by Sadie Moss
Super.
As we find out when we arrive at the starting line, our goal for this challenge is to be the first team to make it across a section of wilderness, dealing with or avoiding the pitfalls that have been placed in the way.
Magic is obviously strongly involved here—I doubt there are usually pits, sections of quicksand, fast-moving thunderstorms, wildfires, and sudden blizzards in this area. The referee tells us there will also be regular obstacle course type things along the way—walls to climb, a ropes course, that sort of thing.
Oh geez. And Sloth is my partner for this challenge?
As we stand at the starting line surrounded by the other contestants, nerves roil my stomach and the delicious breakfast I ate an hour ago threatens to make a reappearance. I’m starting to seriously regret not taking the opportunity to veto Nix’s offer to partner with me today.
We’re gonna die.
We’re not even gonna make it past the first challenge.
No, Trinity! Bad! Stop thinking like that. Focus on the positives.
My hands clench and unclench as I wrack my brain for what exactly those positives might be. Is there an upside to impending death?
A sharp whistle pierces the air before I can answer that question for myself, and everyone surges forward.
“Don’t think about our competitors.” Phoenix catches my eye as he notices me trying to look covertly around to see what the others are up to.
“How can I not?”
“Thinking about the competition is way too much work.” He smirks at me. “You want to save your mental strength. Priorities, you know?”
That’s actually not a bad way to look at it. Okay, so maybe it is lazy when viewed through a certain lens, but he’s also right. I need to prioritize. And that means focusing on doing my personal best rather than freaking myself out wondering what my competitors are doing.
We take off into the surrounding highlands as the challenge gets underway. Our first set of obstacles are laid out in a course a lot like the ones I’ve seen people try to do in shows like The Amazing Race.
And let me just say, I have a new level of sympathy for those people. This is all a lot harder than it looks.
“Look out!” Phoenix dives for the ground and I do the same, both of us getting covered in mud as fireballs streak through the air where we were just standing.
“This is insane.” I groan. “How do people not die in this tournament?”
“Well, they probably do.” Nix doesn’t sound too concerned.
“Are you that okay with possibly dying?”
“I try not to worry about things I can’t control.” He shrugs, extending a hand to help me as he staggers to his feet. “Come on, we gotta keep going. Don’t waste your energy thinking about anything else, just focus on getting through this.”
I never would’ve pegged Phoenix, of all the brothers, to be good at giving a pep talk. I would’ve figured he’d be too lazy for that kind of thing. But here he is, cheering me on through the obstacles.
Not that it does all that much good in the end.
Everything is going fine until we reach the third set of obstacles. Nix is surprisingly athletic for someone whose ideal day involves parking himself on the couch and playing video games in his boxers. Part of what makes him so good at these obstacle courses is that he’s so freaking relaxed. It’s a lot easier to maneuver around traps and leap over pits when your muscles aren’t bunched up tight with tension like mine are.
And it’s those nerves, that tension, that makes me mess up. We’re supposed to walk along a set of stones in a particular pattern, but my foot slips on the last one, and a hole opens up in the ground beneath my feet.
I scream in shock as I fall, and my wings pop out before I realize that the chute I’m falling through is too small to accommodate their span. I cry out again in pain as they’re nearly yanked off my back, scraping against the sides of the rough stone. A second after I retract them, I land in a freezing lake.
The cold water shocks my lungs, and I nearly open my mouth to gasp for breath. I kick hard toward the surface, sputtering as my head breaks through. A few feet away from me, Nix lands with a splash too, and my heart both warms and sinks as I realize he jumped into the chute after me.
We’re in some kind of underground cave. The only way out I can see is through the chute above us—which won’t really be possible, since I can’t fly out that way, and I don’t think there are any handholds to climb up.
Shivering hard, I swim toward shore with Nix right behind me. We climb out of the water, and I turn to face him. “You didn’t have to jump in after me. You could’ve kept going.”
He shrugs. “It wouldn’t have done any good. You’re the one who’s technically in this tournament. I couldn’t win the challenge without you with me.” He pushes his wet hair back from his forehead. “Besides, trying to explain to Beck and the others why I left you behind would be way more work than just helping you get out of this cave.”
I laugh, because he might actually be right. We need the crystal, and the only way we’ll get it is if I can win the tournament. Letting me die in a cave somewhere is not conducive to that goal.
My teeth are chattering. The lake dropped my body temperature by what feels like several degrees, and the air down here isn’t much warmer. Nix notices and steps closer, wrapping his arms around me.
“I’m pretty sure this is what it’s like down Below,” he mutters. I can feel his head swiveling above mine as he checks out our surroundings.
Even though he just went for a swim in the lake too, his body is nice and warm against me, and he tightens his grip on me, rubbing my arms gently. It doesn’t surprise me all that much that Nix is the kind of person who’s open to cuddling.
“It’s worse Downstairs,” I reply. Because it is. Downstairs, we wouldn’t have each other to cuddle with. Right now, we’re cold, wet, and stuck. But at least we’re not alone.
“We’re not the only ones who are stuck, at least.” Nix finally releases me, and the two of us start poking around, looking for a possible way out in the dimly lit cavern. “There are a few competitors close enough to us that I can, you know, help them along… in the wrong sort of way, if you catch my drift.” He grins. “They’re realizing that it’s not so much about the prize at the end as it is about the journey.”
“That’s a very eloquent way of saying you’re making them be lazy.”
He chuckles, holding up a hand innocently. “Hey, I don’t make anyone be anything; I only encourage what’s already there. Ask any of my brothers, they’ll tell you the same thing. We can’t create something from nothing. Nobody can. Not at our level, anyway. We only take what exists and strengthen it, indulge it, give it room to take root and grow.”
“You’ve been pretty successful at that.”
He shakes his head, making little droplets of water slide along the ash-brown strands. “Not as successful as I’d like to be.”
“What do you mean?”
He gestures aimlessly into the air. “I mean that I encourage people to relax. To stop and smell the flowers. I helped people come up with ideas for automation. For telephones so they wouldn’t have to write letters. For instant messaging so they could talk to people without waiting. With televisions for sitting back and relaxing, with big comfy couches to sleep on, with vibrators so they could stay home and get off instead of trying to pick someone up in a bar.”
I suppress a chuckle at that, wondering what Sawyer’s take would be on that tradeoff. Not that I’ve ever tried to pick someone up at a bar—or use a vibrator either, for that matter—but there are times when there’s just no substitute for real connection.
Keeping that thought to myself, I peer into a shadowy corner of the cave, searching for any hints of light or sign of a breeze.
“And with all of that, all the laziness I’ve encouraged, do you know how much people still work a week?” He scoffs. “It’s insane. I’ve done the research—yes, I know, I did work, sho
cking—and with the state of technology in our world, the amount of resources at our fingertips, and the wealth there is to go around, no one should have to be working as hard as they do.”
“Yeah. I guess I can see what you mean,” I say thoughtfully, clambering over a small pile of boulders as I process his words.
He lets out a sigh as he follows me. “Yup. But do humans appreciate it? Do they relax and indulge in art and reading and traveling and just enjoying life? No, they fucking don’t. They break their backs working for greedy, prideful misers who hoard all the money and resources and don’t give enough of it back. People work three jobs—hell, I think just one job is too much work, personally, but they’re working three jobs to barely make ends meet.”
He shakes his head again, and I’m surprised at the genuine frustration and sadness I see in his shadowy features when I peer over my shoulder to look at him. “People can’t enjoy life. And what’s the point of being alive if you can’t enjoy it? I don’t see much point, anyway. But I do try. I tell people to take the day off, to slack off work, to call in sick. Life’s short, you know? You gotta smell the roses while you can. Otherwise, there’s no point.”
“I…” My voice trails off as his words settle over me. “You’re right. That makes a lot of sense. I never would’ve expected something like that—I mean, that kind of thinking—from you.”
“Yeah, well, I’m just a lazy slob, right? What do I know?” Nix grins down at me to show me there’s no harm done. “I’m used to the stereotyping. We all are. But we’ve got hidden depths, you know? Even Ford, the cranky bastard.”
“I’ve been trying to see that,” I tell him, and I’m being honest. I’ve been trying to find redeeming things about the sins, so that I can coax those things out of them and redeem them even more, win them over to my side. “But it’s hard.”
His grin widens, his blue eyes gleaming. “I’m too lazy to make the sex joke that would go with that.”
“Oh, good, I’m so glad to hear it.” I find myself smiling in spite of myself.
Nix smiles back at me. It’s beautiful and easy, infused with the same laid-back charm that fills everything he does. And I wonder… is this the source, for lack of a better term, of his sin? Is this the reason why he’s so lazy? Because he actually wants people to enjoy life, and to relax and find happiness in simple things instead of just breaking their backs for no good reason?
Maybe if I can figure that out, if I can understand why he’s Sloth, why he is the way he is—why all of them are the way that they are—I can then redeem them.
But is it even possible to separate the sin from the man?
And do I want to?
Chapter Eighteen
TRINITY
Eventually, Nix and I manage to find a small stream that leads to the lake in the underground cave, and by following the trickle of water through tight passages and over slippery rocks, we make our way back to the surface.
But we still lose.
The delay costs us valuable time, and when we finally get back on the course, we’re too far behind the leading competitors to make up for the lost hours.
Nix tells me I should be glad that we got so close to winning—that there are still more rounds to come in this tournament and that being stuck in the cave for several hours pretty much spelled our doom, so the fact that we got close to the prize at all is a testament to how well we did.
As frustrated and disappointed as I am with myself, I can see that he’s right, and that he’s trying to help me feel better. Both of those are things I wouldn’t have expected from him before, and I find myself glancing at him out of the corner of my eye, as if I’ve just discovered a whole new side to him and I want to study it for hours.
But of course, staring at him for hours would be creepy and weird and not subtle at all. So I stick with my sly little glances.
I suppose even though we lost the challenge, I’ve scored a sort of win for my “real” mission of redeeming the sins. I’ve gotten a little closer to understanding what makes these men tick, and I’ve seen a softer, kinder side of Nix than I ever knew existed.
But what about my other mission? What about our plan to win the Blackfire Tournament and save the people of Earth from a bunch of invading corrupted?
“You can’t get too down,” Phoenix tells me as we leave the competition grounds and head back to the castle—or mansion, or whatever it is that Ryland’s calling it. “We came close.”
“Yeah. Thanks. This is harder than I thought it would be,” I admit. “I’m not exactly a high-ranking angel, you know. I don’t have all the skills and powers that my angelic superior does, or even as much as a lot of the supernaturals we’re competing against. Your power to influence people is stronger than anything I have. We’re all given blades, but I’m not even a battle angel. I’m just a grunt.”
“A grunt, maybe, but a determined one.” Nix chuckles. “As much as I hate to say it, sometimes determination is all you need.” He leads me through the busy streets, his arm slung around my shoulders. “I can only do so much with a really stubborn, hardworking person. I’m pretty sure even if I threw all the laziness I have at you, you’d still find a way to march right up to the front lines and insist on protecting humanity, even if most of them probably don’t even deserve it.”
“Most humans are good.”
“Mmm.” I can tell he doesn’t quite agree with me.
We spend the rest of the walk back to our temporary home in companionable silence. I can’t tell if it’s a protective gesture or an affectionate one, but I like the feel of Nix’s arm around me, the easy way he holds me close as we walk.
I could get used to this.
And that’s a terrifying thought.
“Ah, there you are.” Sawyer steps out of the house as we approach, striding quickly down the front steps to meet us. Even though his movements are as sensually graceful as always, I can see in his eyes that he’s concerned. “We have a problem. Another portal’s opened.”
I stop in my tracks. “Crap.”
Seriously? As if this day couldn’t possibly get any worse.
“Yeah, that’s what I said.” Sawyer shrugs. “Well, it’s not exactly what I said, but the sentiment is the same.”
“Well, we have to go.”
My mind is already jumping three steps ahead, wondering if we can take Beckett’s transportation spell directly to wherever the portal is. We can’t afford to waste time. There are demons running around New York City, or possibly even another city depending on how far the network spread when we closed the last one. Corrupted could be hurting people or doing who knows what else on Earth, and somebody’s got to stop them.
“Oh, no you don’t,” Sawyer says as he and Nix follow me inside the house. “You aren’t going anywhere. We need to finish this competition now that we’ve started it.”
“What’s going on?” Beckett emerges from one of the many other rooms in this ridiculous house as the front door shuts behind us. “Did you tell her?”
“We need to go back home,” I insist, my voice rising. “If another portal has opened, we have to fix it.”
“Yeah, we could.” Sawyer leans against the door, crossing his arms over his chest. “And we could make the problem worse by expanding the network of portals just waiting to open.”
“Or…” Beckett draws out the word. “We could stay here, finish the competition, and win the crystal that will give us the power to destroy all of the demonic portals permanently without creating any others.”
I bristle. “But we can’t just leave a portal to Below open like that! People could get hurt.”
“More people will get hurt if we fight a losing battle and create more portals.” Ryland’s voice comes from behind me, and I jump in surprise. Sheesh. Where did he even come from? It’s like all these sins have super-stealth powers in addition to their own power.
“It’s a good idea, this competition,” Beckett continues, his green gaze catching mine. “Even if I wasn’
t sure about you being the one to enter it… you’ve been doing a good job.”
“We didn’t win this round,” I point out, and I can practically feel my heart sinking in my chest as I say the words.
We lost. Because of a stupid mistake on my part. And now another portal is open, and I feel more out of my depth than ever.
“That doesn’t mean you’re out of the game.” The softness in Beckett’s tone surprises me. He takes a step toward me, his broad frame imposing and dominant but also solid and almost comforting somehow. He lowers his voice. “I know it’s difficult, Trin. Trust me. I want to win too. But we have to be smart about this.”
Rubbing at my temples, I blow out a breath. “You’re right. I mean, I get what you’re saying. It makes sense. But can’t we just find another way to get the crystal that we need? Do we really have to keep playing this—this game? Because from where I’m standing, people are in danger of getting hurt, and I can’t just do nothing and let that happen.”
“An angel? Suggesting we steal?” Ryland sounds startled.
I glare at him, for once too frustrated to be scared of him at all. “You’d feel the same way if you actually cared about anyone or anything besides your pride. When I see that something’s wrong, that something is hurting people, I can’t just sit by and let it happen. Who cares what the rules say?”
“I doubt Above liked that attitude all that much,” Sawyer notes under his breath.
“Why do you think I’m here?” I heave a sigh, shaking my head. “I know you all know I’m fallen, but I never told you how I got that way. Basically, I helped some people get into Heaven who technically shouldn’t have been there. But only because there was so much red tape! I knew they were good people, and I knew if I didn’t do something, they’d be stuck in Hell for centuries until the committee assigned to assess their case finally made a ruling. I couldn’t make them wait that long. I couldn’t put them through that.”
“Hey, guys, I think I found the eighth sin.” Remi leans against the doorframe between the foyer and the large living room, looking softly amused at me. Not in a condescending way—more like he’s genuinely fond of me. Maybe even a little impressed. My heart does an odd flip at the warmth in his gaze. “Impatience.”