Asher snorted then, clearly enjoying the visual he was getting, and I couldn’t help grinning as well.
“And I’d like to not have to rip all their heads off,” Kade growled as he finished strapping leather to my other arm.
“Oh, don’t act like you’d hog all the fun. I’d help you out,” Asher added with a grin.
I swallowed against the lump forming in my throat. I knew they didn’t want me to die because of our bond, but the fact they were talking about protecting me as if it was completely natural was making me feel all sorts of strange.Am I really getting emotional at the idea that they’d willingly murder monsters for me?
Yes. The answer was a definite yes, because not only did I feel tears prickling in my eyes, but warmth heated low in my belly at the thought. I knew it wasn’t because they were talking about killing others for me. Not really. It was the ease with which this was all happening. The way they were acting as if I wastheirs.
The scents of cedarwood, ash, and spice grew stronger then, and my attention went to Locke as he stepped closer to me, his onyx gaze boring into me. I braced myself for whatever threat he was about to spew at me, but instead, he said, “When you fight, remember those females are no longer your friends. They’re newbloods now, and they all have the instincts of monsters. They will desire power above all else, and taking you down shows everyone that they are stronger than you. Trust no one, not even if they’re on your team.”
Huh. Advice. I did not see that coming. Wait.“Team?”
He nodded as if it was common knowledge. “For the first fight, the newbloods are usually split into two groups. The team that wins will continue to fight the following night. You need to be on the losing team.”
My brow wrinkled. “The losing team?”
“You can’t ask her to do that. It’ll ruin her chances of being offered a position with a higher house,” Asher protested on my behalf.
“The more she fights, the more likely it is that someone will find out she’s human. She’ll lose if she wants to survive,” Locke responded, not bothering to look at Asher but continuing to stare straight at me. As if he thought staring me down could convey how serious he was.
Well, he was wrong because that stare just made me want to piss him off. Luckily for him, I was smart enough to see the reasoning behind what he was saying. Ididwant to survive, and I couldn’t have cared less about losing the interest of any of the alphas from the high houses.
“He’s right,” Kade added. “Raine, you should stay at the back and feign a hit to the head before falling to the ground. No one would question you if you didn’t get back up.”
Feign a hit?I hated the idea of looking weak, but I could do it. “All right. Pretend to get knocked out. I can do that,” I said with an unhappy nod.
Asher stepped forward with a leather weapons belt and strapped it around my waist. When it was secure, I made my way over to the weapons shelf and slid two knives into the leather, then I grabbed a sword and slid it into the scabbard at my side.
Goddess, it was good to be armed again. Feeling like I could take on the world, or at least like I could take on a few newbloods, I turned back to the others and smiled. “All right. I’m ready to get my ass kicked.”
Iwaitedbehindaniron grate in the bowels of a gigantic amphitheater, along with five other newbloods and two hulking Minotaur guards. It seemed Locke was right about us being split into teams, and I assessed the females who were with me. Lana and Nora were there, along with Bri, who had turned into a demon. The two other newbloods weren’t women I’d spoken to when we were back on the island, but one had ocean-blue eyes similar to Darian’s, so I guessed she was a siren, and the other appeared human, so I wasn’t sure what she was. All of them wore fighting leathers similar to my own and had weaponry strapped to their sides.
A thunderous roar came from the crowd above us, and I leaned against the cold, stone walls of the space we were in and tried to calm my racing heartbeat.
“You ready?” Nora asked as she propped herself against the wall beside me.
I thought about admitting I was shitting myself, but that didn’t seem like something a power-hungry newblood would say, so I settled with, “You bet.”
She grinned at me, anticipation and excitement brightening her eyes. “This is going to be fun.”
A part of me wanted to agree. I enjoyed pushing my body and wielding weapons, but this wasn’t like training on the island. I was pitted against monsters, and I didn’t have the abilities they had. Another roar came from somewhere above us, and the walls shook, making streams of sand fall from the stone ceiling above our heads. The blood pounded in my ears, and I clenched my fists.
Slowly, the iron grate began to lift, and the Minotaurs stepped forward. “Time to move,” one of them barked as they began ushering us into the tunnel beyond the grate.
Determined not to let his meaty hands touch me, I strode out behind Lana and Nora, making my way along the tunnel until we exited out onto a wide stretch of sandy ground. I only made it a few steps before I froze, the sheer size of the amphitheater around us making my heart squeeze.
Situated at the top of the mountain, the amphitheater was constructed of massive slabs of grey stone that reached into the sky far above our heads. Thousands of monsters watched from the rows of seating encircling the fighting arena, their gleeful chatter audible over the icy air that penetrated my leathers and chilled me to the bone. Stars spread across the sky, the tiny dots seemingly insignificant against the mass of stone towering over me, and I swallowed as my throat became painfully dry.Fuck.
Chewing the inside of my cheek, I forced myself to move again, spreading out as the others on my team had done and adding to the end of our line. Splashes of black stained the sand beneath our feet, and my stomach roiled when I realized it was blood. Monster blood.Well, that explains the frenzied cheering coming from the arena while we’d been waiting down in the tunnels.I didn’t let myself think more about it and lifted my gaze. On the opposite side of the amphitheater, the newbloods from the other team emerged from their own hidden tunnel and trekked across the sand, taking up similar positions to us.
Trying to focus my mind, I eyed the members of their team. A hundred yards away stood Gina, a pretty brunette who I knew had been turned into a banshee. A short distance from her stood Sasha, the daughter of one of the bakers back on our island. While Sasha had always been tall, now that she’d been turned into an ogre, she stood over seven feet high.
I didn’t know the names of the remaining newbloods, but I could tell two of them were demons because of their horns and tails. I could only guess the other two were sirens as Kade had told me three of the newbloods had become sirens, and there were still two unaccounted for.
At the thought of Kade and the others, I turned my attention to the stands, scanning the faces of the monsters. Losak, alpha of the House of Silat, was sitting with a few other members of his house in the front row, and when my gaze fell on him, he gave me a wolfish smile. I quickly averted my eyes, and it didn’t take long before I spotted Locke, Kade, Asher, and Darian, sitting in the front row further to my left. Darian gave me a reassuring smile, and Asher winked at me, but Kade and Locke looked as stone-faced as I felt.
The loud stamping of hooves drew my attention away from them, and I peered at where the centaur from the night before was standing on a balcony high up on the right side of the amphitheater. The area he was in had been sectioned away from the other seating, the stone walls making it more private. Behind him, Perene, Warrick, and a few monsters I didn’t recognize were sitting on elegant cushions and drinking from silver goblets, and I could only guess these were more members of the Taratun council.
