Chapter 22

Twenty-Two

Kili

I crouch behind the bush as the Tournament of Blood’s last winner approaches, his arrow already drawn back on the bow, ready to launch.

“I can see you, Kili,” Crow says, clearly annoyed, and I chuckle. “And I can hear you laughing.”

“I should hope so. Imagine the Champion letting little old me get the best of him,” I tease, before standing, and saluting the Elf.

“I need your help.” Crow gets right to the point as his face falls, and I pause. I was about to launch a snowball at him, but that’d be no fun if he’s just going to pout about my foolishness.

“With.” I lift my brow, searching his form for signs that he’s deceiving me somehow. He hasn’t asked me for help since I left…

He notices the change in me, which is the only thing that stops me from slitting his throat right then.

“Kili. You raised me. I know when you’re about to attack. You taught me how to attack. You are the reason I turn every corner with a knife in my hand, now can you please focus, and stop looking for reasons to fight? I promise you’ll do lots of fighting where we’re going.” He levels a glare my way, but I just smirk.

“Only you would notice a shift, baby brother,” I tease, and he rubs his forehead.

“Genevieve thinks this is a bad idea,” he admits, and I nod in agreement.

“Genevieve is usually right about these things,” I say. Even though I haven't spent a lot of time with our little sister, I do know her very well. Crow may have been the one to raise her, but I was always there to protect her. To protect them both.

“I think we both know I wouldn't have come to you if I had any other options.” His words make me flinch, but I can't blame him. I'm not exactly… reliable? Predictable? Capable of following directions I disagree with?

“I think we both know that even if you did have other options, I would still be the best, of the worst.” I look around and remain silent for a moment, listening to the sound of the wind blowing through the trees. There's no one around to hear us, but I'm still cautious. You never know when the Elven king might send out more spies. He wants our sister, and he knows he won't get her if my brother and I are still around. We’d skin him alive, consequences be damned.

“Will you help me?” This question offends me more than the statement previously made by him. I snap my head in his direction and glare at him. He shakes his head as if he’s the one who was just insulted, but doesn't say anything.

“What do you think? When have I ever denied you anything, brother?” I lift my head, chin up, and wait for his response.

“Never, Kili. But this is different. This is something I will more than likely regret asking you to help me with. Not just because of the circumstances, but because there's a chance you could be killed. A high likelihood of some kind of harm coming to you.”

“The chances that I will be killed doing just about anything increase with every passing moment. Which I think we both know. Makes no difference what I'm doing or where I am, so I might as well be where you are. Genevieve is older now, I'm not likely to influence her the way I once was. I think she's safe and capable of making her own decisions. Regardless of my presence.” Crow pauses, thinking of the implications of all that I've said.

“You're right. I never wanted you to leave to begin with. But I also knew that leaving was the best thing for you to do for yourself. Even if you did try to use Genevieve as the excuse.” I don't argue with him about that, what's done is done and there's nothing to be said about it anymore. Now there's just what we do next.

“Is this about the girl?” I ask, and Crow's eyes widen.

“How did you know about that? How did you know about Moon?” His eyes narrow on me, and I raise my eyebrows at him in return.

“Really? Think about it for a few more moments, go on, I'll give you a second.” Now his eyes widen far past the point that I think they should be capable. He looks like a bug. A dying bug. A shocked bug. Maybe a shocked, scared, and dying bug.

“No…” he whispers.

“Yes. I think it might surprise you to know that I've known longer than you’ve known, and now that you know I know you know, you know I know, we can get on with it.” Crow blinks rapidly and shakes his head, throwing his hands up.

“I don't know what the fuck you just tried to say.”

“I said, you know that I know, and I know that you know, now we know that I know that you know that I know that you know.” I pause because now I'm confused as well. “What were we even talking about?”

“Fuck’s sake, Kili.” Crow shakes his head, rubbing the bridge of his nose between his fingers and closing his eyes.

“Sorry, I just got a little confused there for a second and then forgot what you were doing here. Um, so, why are you here again?” I frown as I think about it, and remember he said something about Moon. “Ah, you need help with Moon.”

“She's in the Tournament of Blood, which normally wouldn't necessarily be such a big deal, but someone is trying to kill her. Actively. I thought perhaps someone forcing her to join was maybe a glitch, perhaps some kind of prank gone wrong.” He pauses, and I’m reminded of that cum bucket of an ex. Spencer. “But now I'm starting to think that perhaps her not-so-generous benefactor was in fact just trying to set up her death.”

“So, you wanna sneak into the Tournament, to do what exactly? To protect her? Or to get her out? Or to help her win? What's the goal here?”

“For now, Kili, my only goal is to keep her alive. Whatever it takes.”

“Typically when someone comes to me for help, it's to make someone unalive. Not to make sure someone stays alive.” I chuckle. The irony.

“I'm very well aware of that fact, brother.” Crow sighs, and I pat his blond head.

“I suppose you're in luck then. It's a good thing that you're my baby brother.”

“Yay me,” he grumbles, but I can see the smirk tugging his lips up, even if he’s trying to hide it.

“You know, I named you Crow because I thought you’d have black hair like your mother. You were born bald, so I was just guessing. By the time the blond started to show, it was too late. I was committed to the name. I was also unwilling to admit my mistake,” I tell him, and he nods.

“Well, you were nine, so.” He shrugs, but his mood has now soured. I’m confused as to what I did wrong now, but then it dawns on me.

“You were never a burden, nor was I ever regretful of our circumstances. I couldn’t very well allow father to raise you, could I? Nine years was a long time alone with those people. The day you were deposited into my arms was a very bright day, indeed,” I tell him, ruffling his hair, and he swats at me as we both laugh.

“I owe you,” he whispers, and I shake my head.

“You’re my brother, and I would choose the same fate given the choice a hundred times over. You were the only goodness in my childhood. The only good thing in that home before Evie,” I tell him with a firm nod.

“You never would have been forced to kill them if not–”

“I always would have killed them, Crow. Always.” And then I made Crow the kind of man deserving of the love Moon will give him.

The kind of man I can never be.

Moon

I attempt to scream against the gloved hand wrapped around my mouth. I'm about to start attacking when the man behind me bites my ear. This is apparently the reset button for my brain because I go limp and immediately stop fighting.

“Right now, they don't know where you've gone. They can't see you, but if you make too much noise, they will hear you,” the man behind me whispers. “I'm gonna let you go now, Moon, but you have to stay pressed close to me.” His voice drops lower as he says, “Don't you recognize my voice?” Those words make me frown, and I tilt my head to the side, attempting to look at the man who's behind me.

When I see that it's Fenrick who's restrained me, I roll my eyes and glare at him. “Mmmhmmmhmm,” I try to say against his hand, but of course, it's entirely muffled and makes no sense at all. When he finally releases me, I try again. “I said, you couldn't have just led with ‘It's me, Fenrick, don't freak out.’”

The frustrating man shrugs and looks away. “I thought you'd recognize my voice.” His words are hushed, but I can still hear the hurt in them. He also pouts. My shoulders sag partially with relief and partially with guilt. I’m not being murdered, but I feel bad that I thought he was the bad guy.

“Well, I was being chased by Goblins, and there was nothing but chaos around me, and I'm pretty sure there's a man in this arena attempting to actively kill me. So, when you snatched my face out of thin air, my immediate reaction was to assume that you were attempting to also kill me. Sorry, I didn't take the time to listen to your fucking voice.” I'm facing him now, looking up into his blue eyes. I prefer when they’re blue, over the black. He smirks, and I smile back. I wrap my arms around his neck and lean into him, giving him a tight hug. “It's good to see you in one piece, I'm glad that you weren't harmed between the last time I saw you and now. Hopefully, we both survive this freaking insane trial.”

“We will. I was just waiting for Sweet Girl to get here.” The Fae Prince nods behind me, and I turn just in time to see a charging Mungus. Sweet Girl is headed straight for us, and even though she can't see me, I'm guessing she can smell me. As soon as she's just a couple of steps away from me, I move away from Fenrick, so I can greet Sweet Girl. She seems entirely uninterested in my greeting though because she lowers her head, boops me with it, and then lowers the front of her body in a way that makes me think maybe she's trying to convince me to climb on her back. Fenrick confirms this when he steps up behind me, giving me a push toward her.

“Climb up there. I'm not entirely sure how this will fair rules wise, but I suppose if the Mungus is allowing it, no one can really stop her.” Fenrick helps me up, and I settle myself, hoping, like fuck, that I don’t fall off.

“I think those Goblins are still coming for me, Sweet Girl, maybe we should get a move on. I don't want them hurting you.” I pat her back looking around the arena, and sure enough, there are the fucking Goblins. To my complete shock-horror-surprise, all of it, instead of running away from the Goblins, Sweet Girl runs straight at the motherfuckers.

The chirping grunt sound she makes reminds me of a cockatiel, but also kind of reminds me of a monkey. Mungus already look quite strange, and when she makes that noise, it really creeps me the fuck out. I'm not gonna tell her that, though.

I brace myself because it really doesn't seem like she's about to turn around, and as we head straight for the Goblins, the strangest thing happens. Sweet Girl doubles in size under me, scaring the absolute fucking shit out of me. Again metaphorically because I do have control over my bowels. Her skin becomes tougher, and as we charge at the Goblins they seem to realize that they are in deep shit, because they all turn and start running in the opposite direction. But Sweet Girl does not seem deterred.

I have to hold in my sounds of celebration as she tramples a stampede of Goblins. There are so many of them, that I originally thought they were going to trample me to death. But as Sweet Girl stomps their bodies like broken eggshells, I cringe.

Yes, Goblins are corrupt and typically pretty fucking evil, and you can hire them for very cheap to do the most fucked up things, but the sound that they make when she squishes them under her feet will haunt me until the day I die. Or at least for the next few days.

There's still chaos raging in the arena, as other contestants fight to stay in the Games, but as I look around, I see the Goblins disappearing, and the cloaked man is nowhere to be seen. I leaned forward and wrapped my arms across the top of Sweet Girl and squeeze her the best I can. I pet her and praise her for being such a good girl. The way she preens under my attention sort of fills this little hole in my heart that I didn't know needed to be filled.

“Those cock buckets really wanted to attack and murder me, and if you hadn't been here, I don't really know what would have happened,” I tell Sweet Girl, and she shakes her head, her ears flicking with agitation as she huffs hot air out of her nose. As some of the chaos subsides, I turn and find Arlo running straight for us. Sweet Girl is immediately on edge. But I pat her back. “It's okay, I think that guy is one of my Heart Bonded.” I'm not really sure why I said that. I think because I am 100% certain that he is one of my Heart Bonded, but I'm pretty sure there are a few more of them out there as well.

I don't know what the fuck's going on, and I don't even know what the fuck I am anymore. Would be a lot easier if I could just ask my mom. Or maybe my dad. But every time I think of Steve, a shiver travels down my spine. That's been happening since I took the necklace off at the beginning of the Games, and at first, I thought nothing of it. But here we are a few days later, and it keeps happening. That can't be a coincidence, can it?

Just before Arlo can reach us, the gong sounds, signaling the end of the fourth trial. Immediately, every beast of the Elven realm who was partaking in battle stops, turns around, and walks away. It's bizarre to see something that was attempting to maim you, walk away as if it never even had beef with you in the first place.