“Take it slow,”Thane reminds me again, and I simply nod, letting the other students jog ahead of me and staying at the back of the group.
The first three obstacles are manageable. Thankfully, my training from these last few weeks has helped me to build my strength and stamina. One of the obstacles includes a section of bars that we’re supposed to climb across. An easy feat for the students who have creatures that can easily make their way along the top of the obstacle, gripping onto the metal bars with their claws. Me? I take a different approach. The bars are spaced too far from one another for me to reach, but my shadows help to act as extra-long arms, and I swing across like a monkey. Twice, I nearly fall, my shadows not gripping the bars properly and leaving me dangling, but somehow, I manage to get to the other side.
The next obstacle requires walking through a stretch of darkness, using every sense other than sight. I have to fight offthe shadows that keep trying to grab me and pull me from the path I’m on, and I hate to think what would happen if I let them take me, but to my relief, I make it to the other end.
When I reach the third obstacle, I only just manage to dodge past a creature with multiple hands and creepy, bulging eyes. I’d already watched him take out multiple students, but luckily for me, he was still distracted with his latest kill when I weaved through the small maze. Okay, so I may have hadsomehelp. My mates had whisper-shouted at me the whole time, especially when I took a wrong turn, and they really need to work on their communication skills when it comes to navigation. Either way, I made it through the maze in one piece.
I collapse just beyond the maze, and I’m struggling to breathe when I hear cheering. I force my eyes open, and I’m still gasping for air when the students in the third group start the course. I’m guessing everyone from my group has already finished, and the queen decided they weren’t going to wait for me.
I’m still tackling the fifth obstacle when students from the third group start passing me. I make sure to move to the side and keep out of their way as much as possible, because the last thing I want is for one of the students to decide I’m hindering their progress.
Thankfully, I’m half-hidden by the posts of an obstacle when Ian and Satine race by me. I can just imagine what Ian would have done if he’d seen me.
I’m not sure how much time passes when cheers erupt from the crowd again. At first, I think it must be because everyone in the third group has finished the course, but then I realize everyone’s staring at where Ian and Satine are tackling an obstacle some distance ahead of me. The pair of them are moving across a series of floating platforms, riding on their animali. They stop and start at intervals, timing theirmovements perfectly to avoid huge swinging blades that cut the air in front and behind each platform.
From watching the students ahead of me, I know that they need to get across before the sand timer that hovers above their heads, flips over. When the last grain of sand in the timer falls, the horizontal platforms swing to the side, becoming vertical for a few seconds, and the students and animali still on the platforms are dislodged and fall to their deaths. There’s not enough time or space for the animali to use their wings and fly to save themselves, and I’ve seen more than one student fall from that obstacle today, plummeting into the pit of spikes below the platforms.
Ian and his puma animali are on the last floating platform when Ian stops, and he twists on his animali’s back to look at Satine. They’re shouting something at each other, but I can’t make out what it is because the crowd is too loud.Are they…arguing?
The sand continues to fall in the hourglass timer, and it will flip over soon. My heart races as I realize what’s happening. Satine’s shouting grows louder.
“Move, Ian!” she yells, and she flicks her shadows out, trying to push Ian and his creature off the platform that’s ahead of them. She needs Ian to move from the floating platform and jump to the safety of the stationary platform on the other side, so that she and her animali can get across.
Ian only smiles at her cruelly, deflecting her shadows with his own. Despite the fact Satine has been nothing but horrible to me, I’m still horrified when Ian stays where he is. He fights her off when she keeps trying to send her shadows at him, her attacks getting more desperate as she frantically peers at the timer above their heads.
“It makes no sense. They’re allies, aren’t they?”I send to my mates, because they’re also watching this play out with grim expressions.
“The pair of them both want to be the overall champion of the games,”Knox explains coldly. The crowd has been cheering for them throughout the course.“It looks like Ian has realized he’d rather get rid of his competition now and not have to share the attention.”
I watch in shock as the last grain of sand falls. Ian and his animali jump to safety at the last second before the timer flips, but Satine doesn’t have time to get across. The timer turns over, and before Satine and her animali can jump from their platform, the floating platforms move, becoming vertical.
There’s shouting and cheering from the stands as Satine screams, her and her animali slipping from the platform they’re on and plummeting to the pit below.
Ian laughs, working the crowd into a frenzy, and I turn away.
“Don’t look at them, sunshine,”Raith tells me soothingly.“Ian is far ahead of you, and you have more important things to worry about at the moment.”
He’s right, but I can’t help feeling rattled. If Ian’s willing to do that to Satine, I can only imagine what he’d be willing to do to me. Even if I make it through this course, at some point, I’ll probably have to fight him. He’ll make sure of that.
As if he’s heard my thoughts, Ian grins at me from across the arena, before leading his animali toward the next obstacle.
I try not to think about the fear that is threatening to suffocate me.
Just keep going, Shade,I say to myself.
And I do. Keep going, that is. Somehow, I manage to conquer one obstacle after another. My limbs ache, my lungs are burning, and my eyes blur with desperate tears, but I keep going. I keep dragging one foot in front of the other. It helps that my matescontinue whispering encouraging words in my ears. At one point, I fall to the ground, determined not to get up again, and Galen starts telling me all the ways he plans to reward me if I make it through the course. Obviously, I know that might never happen, but it helps lighten my spirits enough to keep going.
And then I come to the levitating stone platforms where Satine had fallen to her death. I stare down at the massive metal spikes in the pit below. Thick shadows swirl amongst them like smoke, and I can just make out the spotted fur of Satine’s leopard animali, plus the broken bodies of a few of the other students who have fallen.
Well, looking down was a terrible idea. Note to self, don’t look at the horrible death drop that awaits me if I fall.Lifting my gaze, I turn my attention to the path ahead. The giant steel blades swing back and forth, slicing through the air between each platform in a seemingly random pattern. I’m busy trying to memorize the timing when there’s a muffled sound and I see her.
Satine.
On the second-to-last floating platform, on the other side of the obstacle, Satine hangs beneath the platform, gripping tight with two of her shadows helping to hold her there. Her face is red, her eyes glistening with tears, and I have no idea how she has managed to hold on for this long.
Multiple students have passed this way since her altercation with Ian, but either they didn’t notice her, or they didn’t want to stop to help. I’m guessing the latter considering the short time the competitors have to get across the obstacle before the sand in the timer runs out. Every second counts, and I’m guessing the students weren’t willing to risk taking the time to help her.
Going by the strain on Satine’s face, she doesn’t have the strength to pull herself up, and I’m guessing she won’t last much longer.
