by J. Kearston
I murmur my agreement, grabbing Yri’s hand and breaking into a sprint towards my house. I tear through the place, finally gathering the tools we need to take the door off the hinges. We race back and I bang on the door, a man I don’t recognize opening it with a scowl on his face.
“Do you have any idea how late it is?” he snaps, not even caring once he realizes it’s me.
I’ve gotten a bit spoiled exploiting the girl card and didn’t really account for his lack of interest. “I’m so sorry, but I need your door.”
He looks at me like I’ve lost my damn mind before seeing the pillowcase glued to his front door. He rolls his dark eyes. “What the hell did I do to get on the triplets’ radar?”
I muffle a laugh. The asshole that tried to bribe my brothers isn’t the only person that’s fallen victim to their fuckery over the years. Even if it has nothing to do with me, if someone rubs them the wrong way, they skirt the law to get their revenge on people. Late payments, rude comments, cutting them off in traffic; honestly, they really need to open an arcade or something here to keep us all out of trouble.
“Luck of the draw, I’m afraid.”
He scrubs a hand down his face. “That capture the flag bullshit?”
I nod. “I’ll bring it back or pay for a new one,” I plead, needing to get a move on.
He gives up, gesturing to the door. “Three hundred bucks and you can have it.”
I balk. “That’s obscene!”
He shrugs. “And the lot of you are annoying. You want the door or not?”
Yri and I curse, shaking out our wallets until we come up twenty bucks short. After some threats and haggling, the man finally relents, but it isn’t without me memorizing his address so I can come back later to coat his driveway in cooking oil.
Yri and I each take half the door and start power-walking across town. “This town is way more interesting than I thought it’d be,” he laughs and I can’t help but to join him. Yri’s good mood is a force to be reckoned with, tempting you to cave in no matter your agitation.
“Think the others are holding their own?”
He smirks. “Angel, without you there to stop them, they are going to be more than happy to get some revenge for the way they hurt you.”
I sigh. “It’s always fighting or fucking with men, isn’t it?”
He sputters. “That’s a pretty generalized statement.”
I grimace. “Okay, that came out wrong. Sorry. But you guys are really holding a grudge over something I’m not even upset about.”
He stops walking, propping the door at his feet so that he can speak adamantly. “They beat the hell out of you, Ezra. Yeah, I know it’s hypocritical since we all go through training, but the three of us just can’t accept that as fine and move on like you can. I’m happy they’ve taught you to be the badass you are, but I can hate the way they went about it. We want to protect you; it’s in our nature. And if you end up joining our flight, all bets are off. We protect our own.”
It’s stupid. It’s reckless. I know better, but I can’t stop myself. I’m too impulsive for my own good, and yet, it’s hard to remind myself of that when pressing my lips to Vyrian’s feels like the smartest decision I’ve ever made.
I can practically taste his shock and at first, his body is as taught as a wire. But just as quickly as his surprise came it bleeds away. He drops the door to the sidewalk, taking my face between his hands, thumbs brushing over my cheeks. He puts my quick kiss to shame, parting my lips with a sweep of his tongue.
He steps closer and I feel every hard ridge of his body pressing into mine, leaning into his touch. My breath mingles with his until I’m not sure where he stops and I begin. I can feel it in his grip as absolutely as I can feel the fact cementing in the forefront of my mind.
There’s no going back now. As far as Vyrian is concerned, I’m already theirs. The hardest part to wrap my head around? I already was, but it just took braving a step past the line I drew to accept it.
We pull apart and Yri saves me the effort of awkward conversation. He breaks my stare first, bending down to hoist up the door off of the ground.
“You going to help with this or make me do all the work?” he tosses over his shoulder with a sultry smirk.
I practically sigh in relief, more than happy to avoid a conversation and getting my head back in the game. An echo of Kahl’s constant admonishments breaks through my muddled mind, warning the dangers of distractions. I mentally slap myself, rational thought bleeding in.
The entire world surrounding me fell away. I didn’t know who was around, who could’ve been watching; I didn’t care. Anyone could have ambushed me or shot me. Distraction can get you killed.
But I mean, there are worse ways to go out.
I heft up my half of the door and we pick up the pace, already dreading the nightmare it’s going to be getting it up the fire escape since the mall’s closed. When we finally reach it, Yri groans with me, the two of us beginning the hellish ascent. Every landing we need to rotate the door carefully so it’ll fit and there’s no way we’re being sneaky in our approach.
I hear the sounds of fighting several stories above us; grunts and fists against flesh. When we finally make it onto the roof, I’m breathing heavily, and the little breath I manage to fill my lungs with rushes out with my sudden laughter.
Caius and Soren are bleeding profusely and are no doubt going to be a bruised mess by tomorrow. What I can see of brothers, they didn’t fare much better in that regard; except Elias, who they took it easy on.
Each of my brothers is stuffed into one of the sleeping bags, duct tape bound tightly around their shoulders and chests so they can’t move. When Kaiden tries to roll away, Soren sits him up despite his thrashing and wraps a rope over him and Kinsley. Kahl is already bound to Elias the same way and I waste no time snapping a few pictures to cherish later.
Vyrian and I shove the door further onto the roof, trying to catch our breath, and Cai breaks away to help us. “What the hell?”
“Super,” Yri pants, “glue.”
Cai snorts, but quickly finds out he can’t peel it off either.
“Still need to attach it beneath your flag to win,” Kinsley goads, making it clear this was his brilliant idea.
I curse, digging through our stockpile of supplies before realizing we don’t have anything that will work. “You’re an asshole.” I turn back towards the stairs, cursing all the while, and Yri joins me as we forage for something that will work since every business is of course closed right now.
We end up at the forge, grabbing a portable power drill, iron rings, and some rope. We make it back to the rooftop nearly an hour later. It’s another thirty minutes before we have it rigged up to fly beneath ours long enough to get a picture before taking it down, the antenna groaning and bending under the weight.
I collapse in a heap, more exhausted than I’ve ever been in my life. “I could sleep for a week.” I lean back against the small brick wall, tempted to pass out here and now.
“How’d you get Boris to let you steal the whole door?” Elias asks curiously.
I pin him with a glare. “Three hundred bucks.”
All four of my brothers don the same incredulous look I no doubt had when I was confronted with the offer. “That’s obscene!” Kinsley exclaims in horror.
I narrow my eyes at him. “Sure as shit was, so thanks a lot.”
Kaiden shares a look with Kahl, one I know all too well and I internally laugh maniacally at whatever horrific fate is about to befall Boris. I’ll never see that money again, but he’s definitely going to end up with more than he bargained for.
When Soren comes to sit beside me I end up leaning against his arm, already half asleep. “So, does defeat taste as bitter as they claim?” I taunt, but the effect is ruined by my yawn.
“Your little boyfriends surprised us, it won’t happen next time,” Kahl backhandedly praises.
I open an eye at his word choice, searching his gaze. He dips
his head, effectively giving his approval before he stabs through his sleeping bag from the inside. He jerks a hand up through as much of the tape as he can, busting through the rest once he makes enough progress. The others follow his lead and soon all of them are free.
“What happened to the no weapons rule, you cheaters?”
Kaiden flips his knife shut, striding over to slap it into my palm. “Always assume your opponent is armed. Never leave yourself vulnerable by choice, Ez, or I’ll be carving ‘dumbass’ into your tombstone.”
He always comes across as harsh and callous, but I get now that it’s just because he’s worried. No matter how much they’ve tried to drill lessons into my head, unless they become second nature to me, they won’t matter. I curl my fingers around the weapon before tucking it into my pocket with a nod of thanks and meet his hard gaze.
“It’s not cheating because the rules were made up in the first place.”
His eyes soften nearly imperceptibly. “And it doesn’t matter if they’d go to jail for breaking them because you’d already be dead.”
Soren adjusts his arm so that I’m leaning more fully into his side as his arm wraps around me. It’s the first time he’s been this bold; it’s almost like he can sense something in the air, knows that something’s changed. He’s tense for a minute, seeing how I’m going to react. When I don’t pull away he starts to relax.
“Ready to head home, little dragon?” he rumbles beside me, the vibrations coursing into my chest and settling low in my stomach.
I groan, the very thought of walking back across town making me want to jump off the roof. “I’m pretty sure my feet will fall off.”
Cai drags over the ruined sleeping bags, tossing one at my feet. “If you’re going to pass out on the roof, may as well be a little more comfortable.”
I’ve never been camping. I get now that my brothers didn’t want to risk us getting ambushed, to leave ourselves exposed like that. As much as a bed sounds appealing, immediate sleep sounds far better.
The triplets are already arguing, but Elias cuts them off. “She’s on the highest building in the city and there are walls wrapping around it; it’s not like she’s going to get shot. And those two managed to hold their own against all of us even without her or Vyrian’s help.”
Kahl reluctantly sighs. “It’s not like you’re a kid, Ez; we’re just overprotective. Stay safe.”
Kaiden scowls. “Keep your knife on you. Stab first, ask questions later.”
Kinsley comes over and muses up my hair before heading towards the fire escape. “We barely get to see you as it is. Lunch tomorrow?”
I agree and they leave without a fight. We rearrange the shredded camping gear into a mock bed, the four of us stretching out and already planning new ideas for the next game.
Chapter 13
Caius
The gunshot rattles my eardrums as I break into a sprint. Footsteps thunder around me and shoulders drive into one another, a pathetic bid to try and knock someone off balance. I would have thought Ezra would have used her speed to her advantage, pulling into first place from the beginning, but I was wrong. I quickly find out why as shouts and grunts meet my ears, the first wave of men triggering the pressure sensors in the floor and getting filled with small blades.
I take advantage of the men on either side of me, using them as shields as I jump from the ledge to the sand pit fifty feet below. The arena for the Gauntlet is on the edge of Hadeon, and each month when they start a new race, the area has been converted. It’s no doubt the most technologically advanced thing in our society, yet also the most barbaric. It serves its purpose though; cutting down the number of male dragons. It exploits our animalistic nature, wanting to rise above the rest and prove our worth.
As much as I fucking know better, I glance over my shoulder, searching for a shock of red hair. I know she can hold her own, can kick all of our asses if she actually cuts loose. But I can’t help wanting to protect her, the instinct burned into every fiber of my being.
She kissed Vyrian. He hasn’t shut the fuck up about it, and I’m pretty sure he would stalk her to the edge of the world. I’m not any better. She consumes my thoughts until they don’t even belong to me anymore; they’re hers as much as I am.
Fuck.
I drop to a crouch a split second before a dart embeds in my cheek. It hits the guy next to me though and he drops like a rock. Tranquilizer or poison, it doesn’t matter. I can’t let anything take me down; I have a race to win.
I don’t see her, but I can feel her eyes on me. As I run, I’m painfully aware of how she watches me, assesses me in an attempt to find my weaknesses. Little does she know she won’t find them. All of the people that make me vulnerable are either watching the race or running in it, but that’s as far as my weaknesses go.
After the way I grew up, I learned quickly to harden my heart against everything beyond the few people I loved. Only my flight can be used against me now, and though it’s not official, I consider Ezra a part of it.
The sand makes my steps sluggish, but I push through. I run, feeling those emerald eyes on me, trying to flay me alive. I risk one more glance over my shoulder and see a brief splash of fiery hair before she disappears, merging in with the other competitors.
I bite my cheek, bringing myself back to the present. I can’t allow myself to keep getting caught up in thoughts of her, get distracted by her. She can be my weakness, but I don’t have to let anyone else know it.
I want to be strong enough for her, but something tells me that means I need to learn how to be strong enough to survive her.
As screams fill the air I take a running leap, latching onto the rope hanging down above me at the end of the sand pit. Hand over fist I climb, my pant leg getting torn by the teeth of whatever monster is lurking beneath the sand. Knowledge is power, but survival ranks just a bit higher. If I were to turn and look, I’d be dead.
If Ezra goes and gets herself killed, I’m never going to let her live it down.
I roll over the ledge to the next level, debating on cutting the rope or not. I should, but if Ezra is still down there, it will cut off her escape. I hesitate and it costs me, head knocked to the side with a single punch.
“Don’t even think about it, Cai,” she demands, looking down at me with hostility. “You think you should cut the rope, fucking cut the rope. If I win by anything less than you giving it your all, I’m going to kick your ass.”
Then she’s gone, darting off ahead of me before I can so much as blink. I never even saw her get up here, not sure how she managed it. I smack my cheek, shaking out my hands and cracking my neck as I get my head back in the game.
I can’t let her win a blank check favor or she’ll use it to destroy me.
The thought helps, spurring me into action.
The Gauntlet’s structure curves the length of the massive arena, spiraling in and on top of itself to conserve space. I race down the narrow tunnel, the only path forward. It plunges me into complete darkness and leaves me vulnerable to everything. I can’t see what’s ahead or behind me, can’t prepare for any potential traps. I have no choice beyond blind determination, plowing on despite the danger.
The temperature steadily rises in the confined space and sweat trickles down my temple. I can feel the structure shaking, footsteps thundering behind me as others begin to catch up. I can’t stop for a second, or I’ll get trampled.
When light finally fills the tunnel, it’s not from reaching the end. Around the next curve, the flames become visible, giving me a brief, hazy first look at the confines of my temporary prison. Smoke is billowing openly over the smooth steel, heating quickly and beginning to warp from the heat. Left unchecked, it will sever this section of the tunnel. It’s smart; slowing people down, adding more obstacles to slow them down. Without hesitation, I leap over the flames, the smell of oil strong here.
Where the fuck did she even hide a bottle of oil? Her pants are skin tight; maybe strapped under her shirt?
The area before me is an open stone column, about twenty feet in diameter. Not enough to worry about falling off normally, but the bloody beast lying dead nearby would have made it easy to get knocked off. This one dead, I take a running start before leaping onto the next platform, dropping to a roll as soon as I land.
These things...they aren’t natural. Whatever creature this is, I can nearly guarantee they were bred for the sole purpose of these games, or the rejected experiments of someone involved in something they shouldn’t be. I don’t have time to analyze it now, especially when this one’s just injured instead of lying dead.
About the size of a bobcat, it has a row of spikes protruding down the length of its spine. Its claws are more wicked, and half of its face is rotted away to show the muscles beneath. The thing looks absolutely feral, starved.
I don’t waste time killing each of them, because it would just slow me down. The goal isn’t to take down every challenge in your path, it’s to overcome them and cross the finish line. I don’t need to slaughter the mutated beasts to do that.
I avoid the swipe aimed at my head and break into a sprint, heading to the next platform followed quickly by the next. Each one I reach becomes steadily narrower, the ability to avoid the creatures becoming increasingly impossible. By the time I catch up to Ezra, there’s barely enough for the two of us and the beast to all stand on it, let alone fight.
She curses, locking her legs around its neck and practically sitting on the monster’s head to avoid the spines. It snarls and thrashes, and her leg is already bleeding steadily.
“Are you crazy?” I snap, trying to get the thing’s attention so it doesn’t tear her leg off.