Rebirth—Day 58, hour 10
I was sandwiched between the twins.
We followed the rest of our legion as we walked toward the arena.
The rocks from the island were sharp beneath my callused feet. Water lazily drifted out with the tide, and a few white clouds meandered across the maroon sky.
It was a calm day.
If it weren’t for the occasional glass shard glinting off black rock, I would have believed the storm had been a figment of my imagination. A horrible nightmare.
It was easy to imagine that I was trapped in a psych ward somewhere drawing on the wall muttering about legions and the gods.
Pain lanced across the wounds covering my back as if to punctuate how real it all had been. Bruises and cuts throbbed with every step I took.
John’s arm was draped over my shoulder, and he fingered the necklace he’d given me.
I narrowed my eyes up at him. Was he my best friend in the psych ward? Or maybe he was my rival and we both had a crush on the same male nurse.
Sun god, I hoped the nurse chose me.
Luka glanced down at me every few steps. His gaze flitted over my face and John’s arm.
John nudged me. “We got this, Aran. Everything’s going to be fine.” He squeezed me to offer encouragement.
“Are we locked up in a room together?” I blurted up at him.
John didn’t falter he just flashed his dimples. “I hope so, that sounds pretty hot.”
Luka frowned and said nothing.
I sighed and let it go. Pulled my pipe out of my pants and closed my eyes while I inhaled greedily. Drugs flooded my lungs, and my hands trembled at my sides.
Pretending wouldn’t change reality.
With every step I took toward the arena, the noose around my throat tightened until I gasped desperately for air.
I asphyxiated.
It wasn’t funny anymore.
Squeezing my eyes as tight as possible, I stopped walking and whispered, “I can’t do this again.”
I fell to my knees.
Gravity crushed me to the rocks.
I shivered.
A person could only take so much.
I couldn’t step into that arena. Not again.
I refused.
Warmth surrounded me. I blinked, and I was wrapped up in powerful arms.
John and Luka knelt next to me and hugged me like they could squeeze the fear away.
“Aran, listen to me.” John pressed his lips against my temple. “It’s only one more challenge. One more contest and you’ve survived.” He breathed harshly. “What’s been done to you is”—his voice cracked—“so fucked up. But we just have to play their game a little longer. And I promise you, once we’re free, we’ll hunt down the gods to get retribution, if that’s what you want.”
I pressed my head against Luka’s chest.
“But I can’t,” I said pathetically.
Luka said gruffly, “We can leave this place right now. You don’t need to do this.”
John and I stilled.
“Really?” I pulled my head back and stared into his hooded dark eyes.
Luka nodded. “Just say the word. And we’re gone.”
John had told him about the word on my back, and ever since he’d found out about it, he’d been falling all over himself to help me in any way he could.
John nuzzled against the side of my face and sighed tiredly. “Technically we could leave, but the gods will hunt her. It won’t be safe.”
“We’ll keep her safe,” Luka said fiercely.
My eyes widened.
The twins held me tenderly and casually offered to defy the gods.
The man crucified to the sacred tree flashed through my mind. John and Luka would risk that for me.
The choking sensation around my throat transformed into something warm.
Moisture welled in my eyes, and a tear dripped across the bruises and cuts that marred my face.
I blurted out, “I love you guys.” My face warmed with embarrassment.
I tried to hide my eyes behind my arm, but John pulled my wrists back so I couldn’t hide.
“Aran, look at me,” he said roughly.
Tentatively I looked up at him.
“I’ve already told you why I call you bestie.” John’s smile wobbled. “Because I love you, dude. I have since the moment I woke up to find you above me on the cot, choking me out. The moment you opened your perfect lips and blamed me for your violence, I was a goner.”
A watery laugh escaped my lips.
John pulled me closer. “I loved you when you were a pretty boy. I loved you as a breathtaking woman, and I love you right now, my little wounded warrior. I will always love you.”
Luka nodded silently beside him.
Tears poured from my eyes.
It all felt so romantic.
We were teammates training and competing in awful circumstances. The twins never asked to date me or bought me flowers.
Maybe I was delusional, but I couldn’t imagine caring for someone as much as I cared for them at this moment.
I choked on a sob.
Wasn’t love caring for someone more than you cared about yourself? It was about being there for them. Standing up for them. Laughing with them. Love made the darkest days feel brighter.
The twins were that for me.
Sometimes it felt like I’d just met Luka, then I remembered I’d known him for months. Lived beside him. He’d been there as much as John.
I didn’t care that we didn’t call one another “baby” and whisper soft words as we touched each other. I didn’t care if John meant love in a platonic, friendship way.
I loved them like lovers did.
People were annoying.
They weren’t.
Case in point, I was having a panic attack and blubbering pathetically, but they were holding me up.
They always held me up.
From the first challenge where we’d been thrown into the sea to suffer, John had held me up for hours. When he’d left, Luka had done the same.
Memories of the punishment with John made my stomach hurt, and I blurted out, “But I’ve hurt you.” I couldn’t go another day not knowing if he was okay.
John traced his thumb gently under my eye and caught a tear. “Aran, you’ve never hurt me. You saved me.”
My lips trembled.
Luka wrapped his arms around both of us and said, “Same.”
I wept.
The universe had blessed my life when it had created not one but two of these amazing men.
I wasn’t alone.
Luka cleared his throat as he rubbed his chin across the top of my hair. John’s eyes were suspiciously shiny as he continued to stroke his fingers under my eyes.
“What are you three doing?” Malum ruined the moment by barking angrily, “We need to get to the arena. We don’t have time for this.”
John and Luka didn’t move.
“What do you want to do?” John asked me like Malum hadn’t spoken.
I wiped away my tears and pinched my cheeks, then used the shoulders of the twins as a crutch to pull myself to my feet.
They stood up with me.
Luka pushed me behind him like he was protecting me from Malum.
“We don’t have time for these theatrics,” Malum sneered, and flames shot across his temples in a creepy crown while his mates flanked him.
Orion stared at me without blinking. Scorpius scowled with his arms crossed over his wide chest.
The demons looked at me with sympathy, then turned to glare at Malum.
It felt like I had people on my side.
I leaned forward, and for a long moment, I pressed my forehead against Luka’s back and let him shelter me from my problems.
Taking a ragged breath, I ripped myself away from the twins.
I stood up straight and sauntered lazily toward Malum. “Sorry for my theatrics.” I tossed my hair over my shoulder. “Some of us have had some unpleasant experiences in the arena.”
As I walked past, I raised my hand to my head and gave Malum a middle finger salute.
“I am still your captain. You will show me respect,” he shouted behind me.
I didn’t look back.
Gone was the blushing man.
He was angry.
“Go fuck yourself, Captain.” I waved at him with my third fingers.
He growled like a wild animal.
I kicked a rock at Malum. “Can you stop lollygagging? We have a showcase to compete in.”
Sun god, messing with him filled me with an immense amount of personal satisfaction.
There was a loud crack as said rock slammed dead center against his flaming chest.
Malum exploded into flames, but he didn’t move. He arched his brow slowly like he was taunting me.
I narrowed my eyes back. The irrational urge to scream at him, hit him, yell at him until he released his flames and lost all control overwhelmed me.
I tapped my foot and pretended to examine an invisible watch on my wrist. “Oh, look, it’s time for you to pull the stick out of your ass.” I pursed my lips. “Also, we’re going to be late.”
Malum growled, and I smirked.
Getting under his skin always gave me little bursts of pleasure.
I wanted him furious. Uncontrolled. At my mercy.
Before Malum could respond, Zenith stomped forward. “Let’s go. Enough with this bullshit. It’s getting old.”
Everyone reluctantly followed him.
“Zenith for captain,” I said loudly.
Malum choked and stumbled.
I smirked.
“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” John whispered down at me as he and Luka resumed flanking me like they were my personal bodyguards.
I gave him a manic smile. “Of course, why would you ask?”
Luka grunted.
They could see right through me.
John wiggled his eyes suggestively. “So, tell me about this room we’re in.”
I laughed and told him about my theories. I told him we were competing over a hot nurse.
“No way,” John shook his head. “If anything, we’re both fucking him. That’s the only thing that makes sense.”
A sharp jolt of pain lanced my spine.
I ignored it.
As we walked toward the lawn, adrenaline and fear mixed until I practically vibrated with energy.
When we made it to the arena, the student section chanted, “Let’s go, academy legion.” They stomped their feet in unison like this was a sporting event and not literal hell.
Every day, I hated people a little more.
The other legions sat beside them and scowled at us. The angel with heterochromia spat on the ground, and he mouthed, “Sinful blood.”
I rolled my eyes and turned away.
In the middle of the field, six people waited for us.
My breath caught. Jinx looked impossibly small pressed against Jax’s side like the child she was.
Anger made my chest throb from the force of my heartbeat. My skin felt too tight for my body as a whiplash of emotions boomeranged through me.
If I were Malum, I would have exploded into flames.
She shouldn’t be here.
Sun god, she’s only thirteen years old.
This was so wrong.
Lothaire’s voice echoed, “Welcome to the showcase round. To begin, each competitor is to climb to the top of a post. Further instructions will be given at the top.”
No one moved.
All of us looked around at one another warily as the silent question hung loudly in the air. Were they going to make us jump?
“Now, competitors!” Lothaire shouted, and we each moved reluctantly to a post.
I focused on my nails, and a now-familiar zap of energy traveled down my spine. Sharp ice daggers erupted from my nail beds.
The kings similarly brandished their claws. Ink dripped from the demons’ hands and formed into a row of eight shiny black daggers. They tossed two each to John and Luka, who nodded their thanks.
Across the field, the shifter legion was in a huddle arguing over something. How is Jinx going to climb?
The only power she’d ever manifested was when her jaw had dropped open in the beast realm and her scream momentarily paralyzed people. Also, she apparently could make people forget things.
None of that would help her climb the wooden post that towered hundreds of feet into the cloud cover.
Physically she was scrawny and weak.
Before I could walk over and try to help, Sadie shifted into a saber-toothed tiger and tossed Jinx onto her back like a doll.
The shifter men ripped off their shirts and gave them to Jax. He tied them into a rope, then wrapped it tightly around Sadie’s neck and Jinx’s body.
After inspecting the harness for what felt like forever, Jax nodded.
I held my breath as Sadie leaped off the ground and grabbed the post with all fours.
Jinx screamed but didn’t fall. Thank the sun god.
“Are you okay to climb?” Malum asked, and I realized the kings were standing, waiting for me.
He was staring at me like he was waiting for me to admit I’d been secretly a damsel in distress this entire time.
I rolled my eyes and stabbed my razor-sharp claws into the posts.
“Be careful,” Scorpius snapped at me as he started to climb.
I stabbed unnecessarily hard into the wood and called back, “Worry about yourself.”
“Stop talking. You’re wasting your energy,” Malum snarled angrily.
I tipped back and yelled, “Okay, got it!” as loud as I could just to make it clear I was wasting energy.
Malum growled, and I smiled. The four of us stabbed our claws into the posts and hauled. Upward. Straight into the cloud cover.
Unlike the first time I’d climbed it, it wasn’t easy.
Every pull of my muscles reopened stitches on my back, and the irrational fear that my organs were going to spill out of my numerous wounds had me breathing roughly as I climbed.
When I finally made it to the top, I collapsed onto the post with a relieved gasp.
Fluffy white clouds drifted below, and everything was eerily quiet and still.
There was no wind up this high.
The eclipse appeared ten times larger. If I reached my fingers up, I reckoned I could touch it. Instead of its usual dark red, the air was a light pink like a sunset at a beach in the fae realm.
Everything was prettier up high.
Softer.
I wanted to close my eyes, spread my arms wide, and take a nap on the fluffy cloud below.
Across the way, there was a commotion as Jinx climbed off Sadie’s back.
Jinx collapsed onto her butt and tucked her legs against her chest. She shook back and forth, and her teeth chattered with fear.
An angry bear roared as Sadie flung her furry body off Jinx’s post. She sailed at least twenty feet through the air toward an empty post.
My heart went into my throat.
Sadie’s momentum pulled her over the side of the post.
At the last second, her claws stopped her progress and hung still. She clawed herself up and plopped her fluffy white ass down. Her tongue lolled out of her mouth as she delicately licked her paw.
She delicately stuck out her hind leg and licked her privates.
No one ever accused her of being classy.
I let my head fall back with a crack.
At this rate, I was going to have heart problems from too much stress.
“Now the showcase truly begins,” Lyla said from a floating platform nearby.
I didn’t bother to look over and acknowledge that inane statement.
If the next word out of her mouth was “jump,” then I was joining the underground radical atheist fae cult. I’d secretly always liked their message about how we were all going to die and no one was going to save us.
It really rang true with me.
If I jumped now, I’d be bedridden for weeks. My bones still hurt from the first competition, and I’d been much healthier back then.
No way was I jumping.
They’d have to push me.
No one could convince me to subject myself to that type of pain.
Not again.
Lyla said, “The gods have requested that the three kings showcase their powers right here and now. They want to see if you can fight alongside the shifter legion without unanticipated casualties. They want to see if your legions are compatible.”
My stomach dropped. Unanticipated casualties.
“What?” Malum asked incredulously as he stood up straight. “We can’t.”
I sat up.
Sadie finally stopped grooming herself.
“You will release your powers now, or you will be treated as a deserter,” Lyla said with no inflection.
I lay back down and cracked my head on the post.
I prepared for the worst.
