With a renewed energy, I used every bit of magick I could access and shoved it out. In that moment I realized that the bones I could control weren’t limited to dead and buried ones, but the very much alive ones.
Magnus’s beady little eyes rimmed with malice, widened the moment I locked onto his skeletal form. He became a puppet in my hands. I made him set me down with ease and I felt my lips quirk up into a smirk at my newfound power. His strength was no match for me.
Cracking my knuckles, he began to move at my command. A lunge here, a pirouette there.
He looked utterly ridiculous and the snickers behind me from the other contestants watching had his cheeks reddening with embarrassment. I fucking loved it.
After a minute or two of exerting my power over him, I finally made him crouch down before me—kneeling before his master. He looked up at me reluctantly and that malice was replaced with the most delicious shade of fear. I had him by the balls and he knew it.
“Do you have anything you want to say to me, Magnus?” My arms were locked behind my back as I stood tall over him. The fighting around us had stalled out. Everyone was watching this moment, wondering what I would do.
I knew I couldn’t kill him— not yet anyway.
“Fuck you,” Magnus muttered.
“What was that? I couldn’t quite hear you?” I leaned down and wrapped my hand around my ear. I knew what he said but wanted him to feel just how helpless he was.
“I said, fuck you,” he spat, and I let him go. His body fell into a useless heap, and the crowd around us cheered. I lifted my arms out wide and took a bow.
My eyes locked onto Odessa’s, and I saw on her face a moment too late that I had let my guard down. Turning my back to a rabid dog like Magnus was a mistake.
“Watch out!” She cried, and I turned around to see a sharp piece of rock lifted in the air and aimed right at me.
Genevieve jumped in front of me, arms raised and light shining, but Magnus couldn’t stop and my magick that I had been wielding was slow to respond. I had no choice but to watch the tip puncture through her chest and come out the other end.
The arena fell into a stunned hush as blood bubbled out of her gaping wound and down the corners of her mouth. It had gone right through her heart. Magnus ripped the makeshift blade from her body, and she crumpled at his feet.
“You!” The captain cried out, pointing her finger at Magnus. “Guards, seize him. The rules were clear. No killing fellow contestants until after the games have begun.”
“It, it was an accident!” Magnus grappled as the guards grabbed him about the arms and cut the ribbons from his mask off. It fell onto the ground with a clang echoing off the ceiling.
We watched on in horror as Genevieve’s still body was carried from the arena, her hands dragging on the dusty ground below. The guards removed the crown of light from her.
She had saved me.
Jumped right in front of the danger. Part of me wondered if it was of her own volition, or if I’d inadvertently been the one to move her there. Maybe with this mask, I was more powerful than I realized. While I’d planned to kill everyone in here eventually, the actuality of death was far different than the hypothetical.
“The punishment, I fear, will be your life,” the captain said, removing the blade strapped to her back. With one strong arc of the blade, it sliced across his neck removing flesh and bone. His head ripped free from his body with a sickening wet sound, cutting his scream short. Blood sputtered free soaking the floor and spraying those closest to him, making a few of them retch. We watched as Magnus’s head rolled across the stage landing at my feet. His dead eyes were staring up at me while his mouth was stuck open in a voiceless scream.
The entire room went deadly silent.
I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the bloody head that laid at my feet.
The captain strode over to where Magnus’s decapitated head was and gripped it by his dark hair as if she were plucking a flower from the Earth.
“This is what happens when you don’t follow the rules of Nocturne. You’re playing a game of the gods. Never forget that you are but mortals in their realm. You’re all dismissed for the day.”
“What happens to their powers?” Regis asked with more audacity than I could pretend to have.
The captain turned with a feral smirk splayed upon her lips. “Those powers are forfeit. Now get out of my arena.”
She didn’t need to tell me twice. I dipped my head and scrambled to get the hell out of there. Maybe I was in shock, but all I could think about was what a shame it would have been to die before having the pleasure of tasting Odessa’s lips against my own. As if she knew my thoughts, her gaze found my own. We kept doing that. Finding each other in a crowd as if we were the only two that really mattered. I didn’t hate it.
Chapter 10
Odessa
Dinner was quiet. The only sounds to be heard were the scrapes of forks against plates and a few groans of pain. It seemed that everyone was run down from training, but also grappling with losing two contestants. The empty spot across from me where Magnus once sat felt like a dark reminder of just how deadly and volatile this contest was.
