by Eva Ashwood
Merrick growled and threw a ball of magic straight at me. I dove to the right a half-second before it hit me.
As his magic slammed into the trunk of the tree, I threw a long magic rope from my hands toward a branch above him. Making sure the rope was securely wound around the branch, I yanked as hard as I could. His gorgeous amber eyes went wide, and he jumped to the side before the branch cracked in half and came barreling toward him.
But he wasn’t fast enough.
He missed the brunt of the impact, but the massive limb still hit him hard, stunning him temporarily. Springing into action, I jumped on him, sending out another magical rope to wrap around his arms. As he struggled and unleashed a stream of curses, I slid my hands down the straps and clicked both of them, letting the pack fall to the ground.
“You’re always underestimating me. Maybe this’ll be the last time you make that mistake,” I murmured, dropping my head to speak low in his ear.
I was straddling his body, sitting on his lower back, and I felt his body shudder in response to my words. An answering heat flushed through my body, and I gritted my teeth in irritation.
Dammit.
Why did we affect each other so strongly? I hated that even in a moment like this, the chemistry between us made me respond to his nearness with a surge of arousal.
I had a sudden vivid image of the other much more enjoyable reasons for us to roll around on the ground, and it took all my self-control not to grind my hips against him, seeking some friction against my suddenly throbbing clit.
“Did I underestimate you, Aria?”
His voice was soft and seductive, as if he knew exactly what was going through my mind and was tempting me to act on my wild, insane fantasies.
Nope. Not falling for your fucking tricks this time, you asshole.
I’d learned that lesson the hard way on my first day at Magic Blessed Academy. And if he thought I was going to give him a chance to make a fool of me like that again, he really was an idiot.
It would be even stupider here, where I’d be risking a lot more than a walk of shame through the school hallways.
“Well, you’ll have plenty of time to think about that while you’re stuck here in the jungle, won’t you?”
I chuckled as I jumped off and grabbed the pack from the ground, then slung it over my shoulders.
He glared at me angrily but didn’t say a word, just watched me walk into the woods. I jogged as far as I could with my magic still attached and then let it fade away, knowing it would turn him loose. But I had a several-minute head start, and he was likely still dazed from the tree branch that’d smacked into him.
A triumphant feeling flooded my heart, and a savage grin stretched my lips.
Ha! I had won.
By stealing Merrick’s pack, I had ensured my own survival for at least a little while longer.
The roar of something wild echoed through the forest, slowing my steps for a moment. I came to a stop and looked back the way I had come from. A small twinge of guilt fluttered in my chest, and I rubbed at my sternum absently, trying to banish the sensation.
I felt almost bad for leaving Merrick behind. But I couldn’t. I had to keep going.
The Gods’ Challenge wasn’t about being the better person or doing the right thing. It wasn’t about mending damaged relationships or going out on a limb for other people.
I had to think about myself.
No matter how strong my guilt felt.
Chapter Eleven
My arms were sore, my head was pounding, and there were blisters forming on nearly every surface of my hand.
This place was wild and hot, and I had sweated so much I wasn’t sure where the water was even coming from anymore.
Several hours after I left Merrick behind, I found a stream flowing along the edge of a small ravine. Relief flooded me, and I dropped to my knees beside it. But before I thrust my hands into the stream to scoop up some water, I paused.
Is it safe?
I had to remind myself that I was in the massive arena of the Gods’ Challenge. In this wild place, I wasn’t sure what was dangerous and what wasn’t.
So I did the best I could, attempting to use my magic to filter the water before drinking it. Considering I had no idea what I was doing, I had no idea whether the streams of magic I shot into the water did anything more than scare the little fish darting about under the surface, but I felt better for having tried.
Finally, I took a sip, hoping it wouldn’t kill me.
It tasted fine and looked clear and crisp, so I scooped up handfuls and brought them to my mouth, gulping it down like a dying woman. Stealing Merrick’s pack had been a good tactical move, but I hadn’t found any kind of water bottle in there.
Maybe there was one, and Merrick took it out before I jumped him and stole the pack.
I found myself hoping that was the case. It would relieve some of the guilt that still nagged at me for just leaving him tied up in the jungle like that.
Fuck. Am I going soft out here?
I’d spent my whole life fighting to get by—often literally—and I’d never had any qualms about doing what needed to be done to survive. And now, when I was in more danger than I’d maybe ever been in before, I suddenly found myself worrying about other people’s safety.
Hell of a time to develop a conscience.
Rolling my eyes at myself, I stuck my hands back into the cool, clear water.
For the past several hours, I’d trudged toward the dome I’d seen from my high vantage point, but it was slow going. The thing had been miles away from the tree I’d climbed, and I’d encountered several threats that had put me off course.
None of them had been quite as bad as the flaming birds, but my most recent attacker, a creature shaped like a dog with dark green and blue scales and wickedly sharp teeth, had chased me almost a mile in the wrong direction and nearly taken an eye out with its claws before I’d managed to bring it down.
I was in pretty good shape, having trained almost every day for the past several years as a fighter, but I was quickly learning there was a difference between training at a gym, or even fighting in a ring, and forging my way through a magical jungle in the godly realm.
Squatting next to the water, I took a moment to look around me and listen to the sounds.
This place was eerily similar to earth in some ways, and vastly different in others. I wasn’t exactly sure how it all worked. Up until I had acquired magic, I’d known nothing about the gods. I’d also known absolutely nothing about the godly realm, but I was learning by force.
All around me, I could hear the hum of what sounded like locusts. The sound came on fast, and I had a sudden vision of a plague of them chasing me down and covering me like I was in some horror movie.
But that didn’t happen. Instead, the sky above me began to darken, and the temperatures were quickly falling.
Night is coming.
A shiver worked its way up my spine. I couldn’t risk staying out here, exposed and vulnerable, all night. I had no idea what kind of creatures lurked in the darkness of the gods’ realm, but I was sure as shit I didn’t want to encounter any of them.
And I needed to get some rest. I was fucking exhausted, and that made me an easy target—either for the creatures around me or my fellow competitors.
About a mile back, I think I passed a cave of some kind.
I threw my pack back on and retraced my steps to the cave’s location. A small magical flashlight hung the side of my pack, so I clicked it on and started to scramble down the three feet decline to the entrance into the cave.
Hopefully no other creature has already decided to use this cave as a shelter.
I wasn’t exactly sure what I would find, and I hoped there wouldn’t be some kind of monster lurking in the darkness, ready to eat me. But I figured my odds were still better in here. There might be one or two monsters inside the cave, while outside in the jungle, I had no idea how many things could be watching and waiting for a
midnight snack.
The sound of water trickling down the sides of the stone walls was almost soothing.
There were small puddles of muddy water collecting on the rocky ground, and I carefully maneuvered my way around them as I navigated the narrow passage.
Ahead of me, I could see a natural archway created by the water and stone. I stopped, finding that my flashlight wasn’t quite bright enough to see inside of the dark hull in front of me. I hooked the little light back to my bag and rubbed my hands together, pulling my energy to my fingertips.
I had no idea if this would work, but I might as well try.
Twisting my arms and my hands in a circle, I created a ball of energy that pulsated and rotated wildly. I stared into it, willing it to turn into a source of light instead of just a translucent energy field.
Very slowly, the orb began to glow and condense, until it was a very bright ball of light about the size of a softball.
I grinned at my accomplishment.
As insane as the Gods’ Challenge was, I could sort of see why the school admins thought it was a good thing. The old saying “necessity is the mother of invention” was certainly true, and under the intense, life-or-death circumstances of the challenge, I was already pushing and expanding my powers beyond anything I’d learned so far in classes.
With the flick of my eyebrows, and a willingness to try just about anything at this point, I pulled my arm back and then made a gesture like I was throwing a ball. The orb flew high up into the air, soaring up to the top of the cave’s ceiling and hovering there, shining a light down upon the hollow area.
Yes!
Carefully, I stepped through the archway and looked around, my body alert but loose, ready for a fight.
What I found inside was absolutely perfect.
There were no monsters at all that I could see, and the flow of water over the years had cleaned and smoothed the walls and several areas of the floor, creating a flat surface that I could sleep on.
My hands wrapped around my arms and rubbed up and down, feeling the coldness of the shadowed area.
A little damn chilly.
Still, it was much better than the heat I had felt all day, and I wasn’t going to complain.
Leaving the orb hovering high above, I grabbed the flashlight from my pack again and headed back outside through the tunnel to grab some sticks, leaves, and brush. When I returned, I set it down in the center of the cave and stared at it for a minute.
With no matches, I wasn’t exactly sure how to start a fire. I hadn’t been a Girl Scout, and I wasn’t really the type to bang two stones together until fire sparked or whatever.
Shit, there’s a spell for fire. How does it go?
We hadn’t covered this yet in any of my classes, but I’d seen a second-year messing around with her magic in the hallway a few weeks ago. She’d created a sort of mini-fireball. If I could just remember what she’d done…
I tried a few variations, almost lighting my eyebrows on fire once. But on the seventh try, a tiny ball of flame appeared above my hand. I brought it down to light the tinder quickly, before it went out, hoping that since the flame was magically induced, it would continue to burn all night without me having to venture back out to the jungle.
Night had fallen really fast. I wasn’t scared of the dark, but the darkness in the godly realm? Yeah, that scared me.
While I let the warmth of the fire seep into my bones, I went through the pack, taking inventory of what I had.
There were several packets of what looked like food rations, a knife, some rope, and a couple of other tools I couldn’t identify. There were a couple of small vials containing potions too, and I pulled one out and tilted it toward the fire, trying to see if it was labeled.
If it’s not, there’s no fucking way I’m drinking thi—
Before I could finish that thought, a heavy body slammed into me from behind.
I sprawled across the hard stone ground, arms wrapping protectively around the pack even as I cursed myself for letting my guard down.
My attacker was on top of me before I could recover. I grunted as I was rolled onto my back, about to launch an elbow at the bastard’s face—only to find Lachlan staring back down at me.
Surprise made me hesitate. I missed my chance to bash his nose in as he went for the bag in my hand, an irritating smirk on his face despite the effort it was obviously taking to hold me down.
What a fucking cock.
I gritted my teeth and narrowed my eyes, yanking the pack from his grip as I bucked my hips, throwing us off balance. We rolled again and struggled harder, each scrabbling for anything we could get ahold of to push the other off.
He managed to climb on top of me and straddled my waist, reversing tactics suddenly. Instead of trying to yank the pack out of my hands, he put all his weight on it, pressing the heavy bag against my chest and making it hard to breathe.
“Just give in,” he grunted breathlessly. “Ye’re too weak to beat me, and ye know it.”
Sure, whatever you say, asshole.
He had the upper hand, but I wasn’t going to give in. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I wheezed. “You’re still underestimating me? Where do you think I got this pack from in the first place?”
It took all my strength, but I threw him off me, putting a little extra effort into it so he hit the ground hard. I answered my own question as I jumped to my feet.
“I stole it from your fucking bestie, Merrick.”
Then I grabbed the pack again and made a move to sprint toward the cave exit.
But before I could make it two steps, Lachlan’s hand shot out like a whip, grabbing me by the ankle.
“Fuck! Let go, you cocksucker!”
I shook my leg, trying to knock him off, but he half-climbed up my body and pulled me back down on the ground. We rolled, tumbling over and over—
“Shite! Aria, look out!”
We stopped, just inches from the fire.
Heat flared on one side of my face, and I swore I could smell burning hair as a few flyaways were absorbed by the flames. My heart thundered, and my eyes went wide as I stared at it.
Holy shit. Lachlan had stopped us just in time.
Arguably, he’d done it just to save his own skin. But like it or not, he’d saved mine too.
We stayed frozen like that for several long heartbeats, his body resting on mine, heavy and firm and smelling faintly of leather and musk. The pack was sandwiched between us, but that didn’t stop me from feeling everywhere else we were connected, our bodies pressed together practically from head to toe.
Slowly, I turned my head away from the flame and looked up at him. He was staring down at me, something almost like shock in his green eyes. Shock and… heat.
An answering warmth spread through me that had nothing to do with the fire, and I cursed myself inwardly.
Dammit, Aria. Now is not the time!
The tense silence hovered between us for another moment, and I struggled to keep my breathing even, to not let him know he was affecting me like this. That he was affecting me at all.
Annoyed with myself for about a dozen different reasons, I finally sprang into action, grabbing him in a headlock and rolling him off me.
I didn’t roll him toward the fire, at least.
See? We’re even.
We ended up with me on top of him, and I tightened my grip on the pack as I leapt up, sprinting toward the exit for a second time. I hated to abandon a fight early, but the smarter course of action was to get the fuck out of here right now.
Unfortunately, for the second time tonight, Lachlan took me down before I could get more than a few yards away. This time it was in a full-body tackle that hit me with the force of a speeding car.
The pack flew from my hand and skidded across the floor.
A second later, we both hit the ground with a thud, Lachlan landing hard on top of me.
Heavy motherfucker.
The force of the blow stunned me, and the Ir
ish bastard pressed his advantage. He rolled me over and pinned my arms to the ground above my head with a smile, pressing his body against mine again, using his weight to help him hold me.
With no pack between us, I could truly feel all of him, and the reaction in my body was even stronger this time.
Ugh. Stupid body.
As much as I hated him, I couldn’t help but feel an odd, intense sexual chemistry burning between us. Sure, I could try to pretend the heat pouring through me was from the fire burning just a few feet away from us, but I wasn’t big on lying to myself.
No, it was definitely him.
Huh. Apparently, I have a thing for assholes. I should see if Magic Blessed has a therapist on staff I can talk to about this—if I make it out of here alive.
At least Lachlan was breathing as hard as I was. This fight hadn’t been easy for him, no matter what he might tell his little buddies later.
I expected him to press his advantage, but instead, he caught my gaze again, his green eyes narrowing.
“Let’s call a truce,” he murmured.
“What?”
He chuckled at the shocked sound of my voice, then shrugged. I could feel his body shift against mine with the movement. “It doesn’t have to be forever, just for tonight. For tonight, we’ll share this cave and whatever’s in the pack. When the sun comes up, we can go back to competin’. We’ve gotta get some sleep, and I’m sure neither one of us wants to go back out into the jungle right now.”
Huh. A truce? I was irritated and tempted by the offer at the same time.
Craning my neck, I glanced over at the archway leading into the darkness beyond. He had a point. I didn’t want to go back out there, and to be honest, I really didn’t want to send anyone back out there. The phrase “wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy” came to my mind. It would be truly heartless of me to force Lachlan back out into the dangerous jungle in the dead of night.
Assuming I won our fight, of course, which wasn’t guaranteed. As much as I hated to admit it, he was a good fighter.