by Ines Johnson
“I hate to even ask, but you know I have to. We’re still on the same team, right?”
I glared at Geraint, but then I let out a tired sigh. I’d barely gotten any sleep, but I was wide awake and alert. “Baros has cheated on me, left me brokenhearted, nearly tried to kill me twice. It’s a no-brainer.”
I may have been wide awake, but with all that was coming at me, my problem was that my brain was fried. I was still standing in the middle of the field. I wasn’t sure which team I belonged on.
Chapter Twenty
The pyro display in the middle of the arena would make a rock band look like an afternoon tea party and cause a WWE wrestler to wet his spandex. It was the Fourth of July underground, but it looked like the fireworks display went up into the sky. I knew it was all magic, but it looked real.
I took a moment to enjoy it like I was a spectator. I’d even snapped a couple of pictures of the festivities and sent them to Nia. But she hadn’t responded.
I kept looking around, expecting to see her storm in. This was right up her alley, after all. Supernatural shenanigans with an ancient artifact as the prize. She must’ve been underneath one of her paramours, or if she’d learned anything from me, both of them.
I put my phone away when Gyges preened onto center stage. Today's costume was even more flamboyant than the previous night. He was in a neon yellow that rivaled the brightness of the sun. I wasn’t the only one shading my eyes from offense at his fashion sense.
“This is the main event.” Gyges’s voice reverberated in the air as another blast of sparkly illuminations lit up the fake sky. The words ‘main’ and ‘event’ materialized in a number of languages and bounced off the walls of the arena. The crowd went wild even though nothing had happened yet. You could feel their bloodlust as they squirmed in their seats.
There were five contestants still standing. The indebted brother who’d prematurely ended the life of his ailing brother. A second man, whose fight I had not paid attention to. Then there was me and Geraint and Baros. We all stood in a loose cluster; not too close to each other that we were within striking distance.
Gyges focused his attention on us. His purple skin positively glowed with excitement. His pink lips were painted orange today, but somehow it worked with his yellow ensemble. “This is the final battle, my little urchins. Today, one of these five will achieve the quest for invincibility.”
The crowd erupted into more cheers. As the fairies in the audience pumped their arms and flapped their petal-like wings, more sparkles filled the air. It was a bit hard to breathe with all the fairy dust clogging the air like aerosol making its way to the ozone.
Gyges raised his hands and the crowd instantly settled. “As you know, the ring will only choose one wearer. Now comes the test of the words alliance, friend, lover, family.”
He smiled at each of us in turn, his gaze lingering the longest on me. His smile curled up cruelly, reminding me of the Grinch as he went about his holiday thievery.
“What would you do for the power of invincibility?” he said to the crowd.
In the crowd, people turned to each other. Gazes narrowed shrewdly as they looked sideways at companions or avoided eye contact completely. Bodies shifted closer to some and away from others. Gyges seemed to have a way to bring the worst out of people.
“Luckily for us, we don’t have to decide,” said Gyges. “We get to watch the entertainment along with our loved ones.”
And just like that, the tension eased and light laughter spread through the arena. Gyges backed up, not looking where he was going, he found his seat. To his left was Enid.
Enid sat stoically in soft pastels. Her head was downcast, her face carefully expressionless. The bruises that had shaded her eyes and her nose from Geraint’s ill-timed attentions were gone.
I felt Geraint tense beside me, that’s how I knew he’d spotted her too. His lips were parted, but at the same time, his jaw was clenched. He took a step forward. Only one. It could’ve been taken as a change in stance, but if you knew his character, you’d know that chivalry was puffing up his chest and fogging his brain.
I gave him a shake of my head to try and hold him at bay. But it wasn’t my warning that he heeded.
In my peripheral vision, I caught Enid give an almost imperceptible shake of her head. Her eyes didn’t leave the floor; her facial expression didn’t change. The only way I could be sure of what I thought I’d seen was the barest breath of golden dust that shimmied off her shoulders from the movement.
The crowd didn’t notice, but someone else did. Gyges’s grin widened at the display of his daughter and his contender. How would he use that against Geraint? Or maybe it had already worked. Geraint was off his game with his concern for Enid before the game had even started.
I turned my ire towards Enid, but with a glance, I knew she took no pleasure or part in her father’s sport. Whatever she was to Gyges, she was not happy. I knew the look of a person happy in their family. I especially knew the look of a daughter sitting in the presence of a father who loved her. The two fairies did not paint that picture.
“The rules are,” Gyges was saying. But then he paused dramatically, turning his face up to the crowd. “You know how that phrase ends.”
“There are no rules.” The shout came from the entire crowd, save the five contestants.
“Just know that once you get to the ring, the battle is far from over.” Gyges raised his hands and a set of doors opened.
We all took steps into the opening, all in a straight, wide line. No one in front of or behind the other. Behind us and in front of us were five large eyes. I looked over my shoulder to see my face on the biggest HD screen of my life. The squires and knights would’ve salivated over such a retinal display.
Seeing all the contenders on the screen, I supposed each of the eyes were cameras. There were also shells floating next to the cameras picking up the sound of our feet crunching over loose gravel and our bated breaths.
The doors shut with a resounding thud. There was no escape. The only way through was forward.
Out before us, was a maze with many paths to choose from. There was a manicured road that looked well kept. The grass was trimmed back from the path. Along the edges of the path, it was lined with roses. This, I supposed, was the easy road.
A second path was muddy. I could even smell a stench wafting in the breeze from that way. It looked like it would be hard work to navigate that particular path.
The final path, the one at the far end of the maze, was a broken road. It looked treacherous with fragmented cobblestones that begged for a sturdy ankle to turn. That way looked like it would take more than hard work. It looked like it would take your life if you chose its path.
As the men set about pondering which road to choose, I immediately knew the answer. I turned around. To my left stood Baros, to my right stood Geraint. I tugged my lower lip into my mouth as I tried to remember whose side I was actually on and whose side I was pretending to be on. Before I rallied with an answer, I heard a gasp and then a thud.
Cheers rose up from behind the closed door as the crowd went wild. Something told me not to turn, but my back was to the danger, so I had no choice. Sure enough, I turned to find that the indebted brother had gutted the fifth contender. The man withdrew his blade and now it was aimed at me.
There was an intrigued gasp and a few boos from the peanut gallery that sat safely on the other side of the door. That was kinda cool. I’d become a crowd favorite.
Before I could lift a finger to defend myself, a dagger flew into the two-faced brother. The hilt of a dagger protruded from his chest. It was a kopis blade, the type of blade issued to a Spartan warrior. The next cheers I heard were decidedly feminine. I guess Baros and I got some points with the unrequited love story angle.
The indebted brother looked down at his chest in stunned silence. With a gasp of his own, his body fell to the ground with a loud thud. I felt no love loss for the brother as he lay still on the ground.
When I turned to thank my savior, I saw that I stood in the middle of the third standoff. Both Baros and Geraint had their blades raised, and they were pointed at each other. The next gasp that rose in the air was mine.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Step aside, my lady,” said Geraint. One of the camera eyes floated around his curved scimitar to capture the action as it pointed at Baros.
“The lady can fight her own battles,” said Baros. His own blade, a broad xiphos, would’ve met Geraint’s blade if I hadn’t been standing between them. “And she knows exactly where she wants to stand.”
Part of me wanted to let them fight it out. They were evenly matched. I could let them destroy each other and not let them know where I’d decided to stand.
Problem was, I had a vagina and not a pair of balls. And I’d put on a pair of panties before coming to do battle, the big girl variety. So, I had to face this like a woman.
“You knights are an honorable lot,” sighed Baros. “You would’ve made good Spartan soldiers. It’s a shame you have to die.”
“The Spartans were a noble breed.” Geraint nodded, not taking his eyes off Baros’s blade. “It’s a shame your kind will now be extinct.”
So, this was happening right now. I’d have to take my side. Man. Why couldn’t I have them both? My old flame and my new brother.
It would be like a reverse harem. Except I didn’t want to sleep with Geraint. He’d really become like my brother these past two days. I had not a single naughty thought about him. Oh, I’d had some when I’d first met him. But then he’d opened his mouth and lifted his brow. Now I got all warm and fuzzy when I thought about him like I did when I thought of Zane, Nia’s ex … or maybe he was her current lover. I really needed to catch up with my bestie and trade notes. Whatever was going on with her couldn’t top my cray-cray right now.
“Loren!”
“What?” I looked up to see which man had called my name. It had been both of them.
“Games up, my lady,” said Geraint. “I’ll take it from here. Move out of the way.”
I frowned over at Geraint. Was he seriously pulling this macho BS right now? The word fascist was on the tip of my lip as I channeled Morgan. I could totally take care of myself. How many times did I need to prove that?
“Lolo,” crooned Baros. “This is just like we planned. Once he’s out of the way, it’ll be down to the two of us. I’ll have my freedom with the ring, and then we’ll be together.”
My brow wrinkled at Baros. Why did he keep insisting that he was the prize worth having? He was the one who’d taught me that monogamy was a fool’s errand, but all of a sudden, now, he was shoving the committed life in my face.
And then there was Gyges. I could feel him snickering at my predicament as I stood between my past and my present trying to determine the course of my future. But that demented fairy didn’t know who he was messing with.
“Wait,” I said, holding out my hands to both men. “This is my responsibility. Let me take care of it.”
I took a deep breath and turned to Baros. I took a step toward him. Then I gave him my back and faced Geraint.
Geraint’s eyes narrowed at me and then widened as my hand ignited in witch fire. I almost smiled. My harshest critic finally thought better of me. Damn, if it wasn’t a hard-won battle and just in time. I saw Baros’s triumphant grin reflected in Geraint’s wide gaze.
“You told me yourself,” I said to Geraint. “People don’t change.” I spread my enflamed fingers in the shape of a V, better known as the greeting of a Vulcan.
Geraint groaned, lowering his sword and tipping his head back to look up at the fake sky. “Damn it, Loren. Really?”
“Sorry, bruh. But you asked for it.”
He let out a long exhale and something that sounded like a muttered curse, or a mumbled prayer, before he re-fixed his gaze on me. “You will pay for this. You know that right?”
I didn’t doubt it. “I’m a thief. I don’t pay for anything.”
Power surged through me, collecting in the palm of my hand. I flicked my wrist, shooting the energy outward; concentrating hard to make sure that this time I hit my mark.
Geraint went down in the third loud thud of the evening’s festivities. His eyes shut, and his mouth went slack. Luckily, he didn’t convulse in a fit of tickles like Maurice. Geraint lay still as a stone.
For a second, I wondered if I’d actually killed him. But I still felt the hum of the magic from his witch ancestry. I hoped he wasn’t out for too long.
It was time for me to turn around and face the man I’d picked for the record. But there was a scratch as my body went into motion, and I realized I might have chosen wrong. Baros’s sword was still raised. Was this gonna be a two-sided double-cross?
But he lowered his sword and reached his hand out to me. I stared at the offering for a long moment, not quite sure how this worked. I slipped my fingers between his.
The next thing I knew, I was holding Leonidas Baros’s hand, in public. We’d never entwined anything that wasn’t naughty before. It was kinda weird and incredibly intimate. Especially since we were doing it in front of a crowd. But when in Rome, right?
I stepped over Geraint’s body and allowed Baros to lead me towards the path.
“Which path?” he asked.
I told him what I’d figured out the moment we entered this maze. “The path we travel doesn’t matter. It’s the decisions we make along the way.”
Igraine’s words came through. I’d known they would. I just hadn’t known when or how. Man, if I could get her to pay attention to the lottery, all of Camelot would be set until the end of time.
Baros gave me a tug toward the easy path; the one filled with flowers. We strolled along and it felt like we were in a romance movie montage. My hand in his felt warm … and sweaty. My hand, not his.
It wasn’t just my palms and the spaces between our hands that were perspiring, my armpits felt like two small rain clouds had settled there. My slippery fingers didn’t seem to bother Baros. He just held on tighter. And then he leaned in and kissed me on my temple like we were some normal couple out on a stroll.
What the hell was going on? This couldn’t be happening. Not to me. I wasn’t this girl. The girl in the fairy-book or romance novel who got the guy. The girl in high school who met her first and only love, or the one who married her college sweetheart. And definitely not the girl who, after heartbreak after heartbreak, picked the right guy who finally stuck by her.
I kept sweating buckets as the possibility settled on me like a freight train. Was Baros choosing me? Was I actually walking into some kinda happily-ever-after?
Did I want to?
With him?
He was the first guy who’d ever gotten my heart to skip a beat. Yeah, okay, there were some dead and unconscious bodies in our wake. But he was holding my hand. We were marching down a field of freaking flowers.
Was this fate? If so, then why was my skin itching?
My heart was pounding in my ears. My feet stumbled on a nonexistent rock in our path. Baros caught me and set me back on my feet. I looked into his pale eyes and the earth moved.
No, wait. The ground actually shook. Like it was an earthquake. Because it was an earthquake. The ground around us was splitting and showing its insides and breaking up this idyllic ending.
Thank God. I knew it couldn’t be this easy.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The entire world from the flowers to the fake sky shook. I let go of my hold on Baros, but he held on to me. His pale gaze raked over me with concern etched in his brows.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“I’m not sure?”
Physically, I was fine. It was my insides that were messed up. My blood was warm. I felt it rushing to my cheeks like I was blushing or something. The valves of my heart must have come loose because the organ felt like it was tumbling around in my chest cavity. The corners of my eyes were stretching wider and wider like I
was some virginal maiden come face-to-face with a knight in shining armor. And that shining light was centered on Leonidas Baros.
I blinked rapidly to clear my vision. But my head was still muddled. Baros tucked me into his side as we surveyed our surroundings.
Well, he surveyed the field for new threats. I was too busy checking him out, trying to fathom what was happening between us.
He’d never coddled me. Not ever. He’d clean the mat with my ass and then demand I stand and take more. Even when we began knocking boots, he didn’t shelter me from any threat. But he was holding my hand right now.
Then I noticed it. The hand that he held was my sword hand. Ah, so that was his game.
“Here,” he said. And then he handed me his freaking sword.
He handed me his xiphos. A Spartan never relinquished his sword or shield. Their mothers told them to come home with it or on it.
My fingers tried to grip the hilt and failed. Before it clattered to the ground, I managed to get my palm securely around the leather bound handle. I brought it towards me like a mother would a newborn child.
Baros had never trusted me with this, his most prized possession, ever before. This was the seat of his power. The armor around his heart. And it was in my hands.
“I think we’re meant to go deeper,” he said.
My breath caught. My fingers tightened on the hilt, bringing it up to my heart. They were words I never expected to pass his lips, but now that I heard them, I finally admitted that they were the exact words I’d been waiting to hear for all my life.
“Loren?”
“Yes,” I answered. “Yes,” I nodded. “Yes.” I took a step towards him.
He held out his hand. I reached for him. His brows screwed, and then he leaned in and retrieved his sword.
I looked down at my empty hands. The sound of steel against stone brought my gaze back up. I hadn’t noticed until this second that we were standing before a cave. Baros had moved aside a boulder, which is why he’d handed me his sword. And now he was getting rid of some vines that blocked the entrance, which is why he’d taken his sword back from me.