my limbs were locked together with numbness and everything hurt from the constant weather conditions.
BOOOOOOOOOM. SHHHHHHHHKKKK.
My heart stopped beating at the sudden noise splitting the sky.
I jolted as agony streaked down my arm.
Looked up.
I immediately ducked my head because shards of glass the size of my fist were falling from the sky like daggers.
Pieces of glass piled around my bare feet.
The realm transformed into a crescendo of clattering noises.
I curled in on myself.
Xerxes moved until he was completely cocooning me with his body, and I huddled closer to him with appreciation.
He jerked like he’d been electrocuted, then swore as he ripped a glass shard from his shoulder.
I started to lean closer to him but stopped myself.
My stomach rolled.
Mind racing, my breath came out in shallow pants as the reality of our situation hammered through me.
I analyzed the situation and the pieces clicked together.
I realized what I had to.
For one last moment, I closed my eyes. Leaning forward I took advantage of Xerxes protecting me with his body.
“Do the righteous thing,” Jinx whispered in my head. “Don’t be a coward, you know what to do.”
I rocked back and forth.
“Don’t be a coward, Aran,” I whispered to myself. Don’t think. Just act.
I didn’t move.
Sometimes I hated my brain.
Xerxes jolted against me as another shard of glass buried into his skin.
We still had hours until the next morning.
I pressed numb fingers against my eyes and screamed silently. With situations like these, no wonder I was depressed.
I hunkered lower behind Xerxes.
Jinx’s voice was frantic in my mind. “You’re the bitch who ate her mother’s heart. You’re telling me under difficult circumstances, you can turn to cannibalism, yet you can’t do the right thing when it’s obvious? Embarrassing. You know what to do.”
Xerxes whimpered.
I did know.
I didn’t let myself think about it; I acted.
With numb fingers, I shoved the shifter off me.
I shoved away my protection.
Immediately, glass scoured my skin and sliced through my clothes. It burned. I bit down on my lower lip to swallow a shriek as stitches were sliced. Wounds reopened.
My eyes rolled back in my head.
I fell face forward.
“What are you doing? Get under me!” Xerxes yelled.
“Shift,” I whispered. In my experience, shifters could die from enchanted bullets, ice daggers, and blood loss followed by decapitation.
From the size of the glass shards, it was currently a genuine possibility that Xerxes could die.
He grabbed my arms and tried to pull me beneath him.
I resisted and said with more force, “Shift.” My voice was hard and held no room for argument.
“What?” He stilled.
We both knew that since he was an omega, he didn’t shift into a beast like his alpha mates. He shifted into a tiny cat.
His animal form was small enough that I could protect him.
Of course, that would leave me alone. Unsheltered.
Being able to analyze a situation didn’t mean I had to like the conclusions.
I locked my jaw and refused to stutter.
On frozen lips, I spat, “I can’t die out here. You can. Shift into your omega form right now. I’ll protect you.”
We both whimpered and ducked our heads as the glass fell faster from the sky.
Bloody shards lay in a pile around us.
Twitching and breathing roughly through my mouth, I shoved at the glass beside me until there was nothing but a patch of bloody, frost-covered grass.
“I’m not shifting,” Xerxes said roughly, then ruined it by shrieking through his teeth as a piece of glass protruded from the top of his skull. He ripped it out.
I was going to kill him.
I didn’t have the energy to argue.
I wanted to cry.
“If you die, Sadie will kill herself.” I pulled a shard out of my arm. “She isn’t allowed to die.”
My best friend acted all tough, but we both knew that her mates meant everything to her. They’d all suffered and fought for years. They deserved to love one another and have peace.
She deserved more.
Xerxes’s purple eyes glowed at the mention of his mate, and his expression shattered.
He looked at me with sadness and pity as glass shards rained around us.
“Fucking shift now!” I screamed, and tears poured down my face. “I’ll live no matter what. You won’t!”
Glass sliced through my skin, and it hurt.
So badly.
I sobbed.
I didn’t want to live like this.
By some miracle the air around Xerxes shimmered, and a small, fluffy white kitten poked its head out of a pile of clothes.
He’d transformed into his omega form.
I lunged forward, grabbed his little fluffy body, and pulled him onto the cleared-out patch of grass.
I collapsed on all fours on top of him.
On my hands and knees, he was completely sheltered by my body.
Of course, that meant my back was battered by shards of glass. They slammed against my flesh like missiles and dug deep.
The only mercy was that my body was so cold it muted the pain.
It was all I had.
The wind picked up.
The clattering sound intensified as glass fell faster.
Xerxes mewled quietly.
I pressed the top of my head hard into the icy lawn and bit down on my lower lip as I shrieked into closed lips.
Missiles of pain stabbed my flesh.
I cried.
A raspy tongue streaked across my cheek, and I peeked open one eye to find the most adorable face cleaning blood off me.
“Doesn’t even hurt,” I whispered to the kitten as I forced a laugh. “Feels good.”
Shards buried deeper into my wounds.
I cried.
Xerxes whined.
“Totally.” I choked on a sob. “Doing fine.”
I endured.
Time crawled forward, and my mind wandered as my body suffered.
Intense internal debate culminated with one poignant realization: kittens groomed themselves, so Xerxes had most likely eaten his own butt at some point.
I grimaced as he continued to lick my face.
This was the last straw.
“Okay, I’m clean,” I snapped when the little white face got way too close to my lips for my liking.
It made a small growling noise of distress.
My vision wavered, and I almost collapsed as a thick chunk of glass lodged in my shoulder.
“Fine,” I gasped shakily. “Keep cleaning.”
The kitten purred and licked my eyeball with its sandpaper tongue.
Great, now I was blind in one eye.
How mad would Sadie be if I “accidentally” crushed her mate to death? She’d recover. Eventually.
Purring, white fluff jostled closer to groom my forehead. A tiny wet nose booped against mine.
Clothes sliced off my body, my back was skewered with glass, a kitten licked my eyebrow, and a peculiar sense of relief blossomed.
At least I could save one person.
Glass cut through muscle, cartilage, and bone. I sobbed and shivered.
“I’m so proud of you,” Jinx’s voice said in my mind.
Warmth blossomed across my chest as my teeth chattered from the cold.
I hadn’t failed Xerxes.
Not like everyone failed me.
And just maybe…that was enough.
It had to be.
It was all I had left.
