“Try to be more careful. Wouldn’t want you dying already when I haven’t even had the chance to play with you yet.”
“You disgust me.”
“Oh, yeah?”
My chest heaved. “Yeah.” I shoved him backwards, needing space from how fuzzy he made my head.
“That’s too bad.”
“Why?”
He shrugged his toned muscular shoulder with a bored expression glinting behind that mask of his. “If I disgusted you so much, you wouldn’t want to find out.”
I harrumphed angrily.
“If the two of you are done with your foreplay, we have training to get back to,” Nat said with her hands splayed on her narrow hips.
I gaped at her, but Dex just chuckled like she’d said the funniest thing in the world. Even with his dimpled smiles and intense way he paid attention to me, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was in the presence of something dangerous every time I was around him. It was like being locked in the same room as a sleeping bear. Sure, they were cute and asleep, but at any moment they might wake and maul the ever-loving life out of you.
Perhaps I was being overly paranoid, and the nature of Nocturne was starting to get to me.
I was painfully aware that we only had one more day before this thing kicked off into full gear, and we’d be in the middle of an all-out war against each other.
Just as we were about to spar again, the captain entered the room with her entourage of personal guards. The training area fell silent, and we all stood up straight.
While Dex’s danger felt buried, the captain wore hers like a second amor. It was palpable in every calculated move. Even the slightest glance from her felt like it might be your last.
“Follow me,” she instructed.
We did as we were told, getting corralled by the guards as if we were a herd of cattle being led to slaughter. The tunnel had ashort ceiling and confined walls, not allowing us much space to maneuver as we walked not knowing what exactly we were in for.
A large wrought iron door sat at the end and opened with a wave of the captain’s wrist. She must possess some type of magick, I thought. Maybe the ability to manipulate metal.
We filtered inside the small dark room that was surrounded by human remains. Skulls and bones were embedded into every crevice. Only the faint flicker of a candle illuminated the tight space. At the end of the room lay an open casket that was occupied by a skeleton.
Was this a tomb?
The very air around us smelt of decay and damp mold. It made my skin crawl. I wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of this small space, feeling panic take root in my stomach as the captain’s eerie smile was illuminated from the bottom as she held a single candle below her chin.
“While we are now two contestants down, it will only get worse from here.” The people around me tensed at her words. “Practicing your magick is only one aspect that you’ll need to survive the games. Wit and physicality are also valuable assets that will see you through to the finish line.”
Uneasiness rolls through my gut in anticipation for what she’s about to say next and how that would apply to where she’s brought us.
“Your next training session will leave you locked in this room with your teams, with clues hidden in which you will need to decipher in order to break free. Since you failed your last test, the winners from this round will have the opportunity for the same prize. A five-minute head start.” Her smile was cruel as she walked out into the tunnels and turned back around. “Oh, and try not to kill anyone this time.”
The lights flickered out and the door shut with a clang leaving the remaining fourteen contestants in a tomb surrounded by skeletons.
Chapter 11
Dex
There wasn’t much that could rattle me, but claustrophobia just happened to be one of my weaknesses. The room we’d been brought to was small for normal standards, but cram fourteen desperate contestants inside, and well, I was sweating my ass off.
“Who the fuck has the power of light?” An irritated manly voice asked.
“She fucking died yesterday,” I snapped, the panic of being trapped building inside of me.Died saving me because of that fuckwad,Magnus, I thought bitterly.
“Oh, right.”
