A frown pulled at my brows. Either whoever it was decided to hide and fuck with me, or the voice was attached to the mask like I suspected.
And if that were the case… did the voice belong to the god who’d leant me his power? The wielder of shadows himself? Kage.
I breathed in my nose and out my mouth to steady my nerves before I reached for the mask once again, tying it in the back as it automatically fixed itself to my face.
I tried one more time.
Hello?
I thought you weren’t speaking to me?It asked.
So, it was the mask.
With nothing to lose, I asked the one burning question that had been gnawing at my stomach.
Are you… Kage?
Are we using first names with a god again, little shadow?His words sent a shiver down my spine as my heart rate sped up.
Dex was right next to me, snoring slightly. Did his masks talk to him as well? Did he have a whole hoard of voices in that handsome head of his, urging him to do their will? He’d collected power after power, and I’d been so focused on surviving that I hadn’t stopped to question why he would do that. Sixteen of us had started this competition, but we were down to four by my count.
Dex, The Pyro, The Healer, and me.
If we were lucky enough to make it to the end, would he use those powers on me to win? A deep, guttural knowledge roared within me at the answer. Yes. If it came down to it, no matter how much Dex had protected me, I believed he would do whatever it took to win it all. Even if that meant killing me.
If you don’t kill him, you should go. You know what powers he holds. What’s to stop him from turning on you?
I was on my feet with his pack in my hands before I even knew what I was doing. Kage had suggested I kill him, but I wouldn’t do that. Couldn’t bring myself to spill his blood, even if it meant that he would come for me later.
The noise from his zipper closing made Dex’s eyelashes flutter, and I held my breath, waiting for him to fall deeper into sleep. And as he did, I turned my back on him, decision made and headed into the tunnel marked with an anatomical heart above. Leaving the one man who had been with me from the beginning of the games behind.
Chapter 31
Dex
Iopened my eyes feeling well rested for the first time since we came to Nocturne. My dreams had been pleasant and filled with thoughts of Odessa. Her smiling at me without restraint and a brand-new ring replacing that ugly one she wore now, marking her as mine. We were outside the city laying in a field of wildflowers, and there was no war, no game, no death. Just us. I knew if we stuck together, there’d be no tearing us apart. That we could win this thing and get out of here.
Thinking of our future together felt like tempting fate. Something I knew better than to do, but I couldn’t help doing anyways.
Without a doubt in my soul, I knew that we could make each other happy. I’d take her home and show her off to the world. A bright light like Odessa was meant to be worshipped, not hidden away like something to be ashamed of. From what I could gather, Odessa’s fiancé and family relied on her to obey them. She wasn’t allowed to be herself or even decide what she wanted. But she had wanted me. And that knowledge warmed me from the inside out.
The way we had fit so effortlessly together was unlike anything I’d ever known. Even with our differences, I felt like wecould still make this work once we were out of here. If we could withstand the horrors that Nocturne had thrown at us, we could withstand anything. I was certain that she would break things off with what’s his face, and then we would be free to do whatever we wanted.
My neck felt tight and my muscles sore, but I couldn’t hide the smile on my face, that was until I looked around and noticed Odessa wasn’t there. Panic clawed at my heart, and I leapt up from the ground.
“Odessa?” I called out, eyes wild and heart cracking in two.
Maybe something happened. Maybe she went to check out a noise and didn’t want to wake me. I pulled at my hair trying to figure out where she went. And there, in the soot that lined the ground, were two distinct footprints that belonged to the girl that had burrowed deep into my soul.
She wasn’t taken.
She’d walked away and taken the last scrap of humanity I had left in me, with her.
My hands slowly clenched into fists as the rage inside me turned into an inferno greater than the one that had burned through these tunnels.
After all I had done, she chose to leave. I protected her when I didn’t have to. I’d killed for her. Granted I planned to kill anyways, but I’d did so with her safety in mind. I’d kept her secret when I could have turned her in for carrying a weapon. And she just walked away with my pack? Like I meant nothing to her?
I cracked my neck and my knuckles, rolling my shoulders before I stalked down the tunnel Odessa had disappeared into. The fucking heart. The irony wasn’t lost on me that she had taken off down that particular tunnel. Taking my heart with her.
