In a flash, he captures both my wrists in hand and hoists my arms over my head, pinning me in place.
His mouth is at my ear again. “Then show me how tough you are, Hearthtender.”
When he comes back up to meet my gaze, his hair falling forward, there’s fire in his eyes. A clear challenge that I can’t tell if he wants me to win or lose. I’m not sure which I want either.
I test his grip, but he doesn’t budge.
Gritting my teeth, I buck up with my hips, but he’s not holding his weight off now and he’s too solid to dislodge.
Haven laughs.
I growl.
“Well, go on then,” he says. “Show me what you’re made of.”
He knows what I’m made of. He knows better than anyone at Hades’s House and yet he’s still acting like I’m not a threat. He still thinks he’s already won the trial.
If only I could pull on my power when I needed it, I’d show him.
“That’s what I thought,” he says. The smile is gone from his face and replaced with something that’s colder. “You never should have come here, orphan. You should have stayed in your little fantasy world picking daisies for the rest of your life.”
“It’s not like I had a choice!”
My chest grows heavy with frustration. I didn’t want this. I didn’t want to be here. If there’s anyone to blame, it’s whoever my true father is—Hades. Because he abandoned me and left me to learn my power on my own, whatever that power is.
“None of this is my fault!”
Heat builds in my belly.
Haven goes rigid on top of me. His fingers slacken and lose their grip on my wrists. I buck him off and he flops like a statue to his back. Blackness creeps into his veins.
I roll to all fours and climb to my feet.
An electric intensity flows over my skin like silk. It’s as if the air vibrates.
Haven goes wide-eyed but still can’t move.
I can feel my hair lift like I’m underwater.
All I ever wanted was to know who I was.
To have my place.
I never fit in at Hestia’s House and I don’t fit in here.
But if there’s one thing I learned being an orphan at the House of the Virgin Goddess it was that if you wanted to survive in this world, the only person you could depend on was yourself.
The air snaps around me.
All of the anger and frustration I’ve felt my entire life seems to boil in my veins and I clench my hands into fists.
Heat blooms around me like a storm cloud.
The trees rattle in the growing wind.
I stand overtop of Haven and yell, “I will be no one’s pawn!”
The trees bend backward and in one great exodus, the leaves fall from their branches and rain down around us in a cloud so thick, it blots out the moonlight.
I suck in a breath.
My hands are shaking at my sides, but I feel bigger, stronger than I’ve ever felt before. As if I grew ten feet and transformed into Hercules.
The leaves blanket the Dark Wood floor as far as I can see. And as if time has sped up, they curl into themselves, brittle and brown and dead.
All of the aches and pains in my bones vanish.
My head is clearer.
My steps are light.
“You were planning to keep me around to make it easier to win,” I say and bend down next to Haven. “How about instead I make it easy for you to lose?”
I rip the bracelet from Haven’s wrist and take Ely’s too for good measure.
I don’t know what kind of magic just tore out of me but I’m not about to question it. Maybe Hades’s gift worked after all.
Whatever it is, I’m going to pretend like I meant to do exactly that.
Because now there’s fear burning in Haven’s gaze and I like how that makes me feel.
Unstoppable.
“What was it you said to me at the Choosing Ceremony? Oh right,” I say, because he still can’t move and so answering is impossible, “by this time tomorrow, Haven Knightfall, no one will remember your name.”
And then I’m off, sprinting into the woods, determined more than ever to win this fucking trial and show Haven—and my true father—just how strong I can be.
Chapter 18
I don’t encounter another descendant as I make my way to the end of the Dark Wood and the oak tree. I run at least another mile before the trees start to recover from my outburst of power.
When I reach the giant oak tree, I’m the fifth to enter the safe zone. It’s marked off on each corner by a wrought iron torch. The flames cast a wide circle of dancing golden light.
As I step through the perimeter with three bracelets on my wrist, Pearce crosses his arms over his chest and frowns at me. “You made it? Before Haven did?”
Not gonna lie, hearing him acknowledge that in front of the other descendants, highlighting where I’d clearly excelled over Haven, makes my chest burn with pride.
I hold up my arm. The bracelets slide down my wrist and clang together. “And Haven has even less of a chance of making it to the next trial without this,” I boast.
One of the twins, Kal I think, lets his mouth drop open in shock. There’re leaves in his dark hair like he had to wrestle someone among the fallen foliage. I don’t see his twin in the safe zone. “One of those is Haven’s bracelet?” he asks.
“Bullshit,” Pearce says. He reaches out and tries to snag the silver band from me, but I snatch away my wrist before he can. “You’re lying!”
Footsteps shuffle through the forest behind us.
We all turn to the trail.
The light from the torches makes the darkness of the Wood beyond even thicker, and it’s hard to see who’s approaching until they’re just feet away.
“There you are,” Pearce says. “The fuck took you so long?”
It’s Haven. Theo is with him, his mouth set in a grim line.
When Haven stops at the perimeter, Theo stops with him.
The first thing I notice is that Haven’s wrist is still naked.
He’s lost.
He’s going to lose.
I set my hands to my hips and level my shoulders feeling like it might just be possible now to win the whole damn thing.
Who’s the pawn now?!
With a slow, deliberate turn, Haven looks at me standing on the periphery now, unsure of his next move. There’s a smugness to his face that shouldn’t be there. Not for someone who's clearly losing.
I bested Haven.
He knows it.
I know it.
And now he doesn’t have a bracelet.
But...he smiles at me.
What does he have to be happy about?
The flicker of flame light plays across the sharp planes of his face making him look somehow more beautiful. He reminds me of the two-stories-tall god statues that circle the square in the heart of Olympus. Every angle perfect and precise. His presence larger than life.
Before coming here, I believed that Haven was the kind of descendant who’s been raised on decadence. I believed that he was shallow and that whatever power he had was just as deep. That the other descendants bowed to him like a parent might bow to the mewling whine of a baby.
But now…
Still staring at me, Haven holds out his hand.
Theo closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. And then he removes his bracelet from his wrist and places it in the palm of Haven’s hand.