by Belle Malory
Hark Lillen was up against a red-tailed griffin. Not all griffins were mean, but the red-tails were vicious. They clawed out their prey’s eyes before delivering a killing blow. Next, Bartholomew Steep was fighting a Cerberus, a three-headed hound from the Underworld. Elaina Gyre would fight a hydras—yikes—snakes gave me the heebie-jeebies.
I skipped down the list, all the way to the bottom, to the grand finale. There.
Alexander Arius was fighting a…a graptor!
Rage boiled in my veins as I crumpled the program into my fist. As strong as ten men, a graptor was like an agile rhinoceros but with five horns, two on their head and three on their snout. They moved swift, like leopards, and had a reputation for being one of the deadliest monsters known to mages and mankind. Once they attacked, their prey was as good as dead.
Xander was out of his freaking mind.
I turned to find Ione, catching her reaction just after someone else handed her a program. Unlike myself, she kept her cool. She calmly left her friends. Except for the heightened color in her cheeks, no one would know she was upset. I jumped up to follow after her.
Ione took the stairs down into the pits, two at a time, beating me by a few seconds to the gate. I heard her arguing with the same two guys who wouldn’t let me enter the field—Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.
Ione didn’t even have to raise her voice to sound menacing. “Get out of my way, Marcus, or I swear to Zeus, I will turn your prickly dick to flaccid gelatin for the rest of your miserable life.”
Tweedle Dee’s brows shot up, and real fear flashed in his eyes. He immediately let Ione pass. I was quick to keep up. “I’m with her,” I mumbled, ducking into the pit. But Marcus wasn’t paying any attention. He was busy looking down at his crotch, his forehead crinkled with worry.
If I wasn’t so concerned with Xander, I would have busted out laughing. Guess Aphrodite students weren’t such weaklings after all.
All of the gladiators waited in the pit for their turn on the field. Xander wasn’t hard to find. He was practicing at sword play with the same friend I’d seen him with on the ferry on my first day in Mythos.
Ione walked straight into the middle of their fight, grabbed Xander’s arm, then steered him back out into the tunnel for some privacy. I followed along, of course, assuming that privacy didn’t include me. Not that it would have stopped me if it did.
“A graptor, Xander, really?”
Xander rubbed the back of his neck and let out a long sigh, no patience for this conversation. I blinked once, trying not to notice how handsome he looked in his armor. All of the shiny metal plates gleamed as if they were protecting an actual god.
As I stepped closer, Xander looked up and his jaw tightened. He suddenly went from impatient—to angry and impatient. He turned back to his sister. “It’s not your decision, Ione. Go back to your seat.”
“What if you die?” I said, my voice breaking in the middle.
He stared straight through me. “I guess that’s a risk I’ll have to take.”
I wasn’t surprised he threw my own words back at me. This whole thing, the contest, him choosing a graptor, felt like cruel and unusual punishment.
“You’re being a hypocrite,” I shot out, trying to hold back my tears. No way could I let him see me cry right now. “It’s not fair of you to worry about my safety, and then go out and risk your own.”
“You can’t hit me with double standards, damsel.” His face didn’t even crack as he spoke. “Fair or not, it is what it is.”
He turned to go, but Ione stopped him, her tone pleading. “Xan, please choose another monster…” She shrugged, looking lost for words. “You’re all I have left in the world.”
Xander let out another sigh, this one slightly more tolerant. “Ares is my chosen house, Ione,” he said, gently placing his hand on her shoulder. “Combat is something I enjoy doing, and I’m good at it. Have faith.”
With that said, he stepped around her and walked back into the pit. Over his shoulder, he told Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum if they allowed us to pass again, they would lose more than just their dicks. The bastard knew his sister too well.
Ione huffed, turned on her heel, and stormed back up the stairs.
I stood there, silently simmering. If Xander wanted to get back at me, he succeeded. Now I understood how helpless he felt when I refused to let him control my own safety. The tables were officially turned, and I didn’t like it one bit. There was nothing I could do but accept it. If he wanted to go off and do this stupid thing, just fine. Let him be the idiot who got himself killed. I refused to care.
I drummed my fingers against the arm of my chair while Ione fidgeted nervously beside me. “You should have let me go alone,” she muttered, twisting her rings. “He’s happy to do anything you dislike.”
“You think so?” I snapped, with a little too much attitude. “Maybe I should have told him to fight more monsters—hell, why not a dragon too, while he’s at it?”
“No one appreciates your sarcasm, Sheridan.” She sniffed and gave me the side eye. “Least of all me.”
I couldn’t help it though. My nerves were grating on me just as much as hers were. She was impatient, and I was sarcastic—this was just how we operated under stressful circumstances.
Peter Hallas made the mistake of asking Ione to toss the flowers during the opening ceremony. It began in a nice enough fashion; competitors flew around the arena on Pegasus descendants while their names were chanted across the stands. Ione was supposed to throw each of them a flower, with grace and beauty, of course. Peter handed her a bouquet of artfully arranged peonies. She, in turn, stomped to the balcony, chucked them over the edge, then stomped back to her seat again. The flowers landed in a pile of petals and leaves, like thrown out garbage.
I couldn’t help the chuckle from building up in my throat, but I was pretty sure I was the only one who found it funny. The rest of the box turned into a sea of disturbed faces. When Peter asked Ione what was wrong, she told him to get lost.
I silently mouthed, “Look at the program.”
He nodded in understanding.
Her outburst was soon forgotten though, and everyone’s attention refocused on the fights. First up was Hark and the red-tailed griffin. Since the combatants weren’t allowed to fly, his weapon of choice was a bow and arrow. Hark moved lithely, using the boulders to hide behind, ducking between the trees that had been set up in the arena. His arrow caught the griffin between the eyes, just as it had been about to strike. The griffin disappeared into a swirling breeze of smoky ash.
One by one, the gladiators fought off their monsters, each one taking on a more difficult one than the last. So far, the only person to get hurt was Elaina. One of the snake heads bit her in the arm right before she decapitated all nine heads by hurling her axe. Thankfully, the potions master was waiting on site to deliver the antivenom.
When it came time for Xander’s fight, both Ione and I sat on the edge of our seats. She chewed the beds of her nails, something I’d never seen her do. We weren’t the only ones watching in anticipation either. The entire crowd, which had been noisy before, went silent for this particular fight.
The moment the graptor was released, it wasted no time, racing straight for Xander. He ducked behind a boulder, and the graptor’s horn slammed into it. My heart dropped into my stomach as I listened to the boulder crack down the middle.
I couldn’t do this.
I didn’t know what I was thinking, wanting to watch. This was torture. My eyes stung as Xander barely dodged another attack. I rose out of my chair, apologized to Ione, then fled back down the stairs. The dark quiet tunnel enveloped me at the bottom, and I ran into it in a hurry to get away from the sound of those heavy hooves.
Once I was far enough away, I leaned back against the wall, alone in the dark, listening to the sound of my own erratic breath. It was better than listening to Xander’s screams. Better than watching him die a painful death. I couldn’t bear to see him get hurt, and
I wondered what that meant. Just how much did I care about that smartass, reckless gladiator? I blinked, shaking my head at myself. First, I choose someone whose heart belonged to my sister, and now someone who swore never to love me. Clearly, I was drawn to unavailable guys.
I drew in another deep breath, knowing I needed to get back out there and face whatever happened. Xander wouldn’t hide in the shadows while I was being chomped to bits. He would watch every moment, cheering me on, even if he couldn’t stand it. And that’s exactly what I was going to do.
My wrist caught against something sharp, and I froze. The temperature seemed to drop out of nowhere. I rubbed the sides of my arms, chills tingling down my spine. There was something there in the tunnel, something not human or mage. It slithered and hissed around me, coming from all angles.
A sliver of sunlight from the entrance called to me—Go! Run! Get the hell out of here.
But as soon as the thought came, my entire body jerked back, and I was slammed up against the wall. The impact knocked the breath out of me. For several seconds, I hung there, suspended and struggling to breathe.
“What do you want?” I choked out, feeling that thing push against my wrists and chest. Cool, wet netting trapped me there, keeping me stuck to the wall. I tried to break free, but I was stuck, in some kind of…web? Chills soared through me.
Oh God.
Please, sweet stars, don’t let that thing be a giant spider. Like a trapped animal, I freaked out. I struggled, twisting and turning, trying desperately to break free from the bindings. But it only made them tighter, and sharper. It stung against my skin, making me wince from the pain. I got one piercing scream out before more of it came around my neck and mouth, knocking my head back against the stone wall.
Voices stirred in the air, like echoes of the real thing. I couldn’t make out any of them, but they all sounded angry.
All of the struggle and fight had gone out of me, and I was pretty sure I was seconds away from losing consciousness. One last thing occurred though, an imprinted fact from a book. Suddenly, I knew what had trapped me—a nightcrawler. I almost laughed at the irony. All I had to do was spell light into the room to kill it, but my mouth was muffled from its webbing. I couldn’t speak if I tried, and it was getting harder to breathe.
My eyelids grew heavy as I lost oxygen. I was fading fast.
Dimly, I heard someone coming. There were shouts. Light flared. I felt my body dropping, almost weightless. A deep voice shouted for help.
When I opened my eyes again, I wondered if I had crossed over. A beautiful angel was there, his brown hair haloed in light, and he was asking me if I was okay.
I blinked several times, and breathed in slow, deep breaths.
Not an angel, just Peter Hallas, but he may as well have been as far as I was concerned. Guess that meant I wasn’t dead. “Sheridan? You with me?” he said, sounding worried.
I blinked, looking around, noticing some of the nightcrawler’s webbing was still stuck to the tunnel’s wall.
“Is the crawler dead?” I croaked out, looking in all the dark corners.
“As soon as the light hit, it flew away. I was worried about getting you down, and there was no time to catch it.” He glanced around, stroking his jaw. “There’s never been one at Arcadia before. I wonder what brought it here.”
Me.
That thing was after me, just like the chimera.
I leaned forward, and Peter moved to help me up. “Oh here,” he said, offering his arm.
“Thank you,” I said, grateful. “If you hadn’t showed up when you did…” I shivered.
“Don’t mention it. I’m just glad I heard you.”
Before I knew what was happening, a crowd of people filed into the tunnel, their wide-eyed gazes on me, as if I were one of the gladiators out on the field.
“Sheridan!” Ione screeched, pushing her way through. “What happened?”
“A nightcrawler,” Peter answered before I could stop him.
Dammit. I didn’t want the whole school knowing monsters were after me. I had enough problems as it was.
“A horrible mistake, obviously,” he added. “Someone must have summoned it here for the competition.”
Hey, that sounded pretty believable. People would buy that.
Once on my feet, I dusted myself off. “How is Xander?” I said, wondering if he made it. She didn’t have to answer though. He was suddenly there in the crowd, sword in hand, watching me with a pained, almost helpless expression.
This was just the kind of thing he warned me would happen, and I could only imagine what he was thinking.
Ione’s arms came around my shoulders. “Come on,” she said, steering me toward the exit. “Out of the way people! Nothing more to see here.”
As we headed out, Xander disappeared into the crowd. “Don’t worry, he killed the graptor,” Ione said, noticing the direction of my gaze.
Thank God.
I rubbed the back of my head. It still throbbed where the crawler slammed it against the wall, and I felt dizzy. “Where are we going?” I said to Ione.
“The school’s healer.” She held up my arms for me to view. “The nightcrawler’s web is toxic, and you need some herbs to draw out the poison.”
Hundreds of tiny scratches covered my wrists and arms where the webbing had been. Rivulets of blood trickled from several spots. My neck and face felt itchy and uncomfortable too.
“Don’t worry. It’s quick magic. You’ll be fine in a matter of hours.”
35
Grandpa came to visit while I was in the hospital wing. He stared at me in horror, making me think I looked worse than I felt. “It’s all good, Grandpa.” I gave him a thumbs up. “The potion the nurse gave me is better than morphine.”
“On Zeus’s grave, Sheridan. We’ve got to take better precautions.”
As much as I hated to admit it, he was right. My monster problem was officially no fluke.
Grandpa sat on the end of my bed, running a hand over his jaw as he looked me over. “Where did the nightcrawler come from?”
I shrugged, thinking of the tunnel’s various openings. “No idea. Everyone assumed it was part of the competition.”
He nodded. “Probably for the best.”
“I figured the same thing.”
“The Arius boy was competing at the exact time the nightcrawler found you,” he said, shaking his head.
“So? What does that matter?”
“It’s just interesting, is all. It’s convenient the attack occurred while Alexander, your sworn protector, was busy.”
Hmm…I supposed that was true. But I hadn’t anticipated going into the tunnel. The only way someone could know I was down there, is if they had been watching me.
I shook myself, still too spooked to dwell on it. “Have you heard from Dad?” I said, thinking of the message Grandpa sent.
Letting out an unsteady breath, he shook his head. “To be honest, I’m getting a little worried. I figure maybe he decided to come straight here after getting my message. Unless…unless something is wrong.”
I chewed the inside of my cheek, hoping it wasn’t the latter of the two.
“If I don’t hear anything by next week, I’ll go to Davidson myself,” he promised.
I nodded, glad to hear that.
He gently patted my covered legs. “Get some rest, okay?”
“I’ll try.”
I would sleep if I could get that thing out of my head. I shivered, remembering the way its webbing stuck to my skin like miniature razor blades.
Grandpa seemed to guess where my mind was. “I’ll ask the nurse to brew a sleeping potion.”
“Thank you, Grandpa.”
He left the room, and I sighed, leaning back against the pillows. As hard as I tried to shut them out, the voices I heard in the tunnel filled my mind. Most of it made no sense, except one thing.
She is strong, and you are weak.
It was the exact same thing the woman on Twilight Island
said.
36
“Minus the frown, you look beautiful,” Ione said, and coming from her, that was a genuine compliment.
“Thank you.”
“Stop thinking about it,” she scolded me, readjusting my updo. Thanks to her knack for hair art, my rose gold tresses were a cascading river of waves, braided and interwoven with tiny vines made of crystals. Her hair was much simpler, a polished blonde chignon.
I couldn’t not think about it though. Between the nightcrawler, Xander kissing me, and the week I’d had, my whole world had been turned upside down. The worst part was that parent’s day had come and gone, and my dad never showed up. That was like a kick in the gut. Grandpa tried reassuring me that it was all for the best, and that he would visit when our circumstances weren’t so precarious, but I didn’t care. I wanted my dad. Needed my dad, and he was nowhere to be found.
“Ready to go?”
I looked in the mirror, smoothing my shimmery gold dress. The winter ball was a formal affair, which meant we could ditch our everyday togas. My reflection showed someone far more stunning and put together than how I felt on the inside.
I took a deep breath. Here goes nothing.
“Ready,” I said, stepping forward in the four-inch heels Ione made me wear. I’d spent hours practicing in them for Seduction Principles, and I didn’t even wobble.
Downstairs, a group of Aphrodite students waited in the common room. Peter Hallas was there, dressed in a black and silver suit. He grinned when he saw us, waving us over. For the first time since I’d arrived at Arcadia, I didn’t feel like a complete outsider.
We walked to the Letragon Theater, a picturesque outdoor ballroom on the edge of campus that overlooked a small glassy lake. Music reverberated from up ahead, a song I’d heard before. “Is that…” I glanced at Ione. It couldn’t be. But as we approached the Letragon stairs, I saw the famous band for myself. “How did the school pull off getting them to perform?”