Luka swallowed hard. “Remind me not to get on your bad side.”
Ruby appeared down the hall and made her way toward us. She was on the phone, but hung up as she reached us. “Everything is in place. At about 8 p.m. tomorrow night, the dominos will fall.”
This was it, whether we were ready or not.
“Let’s roll.” Luka grabbed our duffle bags and we headed out to the airport with our crew.
* * *
The flight was easy.We took a private plane, since there were fifteen of us in all. We didn’t want to be too suspicious, so we traveled with ten vampires and five human “feeders” who were actually hunters from House of Thorns. The plan was that once the fights got underway, the “feeders” and five of our vampires, including me, would sneak away and lead the escape. Once we were clear of the city, Luka would make sure Liv and the others got out in the melee. Hopefully, the vampires would be focused on entertaining Luka so that I could slip away and lead the attack. The rest of House of Thorns was splitting up and going to society houses in all of the cities to take out the corrupted leaders there and liberate their people. Saying I was nervous that something was going to go wrong was an understatement.
By the time we got to the pho shop, it was late and the fey woman at the front waved us all through without having us pay. We were officially here as King Constantine’s guests.
Luka checked us into the same hotel as last time, renting the entire top floor, and then we settled in for a time of rest. The Freedom Fight was at 2 a.m., so technically tomorrow but not really; it was just past 10 p.m. now. Getting used to all these different hours was hard for me, and I drifted off to sleep quickly.
* * *
“It’s time.”Luka shook me awake. I cracked an eye open and glanced at the clock, bleary eyed. 1 a.m.
Getting up, I brushed my teeth and put on make-up, quickly getting into my dress. Next, I stashed weapons under the poufy skirt and braided my glossy red hair over one shoulder.
“Problem.” Luka stepped into the bathroom holding his phone.
My stomach dropped. “What is it?” I had a bad feeling this entire day and now he was going to drop some bomb on me, I could feel it.
Luka frowned. “Milika has been forced to enter the fight.”
“No!” I shouted. “I thought it was something the people did freely of their own will?”
Luka sighed. “I guess this year King Constantine has upped the ante and it’s a mandatory assignment. If she doesn’t fight, she will die.”
That bastard. My heart plummeted into my stomach. “Well, we can’t let that happen. She helped us, Luka.”
“I know.” He looked at me with agony in his gaze. “I’ll figure something out.”
“Tell her that. Tell her we’ve got her back.” I pointed to his phone. I was nothing if not a woman of my word.
He tapped away on the keyboard, presumably texting her, and my stomach tied tighter into a ball of anxiety that felt like it would consume me. Something bad was going to happen, I just knew it.
Was a trap waiting for us, as we had laid one for the king? He was cunning and he had some outside friend in the know. Maybe he knew all along.
I just didn’t know, but something was off and there was nothing I could do about it.
After everyone was ready, our group took a caravan of tuk-tuks. I was glad to see our werewolf driver Tink was back, and flagged him down in the line of cabbies to be our personal driver.
“Are you fighting tonight for freedom?” I asked him over the sound of the wind.
He just nodded quietly but said no more.
Hmm. Okay.
I mean, you couldn’t exactly have a conversation while driving someone in an open pedal bike, but still … I’d given the man a multi-thousand dollar tip last time. The least he could do was be nice.
‘He’s acting cagey,’I observed to Luka.
‘He’s about to fight to the death, Aspen. It makes one cagey.’
Touché.
