I don’t mind this new me.
Not at all.
If only I hadn’t fainted at the gifting ceremony.
A horn sounds in the distance. I look at Max. I’ve yet to hear that sound.
His eyes widen and he shoves me toward the door. “Go! That’s the start.”
I quickly give Max a peck on the cheek and say, “Thank you. You’re god-sent,” and then fly out of the room.
When I barrel into the back garden, I find the other descendants standing in a row in front of Monstrat. Hands clasped behind his back, the professor is at the gate that leads out from the garden into the Dark Wood. It’s called such because it sits in a stretch of land between Hades’s House and Mount Olympus where no light lands. Behind Monstrat, the trees shiver in the breeze and their leaves rattle against each other.
Like a snake ready to strike.
As I step in line, I realize I’ve come up on Haven’s left. His gaze lands on me. My belly does a flip and when I meet his eyes, heat burns through my body for reasons I can’t even name.
His expression, for one quick second, looks concerned and he parts his lips as if to ask me a question. And then, remembering himself and our feud, he scowls and says, “Girls at the back of the line, Hearthtender.”
Beside him, Pearce snickers but keeps his eyes trained ahead.
“Shut up, Knightfall,” I say.
“Quiet,” Monstrat calls and I come to attention. “I’m glad you could join us, Ana.”
I give a small nod. I keep cutting it too close though. This is the second time I’ve been late for something here at Hades’s House. Time doesn’t seem to be on my side. I nearly missed the trial and if I had missed the trial, I’d have automatically forfeited my place and found myself walking the streets of the mortal realm with no prospects and no immortal blood in my veins.
The thought makes my stomach plummet to my toes.
“Welcome to your First Trial,” Monstrat says. Moonlight shines behind him highlighting the sharp cut of his biceps.
“The First Trial Game is an old-fashioned game of war. Except there are no teams. It’s every man” —he cuts his gaze to me— “or woman for themselves.” He unclasps his hands from behind his back and lifts them to the moonlight. Ten silver bracelets glimmer in the light. “Each of you will have one of these. All you have to do to win is reach the safe zone at the end of the Dark Wood at the giant oak with at least one bracelet in your possession. Doesn’t matter if it's the one you started with. It only matters that you have one. And should only one of you cross into the safe zone with all ten bracelets in your possession…” He looks over our line. “Well then, I guess you’ve skipped all three trials and will be crowned the winner.”
A murmur races through our ranks.
Haven leans over and whispers in my ear, “You should just quit now.” His breath catches the delicate triangle of flesh beneath my ear and goosebumps erupt over my entire body.
“I’m not letting you win,” I say back, feeling not quite sure of that statement.
“Let?” A dark lock of his hair falls over his forehead. He smiles at me. “No one lets me do anything, Hearthtender. I take what I want. I don’t ask for permission.”
My insides quake. I lock my knees and try to keep my body as still as stone. Like when he carried me to bed just hours ago. I want to ask him why he did it. I want to ask him what he thought of me cradled in his arms. Probably that I was weak, just like he thought.
Instead I sneer at him and say, “Well, I give you permission to lose, Knightfall.”
Monstrat passes out the bracelets. “You have three hours to reach the safe zone. How you reach it, how you gain possession of a bracelet, doesn’t matter to us. There are no rules other than to win.”
He hands me the last bracelet. It’s a thick band of sterling silver that my hand easily fits into. The boys have to wiggle and yank and bend their fingers in order to get the band on their wrist.
I could easily lose mine by accident. It’s too big for me. Probably because they were all made for men. Not for a girl from Hestia’s House who lived on sugar snap berries and dozed in the afternoon sun.
Monstrat steps to the gate and unlatches it. It swings open and creaks on its hinges. Next to it, on a pedestal, is a wrought iron box. The professor lights a match and takes the flame to a wick sticking out the bottom of the box.
“When this cannon goes off, your First Trial has begun.”
The wick catches and sparks. The flame eats its way up. For a fraction of a second, the flame disappears inside the box and my heart leaps to my chest. Anticipation coils in my gut and in my legs.
I’m poised to run. Ready to take off like one of the paper rockets the orphans were always begging me to make.
I can do this.
I can win. Can’t I?
I just have to make it to the oak tree. That’s easy. Just stay hidden until the oak tree is within sight. The boys will be so focused on each other, they won’t even notice me slip by.
Something fizzles and cracks inside the box and then—
BOOM.
The cannon blows and a ball of flame launches into the air.
The boys practically fly through the gate.
I start running, but Pearce’s big meaty arm stretches out in front of me, sidelining me to the ground. My teeth clack together as I hit the dirt and the wind is knocked out of me.
Pearce holds his stomach and laughs.
Haven is beside him watching me. There’s no expression on his face.
“We should get going,” Haven says to Pearce and slaps the bigger boy on the back. “Come on.”
Pearce turns and disappears through the gate.
Haven gives me one last look. “Good luck, Hearthtender,” he says and then he’s gone.
Chapter 17
When I finally manage to get up and enter the Dark Wood, it’s as if the moon has been swallowed whole.
There’s barely any light here. Only the pressing darkness and the rattle of the Wood.
I debate following the winding trail or leaving it behind for a route less traveled, but the trail is clear and devoid of sticks or dried leaves. I’ve no mind for strategy. I’m not sure which is the better pick.
I’m starting to wish I’d have pressed for more studies at Hestia’s House. I should have done something other than picked all those damnable flowers. I should have tried to attain at least one useable skill. Like archery or swordplay or even geography.
With the Wood quiet around me, I leave the trail behind and slowly, quietly make my way to a maple tree with a trunk big enough to shield me.
Shoulder pressed into the bark, I wait and listen. Have all of the boys already surged ahead? I haven’t ventured into the Dark Wood yet so I don’t know how much ground it covers or how far away the great oak is.
Maybe they all have already won and I’m just prolonging the inevitable.
And then I see movement up ahead.
A tall, lean shadow flitting between the trees that looks a lot like Ely.
A second, stockier figure cuts through the Wood gaining quickly on the first person. That’s definitely Pearce.
Without thinking, I step away from the tree and shout, “Watch out!”
The first figure ducks as the second leaps to tackle him. Pearce hits the ground with a thud as the first guy gets back to his feet and runs—straight toward me.