Cheeks heating, I resume watching the attendant sow loop after loop after loop. Too many minutes pass before the girl wipes the last traces of blood from the leather. When she finally leaves my side, the crowd cheers.
Shadows, swallow me now.
The Commander of the Guard inadvertently grants my wish a moment later when he signals it’s time to don our helmets.It’s as heavy and uncomfortable as I expected. My fingers itch with the urge to rip the bulky headgear off, but I hold still, not wanting to repeat my embarrassment. A polarized lens stretches across the front of the mask, offering a shaded view of my surroundings. And there’s a line of perforations along the base for moderate airflow, yet I find my breaths stilted as the commander waves to four Guards of the Gate, who obediently fall into line at our flank, seeming much more at ease in their own masks and uniforms.
They order us into pairs, placing me next to Twilynn and sending Gem with Meridna behind me. With our heads covered, I lose track of who’s standing where, except for Kalden. With his added height and distinct build, he’s unmistakable from the rest.
Once the guards move past us, Gem grabs Twilynn’s arm to swap places, pairing her with Meridna instead.
“Together,” she whispers, voice muffled by the helmet and the creaking of the Gate’s locking mechanisms releasing.
This is happening.
The Hunt is about to begin.
As my chest rises and falls, the edges of my vision threaten to blur. Not from a migraine, thank the darkness, but from the intoxicating surge of dread and anticipation. I’m about to see the sun. Not through a video screen, or a sliver of sunlight beaming past the tunnel’s fissure, but in the limitless expanse of the open sky.
Metallic groans reverberate across the chamber as a guard cranks a lever. The two massive slabs of nightstone begin to part, and I sway into Gem. She places a steadying palm on my back.
Commander Guffian beckons us forward to the Gate’s threshold, where Chancellor Bren waits with a grin. “May the shadows lead our esteemed soldiers forward in honor. Let the two-hundred-seventy-ninth annual Hunt commence!”
He extends a sweeping arm, and the gathered sycophants cheer as we’re ushered forward to our doom.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Thunder boomsacross a densely packed cloud-ridden predawn sky, mocking any expectation of witnessing my first sunrise as we’re transported a mile north of Caligo’s entrance. Though daybreak will be imminent within the hour, the roiling storm blots out the aerial light from the moon and constellations, leaving only the silver beam of headlights on the front of the motorized cart to enhance visibility.
“Do you think it’ll rain?” The question comes from a woman sitting two rows ahead of me in the motorized cart. Judging by the huskiness of the tone and the rapier on her hip, I think it’s Faron, though it’s hard to tell with her red hair covered by the helmet.
“Looks like it might,” I say.
“I wonder what it’s gonna feel like,” another remarks.
“Wet,” Kalden states simply, and I almost crack a smile as the cart comes to a halt at the top of a large dune, overlooking the expansive sandscape.
We file out one by one onto the ground.
A more nasally voice whispers to the few women within earshot, “Why did they bring us all the way out here? Why not let us walk from the entrance?”
I shrug. “Maybe they don’t want to lead Sols to the entrance of Caligo.”
A commotion on the other side of our group drowns my words out. Three of our escorts have climbed back into the cart they used to transport us across the dunes, but the fourth guard makes no effort to join his comrades.
“C’mon, we gotta get back,” calls the man sitting behind the cart’s steering wheel.
The dissenting guard shakes his head and tugs off his helmet, revealing tousled auburn hair and an all-too-familiar smirk.
My stomach twists in on itself as my ex-husband commands, “Head back without me. I’m right where I need to be.”
The Guards of the Gate freeze, and I almost pity them for having to decide between obeying the orders of the next-chancellor-to-be or earning the current chancellor’s ire.
I stomp forward through the group. “What are you doing?!”
Gabe’s lopsided smile falls as he faces me. “The right thing.”
“How is leaving your family behind the right thing?”
“I have to, Elle. You wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for me.”
