15. Chapter 15

My bed was too comfortable to get up and move so I stared at the ceiling. Nothing motivated me to get up and get dressed, but I eventually did. Slowly I made my way toward the dining hall but ended up walking past it. I followed the hallway until a set of metal doors caught my attention. When I shoved against the cold metal, it opened to reveal a stunning room of flowers with a glass roof. Once inside I let out a relaxed breath. The sun beamed through the glass above me. It was the most sun we had seen since my arrival, and I wanted to soak it up as much as I could.

I laid my cloak in the middle of the conservatory so I could sit on it and relax in the middle of all the plants. My nose filled with floral scents as I settled in a spot. I closed my eyes, allowing calmness to wash over me. This was by far the best room I had seen yet. My eyes fluttered open as my body warmed in the sunlight. Faintly, I could hear birds singing outside.

"We need to talk." Cassius's voice instantly ruined my peaceful escape.

"No, we don't." Turning completely away from him I continued admiring the hundreds of flowers in various shades of color. He gave me an irritated huff at my reaction. "In fact, I'm staying away from you like you requested from the king. So, leave me alone."

"We should talk about this before the trial."

"Why? Because I could die? At least then you wouldn't have the burden of being around me."

His shadows exploded around us, swirling so we could see nothing outside of them.

"You're a child," I huffed.

"You actually think I would want you dead? So, I don't have to see you?" he bellowed.

"That's exactly what I think." Glaring at him, I stood up. "You made sure everyone in this fucking castle knew that's how you thought of me. You humiliated me again. You were cruel to me." My voice faded out, betraying the ache in my heart.

His eyes bore into mine for a long moment. He reached forward to touch my face, but I stepped away.

"You made it clear what you thought of me. So, I'll keep my distance just as you requested." I flicked my hand up and my fire mist overpowered his shadows, freeing me instantly.

"Thea, Gods damn it. You don't understand. This is for your protection, not because I hate you or don't like you." He grabbed my arm and forced me to look at him. "There are things you don't understand."

Nothing made sense to me, but this just seemed like he was being cruel. I pulled my arm from him.

"Well, you're doing a bad job at staying away from me."

He swallowed hard as he glanced away from me.

"Trust me, I know. Staying away is for the best." He sounded as if he was trying to convince himself more than me.

"No problem. I don't want to be near you at all after how you treated me in front of everyone. You made me feel pathetic, Cassius."

Something close to pain or sadness crossed his features and I immediately wanted to take back my words. This was all too confusing. I hated him, but I also knew I'd forgive him if he asked me to.

"If I could take back what I said, I would." He frowned and stepped forward quickly to catch me off guard, pulling me to him in a tight hug. It felt oddly like a goodbye. When he pulled back, he crushed his lips to mine and held me against him tightly, as if he were scared I would move away. Cassius's lips were demanding, and my knees probably would have given out had I been able to process what was happening. I didn't have a chance to kiss him back before he pulled away. My heart was beating wildly in my chest as warmth spread through my veins.

Cassius's eyes were the lightest shade of gold I had ever seen in this moment. That damned tugging started in my chest when I looked at Cassius. I wanted to pull him close to me and not let him leave, but I also fucking hated him. My shields went right back up. He must have been feeling it, too, because he just stared at me for a long moment before he smoothed my braid over my shoulder.

"Your safety is all I care about. We need you to win the trials, Thea."

"Why don"t you just tell me what"s going on? You"re obviously keeping secrets."

Instead of giving me the answers I so desperately wanted, he leaned forward to give me a chaste kiss before walking away from me and leaving without a glance back. I stood frozen for a long moment, the warmth disappearing when I couldn"t see him anymore.

Sitting back on my cloak there was an odd sense of discomfort as Cassius's words returned to me. I wondered why so many fae seemed to be keeping things from me. Dark clouds moved in and took away the sunshine. Rain started pouring down so violently that it was hard not to admire its dark wrath. My chest relaxed to the sound of the rain pelting the glass roof. The castle began shaking and crumbling around me, letting me know the third trial was beginning.

The bright light didn't bother me as much as it had previously. Instead, my focus was drawn to the riotous cheering and hollering from the crowd. The colosseum was packed with spectators this time. My eyes immediately found Cassius, but I clenched my jaw and turned away from him.

I scanned over the other contestants. We were in a small group this time. Nev stood by me as we waited for the king to announce what was going on. The king stood from his throne and walked to the edge of the balcony.

"Welcome to trial number three!" The crowd boomed with applause. My eyes focused on Cassius as he watched the king give his address.

"This trial is group-based. You have all been assigned to a team consisting of five participants. Your goal is to get through the maze."

As soon as the king spoke about it, the maze's mammoth black walls tore up through the ground beneath us.

"Each team will start at a different section of the maze. The first team to get to the center and grab the stone will win the trial. The next team to enter the center will get second and so on and so forth. Only one teammate is required to make it to the center because some of you will not leave this maze alive. Magic is allowed and you may do whatever is necessary to win."

The crowd roared at the announcement. They loved a good fight.

"Lavtan will announce the teams and you will have two minutes to discuss a plan with them before your time starts. A word of caution: the maze is dangerous, and traps are everywhere. Things are not always as they seem."

Lavtan stood and his eyes stared right at me with a smug look on his face.

"The teams have been selected and they are as listed!"

Everyone looked up where he pointed in the sky and our names all shuffled into six groups of five. I found my name and glared at Lavtan. He had me placed with no one in the top ten. My eyes drifted over the other groups. Haden's team had four of the top ten on his. Nev had a decent team as well. Mine was definitely the weakest. I sighed but gathered my team quickly.

"What magic does everyone have?" I asked.

"I can shift," said a man named Kace. His hair was dark, and he had pretty dark blue eyes that seemed impossibly bright against his dark skin.

"Great. Can you shift into anything you want?" I asked.

"No." He sighed and shifted into the smallest looking animal I had ever seen. It was the size of a mouse. I wasn't sure how that could help us, but I wasn't about to make him feel bad.

"Ok, that could be helpful. Everyone has seen my healing and fire magic."

"I don't have magic," A man named Zade answered. He was tall and appeared strong. "I'm a guardsman though and can fight."

Useful.

"I have this." The smallest guy on our team lifted his hands and everything metal lifted into the air. His light brown hair was long and shaggy, and he was at least a foot shorter than me. "The name's Riven."

"I have water magic," Adrel said.

"We have a lot of different magics that will be helpful," I said, trying to find the positives.

"We have the shittiest team. All of us are low ranking," Riven scoffed. "Well, except you."

"That doesn't matter. Only one of us needs to make it to the center and we all win. How should we do this? We can all split up to cover more ground, but it will make us more vulnerable to other teams. Or do we all go together?"

"Let"s split into two groups to cover more ground but not leave us completely defenseless against the other teams we will run into," Kace suggested.

"I'm fine with that. Is everyone else?"

They all nodded. Riven insisted on being paired off with me and the other three grouped together.

"Alright, you guys stay focused and pay attention to traps. If something seems off, it probably is." The countdown ticked off the last few seconds. My eyes found Cassius right before they disappeared from our sight. An opening appeared on the wall of the maze in front of us. No other teams were around us, just like the king said. The group of three went to the right and we went to the left. It was so quiet it gave me chills as we walked quickly but cautiously.

Riven walked slightly behind me which I didn't like. Sensing he was purposely trying to follow me; I slowed my pace only for him to mirror my actions. Obviously, he wanted me to lead so any traps would get me first. It was a clever tactic, but I hated others walking behind me.

"Did you hear that?" he whispered, but I hadn't heard anything. I shook my head and kept walking. "We should wait a minute," he suggested. "I thought I heard someone nearby."

"We don't have the luxury of waiting to see what it is. "We can handle whatever is waiting for us," I said confidently.

This answer irritated him, and he glared at me before brushing past me, shoulder-checking me on the way by. I opened my mouth to tell him off but thought better of it. We didn't need to be distracted or alert others to where we were. He took a few steps, but I pulled him back quickly.

The ground where he was walking fell away and he started sliding into the dark pit. I pulled on him, but he was heavier than I was, so I was dragged towards the crumbling ground. What was I doing?

My fire mist exploded around us and lifted him with ease out of the hole. I laid on my back, completely out of breath, next to him.

"Thanks," he said with a snappy voice. What the hell was his problem?

"Next time I can just let you die if you want to keep being an asshole." I glared.

We stood up and backtracked to take another way we passed up earlier. The black walls of the maze only made everything harder to see. We walked in silence for what seemed like hours but was likely less than one. We hadn't come across any other traps, so I knew it was only a matter of time.

Riven refused to say anything when I asked him which way he would like to try, so I stopped asking and just went with my gut. Where the hell was Wisp? They would be helpful right now. We both paused when we heard footsteps approaching somewhere in front of us. When we turned the corner, a member from another group was walking by himself. Before I could say anything, Riven had thrown a dagger, killing the man.

"What the fuck?" I hissed. "Why did you do that?"

"Don't be so weak, Thea. It's pathetic," he spoke as he passed me to grab the dagger from the man lying dead. "Don't pretend like you care about anyone but yourself. We all know you're a monster." He wiped the blood onto his long sleeve before putting it back in its sheath.

"What is your problem? I didn't ask you to come with me."

He ignored me and kept walking. When he stepped forward a loud clicking noise alerted us before all four walls started closing in on us.

"Great," I muttered. We walked to the walls, pressing and pushing against them to hopefully stop the walls from closing in on us. Nothing was working.

Fear gripped my chest as the walls continued closing in on us. I tried pushing against a different section of the wall when I heard a clicking noise, and it seemed like it froze the walls. I looked at the ground where my foot was pressed. I lifted my foot, and the walls began moving again.

"It's some sort of pressure plate or button," I yelled to Riven before I grabbed the arm of the dead man and dragged him to the hidden button. His body weight was enough to stop the walls from moving anymore. After a long moment, a part of the wall opened, allowing us to leave the death trap. I peeked out of the doorway and then cautiously walked through the door, only to be met with an arrow whizzing by my head before embedding itself into the wall. I released a shaky breath and thanked the gods I wasn't two inches to the left.

Riven took a cautious step forward and nothing happened. The maze split into two directions and Riven led us right even though I wished to go left. Riven was confident and he walked without caution, almost as if he knew where the traps were.

When we turned the corner, a wall rose up behind us, refusing to let us leave the way we came.

This couldn't be good.

I grabbed Riven when he went to walk, but he shrugged my hand away.

"Riven, this seems like we should take it slower," I cautioned.

"It's fine."

When he stepped forward, though, several giant axes swung like pendulums from one side of the walkway to the other. Great. He lifted his hand to use his magic, but nothing happened. I watched him try again, but again nothing.

"It's not true metal." He sighed. "Try burning them."

With determined steps, I moved towards them and unleashed my fire magic, only to find that nothing happened—no damage had been inflicted at all. They still swung in tandem like they had when they first appeared.

"I guess we will have to go through." I sighed.

"After you." Riven scoffed.

Rolling my eyes, I stepped forward. There was enough space between them that I could stand without being hit by the next one. It would fit Riven just fine too since he was small in stature. My eyes studied the axe-like pendulums for a moment. They were slightly off in timing, so I waited until the first one swung back before stepping forward. The second one swung directly in front of my face.

The speed of it caused a puff of wind to blow my braid back. I waited again before stepping in between them. This wasn't hard if I paid attention to the timing, but it was unnerving to have blades swinging so quickly on both sides of me. I wanted to turn to see where Riven was, but I couldn't turn my head without it getting cut off.

My steps were calculated as I moved through four more times until I got to the end. I turned to see Riven stepping through the last one right after me. He had followed closely. This time we didn't have an option to choose which way to go. We could only go to the left. It seemed to be getting darker the farther we went.

Something moved behind us. Riven must have heard it too because he stopped instantly. Summoning a ball of fire to my hands I used it to illuminate the dark so we could see what it was. A huge black creature was at the end of the hallway where we had just come from.

It looked like an oversized cat, but it had four eyes and fangs that hung far out of its mouth. It snapped its teeth towards us, revealing how sharp they were. Suddenly a loud scream from somewhere in the maze ricocheted off the walls. It was followed by a horrifying crunch of bones and my mind imagined flesh tearing from the victim. Shaking the image away, I focused on the creature in front of me.

The creature's eyes were completely white, and I wondered if it was somehow possessed. It stomped its front paw on the ground, dragging its sharp claws against the hard stone. Its ears pinned back before releasing a loud snarl towards us. As soon as it started running for us, I cast a fire shield in front of us, but our relief was short-lived as the creature stepped through the flames unphased.

"What the fuck?" Riven muttered.

The creature's fur was on fire, and it didn't seem fazed at all. It gave us one warning growl before charging at us again. We ran in a dead sprint down the corridor.

"We can't see shit. Thea, use your magic to light up our path."

A long stream of fire shot out along the wall. It only showed a long hallway. We kept running but the creature was gaining on us. Another scream echoed through the maze, and Riven and I kicked it into high gear. We kept going as the flaming creature followed.

"Riven, jump!" I warned as my fire showed the floor missing in front of us.

We jumped into blackness, hoping we didn't just jump to our deaths. We fell for a few seconds before slamming into the hard ground. Both of us tumbled and rolled, before finally slamming into the wall. I rolled off Riven and onto my back next to him. We were both hurt, but we didn't have time to waste.

"Let's go." I stood up and held my hand to help him, but he swatted it away. Whatever.

My magic lit up the space around us and I saw only one way to go forward. Hopefully, we were almost done. It had felt like time stopped moving since we started the trial. We hadn't run into any other teams, which I thought was odd. Scanning the tops of the walls, I wondered where Cassius was watching me from because I could sense him.

After a short walk straight forward, the maze guided us to the left. The walkway was wider than it had been. Farther down the path was a faintly glowing red light.

"Do you see that?" I asked Riven. "Maybe it"s the end of the maze?"

When Riven didn't answer I turned only for him to be glaring at me with a dagger in his hand.

"Unfortunately for you, you won't be getting to the end of the maze." The smile he gave me disarmed me with how much hatred it held.

"We're on the same team. We all get the points." I backed up towards the red light. Riven followed me with the dagger pointed at me.

"This isn't just about points, Thea. There's a bigger game being played here, and the only task is making sure you don't place in the top ten. Did you know that if you kill one of the top ten contestants, you get their points?"

"Who told you that? I doubt that's reality," I scoffed. It sounded like something Leer would have made up just to get others killed. "Why me? I haven't done anything."

He laughed maniacally as he stalked slowly towards me.

"You are a monster," he hissed. "The prophets" vision told us that, but can you imagine what would happen if you got your wish granted?"

"You don't know what my wish will even be," I snapped back.

He gave me a knowing smile. "You and all your disgusting friends will be freed."

My heart sank. How could he know where I came from or what I wanted with my wish? He was the second man to tell me I was the center of a prophet"s proclamation. What did this prophet say I was going to do? Both had called me a monster or evil. The part of me that knew I was dangerous worried that I was both evil and a monster.

"There is a whole group of men in this competition whose only purpose is to prevent you from getting that wish, Thea. Bonus points if we kill you."

"I don't even know who I am!" I said frantically. "Maybe the prophet you mentioned saw visions of another woman."

He shook his dagger at me as if to say no.

"The prophet named you specifically." He cocked his head to the side. "Deep down, you know you're a threat to everyone, so let me end this here. Then maybe these stupid trials can stop once and for all."

His words didn"t make any sense. "Why would the trials end if I died?"

"It must be so blissful to not remember what you did or who you are. You destroy everything you touch!" His eyes flashed with a burning hot rage. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes tightly as if trying to reign himself in.

"Riven, whatever the prophet said can be changed. If the prophet predicted I would do something bad, then I can choose to stop it, but I don't know what it said."

"None of us can ever trust you. You proved that the last time we gave you a chance and you used it to disappear with all your disgusting elitist friends."

With every small bit of information he told me the more confused I became. I was running out of time. He knew more about me than I did, and I had no argument against anything he was saying.

"Riven, I'm not evil."

"Liar!"

Nothing I said would change his mind about me. I lifted my hand up, but he saw my move coming and without moving a muscle his dagger staked my hand to the wall of the maze. A loud sob ricocheted around us as I turned to remove the dagger, but he used that moment to drive a different blade into my stomach. The dagger I had pulled from my hand fell to the ground as I slid down the maze wall.

My body was in shock, and I couldn't do anything for a few long moments. When I tried to take a deep breath, the blade cut deeper into me, forcing shallow breaths. I went to grab Sybil's healing amulet, but he stepped forward ripping it from my neck, and put it in his pocket.

Even though I didn"t need the amulet, I still couldn"t feel her healing magic. My eyes stared up into the blackness above us.

This was it. I was dying and so would everyone in Exile. Blood filled my lungs, making me cough it out. Cassius was going to see me die today.

The dagger in my stomach was sinking almost all the way through me. I couldn't even feel my fire magic trying to surface to try and help, which only increased my panic.

Wasn"t death supposed to be peaceful? This was a nightmare. Pain seeped into every part of my body as I sat against the maze wall bleeding out slowly.

"Looks like you'll fail this tournament just like you did in all the others. Let's hope you won't be back to try again."

He turned his head to the side at the sound of others moving in our direction before chuckling softly.

"I hope you have a painful death, Thea." Then, he set off towards the red light. Thankfully, Haden's team was the one coming around the corner.

"Thea?" Haden kneeled down. Conflicting emotions flickered across his face. "You guys go ahead. I'm going to stay with Thea," he demanded of his teammates. "I'll be right back. I'm going to find something to help move you to the stone so you'll be pulled." He turned and hurried around the corner. I didn't understand what I did to deserve this. Kace's small mouse-like form was headed straight for me. Kace was bloodied when he transformed back to his fae form.

"Thea, what happened?"

"Riven," I whispered. "You need to get to the red stone and win this."

"Can you heal yourself?" he asked. I shook my head no. He glanced at Haden's team closing in on the stone. "There"s no way I'd be able to outrun them or outfight them."

He was right, but I needed to get out of here and the only way that would happen was if we finished the maze. Dying in the dark hellhole was not an option. Kace looked defeated.

"Help me up," I demanded. I had a plan.

"You shouldn't move."

"I'm dying anyways, but, damn it I'm not dying in this fucking maze." He stared at me like I was crazy. "Shift. I'm going to throw you towards the stone. When you"re close, shift back and grab it. If you get to it first, we'll be pulled from the maze, and you won"t have to fight. Even if you don't get the stone, we'll be pulled because you made it to the end."

"Okay," Kace agreed as he shifted into my hand. He was small, but I didn't know how far I could get him to the stone.

"You got this Kace." It was the only encouragement he got before as I threw him as hard as I could. Pain sliced through me at the movement. His small body disappeared into the darkness once he left my hand. My eyes never strayed from the red stone, watching Haden's team closing in on it.

Please work, I whispered to the gods. Kace shifted into his fae form and knocked into Haden's teammate. The two knocked the stone over and both went after it.

I could only make out silhouettes of them, but I couldn't make sense of who was who. My eyes became hazy the longer I stood there. One of them lifted the stone into the air and a rush of dizziness passed over me as I was pulled into the bright light of the colosseum. My eyes focused on Haden's teammate who held the red stone.

We hadn't won.

But it didn't matter because I was dying. Riven was standing off to the side, but he made a beeline for me. Kace was close by him, bloodied.

"You couldn't just fucking die!" he hissed, his light skin turning a dark shade of red. "Well, good thing the trial isn't completed." He sneered as he grabbed another dagger. Before he could do anything, I pulled the one from my stomach and threw it at him. It embedded itself into his forearm, making his other dagger fall to the ground. It only pissed him off more.

I fell to my knees as the effects of losing too much blood took over. My eyes closed waiting for the final blow to kill me, but it never came. When I opened my eyes, Haden had just driven a blade through Riven's heart. I tried to rasp out a thank you, but I fell face first towards the ground. Something caught me before I hit it. My eyes fluttered open when I heard him yell.

"Thea!" Cassius' voice boomed so loudly in the colosseum that the ground shook. It was dead silent. Had everyone left? Cassius slid to his knees next to me as his shadows slowly lowered my head to his lap.

"Thea?" He sounded panicked and I should have felt it too, but I didn't feel anything at all. "Open your fucking eyes!" he demanded.

I cracked my eyes open slightly.

"It's alright," I murmured.

"Heal yourself, damn it."

"Riven took it." He looked at Riven's dead body and his shadow tendrils moved quickly to retrieve my amulet. It was in my hand a moment later, not that I needed it to use her magic. It already lived inside of me, but it didn't matter because there was nothing for me to use to fuel it.

"Heal yourself, Thea. Come on, I'm not losing you." His voice sounded so broken.

My body was so weak that I had nothing left to give. I couldn't even feel my fire magic. My head shook no as a slow agonizing darkness crept in.

"I'm dying," I whispered as silent tears trailed down my cheeks. "I can feel it coming."

"No." Cassius declared. "How do you use this healing amulet?" He grabbed my face and lifted my head so I could gaze at him. I turned my head so he could see my elite magic mark behind my ear.

"Any elite magic can power it?" he asked. My head wouldn"t move so I could answer him, but he was lifting me up and running.

"Move!" he yelled.

Then, everything went dark.