“I’m showing you the arena because you’ll be here for the first two combats of the Recruits’ Trials within the week. We’re going to be careful when you’re seen.”
I didn’t answer. My fingers curled around the railing of theoverlook, cold iron biting into my skin. “A week? How many years did you train before you came here?”
“The first trial is just for recruits, and it’s not deadly. Probably painful, for you. Combat against your fellow recruits. Combat against the monsters.”
How promising.
I cut my eyes toward him. “Do you have an idea what it’s like to be thrown into something like this with no training, no skills, when I’m not even the right species?”
He was silent for a moment, the wind stirring his dark hair. “What are your skills?”
I shook my head, looking away from him. He was mocking me.
“Cara.” His voice was low, commanding. If he weren’t such an asshole, it would’ve made something inside me clench with need.
“This first part. It’s just hand-to-hand combat between recruits, right?”
“Just that,” he said, as if we both didn’t know I was going to go down like a sack of potatoes, rolling loose underfoot. “Until there’s one shifter standing.”
“Which won’t be me.”
“I’d assume not, no. Unless you have some superhuman skills you haven’t yet revealed…”
I had no fighting skills, supernatural or otherwise. I shook my head, and his eyes sharpened in a way I didn’t like, as if I’d confessed more than my lack of skill.
“You were smart and fierce protecting others. I’ve seen what you can do.” He tilted his head, crossing his arms. “Are you going to try as hard to protect yourself?”
“I’m going to do my best not to get beaten to death in the arena.” I dreaded that they expected me to stand there and fight back while these tall, powerful immortal beings bore down on me. I knew my instincts would be to run and hide.
And they were good instincts, too.
“All you have to do is show them who you are,” he told me. “No one expects you to win this fight. But the stands will be full of not just Fae, but mortals who will be inspired by your bravery.”
That was a very optimistic prediction.
“What we can do in a few days is limited. But you’ve got more power than you realize, Cara.” He started walking, clearly expecting me to follow, once again.
And, of course, I did. “Is that so?”
“We’re going to find a private place to train so you can surprise those Fae and mortals,” he told me as he led me into a labyrinth of halls.
“You want to keep my presence here a secret, but once I walk into the first trial, everyone will know who I am. So what do you gain?”
His lips curved. “The theatrical entrance that the first dragon-marked mortal deserves.”
He went left, down another passageway. We were moving steadily downward.
There was a distant roar that echoed through the halls, and even though the sound was faint when it reached us, I stiffened like a deer about to take flight. “What was that?”
“The zoo.”
“Thezoo?”
“The monsters.”
I shuddered. I hadn’t slept well last night to begin with, haunted by vague unsettling dreams I couldn’t remember now. “The monsters are here beneath where we sleep?”
“Don’t we all bring our monsters to bed with us?” he asked.
