The Faerie Mates
Dark World: The Faerie Games 3
Michelle Madow
Dreamscape Publishing
1
Selena
“Welcome to the third Emperor of the Villa competition!” a hologram of Bacchus said from the gold, basketball-sized orb floating in front of me. “This one’s going to be a classic. A chariot race!”
I’d figured as much, since I was standing in the driver’s seat of a gold chariot, holding the reins to control the four white horses connected to it. There was an ominous box of weapons in the area in front of my feet. And of course, I wore my personalized fighting outfit—a short, light blue dress with gladiator shoes that wrapped up to my knees.
The chariot was at the start of a straight dirt path around fifty feet wide, surrounded by grassy plains as far as the eye could see. There were no other champions—no other people—anywhere. Just me, the horses, and Bacchus’s annoying hologram.
“Each champion except our outgoing Empress of the Week, Octavia, is at the start of a road,” Bacchus continued. “The roads are like the spokes of a wheel. They lead to the center, where the golden emperor wreath awaits. On my go, the champions will race down their road, facing separate—but identical—speed bumps along the way. The champion who gets the wreath will become this week’s Emperor of the Villa!”
I gripped the reins tighter. That sounds simple enough.
“But there’s a catch.” Bacchus’s playful eyes turned serious. “The champions cannot cross over the lines of their paths onto the grass. If they do, they’ll be eliminated from the competition, and will lose their chance to become Emperor of the Week.”
The road was wide. Staying on it shouldn’t be a problem. The only wild card was the horses. I’d have to keep them in control so they wouldn’t run out onto the grass.
Little jolts of lightning should do the trick.
I didn’t like the idea of using my magic like a whip on animals. But after the last two disastrous weeks, I needed to win this competition. I’d do whatever it took to do that.
“Good luck, Champions!” Bacchus said. “On my mark, get set, GO!”
The horses took off.
I stumbled, nearly tumbling off the back of the chariot. But since I was holding tight onto the reins, I pulled myself forward, steadied myself, and stayed center.
The wind whipped past my face as I flew down the path. The air smelled like freshly cut grass and sweet flowers. And much to my delight, the horses ran perfectly straight. I barely had to do a thing.
Hopefully that meant the gods were favoring me in this competition.
After only a few minutes, I saw a looming creature blocking the path ahead. An ugly, two-headed dog that was slightly smaller than the horses. It looked like Cerberus’s younger brother, but with one head missing.
“Whoa!” I yanked back on the reins. The horses slowed, stopping when we were ten feet away from the hideous, salivating dog.
That was close.
“Stay,” I told the horses, hoping they’d understand.
One in the front bobbed its head up and down, which I took as a yes.
I grabbed the sword at my feet, hopped off the chariot, and put myself between the horses and the dog. My objective was clear. Take down the dog so I could continue on my way.
Slicing off its heads should work.
I’d trained with a sword back on Avalon. There was no reason why I shouldn’t be able to do this. But it was still comforting to know that since this was an Emperor of the Villa competition, the fight wasn’t to the death. The gods had spelled the monsters so they’d only knock us out—not kill us.
Still, being knocked out meant being knocked out of the competition. I couldn’t afford to have that happen.
“Come at me, Cerberus Junior.” I balanced on the balls of my feet and bounced my knees, holding my sword at the ready. “Show me what you’ve got.”
Its eyes glowed yellow, and it bared its sharp teeth.
Then it pounced, its mouths wide and ready to chomp.
I did what any sane person would do—I rolled to the side to get out of the way. I’d be no good in the competition if this beast ripped my arms off. But I quickly bounced back onto my feet, spun around, and swung my sword straight down at its body.
The creature was fast, so I missed its body and sliced off its tail instead.
One head whimpered. The other howled. The dog prowled forward, and I backed up, keeping a safe amount of space between us.
Suddenly, it pounced again, and I rolled to the side—again. The edge of the path flashed in the corner of my eye. I jumped to my feet, steadying myself so I didn’t cross over into the grass.
That was close.
I spun to face the dog, but it was no longer looking at me.
It was staring down my horses.
No. I sprinted forward, positioning myself between my horses and the dog.
The dog’s eyes glowed brighter. It pawed at the ground, dirt coming up in little puffs under its claws.
My heart raced, panic setting in. The dog was on the offense, and I was barely keeping up the defense.
It needed to be the other way around. And if I wanted to intimidate this monster, I had to think like a dog—not like a half-blood fae, or Jupiter’s chosen champion, or a faulty witch with no magic.
Think, I told myself, taking deep breaths to calm down. I’ve seen wolves fight on Avalon. How do they state their dominance?
They stood as straight as possible, held each other’s gazes, and circled slowly around each other.
Since the dog was physically stronger than me, I had a better chance at beating it from afar.
So I dropped the sword and held my arms up so my palms faced each other, electricity buzzing in my hands.
Come on, lightning. It’s time for you to do your thing.
Holding the dog’s eyes was difficult, since it had four instead of two. So I did my best, focusing on the eyes on the inside of its faces. It seemed to work.
I stepped forward. The dog matched my step, shortening the space between us. Then I took two more steps, and it did the same.
There was only about ten feet between us.
My lightning sizzled and popped. But even though I was in danger, the closer I got to the dog, my magic didn’t surface. No bolts between my palms, and certainly no bolts from the sky.
Frustration rose in me, but still, nothing.
Not wanting to get any closer to the dog without at least a little bit of magic between my hands, I started circling it. It mirrored my steps.
I focused on my magic, trying to push out the electricity flowing inside of me. I’d done it before. Why couldn’t I do it now?
I clenched my teeth, beads of sweat collecting on my brow as I put everything I could into trying to harness my lightning.
Suddenly, the dog spun and leaped at my horses.
“NO!” I screamed, but it was too late.
The dog’s jaws wrapped around the two front horses’ necks. Blood spurted out of their veins and stained their white coats red. The dog kept its jaws locked down, lapping the blood with its tongues.
The horses struggled to free themselves, but it was no use. Their big eyes widened as they stared outward, frightened as the life drained out of their bodies.
There was so much blood.
An image flashed in my mind of yesterday, when Bridget’s blood had coated my hands.
Anger crackled through me, I raised my hands, and lightning burst out of each palm.
It joined together and struck the dog in the center of its back.
The d
og froze, seizing as I kept my hold on the lightning. But its jaws were still around the horses’ necks. I pushed more of my magic into the bolts, until finally, the dog collapsed onto the ground.
The bodies of the horses collapsed with it.
I ran to grab my sword, hurried back, and cut the reins that held the front two horses to the chariot. Then I jumped back on.
“It’s just the three of us now,” I told the remaining two horses. I glanced down at the bloody mess in front of us, my heart breaking at the sight of the beautiful creatures lying in puddles of their own blood. “Don’t look at them,” I said to myself as much as to the two living horses, gripping the reins and trying to direct them around the mess.
One of them let out a sad neigh. The other lowered its neck and nudged one of the fallen horses with its nose. As it did, the dog twitched.
I looked closer, positive I’d imagined it. Sure enough, there was another twitch.
How’s it recovering so quickly?
I didn’t know. But I needed to get out of there, pronto.
“Come on.” I zapped a bit of electricity through the reins—not enough to hurt the horses, but enough to get their attention. “Let’s go.”
One more zap, and then, we were off.
2
Selena
The horses pulled the chariot slower than they had before, since there were two of them instead of four. But still, we were moving.
I just had to hope that the other champions took longer to fight the two-headed dog.
We traveled for ten minutes before another monster appeared ahead. I pulled on the reins to slow the horses down. They stopped sooner than they had for the dog. They must have learned their lesson.
The monstrosity in front of me had the head of a lion, with curved goat horns coming out of its forehead, the body of an antelope, and a metallic tail with a triangular point. It looked like it had been created by Dr. Frankenstein. It was smaller than the two-headed dog—it was closer to my size—but it looked twice as lethal.
I glanced at the weapons at my feet. Which one would be best against this thing?
Electricity surged under my skin, answering the question for me.
My magic has more power than all those weapons combined.
Decision made, I hopped out of the chariot empty handed. A bolt of lightning buzzed between my hands as I marched toward the monster. It was like my magic had been turned on during the fight with the dog, and now it didn’t want to turn off.
Fine by me.
The creature dug its front hooves into the ground and lowered its head, pointing its horns at me.
Challenge accepted.
I continued forward, the air whipping around me as I gathered more magic. Once it felt like it was about to explode out of me, I flung out my hands and shot the bolt toward the creature.
Its tail zipped through the air, and the triangular point connected with the lightning, reflecting it off like a mirror.
The lightning bounced back and struck the ground a few feet away from me. I jumped at the sudden crack.
Crap.
The gods must have created this hodgepodge of a monster to throw me off.
They didn’t want me to do well in this competition. I clenched my fists, furious at them for purposefully stacking this fight against me.
But the creature only had one tail. I just needed to attack with two bolts instead of one.
Fueled with anger, I stormed forward, power rushing through me as I blasted the creature with two identical, separate bolts of lightning.
Its tail whizzed around in a blur, deflecting both of them seemingly at once.
I stopped in place. Heart pounding, I glanced back at the chariot. It was time to get a weapon.
But which one?
Before I could decide, the monster threw itself on top of me and pinned me to the ground. It was only thanks to quick reflexes that I grabbed its neck to hold it off. Its jaws got closer and closer, its breath hot in my face as it descended toward my neck. Its eyes glowed with determination, and it chomped its teeth, inches away from crushing my neck in its jaws.
It was going to behead me.
The god of healing, Vejovis, had powerful magic. But once someone died, there was no coming back.
It can’t be trying to kill me, I reminded myself as I stared up into its murderous eyes. The gods cast a spell on the monsters. They can’t kill us.
I pushed harder, trying to get it off of me. But it kept descending downward.
It wasn’t stopping. It was trying to kill me. The golden orbs buzzed behind it, recording every moment. I thought I saw the flicker of a face in one of them, and hope of rescue bloomed in my chest. But when I looked again, the face was gone—if it had even been there at all.
I refused to let this be the end. Bridget had sacrificed herself for me, and I wanted to learn why. I still hadn’t told Julian that we were soulmates. And the Nephilim army was on its way to save me—I knew it in my heart.
I was going to stay alive. I was going to get home to Avalon, and I was going to bring Julian and Cassia back with me.
Electricity snapped and popped within me, growing stronger as the monster closed in. Once my lightning built up to maximum voltage, I screamed and forced the most powerful jolt I’d created yet into the monster.
Its eyes glowed bright, its body lighting up as my magic filled its system. Its head arched to the sky and it spasmed a few times. The light flickered out, and the monster rolled onto the ground beside me, dead.
At least I thought it was dead. It hadn’t disintegrated, so there was no way to know for sure. And I wasn’t staying long enough to find out.
So I brushed the dirt off my dress, ran to the chariot, and took off without looking back.
There was one more monster in my path—a hideous woman with the body of a bird. She swooped down from the sky, dug her talons into my shoulders, and flew me up out of the chariot. The horses stopped, confused.
The monster was trying to drag me off the boundary of the path.
No way was I letting that happen. As Jupiter’s chosen champion, the sky was my domain.
As the ground got farther away, fury surged through me, and wind whipped across my face. My magic was a living thing, and I relished its power.
One lightning strike perfectly aimed between her shoulder bones, and her talons released me.
I hurtled down to the ground, bending my knees and rolling into the fall. Pain reverberated through me, but I’d been trained in how to fall properly. There were no broken bones.
I sat up and saw that I was only a few feet away from the edge of the path. Another close call. The bird monster had landed on the grass, and all of her feathers had molted off.
She didn’t look scary now that she was bald.
But time was of the essence. As much as I wanted to check to see if my bolt had killed her, I couldn’t afford to lose even a minute.
So I ran back to the chariot, took off, and left her behind in my dust.
3
Selena
After a few more minutes, the plain turned into rolling hills. The path curved around them so I couldn’t see far ahead. As I continued, the path grew more and more narrow, like a funnel. Finally, two identical hills came into view, the path leading straight through the middle of it.
The center of the wheel. And Bacchus still hadn’t announced the winner. Which meant no one had gotten the wreath yet.
I could still win this competition.
My chariot flew through the path between the hills, and I was right. All eight paths converged into a circular area about half the size of the fighting ring in the Coliseum.
There was a giant tree in the center. The wreath sat on top of it. But a green magical boundary circled around the tree, with only one gap to enter.
A giant, hideous snake guarded the entrance. Spikes protruded from the back of its neck, going all the way down to its toes. Its eyes glowed blue, although it wasn’t looking at me.
&nb
sp; It was looking at Cillian. Pluto’s champion had raised all the metal from the ground—gold, silver, bronze, and the like—and was seconds away from hurling it at the snake. But the snake’s eyes flashed yellow, Cillian’s eyes flashed the same yellow, and the metal crashed to the ground. He collapsed into an unconscious heap on the dirt.
Cillian’s impulsive, I realized. That’s his weakness.
Julian and Pierce were off to the side, moving in a blur as they faced off. Julian wielded two swords, and Pierce threw balls of fire. They moved so fast that it was impossible to tell who was ahead in the fight. But then Pierce’s fire attacks slowed down. He was still fighting, but Julian must have swiped him with one of his swords.
Antonia stood on the opposite side of the arena. She was using her bow to shoot arrows at the snake, but her head was turned so she wasn’t looking at it. Unsurprisingly, her aim was off. Most of the arrows missed. A few hit the snake, but they either bounced off the lethal-looking spikes or hit the body. The body shots made the snake open its mouth and hiss at her, showing off its venomous fangs.
“Don’t look it in the eyes!” Julian screamed while holding off Pierce’s attacks.
“Got it!” I replied, although I’d already figured that out after watching Cillian go down.
Suddenly, something flew at me and hit me in the leg. I screamed and glanced down at the arrow sticking out above my kneecap.
Antonia. She was no longer aiming at the basilisk.
She’d decided to take me out first.
Instinct told me to yank out the arrow. But then I’d lose blood. It hurt like hell, but I needed to leave it where it was until the competition was over.
Another arrow struck above my other knee. I screamed and stumbled back, falling to the ground on my butt.
I pushed up on my hands and tried standing up. But my legs refused to hold up my body. I grunted and fell right back down.
Antonia held her bow at the ready, about to shoot another arrow.
The Faerie Mates (Dark World: The Faerie Games Book 3) Page 1