Kid looked back to the entry the guards had escorted him through, wondering if all the noise would rouse any concern from them, but they stood beside the door, chanting with the crowd, laughing and slapping one another as they seemed to be taking bets on the outcome. It was another reminder to Kid that despite all the advantages immortals had over mortals, they were just as terrible, as primitive, as sadistic.
“Volunteers, please join me,” Rand called out, his authoritative voice blasting as it echoed through the room.
Treycore, who had remained still while the higherlings and fallens had transformed the room into a cage match, stepped toward Kid and Rand.
The Goliath higherlings walked from the side of the room, joining at Treycore’s side. Three others who had accepted the challenge, two fallens and a higherling, gathered on the other side of Treycore, opposite of the Goliaths, as though they wanted to keep as far away from the beasts as possible.
“Weapons are prohibited,” Rand said. “Outside of that, don’t be shy about biting anyone’s wings or doing whatever’s necessary to win this thing. I’ll count down from three, and when I’m finished, I’m eager to watch my friends…and Treycore…tear each other apart. But remember, the great prize is not the pathetic mortal I have before you, but shoving in the Pride-of-the-Almighty’s face when you are fucking his toy, and knowing that he must suffer as he watches you defile something he clearly cherishes far too dearly. Perhaps, Treycore, when he is ours to do with as we wish, you will recall what it is like not to have everything in all the realms that you ever wanted.”
If only these bastards fucking knew.
Applause and laughter clamored together, filling the room. Those immortals were reveling in Treycore’s fall from grace and privilege. Kid could understand why they cheered, but they didn’t know Treycore the way he did. Didn’t understand the life he lived was not as some holy statue in Heaven, but living among the lowliest on Earth.
Treycore sized up his competition—all at least equal in strength.
Kid didn’t doubt he’d try to put in a good fight, but he didn’t believe he could be saved, not when everyone there had it out for him.
It was a game of Steal-the-Mortal-from-Treycore, so regardless of who won, Kid lost.
***
Treycore glared at his enemies, the bastards who stood between him and Kid, who could potentially not just injure Kid, but kill him. Rand had been right when he’d said they wouldn’t threaten his life the way they would threaten Kid’s. Regardless of how the Almighty had allowed him to end up in this place, they all knew the Almighty would be fine with punishment for His Treycore, but not annihilation. And pity the soul who would endure the Almighty’s wrath for trying to vanquish him from creation.
Still, he would endure one hell of a beating in the battle that was about to ensue. Despite the odds being against him, he wasn’t giving up, not when the stakes were so high—not when it was about protecting Kid.
The two higherlings on his right, towering over him, wore fierce expressions on their crooked faces—faces that looked as though what the Almighty had given them in stature had been taken from them in aesthetics. They looked down upon him, their lips curled upward as if they seemed amused that Treycore was willing to allow himself to be pitted against them in a fight.
The fallens and higherling to his left were more of a match to his own build. Had he been one-on-one with any of them, he would have been confident—known he stood a chance at winning Kid away from them.
He eyed Kid, still in Rand’s headlock. That was his inspiration, what would be his primary reminder of how important it was to win the battle. Since Kid was worth fighting for, worth dying for.
What a fucking crime it was that there was a real battle going on beyond the walls of the Nest—as the immortal and mortal realms were threatened with a war that would extend far beyond the horrors of the one they experienced hundreds of thousands of years before. But they didn’t care. They were caught up in their own pathetic lives, which were about little more than finding ways to pass the days, to amuse themselves during their captivity.
“Three, two, one,” rushed past Rand’s lips, clearly to rouse excitement in the contestants of this twisted game, as well as the audience that called out, filling the room with a loud ambiance as the competing higherlings and fallens turned to Treycore.
It was as he’d suspected—they would all go for him, and once he was out of the way, turn on one another to decide who would claim victory over his Kid.
Rand dragged Kid with him to the wall on Treycore’s left.
One of the mammoth higherlings went for Treycore, who knelt down and dashed forward, tackling the higherling’s leg. The giant fell to his side, landing on one of the fallen fighters who had been coming up behind Treycore. As the higherling crushed the fallen beneath his weight, the fallen cried out in agony. The colossal higherling pushed the heel of his hand against the floor, rising up before snatching the fallen by the hair and bashing his face into the stone floor, apparently looking to remove some of the competition since the opportunity had presented itself.
The room spurred to life with cries of excitement and delight as blood rushed from the fallen’s head. With his eyes and mouth wide as he cried out in terror, a few more blows were all that was necessary before he fell unconscious. Or at least, Treycore hoped he was unconscious.
Treycore took advantage of the distraction, and as the other monstrous higherling came for him, reaching out, Treycore dropped to the floor and rolled toward the center of the auditorium before hopping back on his feet. He raced away, knowing he needed to get a head start away from the giants. Then he at least had a chance to take on the comparable-sized higherling and fallen that remained, both of whom were already heading his way, spreading their wings out.
He glanced over his shoulder to see the fallen gaining on him. He whirled around, throwing a punch so hard, it knocked the fallen against the wall, into a nearby spectator. Treycore turned to take on his next challenge—the higherling who’d been tailing behind the fallen. But the higherling evaded Treycore and body-slammed into the fallen, forcing him against the wall, back into the same spectator, who looked pissed as fuck. He spun the fallen around and kicked him in the balls before punching him so hard, he fell to the side.
“You motherfucker!” said the spectator who had endured the abuse at the hands of this higherling’s attack. The higherling threw another punch that sent the spectator falling back to his friends.
Treycore looked to the higherling, eyeing him curiously, wondering why he’d gone after the fallen when he could have just as easily gone for him.
“The name’s Aerysn. I don’t like you, Treycore. But I want to win this just as much as any of these guys. You help me take out the towers, and I’ll beat you fair and square, one-on-one.”
Treycore didn’t trust the higherling for shit, but considering the so-called towers were already heading their way, he didn’t have much of a choice. It was either trust this Aerysn fucker or get his head bashed in by the gargantuan monsters.
“Works for me,” Treycore said.
Aerysn hurried to Trey and hooked his arms under Treycore’s before taking off.
