“No, it’s my fault. I should have reminded you.” He clenches his jaw. “It’s been a long time since I spoke so much to anyone, thief.”
I can feel his pain from here. “You seem like the type that’s the oldest child too. Taking all the blame on yourself like that.”
“I wasn’t the oldest. I was the youngest of four.” He murmurs, looking at me once before turning away. Hunter opens the door back to that massive courtyard where the dragons are all waiting. But this time, the windows and doors are held open and full. People are pressed into the spaces, looking like they want to be anywhere but here. I was right about their appearance earlier. Each looks more ragged than the next. Only a few of them look like they’ve even brushed their hair in weeks,and their clothes are barely held together. I wonder where Hunter got the clothes I am wearing, which seem better off. I swallow down the saliva building in my throat as I walk up to the dragons with Hunter, the sun beaming down on us and making me feel like I’m on fire. Hunter bows, and I do not. The dark purple one growls at me instantly, but doesn’t try to burn me this time. I hold my chin up, refusing to bow down. Hunter swears under his breath as he rises. “There is no point asking you to bow, is there?”
“No.” I keep my eyes locked on the biggest dragon. It’s like no one else has challenged her in a long time, and if I’m going to die, at least I’ll go down swinging and not bowing to these monsters.
“Welcome to the game,” the light purple one speaks in my head. Hunter tenses. I feel like I’m not the only one hearing him; he tells everyone the same thing. “Seek what is lost, but do not get bitten unless you wish for death. Raise the lost above your head to be free.” All four dragons fly up into the air, each one of them landing on one of the heavy towers, wrapping their bodies and tails around them and watching down at us as the castle shakes and groans.
Hunter steps closer. “If one of them bites you, you’ll start hallucinating. Be careful. You need to search them all.”
With that cryptic statement, he walks away. I frown at his back as he disappears into the corridor and the door shuts behind him, leaving me in the empty courtyard.
I wonder for a second what exactly I’m meant to search in this creepy game of hide and seek when piles of sand plume up out of the ground and the ground shakes so hard it’s difficult to keep standing. There must be twenty little piles of sand that appear all around the courtyard. One of the dragons roars, loud and clear, calling for me to start. I run to the nearest one, taking a chance. I start pushing the sand away. I don’t even know what I’m looking for, but I listen carefully, just in case I hear anysounds of, well, anything bad. As I’m searching through, I hear it. A sound. I jump back just as a snake — as gold as the sand — slithers away from me, its scales glimmering in the hot sun. Creepy. I hate snakes, and I do not want to get bitten by one.
I continue searching until the sand is a pile around my feet and there’s clearly nothing in it. I go to the next one, and the next one. I must search five more before I get to the biggest one in the middle, and I’m covered head to toe in sweat. I walk forward, start digging, close my eyes, realising some snakes might have blood in them, and therefore water. I search through using my powers and I sense that this one has five snakes in it. I stop and then I sense something else, something with water in it, buried in the middle of this one.
I’m going to have to get bitten to get it out. I know I am.
The courtyard is so silent, but I can feel the dragons’ eyes burning down on me. I try to think of anything, any way to get out of this other than just going for it, but I know I can’t run or plead with them. My mother and father did not raise a quitter, and I won’t dare give up yet. I start pushing the sand away, my hands shaking in fear. It’s seconds before one of the snakes lunges out, slamming straight into me, its huge, weighted body feeling like a rock. I land with an oomph on the ground, sand spraying into the air. It’s quick — its tail wrapping around my throat, and I gasp as it begins to choke me. I struggle, trying to push it off me, but it only tightens, and it’s so heavy. No, I will not die. Using my powers, I feel for the water in its body. I know I should hide them after that dragon’s warning, but I can’t. I push at the snake, using my powers to pull at the water in its skin. It rips out of it as I yank the snake off me. I find it in a pile of blood and guts, shaking as its blood covers my body and clothes.
I crawl back to the sand pile and keep digging before I get too scared and everything sways and blurs. What’s wrong withme? I pause to look down at my arm, seeing two puncture marks. Dammit. I keep pulling at the sand, quicker now, before I pass out and it’s over. One more snake drops out, slithering away. Another one lunges for me, but I narrowly miss it. I keep going, digging and digging through the sand until my hand finally hits something hard. Hope fills my chest, even as I struggle to breathe. I gasp in pants as I pull sand away before I realise it’s a dragon egg of sorts, not real, made of stone, and wrapped around it is a glittering white snake who hisses at me. I know it’s going to hurt as I grab the snake and start pulling it off the egg, twisting it carefully, my heart racing every time I swirl it round and round before it’s finally dislodged.
The minute the snake is down, it lunges for me like the others. This time its teeth scrape against my arm, its tail whacking me straight in the stomach hard enough that I hear one of my ribs snap. I gasp, but instead of looking at it, I turn my back on the snake, grab the egg, and lift it into the air. It’s over. It has to be.
The dragons, each one of them, lift up and fly off. I turn, sensing the white snake coming for me. I scream, covering my face as it leaps for me with its bared teeth, but nothing happens. I open my eyes to see it covered in purple shadows, hovering in the air. Along with every snake in the courtyard. With a snap, the snakes vanish into dust. Hunter. The light purple dragon speaks to me as I search for Hunter, the courtyard swaying. “Well done! Now, you must survive the night from the bite. The Game Hunter will help heal you.”
“WRENLEY!” I drop the egg onto the ground and fall to my knees. I can make out a male figure running to me, and he looks so scared.Hunter.
“There are three of you,” I laugh as I start seeing doubles of him. He grabs me right before I fall flat on my face, picking me up into his arms. “I don’t think I can handle one of you, let alonethree. Although three of you is pretty intimidating and way too good-looking for any woman.”
“You’re going to be okay,” his lips press to my forehead, and my breath catches. I must be going mad and seeing things already — feeling things too. “I’ve got the antidote. My brave thief, don’t go weak on me now.”
I swear I hear his voice even as the darkness takes me, and he is begging me to come back to him.
CHAPTER 5
Iwake up in a mess and for a moment I think I’m home. Tucked in my bed, with my piles of books and paintings of dragons on the wall. I can almost hear my brother laughing as he runs away from father’s shadows and my mother humming as she walks past my room to the breakfast hall. My heart is racing as the burning heat soon reminds me I am not at home. I’m covered in a white blanket, and my arm is bandaged as I lift it above my head, wincing as a sharp pain shoots down it. “It’s okay. Here, have some water.” Hunter’s voice is soothing, and I turn, seeing him leaning over me with a glass of water. Hunter presses the water to my lips, his other hand gripping my chin, and I greedily drink some before he takes it away. I practically growl at him, and he quirks an eyebrow. “Little sips, Wren. You’ve been asleep for three days.” He sits down on the bed and his shoulders drop. “It’s good to see you awake. The venom can kill.”
I look at him and I wonder whether he slept at all those three days. He looks like he’s run his hands through his hair many a time, and dark circles linger under his eyes. Yet he still looks ridiculously handsome, even tired. Did he stay with me? Someone has clearly cared for me, and yet I never expected itto be Hunter. Something warm flutters in my chest as he looks down at me, as if he is waiting for me to speak. I clear my throat a few times before I croak out. “What were those snakes?”
“They’ve been native here a long time and too much of their venom can easily kill a fae.” His eyes grow suspicious. “Usually, when they get wrapped around your throat, they don’t remove themselves until you’re dead and they eat your head first.” He places his hand on my good arm. “I saw the mark on your chest when I helped clean you up. You threw up several times and coughed up blood. Changing you was needed, and I asked a female I am friends with to assist. She also saw the mark, but she is loyal to me and will not say anything.”
I go silent. I should be concerned he saw my mark, but something nastier pits in my stomach at the mention of a female friend who is loyal to him. I mean, he is stunning and of royalty here, so of course he would have a girlfriend or partner. I just hate that he does. The new feeling is bitter in my mouth, and I don’t respond. “You have magic, don’t you?”
“What if I do? I’m in the games, anyway.” I mutter. “So your girlfriend doesn’t have to keep the secret.”
His eyes lock onto mine and his lips twitch in amusement. “I don’t have a girlfriend and I don’t date. Dating is exclusive to my mate.” Before I can ask anything about that, he has moved on. “What confuses me the most is why the dragons, or the one that looked in your mind, didn’t see your mark or magic. Why would a dragon lie to its own kind?”
“He just did.” I admit. “I thought it was strange too. He told me not to say anything and to hide my magic. He said not all dragons want the change that I’m apparently meant to bring.”
Hunter sits with the knowledge for a long moment, and he doesn’t even seem to remember his hand is on my arm, or that his thumb is gently stroking me now. “That mark on your chest, it’s spoken about in here. This was written by my mother abouthow her family were destined to protect the marked.” He taps a book on my bedside table. “You can read about it here. You’re called God Touched. Essentially, when you’re God Touched, you’re given a destiny — a fate to save people or destroy people or something. It’s a rare mark. I remember reading about it when I was only a kid, from my mother’s stories. I’ve added to the back of the book — things she didn’t have time to write.”
His eyes linger sadly on the book. “Thank you for the book. I will be careful with it and return it when I’ve read it.” Hunter nods once, still looking at the book. “When did you lose them? Your family.”
“When I won the game.” He admits, and I’m surprised he is telling me anything. “I came back, and I found the dragons had burnt them all. They thought I was arrogant for winning, and they didn’t want a winner who wouldn’t bend to their whims. People cheered for me, for my family name, and it was clear they preferred me over the dragons who held them in fear for so long. There’s always a price for winning these games, for being kept here alive with magic. They like you broken, especially if you have powers.” He lifts his hand in the air. Purple shadows swirl around his hand, his fingers and arm. “I wasn’t given much choice but to bend, unless I wanted to see every other fae trapped here burn. They are my people and they were all I had left. My family would have wanted me to protect them.”
“Maybe they don’t all feel that way. Dragons in my world just coexist with us. My parents were riders.” I softly explain.
