It looked like a dress but had built-in shorts and a built-in bra,thank God. It hung across my shoulders without sleeves, bunched in layers at the waist, and fell to my knees.
“There are no shoes—you don’t get to wear them during the crucible,” Patro said, then he left so I could change.
I dressed in the strange garment, checked to make sure the hair ties covered the marks on my wrists.
“I’m r-ready,” I called out.
I wasn’t.
The Crimson Duo grabbed my arms, and we leaped away in a cloud of smoke and agony.
When I got my bearings—my toes squished into grass, and the Dolomites Coliseum gleamed gold far off in the distance—I glanced over. The men were already gone.
Booms echoed as Spartan mentors arrived and left.
Silence descended.
Nine boys stood next to me in a line, all cold-blooded murderers with death on their hands.
Only one boy in the group wore a gold laurel crown. Of the three Olympian heirs in the massacre, he was the only one who’d survived.
I turned around—my breath caught.
An architectural marvel was carved into the side of the mountain before us. It was an edifice of tall colonnades, gold foil, arched gables, and water fountains that stretched hundreds of feet above our heads.
We were standing on the lawn of the Spartan War Academy.
The crucible had begun.
Chapter 8
The Spartan War Academy
Alexis
I shivered in the damp cave air.
Even though it was the middle of July, the mountain rocks were icy beneath my bare feet.
General Cleandro—an imposing bald man in a long black toga—led us down a shallow flight of stairs, which went straight into the carved-out mountain.
A mammoth hawk the size of a midsize dog sat on his shoulders and glared at us with beady eyes.
Good birdy. Please don’t use your razor-sharp talons to scalp me.
The hawk snapped its beak like it was hungry for my brain juices.
“Disgusting creature,” Nyx hissed into my ear, and I had to agree.
In the center of the short stairwell, a narrow basin was cut through the rock, and long crimson candles hung from the ceiling dripping wax into the channel.
Dim light flickered.
Wax ran red.
Evocative music intensified as we descended into the darkness, and for the first time in a while, it wasn’t in my head.
At the end of the stairs, was a long cavernous room.
