It didn’t matter that the penalty for his actions was death. All his heart could think about was finding a way to spend more time with Zora.
Chapter Ten
Zora avoided Oskar, and all of the shifters, for the next several days. She wasn’t angry, exactly. She was embarrassed. How could she have been so foolish, thinking that she could just walk into a resistance meeting and convince all of the shifters to trust her? She might have changed on the inside, but on the outside she still looked like a Gilt Hollow citizen, and the Gilt Hollow citizens were the shifters’ biggest enemies.
The pain of her foolishness was made all the worse by the fact that Oskar had kissed her. She’d never felt anything so amazing before as his kiss, but now that she was avoiding him like the plague, he was unlikely to ever kiss her again. He probably thought she had seduced him to try to get him in trouble with her father.
“But I haven’t turned any of them in!” Zora said aloud to her reflection in her giant, full length mirror. “If I wanted to hurt them, I could have easily run to my father and demanded they be punished. Why can’t they see that, and trust me?”
Zora sighed. Could she blame them? If she’d spent a lifetime being tortured by the Gilt Hollow citizens, she wouldn’t be so quick to trust, either.
Zora straightened her long, silky skirt and then reached up to tuck a tendril of loose hair behind her ear. She was running late, and she knew she should get downstairs to join the rest of her family in their carriage. They would whine up and down to her about how long it took her to get ready, and crack jokes about how her hair and makeup looked the same whether she spent five minutes or five hours on it. Zora grimaced at the thought of their teasing. She’d never fit in well with the rest of her family. She’d always been a little too rebellious for her father’s tastes, and her mother had long ago given up on trying to convince her to find a suitable nobleman’s son to marry.
“Why waste all that time getting ready, if you’re not even going to bother batting your eyelashes at the available bachelors?” her mother would say.
What her mother didn’t know was that when Zora claimed to be primping in her room, she was usually just enjoying some quiet time to herself. That could be hard to come by here in the Seversons’ estate, with servants everywhere. Zora had servants to get her ready for events—maids who would do her hair and makeup and fuss over her dress—but Zora dismissed them most of the time when getting ready for the Games. She always needed alone time before the Games, to compose herself and talk herself out of rushing to her father and yelling at him that the Games were a blight on all of Gilt Hollow. Zora knew she was the only one who saw the Games that way, and her father would not appreciate a lecture by his own daughter about how barbaric his precious Games were.
Zora always managed to keep her emotions in check and act reasonably interested in the Games. Interested enough, at least, that her father didn’t notice her lack of enthusiasm. But faking it was going to be harder to pull off today. Today, Oskar would be participating in the Games for the first time, and the thought of watching him in the Arena, in front of a huge crowd of jeering Gilt Hollow citizens, was enough to make Zora sick.
“Zora! We should have left ten minutes ago! Your father is losing his patience!” Her mother’s sharp voice and knock at her bedroom door nearly caused Zora to jump out of her skin.
“Coming,” Zora called. She took one last glance at her reflection in the mirror, and then followed her mother out to the waiting carriage. She ignored the disapproving looks of her family members as the carriage made the short trek to the Arena. The Seversons’ estate was close enough to the Arena that it made more sense to walk than to take a carriage into the crowded parking area outside the Arena. But her parents would never be caught dead walking. They needed to show up in style and impress everyone with their wealth, which always struck Zora as a little funny. Everyone in Gilt Hollow had way more money than they knew what to do with. Zora figured that’s why they spent all their time trying to outdo each other with their possessions. What else was there to do when you were filthy rich?
The roar from inside the Arena could already be heard outside, and Zora’s father turned to give her an angry glare. He liked to be inside before all the cheering and festivities had started in earnest, and she had made them late. Zora could see her father’s look in her peripheral vision but she refused to meet his eyes. She didn’t care that they were late. She wanted to spend as little time in the Arena as possible. Unfortunately, today marked one of the biggest events of the year for the Games: the annual Winter Kickoff Games. On December first every year, which Gilt Hollow considered the unofficial start of winter, a day-long set of matches was held to celebrate the changing seasons. There were also Summer Kickoff Games, held on June first every year. In between were several smaller matches that offered the opportunity for the noblemen to assess how well their shifters were doing in the ring. Occasionally, special events were held, such as death matches or shifter matches. Zora hated all of it.
And she hated that Loki was already insisting on putting Oskar in a match today. Oskar had only been in Gilt Hollow for a few weeks. He hadn’t had much time to train, or to learn the rules of the Games. But Loki didn’t care. After seeing Oskar fight in practice rounds a few more times, Loki had forgotten about Oskar’s initial defeat at Otto’s hands. Oskar’s fighting skills impressed everyone who saw them, Zora included.
Zora had watched training from afar, not wanting Oskar to see that she was showing an interest in him. She had confused him enough already by letting him kiss her and then showing up to the resistance meeting. She didn’t want to distract him during training as well, so she’d stayed hidden behind columns or curtains, watching as the shifter trainers put him through his paces.
He won practice fight after practice fight. In fact, Zora couldn’t remember a time that he’d actually been defeated while she was watching. When he shifted into his bear form, he became unstoppable. The muscles that rippled under his human skin became even larger under his bear fur. His face looked much fiercer as a grizzly than as a man, but his eyes looked the same. They held the same intelligent, clever look as they did in human form. He moved with the swiftness of a deer, but the power of an ox. Zora could have watched him for hours. Sometimes, she did.
She had seen him go quickly from a green shifter to a seasoned warrior. It took most of the shifters months, if not years, to reach the level Oskar had reached. And yet, she knew he took no pride in his accomplishments. The anger in his stormy dark eyes gave him away. All of the shifters looked angry when they started training for the Games, some more than others. But Zora had never seen any of them look quite as angry as Oskar did. And that anger never waned. While many of the shifters seemed to resign themselves to their new lives after a while, letting their sparks of fury slowly fizzle out, Oskar’s anger seemed to only increase. It had only been a few weeks, true. But his anger grew stronger by the day, not weaker. Zora wondered if he would let that anger show during his matches today.
She followed her parents down the long set of stairs to their reserved seats on the front center row. The din had grown to a deafening level, and Zora wished she could cover her ears with her hands. She’d never enjoyed the cheering in here, but her father expected her to act as enthusiastic as the rest of her family. The Seversons were one of the biggest contenders in the Games, with their shifters often topping the leader boards. Otto had been the reigning champion of several Winter Games in a row now, and no one expected that to change anytime soon. Loki had been teasing his father that Oskar would give Otto a run for his money, but Zora couldn’t imagine that a competitor as green as Oskar, even one that had advanced through training so quickly, could possibly unseat a champion like Otto.
The roar in the Arena grew even louder as the master of ceremonies headed to the center of the ring. He was a balding man who had actually allowed the world to see his bare head. Most of the Gilt Hollow citizens would have bought a fancy, expensive wig to
cover up balding spots, but this man didn’t care. He’d smoothed some sort of glitter lotion or makeup over his head so that it shimmered in the bright Arena lights, and he wore a well-tailored black suit that also glittered in the lights. The bullhorn he spoke into was encrusted with diamonds, causing it to flash wildly as he waved it around.
“Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to the seventy-seventh annual Winter Kickoff Games. We have a great show planned for you today, with a fabulous mix of both old and new competitors. There are sure to be some moments for the history books today.”
Zora clapped her hands dutifully along with the thousands of other people in the Arena. It looked like there was not an empty seat in the house today. The seats were packed, all the way up to the nosebleeds. Of course, as a member of one of the most elite families in Gilt Hollow, Zora was sitting on the very front row. On the other side of her parents sat the Emperor and his family. Her father and the Emperor were close friends, but Zora had never been able to develop a close friendship with the Emperor’s children, who were close in age to Loki and her. Perhaps it’s because she always feared saying the wrong thing. This Emperor had been the most oppressive leader to the shifters in all of Gilt Hollow’s history, and Zora, who had never been good at holding her tongue, was always tempted to make snide remarks about how he was essentially practicing genocide. Thankfully, the Emperor’s daughter had not shown much interest in hanging out with Zora. Just as well. Being a loner suited Zora well. It allowed her time to watch the shifters and dream about how she might be able to help them someday.
“Our first match is between a seasoned wolf shifter and a brand new panther shifter. These competitors both hail from some of the best families in Gilt Hollow…”
Zora tuned out the announcer. He had energy and charisma, no one could deny that. But his words were always the same. “This shifter from this great family has accomplished this great thing and blah, blah, blah.” She had started tuning him out years ago.
She looked up at the board to see who was fighting first. She recognized the wolf shifter as a so-so competitor from past matches, and the panther shifter was new, as the announcer had said. They both made their way into the ring to shake hands, and the announcer made his way out of the ring and to safety in his announcer’s booth, which was situated close to the exact opposite side of the ring from Zora’s seat.
After the two competitors had shaken hands, they turned their backs on each other and walked about fifty feet away from each other. They were each standing about twenty feet in front of a door that held some wild animal that had been starved and mistreated so that it would readily attack the shifters. The object of the match was for the shifters to shift into their animal form and subdue the wild animal as quickly as they could. Whichever shifter subdued the wild animal first was the winner.
There would be a first round of matches, and the winner of that round would go on to the second matches. There would be five rounds in all, until finally only two shifters remained and fought for the grand prize. The wild animals supposedly got fiercer and more difficult to beat as the day went on, but Zora thought all the animals seemed equally difficult. And she hated it all. At least there were no death matches today. In death matches, the shifters were required to actually kill the animal in order to “win.”
The bell rang and the doors that held the animals opened with loud, metallic clangs. Zora did her best not to watch, but she had to at least act like she was interested, or her father would have a fit. Loud roars sounded out, some from the shifters as they began transforming into animal form, and some from the wild animals, which charged toward the shifters.
Zora stared at the far wall of the Arena, trying not to watch while still appearing to watch. The match felt like it went on forever. It always felt that way to Zora. The crowd roared as the shifters got closer to pinning down the wild animals, and Zora wished again that she could cover her ears. The screeches and squeals of the animals grew louder, and Zora really wished she could cover her ears. But instead she stared off at the Arena like a good Severson. Internally, though, she was wondering how to convince Otto and the other shifters to trust her enough to let her join in their resistance.
Six more matches came and went before Oskar entered the ring. He had been matched against another bear shifter who was known for being inconsistent. Some days the other shifter performed amazingly well, and other days, you wondered if he even knew how to fight. Zora leaned forward in her seat, chewing her bottom lip. She hoped things went well for Oskar today. She knew he hated the Games even more than she did—even more than most of the shifters did—but life would be much easier for him if he managed to perform well.
The starting bell sounded for Oskar’s match, and Zora never took her eyes off of him. His silvery black uniform ripped off his body as he began to shift. For a brief moment, Zora saw his body naked in human form. The sight made her breath catch in her throat. His muscles rippled under his skin, his strength evident from every angle. Every part of him boasted sculpted, larger than life features. Zora tried to memorize the way he looked, just as she had every other time she’d seen him shift during his training exercises. She collected these images in her mind, and reviewed them when she was alone in bed at night, wishing there was some way for Oskar to lie beside her for real, with those strong arms wrapped around her body. It could never be, she knew. Imagination was all she had to go on, and so she fed her imagination with images of him as much as she could.
A few moments later, Oskar had completed his transformation into a bear. Even though the two shifters in the room were over fifty feet apart, one could easily tell by comparing them that Oskar stood much taller than the other bear. This didn’t surprise Zora. She had seen a lot of bear shifters come through training at the Severson estate, and none of them had ever been as large as Oskar.
Oskar’s wild animal opponent was a bear as well, that equaled him in size. The shaggy grizzly bear charged straight at Oskar, roaring with a fury that sent chills down Zora’s spine. She hated the way the wild animals were mistreated to make them extra angry in the ring. She would have been willing to bet that Oskar felt that way, too. Zora had eavesdropped on quite a few shifters talking about the Games before, and they always complained of how dehumanizing the Games were for shifters, and how cruel the Games were to the wild animals. Zora did not disagree with them, but she seemed to be the only human in Gilt Hollow who felt that way.
Oskar waited until the last second, then jumped out of the way of the charging grizzly. The grizzly was moving so fast that it took the animal several seconds to bring itself to a stop and swing around to charge at Oskar again. Again, Oskar jumped out of the way at the last second, but this time he also jumped on the grizzly’s back as soon as it had passed him.
The grizzly tried to shake off Oskar’s bear, but Oskar held on tightly. The crowd roared as Oskar rode the other bear like it was a bucking bronco, and slowly but surely wore it down. The wild grizzly stumbled and fell, unable to sustain its protest for long under the sheer weight of Oskar’s bear. Zora glanced over at the other shifter to find he was not even close to subduing his bear. Oskar was going to win.
The announcer began the countdown, counting down from ten to ensure that Oskar kept the wild bear underneath him on the ground for at least ten seconds. When the countdown was complete, the announcer ecstatically declared “Oskar from House Severson, the newcomer, wins this round.”
Even with the distance between them, and even though he was in bear form, Zora could see the angry twitch in Oskar’s eyes. She couldn’t imagine how unhappy he must feel right now. Being forced to fight, and then on top of that, being called “Oskar from House Severson.”
None of the shifters were ever announced by their real names. The announcer always identified them by the house of nobles they had “volunteered” for, and that was that. Zora wondered what it felt like to not only be forced into participating in this circus, but to also have your own identity wiped away.
Ha
ndlers came out to prod the bears back into their cages with electric rods, and Oskar and the other shifter transformed themselves back into human form. Naked in front of the entire Gilt Hollow crowd, they shook hands in the center of the ring, and then left through the competitors’ exit door to make room for the next two competitors.
Beside Zora, Loki was excitedly discussing with their father how well Oskar had done.
“He has a lot of potential. That was an easy match, true. But did you see how quickly he took down that bear? He’s got natural skill, and nerves of steel. That bear is gonna make me a lot of money.”
Zora tuned Loki out as best she could. She was relieved for Oskar’s sake that he’d won the match. But she didn’t want to hear Loki talk about Oskar like shifters were some sort of commodity. She wanted to scream at Loki that Oskar was a real person, who had feelings and deserved real dignity. But her brother would never listen to her. He would only laugh and accuse her of going soft.
The day went on with match after match. Many of the seasoned competitors did well, and a few of the newcomers surprised everyone by upsetting the scoreboards. Zora watched it all with disinterest, only truly watching when Oskar took the ring. She kept her fingers crossed underneath her skirts the whole time he fought, hoping that he would get easy victories. Life for him would be much easier if Loki was happy with his performance. To her relief, Oskar easily won each of his matches. He made it all the way to the final match, which was unheard of for a first-timer at the Games. Not only that, but Otto had taken the other finalist spot. The crowd, and the announcer, were beside themselves.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the announcer boomed, “History is being made here today. Not only has a first-timer, Oskar of House Severson, made it to the final round, but his opponent is Otto of House Severson. Never before have we seen two shifters from the same House competing against each other in the final round. I’m told there’s a little father-son rivalry going on here today, as Oskar was trained by Loki Severson, and Otto was trained by Loki’s father, Fitz Severson. We’ll see whether age or beauty wins out today.”
The Misfit and the Bear (The Shifter Games Book 1) Page 8