Other mechanical limbs carried me to a chair where they carefully placed me onto the soft, leather surface. I watched while they arranged my hair and artfully applied makeup to my face. With jewels winking from my ears and neck, I left my rooms and strolled to the library, where I sat on the sofa beside… What was his name? Oh. Yes. Brodin.
I frowned. Had his face been the one in the portrait I’d seen in my bedroom, the one missing bits of color? No matter. Whoever was working on it would finish it soon and everything would then feel complete.
“Morning,” he said in an even voice. “You look lovely today.”
“Thank you,” I said softly. I tugged on his black formal jacket sleeve. “Very dashing outfit you’re wearing.”
“You’re too kind.”
I allowed a hint of a smile to rise on my face because he was right. It was kind of me to notice.
His brows drew together. “Your name is…Tria, correct?”
Strangely enough, it took a moment for me to remember, but I nodded. I couldn’t quite recall why names mattered any longer. No, why anything mattered any longer.
A girl with dark hair, plus a tree nymph joined us in the library, each dressed in clothing that enhanced their beauty.
The girl—Jacey, I think—sat across from me and Brodin while…Akimi took a place near the broad table containing a puzzle. She’d been working on it for… I couldn’t remember for how long, but who cared? She’d continue until it was done and then…
She’d start another.
I leaned forward to study the design. The face had already been completed. I frowned, convinced I knew this person, though I couldn’t quite place her. A flower name, like Petal or Rose.
Fleur, something deep inside me suggested. But that couldn’t be. I didn’t know anyone named Fleur.
“You’re funny,” I said to Akimi.
Her head tilted and she looked up at me from where she’d remained bent over the puzzle. “How so?”
“We sit around and relax, while you feverishly work on one puzzle after another.”
“I…” She frowned. “I… I hope you understand. It is something I have decided I must do.”
“Must?” Brodin said. “Perhaps you should find a way to stop doing it if it doesn’t please you.”
Akimi growled. “I cannot,” she said like a petulant child. “This is how it must be. There is no other choice.”
Irritated but unable to name why, I flicked my hand in her direction. “Then keep doing it.”
She huffed. “I shall.”
At lunchtime, we walked into the dining room and ate the food lowered in front of us. And we drank the sickly sweet amber liquid I couldn’t seem to get enough of. Akimi seemed immune to its lure and drank only water.
No worries. That meant more for us.
“The library again?” the man in the suit said after we’d finished. I’d forgotten his name already but if it was important, he’d tell me.
“Of course.” I followed him back toward the cozy library but stopped along the way to note yet another portrait with missing color. There were too many artists here with not enough time to finish. Huffing, I caught up to the others and took my usual spot beside the man on the sofa.
The nymph finished the puzzle.
Leaning forward, I studied it. Hmm. I’d seen the face before…
The puzzle disappeared, and an unfinished one appeared on the table. With a gleam of intense satisfaction in her eyes, the nymph dumped the pieces out and began working again. This time, the figure in the image wore a pink gown. I clapped and cheered the nymph on as she placed each piece, eager to see it finished.
Dinner followed and after, we quit the library and strolled to the ballroom. While the nymph and dark-haired girl sat on pretty chairs and watched, me and the man in the suit—oh, yes, Brodin—danced.
I could swear at one time he’d kissed me and in some ways, I hoped he’d do it again.
Or not.
Life rolled out ahead of me, the same as it had spread out behind, my days filled with beautiful clothing, rich food, and endless cups of amber liquid.
While eating breakfast in my bedroom a number of days later, I was pleased to note the artist had returned while I slept and finished the portrait. The man in the picture seemed to have…just the right amount of color. I stared at the picture for a long time before leaving my bedroom.
I joined the other three castle residents and watched while one of them worked on the puzzle depicting a girl in a pink dress.
I’d never seen her before in my life.
Time rolled past quicker than it ever had before, but I wanted it to go faster, though I couldn’t name why.
When I sat beside a man at lunch and he smiled my way, I was overcome with an urge to kiss him. I stroked the back of his neck and leaned close.
Shrugging off my touch, he turned away and drank more of the amber liquid.
“You’re right,” I said, lifting my glass. “This is all we need.” The cup of gleaming nectar sparkled like the finest champagne. I held it up in the light, and the rays from the chandeliers hit the glass and arced around the room like falling diamonds.
Or falling snow.
I frowned.
Snow? Where had I heard that word before? I pressed my hand against my head and sorted through my pounding brain.
I’d walked through heavy snow to reach…
Where was I? Where were we?
I lifted the glass to my lips…
And I remembered Brodin’s lips on mine. That was…the last time I remembered feeling alive.
Restless, I lowered the glass onto the table and rising, I paced across the room. Mechanical arms extended from the ceiling, seeking me, but I pushed them away.
The drink called to me, begging me to swallow every last drop. But Brodin… And Jacey and Akimi.
Fleur.
I raced around the table, intent on fleeing, but stopped to stare at a complete portrait of a girl in a pink dress. When had the artist finished it? There had to be a connection to…
I rushed into the library and stopped beside the latest—last—puzzle. Before we’d gone to lunch, Akimi had almost finished it. Only one piece awaited placement.
Akimi joined me at the doorway, her gaze narrowed on my face. “There you are. You’ve come at the right time.” Her voice echoed around me, loud enough I had to cover my ears. “I’m about to finish. And when I do…” Her expression wasn’t that of the friend I remembered. The tightness of her branch limbs suggested determination. She sauntered into the room and lifted the last puzzle piece. “This is how it must be.”
Faces stared up at me from the matte image spread out on the table. Brodin, Jacey, and Akimi, plus me in the center. Fleur and my grandfather, plus my mom and dad, stood behind me, their wide eyes filled with fear.
“Complete it,” Akimi urged, handing me the last piece to the puzzle. “I find I can’t…do it.”
I closed my eyes as memories flashed through me. Fleur and Gramps saying they’d do anything they could to help me escape the prison. Meeting Brodin and slowly falling for him. Jacey telling me how desperate she was to find Rohnan. Akimi waiting to meet her true one.
My first kiss with Brodin in the ballroom, a kiss that would never be repeated… Unless this puzzle was left unfinished.
Akimi lifted a glass of amber liquid. She held it in the light. Her eyes clouded as she stared at the beams flickering off it. “If I drink this, we will set things right.”
The horror made my limbs creak but I trusted the voice inside me that said this was wrong. All of this was wrong.
I knocked it from her hand and the glass shattered on the floor. The liquid spilled out and an ugly yellow fog drifted up off the wooden boards.
Akimi stared up at me in utter dismay. “What are you doing?” she growled, her voice sounding like the nymph I knew, yet not. Crusty and bitter, not that of a sweet tree nymph. Her words echoed around me. No, her words screamed around me, carried by the yel
low fog.
What are you doing?
I ran from the room with the final puzzle piece locked in my fist. Reaching the front door, I wrenched it open. An enormous beast surrounded the building, its mouth gaping wide. Hungry gleamed in its icy eyes. One gulp, and we’d be gone, shooting down its throat and into its belly, where we’d never escape.
Lifting the final bit of the puzzle, I wrenched my arm back to throw it, but… That was the wrong thing to do. Not sure how I knew it, but it felt burned across my soul.
I stuffed the piece into my mouth and swallowed it.
Eleven
Tria
The gilded castle disappeared and I found myself standing waist-deep in the snow with Brodin, Akimi, and Jacey nearby. We no longer wore our pretty—garish—clothing but had returned to the prison uniforms we’d worn when we first entered the Challenge.
They stared at me blankly, their minds still blinded by the amber liquid.
“Take my hand!” I cried out, holding mine out to them. I was never more grateful than when they latched on and held tight.
Kai appeared in front of me and plaintively meowed.
That’s when I knew we’d completed another challenge.
Kai’s head turned to my right, and he lumbered through the drifts, in that direction. With snow falling around us, a heavy cloak threatening to weigh me down and bury me, I took after Kai, dragging my friends along with me. Over and over, Kai leaped up and landed in the snow, scattering white puffs in every direction. He’d stop and peer back at me and the concern in his gaze sent warmth shooting out to the ends of my limbs. It passed through my hands to my friends, and they slowly thawed, too.
The nectar-lull left their gazes, replaced with fear of our new reality.
No matter how far we had to travel in the snow, we would not seek out another castle.
Kai grunted. He bounded back to me and, snagging my sleeve, tugged me forward, into the wall of falling snow.
“I’m coming,” I said, my voice hoarse from not speaking however long we’d been trapped inside the castle. “And Kai…”
He squinted up at me.
“Thanks. For rescuing me and for keeping me warm. And for being here now.”
Sorrow filled his gaze, and I knew he was remembering he’d left me in front of the castle.
“We had to get through that challenge before we could take on another,” I said. “It’s not your fault.”
He jumped up to wrap his paws around my waist. His purr rippled through the air when I released my friends and rubbed his ears and neck. I bent down and kissed the top of his head, and his purr rumbled louder.
Hopping back onto the ground, he rubbed his head along my legs, marking me as his. Then he turned and leaped forward again, leading the way through the snow.
When we stopped to rest on the top of a rise and stared at the winter wonderland surrounding us, and Brodin stepped up next beside me.
“I…” His eyes closed. When he opened them, they met mine. The deep sorrow there made my insides shift sideways. “I messed up. Completely.”
“Not too bad,” I said with a rough laugh. “There was that kiss.”
His head perked up. “Then I didn’t imagine it?”
“If it was only imagination, I shared the same dream.”
“It was good.”
I snorted and socked his shoulder, sending a clump of snow flying. “Conceited much?”
“Honest.”
My smile made my cheeks ache. “Maybe, when this is all over…”
He took both my hands and turned me to face him, leaning in close. “I’m not waiting until this is over.” Cupping my face, his mouth dropped to mine.
I edged nearer, savoring his warmth, his touch. His tongue—
“Guys!” Jacey called out. “Kai’s saying we need to…”
I wanted to tell her to get lost, to say that I needed this time with Brodin, but we stood knee-deep in snow, and my toes had frozen solid. We needed to keep going.
“Hold that thought?” I said softly to Brodin.
“That, and a hell of a lot more,” he said.
“Only until we finish the last challenge,” I said bravely. Really, sometimes I just wanted to curl into a ball and hide, but we’d taken this on for multiple reasons. Me to find my dad. Jacey to locate Rohnan. And Akimi sought her true one. As for Brodin…?
Maybe he was here to find me.
Akimi moved in close to me and lowered her head.
“Why did I not see?” she said softly. She’d lost all her leafy hair and her stark, brittle branches drooped around her shoulders.
“Because you weren’t meant to,” I said, putting an arm around her middle and tugging her near for a hug. “I have a feeling we’ll all be tested in one way or another during the Challenge. That,” I swept my hand toward where the castle had long-since disappeared behind us, “that was my test, and I’m grateful I passed.”
“When my time comes, I will be worthy,” she said fiercely. “And I thank you. I…succumbed.” Crystal tears trickled down her face and dripped onto the snow. They coalesced into icicles spiking up into the sky.
“Akimi,” I breathed. “That’s…beautiful.”
“Is it?” Sorrow filled her eyes, more than it should after what happened in the castle. What wasn’t she saying?
I tried to remember the fine details of what happened in the castle but, like my mind had been blurred while inside, it was now blurred to the memories.
No matter. We’d finished the test, and we would move forward.
Brodin joined Akimi, and Jacey moved in close beside me, as if each person needed to process what had happened with me.
Her lips trembled. “All I remember is sleeping and drinking…” She shook her head. “Drinking something all the time. I wanted it. I couldn’t stop lifting the cup and pouring it down my throat.”
“Our trial was to escape the house of gilded pleasure. The drink kept us compliant.”
She frowned, staring down. “It feels like a big blur. We entered the castle. There were…mechanical arms?”
I nodded.
“And they did everything for us; there was no one else there.”
“Not even us, not after we’d started drinking the amber liquid.”
“What will we do now?” Stark fear came through in her voice.
I took her hand. “We keep going, on to the next test.”
“And the one after that?”
“We keep going until we find Rohnan and then, we escape Darkwater Island.”
“I can’t believe I forgot all about him,” she gulped out. She dropped to her knees and her palms cupped her face. “How could I do something like that?” When she looked up at me, tears streaked down her face. “I love him, and I forgot he existed!”
Joining her on the snow-covered ground, I wrapped my arms around her. “It was the amber liquid and that was the entire point of the challenge. We weren’t forgetting, it was wiping our minds.”
“Yet somehow, you were able to break free.”
“I couldn’t stop thinking about the puzzle and the paintings. As Akimi worked on each one, a part of our unfinished portraits was completed. It was only when I saw the final puzzle, saw our faces and Fleur and Gramps, that I realized what was happening.” Closing my eyes, I shook my head. “I don’t know how I knew that completing that final puzzle would mean we were trapped forever, but I did.”
“How did you end it, because I barely remember?”
“I grabbed the last piece from Akimi and raced to the door. A creature outside was one breath away from engulfing us. I didn’t know what to do. I’d intended to throw the puzzle piece out into the snow but I worried if the creature ate it, worse things would happen.”
She wiped the tears from her face. “What did you do?”
Rueful laughter burst from my throat. “I ate it.”
A smile twitched her lips upward. “You didn’t.”
“I wasn’t sure what else I could do. I ju
st wanted to make sure it wasn’t placed in that puzzle.”
She leaned back and her grin became true. “I hope it doesn’t give you indigestion.”
“Not so far.” Rising to my feet, I offered her a hand up.
She took it and once standing, hugged me. “Thanks. For everything.”
“We’re a team.”
She leaned back and nodded. “That we are.” But her smile fled as fast as it had risen. “Rohnan is alive,” she said fiercely. “I know it here.” Her fist landed on her chest. “And you’re right. I’ll find him.”
I hoped she did. I wasn’t sure what would happen if she didn’t.
Jacey’s eyes glazed. “I will remember,” she whispered.
She walked a few steps down the hill and stared forward, in the direction Kai had been guiding us.
Twelve
Jacey
I knew it was wrong to fall back into the past, not when we didn’t know what might happen next.
But I couldn’t help it. In a flash, I stood in the tunnel with Rohnan, about to begin our first test at the prison…
A mechanical growl followed the bang, bringing my heart to a shuddering stop. The bang was followed by another. A third. The rate going faster.
Something was coming this way.
“Run,” Rohnan said, sweeping up my hand in his own as he passed me.
My arm yanking in his fleeing direction, I burst into speed, soon catching up to pace beside him.
“Where to?” I asked.
“Away from whatever’s after us.”
I glanced up at him, grateful we faced this together. “Any idea what to expect in this test?”
“No clue. I assume if we complete the course, we survive.”
How awesome.
We hit an intersection made up of six steel corridors spearing away from the hub like spokes on a wheel and paused.
“Which one?” I couldn’t stop panting from fear and exertion.
Rohnan held up his finger and cocked his head, listening.
While he did his thing, I closed my eyes. My tenna wristlets might block everyday skapti magic, but… I’d been taught how to tap into a different power, one forgotten by most of the fae for thousands of years.
Wicked Challenge (Darkwater Reformatory Book 2) Page 9