Chapter 5

Page Five.

The stones are the traps.

Run to the unknown; it is your only hope.

Drums echo from below, and the lower we climb down the staircase, the more they seem to vibrate the ground under my feet. I'm terrified. I thought the bravest thing I ever did was trying to escape with my best friend, but he got killed and I wasn't brave enough when it counted. My owner told me I was a coward, and he was right. I'm surprised my legs haven't stopped working yet.

Somehow, I keep descending the stairs with hundreds of other people. Many of them step aside once they see Daegan, while others don't seem to notice him, but their heads swing to look at me. They're so different from the fae that I've seen, but being stared at isn't something massively new to me. This time, they are curious, and there is a mixture of pity and desire on their faces that I am getting used to. There's something different about these fae, but I can't put my finger on what it is.

When we get down to the bottom level, which has no flooring, just stone, there's a drawn-out pathway right to the middle where there are at least a hundred people waiting in lines. Daegan leads me to the front, stopping me in the space that's been left open between others waiting. Daegan rests his hands on my shoulders. "Good luck," he tells me, leaning in. "You can do this."

No, I really can't. I do not know who he thinks I am, but I am not the right person to do any of this. I'm not sure exactly what this even is. My heart's racing as I look at what is clearly a cavern entrance in front of me. There's a single door, with a massive stone dragon on the smooth front, two more stone dragon statues on either side. Everything is quiet as Daegan walks towards a small platform in front of the doors. Etena meets him and they talk quietly between each other. As more people gather, I glance to my left to see a long, dark-haired, very curvy woman staring at me with her bright blue eyes sparkling like she is going to burst if she doesn't say something. She's about the same age as me, and her cheeks go bright red when I smile at her. "Hi, Story."

"Hello," I whisper back.

She looks around before grinning at me, and her smile is contagious. "Everyone's talking about you. I didn't, I wasn't there because I work in the libraries and my ladder fell down. I was stuck five floors up until they came back, but my sister came rushing back to tell me all about you. I can't believe you're standing next to me!"

I like her. "Nice to meet you. I've just seen the library. It's amazing. What's your name?"

"Oh, I can't believe I didn't introduce myself. I'm Catherine." She bows her head, and I see a sun marking on her neck. I bow my head back, wondering if that's how people greet each other in here. Fae aren't allowed to greet or speak to each other in the vampyre cities, but in the breeding sections, we always clasp our arms. "It's really nice to meet you."

"Same," I tell her back.

Her voice dips so quiet that I can barely hear her. "Is it true that you're going to find a way to get us out of here?" It's on the tip of my tongue to say no, that I'm a random fool who ran into a creepy abandoned mansion to escape the vampyres hunting me and it was an accident. She likely knows that part of the story if her sister was in the auditorium. I open my lips to say something and then close them again. "It's okay, you probably shouldn't tell me anyway. I'm a nobody librarian assistant, and you're…well, the hope of our people."

Hope of our people? Fuck, that sounds like a pressure-filled title I never asked for. What happens to me when they realise that I'm clueless and can't even get myself out? "I think being an assistant librarian is a brilliant job. I'd love to do that."

"Really?" she whispers, her eyes wide. "It's not paid, but I love it too. They are always looking for new assistants. Maybe if we both survive this, I could ask for you?"

I nod, my heart leaping. Another reason to try to survive today—other than the fact I don't want to die. Not yet. "Isn't it amazing the Decidere is finally open? It's been so many years. I've been hearing the call for ten years, like so many of us that signed up. Many are still waiting, of course, because not everyone's allowed to enter."

"Not everyone has to do this?" I sharply ask, not bothering to whisper this time. A rite of passage for fae, my ass.

She looks down at the ground. "No. It's only us that want to, who feel a calling. I think they assumed you felt the calling too, turning up on the day you did. The auditorium was full of us, the fae who applied and were waiting, when King Daegan carried you in."

Daegan carried me in.He also lied to me about this being a rite of passage and gave into what Ziven demanded. Catherine looks up and over my shoulder, quickly diverting her gaze at whatever she sees. I turn to see people parting, like a skipping stone being thrown across the water. Ziven walks in, as casual as always, when his eyes promise death to anyone that stands in his way. I don't get why they are so clearly frightened of him, other than his obvious fuck-off demeanour. The Sun Dynasty clearly has more people than the Moon, so why are they feared?

He is followed by the rest of his people, all twenty of them. They gather behind him, and Ziven looks over his shoulder, and a man steps to his side. The man is immense like Ziven, but his arms are bigger, his head is completely shaved, and instead of hair, there is a moon marking on his head. Ziven nods at him once, patting his shoulder, and then he purposely looks at me. They both do. The man leaves Ziven, and it looks like he's walking straight towards me as my heart races. Did Ziven tell this man to kill me before I enter the Decidere? I wouldn't put it past him. The man walks up right behind me, shoving the poor man who was there before out of the way with a grunt before taking his place in the line so he can loom over me like a shadow.

I quickly shoot my head forward, feeling eyes burning into the back of my head, and sweat trickles down my spine. Why do I feel like I'm being set up here? Daegan lets out a beam of light from his hand, and thousands of sparks fly around the room before shooting straight back into his hands. Pretty trick. The crowd goes silent.

"Welcome. It's been too long since we've allowed newcomers into the stone caves and opened the Decidere. Each one of you has been called to this, heard the dragons below, and proved your soul as strong." I did none of that. "This is a special year for all of us." His eyes rest on me for a second before looking around the crowd. "And I'm sure the deities are watching down on us, blessing our flights and battles. The dragons live below, and they are wild creatures. Never forget this. This is their home, their personal hunting grounds. They've set up traps of their own making, ways to test your strength. When you go in, there's a single passageway straight across to a series of stone pillars. If one of them calls to you, walk towards it, stand in front of it and touch the pillar when you're ready. The test will be revealed to you. If you pass, you will be let out of the stone and return to us with a mark on your hand from the stone. In our history, one only has survived fourteen days, and it is more common to survive four. If you come out of your pillar stone riding a dragon, it is yours. You will know."

Whispers echo and Catherine flashes me an excited but nervous smile.

"It's important you do not go off the path. It's there for a reason. If none of the pillars call to you, walk out as quickly as you possibly can, back to the door. Run if you want to live. The Decidere door only opens on Sundays, so you will have a week between each Decidere to rest and train." Daegan looks up at the dragon statue. "The ancient fae kings of our dynasties set up the Decidere many years ago with the dragons so our people would forever be blessed with riders. They built our great cities with endless caverns filled with dragon pillars. Any time a fae turned twenty-one, they were taken down there to be tested, and our riders filled the skies. Of course, these times have gone and our cities with them, apparently." Gasps echo and so many eyes fall on me. "But this does not mean that we will not find a way forward through the darkness and escape this prison. The more riders we have, the better chance we have when we finally are freed from this to take back our world. Freedom is close, my friends and family. Our dynasty will rule in fire and blood, and the vampyres will be destroyed!"

Cheers and shouts mix with the beat of the drums until it is echoing. The cheering doesn't stop as Daegan steps aside and we make a line to the door. I follow closely behind Catherine, and Ziven's man stays right at my back. I look over once more at Ziven, and he flashes me a cruel smirk before I face away. He hates me and I'm not a fan of him either, the psychopath. What is wrong with him? It's like he singled me out as his enemy before we even spoke.

My legs feel like they are full of lead as I walk through the open stone door and into a damp-smelling tunnel. My heart begins to race so fast that I hear it in my ears, hear it rattling my soul. What am I doing? I should run away. I should absolutely run away. I know I won't get very far, but I'm literally walking to my death by dragon.

The curious side of me wants to see a dragon, not just a statue or a drawing in a book. I'm not sure it's worth dying for, though. The tunnel leads to a dug-out hollow in the stone. There are big gaps on either side of a bridge to the other side, easily wide enough for five people to walk across. On the other side are pillars, rows and rows of tall rectangular pillars that must be over ten feet tall. There's nothing on them, they're just smooth stone that is slightly pushed into the ground. My eyes flicker round the edges of the cave before a roar echoes, so close and loud that cracks form in the walls and bits of rock tumble from the ceiling, crashing at my feet.

Jumping back, I see the stone door is shut behind us, and the roar echoes again, getting louder and causing more rocks to fall. People scream and scatter, and someone slams into my shoulder, shoving me to the ground. I lift my head to see rocks crushing people as they run for the pillars. I have to get to the pillars, get up, Story. I push off the ground, running straight to the bridge just as a dragon lands right on top of the side of the bridge, roaring loudly and shaking everything. It's huge, absolutely massive, and made of pure crackled stone. I don't know what I was expecting, but not this. Massive stone wings spread out on either side of the dragon. All over its back is crusted-over stone, and a long lumpy tail has sharp rocks on its end. It roars as its black eyes finally drop and narrow. Red embers flicker off its forked tongue as it opens its mouth, and I feel frozen to my spot.

A stream of burning hot fire sprays out of its mouth, right into the bridge, and it instantly burns up three people before they can even scream. The horrid smell of burning flesh fills my nose as I suck in a breath, taking several steps back only to bump into someone. I turn around to find the man from the Moon Dynasty, Ziven's friend. He is calm, collected, as he grabs my upper arms in a tight grip, and I struggle to move at all. He leans into me, his deep voice nothing but cruel. "King Ziven expressed how he hoped you die from this."

"Wait—" He picks me up and throws me straight off the edge of the bridge, into the endless cold air.