Three Trials Page 3

  “They will be. They’ll be the trick to life or death, clearly,” Jude says, gesturing at the beetle under us, and looking at me like I’m an idiot.

  “In that case, I really hope you’re all old enough to be wise and not just paranoid, so we can see the riddles before it’s too late next time,” I tell him, a fuck-you grin on my face.

  Ezekiel laughs as he lies down, putting his side against mine as he untucks his dress shirt. Fortunately, I feel no overwhelming urge to go whole.

  I’m getting better at this.

  Gage loses the same unnecessary items, but he also strips off his dress shirt as well, leaving the white tank underneath to outline his very hard and distracting body.

  “What’s Hera’s way of delivering gifts?” I ask them, since there’s nothing else to do but chat.

  “She takes something from you before she gives you something in return,” Kai answers from somewhere. “You have no say in what she takes.”

  “Lovely. Let’s hope she doesn’t help out, because I don’t think I’d like what she’d want from you.”

  “That’s more Cain’s style. It’s why he doesn’t help us. He prefers to be given something in exchange for his help, and it’s usually on the sexual favor side. Have you ever seen us with men?” Gage points out.

  “The twins?” I muse.

  “A fucked up version of yin and yang with their own twist,” Ezekiel answers. “They could hurt you or allow you to fuck them. It depends on what course of action they used the last time. You’re always gambling with agonizing pain or possible pleasure when you deal with them.”

  “They have no sexual preference, but again, we do,” Kai points out. “Which is why Lilith and Hera are the ones to approach us.”

  “So Hera has approached you?” I ask, trying not to sound as worried as I feel for whatever reason.

  “She tried at the beginning of the first trial. Lilith intercepted her,” Jude states, staring in front of us like he’s searching for an end to come into sight.

  “What about Manella?” I ask when it grows quiet.

  “No clue. I’ve never heard anyone speak about him ever aiding anyone before,” Gage says with a shrug.

  “I know you’re all probably not tired, but now would be a good time to take a nap. This lake is big, and at the speed we’re going, we’re going to be riding for a while. I’ll take guard duty,” I tell them.

  Kai loses the shirts completely, going bare chest as he flops down. I idly wonder how all four decided combat boots were acceptable footwear for a tux.

  “Must you touch her every time you sleep? You have a tendency to form habits, Mr. Nipples,” Jude says dryly, his eyes on Ezekiel.

  “I only get any actual rest next to her, so if I’m going to nap when I’m not really tired, then it’s going to be one hell of a power nap to last me,” Ezekiel answers unapologetically.

  “Point one for the evil pussy,” I say tauntingly to Jude, holding up my index finger on one hand and an O with the other to signify the score.

  Jude looks like he’s trying not to smile, which pisses him off even more, apparently, since he mimes the motion of strangling me before turning around and calling me a few uncharitable, yet very creative, names.

  I give him the bird. It’s not creative, but it is my favorite sign.

  “He’s only mad because he hates me as much as he likes me, and since he doesn’t want to like me, he tries to hate me a little more,” I say as Kai stretches out beside me, his body brushing through mine.

  Gage and Jude sit across from me like it’s a standoff, and they eye Kai like he’s a new traitor to their cause.

  I hold up two fingers while mouthing the new score.

  They both glare at me.

  It’s adorable, really. At least in this form. I’d find it less adorable and more terrifying if I could physically feel the true power of a racing heartbeat.

  Kai just smirks, even as he keeps his eyes closed. Like he knows the silent exchange going on without seeing it. Ezekiel is already asleep, breathing evenly as his face remains relaxed.

  Gage stares a little longingly, as though he’s jealous of the obvious peace on Ezekiel’s usually tortured sleep-face.

  He blinks and looks away, his jaw set as he stares out over the lake. Jude continues to burn a hole through me with his glare.

  “I’m all of your types, really, minus the preference in hair color. I had no control over that. It was there when I got here. But all your wants, desires, needs, debaucheries of choice…everything. I’m molded to your specifications, because the only thing in the world I knew was all of you. I learned what you liked, and it became a part of me. It shaped me as the person I am now, because I was learning who the hell I was then. Blame yourselves for all the things you don’t like.”

  A sleepy rumble of laughter slides out of Kai as his body begins to relax.

  “Kai loves the chase and is always desperate to make someone who hates him suddenly crave him,” I say with a shoulder shrug. “He wants to infect them with his heady spell that he can weave when he really wants to.”

  Another sleepy laugh is the response to that.

  “Ezekiel is the most desperate for peace, as though his nightmares are twice as stained as all of yours. Not sure how I did that. I expected his favorite part to be the fact I really want my nipples adored.”

  Jude arches an eyebrow at me.

  “It’s true,” I go on unapologetically. “Gage wants a puzzle he can’t unravel so easily. He wants to be surprised, and he’s tired of all the predictable variables. He’s starving for a challenge. He’ll admit it if you ask him how much he’s actually enjoying the fact he doesn’t know if he’ll die or live at the end of these trials.”

  Gage’s jaw grinds, but he smirks even as he radiates anger.

  Jude looks over at him then at me. “This is why you’re so dangerous, comoara trădătoare. Giving us exactly what we’ve all always dreamed of, along with a chance to strengthen ourselves? When something feels too good, there’s always a really fucking nasty tail you don’t see coming until it’s too late.”

  He turns around, putting his back to me before lying down. His eyes are closed and he is purposely staying inches away from me, not touching me.

  “I’ve already told you my tail in lace is the prettiest thing you’ll ever see,” I deadpan.

  He makes a sound of frustration, but I’m apparently going to get the last word.

  I’m a little curious just how beautiful Hera must have been as Helen of Troy to have inspired a war between two nations, when I couldn’t even get one man to crumble before me.

  It, of course, makes me envious. Sigh. I’m still blaming Lilith for that.

  “Ezekiel was my first kiss,” I decide to say, looking down to see Kai sleeping peacefully. “Kai was my first orgasm giver,” I go on.

  Jude’s jaw tics, as Gage grunts and curses. I grin.

  “Don’t worry, he just used his fingers. He didn’t give it up to the nefarious vagina. My point is, it seems I’m going to be running low on firsts pretty soon, at the rate I’m going. You boys better not come crying to me when you missed all the firsts for being completely unreasonable pricks.”

  Gage does the same petty thing, refusing good sleep offered by the evil vagina holder for no cost of admission.

  They both ignore me, because they don’t really like arguing as much as I do. I could quite literally point logic out to them all day.

  Surrounded by the four guys who easily close their eyes in my presence, willing to put their life in my hands, yet completely unwilling to stubbornly admit they trust me, I stare out over the fiery lake.

  It’s actually sort of pretty once you get over the dangerous part of it. Also, as long as you don’t mind the occasional bird-snake carcass floating by you, or the living ones casting their ominous shadow over you from the red sky.

  I take it back. It’s not pretty. I’m really just trying too hard to make this not as doom-and-gloom as we know it is.r />
  With all of them quiet, not bickering or bantering with me as a distraction, the reality of our situation sinks in, and it grows heavy pretty quickly.

  I can’t see land on any side now. The crackle of the lake and spitting fire that hisses when it shoots too high don’t exactly give off a comforting melody.

  I’m so alert that it’s a good thing they can’t feel me jostling around to inspect each sound or smell.

  Gage suddenly moves into my knee with just the very tips of his fingers, not making a sound or looking at me.

  Jude’s eyes are open, staring at me before dropping his gaze to the fingers Gage leaves there, his body relaxing as the tingles soothe him. At least I assume it’s the tingles.

  Jude’s eyes narrow in challenge, as though we’re in a war and this is a pivotal battle.

  Obviously, I mouth the word, “Three,” before holding up just as many fingers and waggling my eyebrows at him.

  It’s clearly the most mature course of action.

  He doesn’t find it quite as amusing as I do.

  “That’s twice you’ve called me comoara trădătoare. What does it mean?” I ask him.

  He holds my gaze for so long that I think he’s not going to answer.

  Just as he closes his eyes, I hear the words that are almost whispered.

  “Treacherous treasure.”

  Chapter 4

  “I swear, I never want to see another fucking beetle for as long as I live,” I mutter under my breath.

  Which might be as long as an hour from now for all I know.

  We’ve been stuck on top of this foul-smelling thing for over ten hours now. At least. Possibly even longer. Just floating on the fire. If my ass was capable of feeling anything in this form, it’d still be numb.

  Bright side, three out of four guys just got a lot of proactive rest before day two starts out the same way day one ended.

  Jude is the only one awake. He never really slept as deeply as the other three, and I’m fairly sure he resents the hell out of all of them for sleeping as well as they have. And he resents me for my wicked vagina voodoo.

  My milkshake brings all the boys to naptime…Yeah, that’s not how that song goes. The song is a lot sexier, but beggars can’t be choosers.

  They’re a tough crowd, so I take the small wins that come along.

  “Fucking finally,” Jude says, causing my attention to lift.

  I spot gray land with nothing but a shadow behind it, almost as though there’s a second picture out of frame, and for a second I’m relieved, until I see a girl and guy lifting bows and launching arrows.

  “Get the hell up!” Jude shouts as I leap to my feet.

  Before I can even react, he flips into the air, snatching both speeding arrows, and lands in a crouch back on the beetle.

  He casually tosses an arrow to Ezekiel as he lands at his side, and the two of them throw the arrows so hard they zip through the air in a blur of speed.

  Both archers drop to the ground, the arrows sticking out of their throats as their bodies convulse.

  “They could have just went on instead of mistaking you to be vulnerable on the back of a beetle, and they’d have survived,” I state, as though they need a reminder of the obvious.

  “Depending on their ability to heal, they may still survive if we leave them,” Jude tells me.

  They’d better stay dead.

  “Does that mean you’re going to do your five-finger-death-punch to ensure they don’t chase us down and try to kill you again?” I muse.

  He gives me an annoyed look.

  “Did you really just do that?” he asks incredulously.

  “What? Use your favorite band to name your Hulk Smash and Decay power? Yes, yes I did,” I say very seriously, holding his gaze like there’s a challenge to see who holds it the longest.

  He breaks our stare-down first, and Kai smirks, even though he seems distracted.

  “Well. That’s certainly problematic,” I announce in a huff when I see what has their attention.

  The closer we get, the louder the telltale sign is, making us view the optical illusion differently. It’s not one stretch of lake we’re seeing anymore. There’s a massive drop below before it levels out, and we’re actually seeing two levels of fire now.

  The newest issue is a massive, fiery waterfall that we’re fast approaching, and there’s roughly a hundred foot gap from the start of the firefall to the land across from us.

  Hell really sucks.

  “How far can you guys jump? Because that’s a little difficult for me even in this form,” I say warily, my heart starting to hammer now.

  Gage looks around like he’s searching for something, as Ezekiel answers me.

  “We can’t make that jump.”

  No land is on either side of us, not giving us any other option, since we’re surrounded by hellfire lava. And this firefall? It’s five times the size of Niagara Falls in width.

  The fall isn’t that steep—maybe fifty feet—but there’s no way the beetle won’t submerge with all that weight, even if they manage to all stay on it during the fall. They’ll never survive the hellfire burns.

  And the Devil wins.

  “Now would be a good time to figure out the riddle early,” I tell them, frantically waving my arms as though that will spur them into brilliance.

  “How do you cross an uncrossable passage layered with flames of fucking death without falling or jumping into the fire, when there’s no obvious escape around you?” Jude asks on an annoyed breath.

  “I hate that riddle,” I point out, not coming up with my own genius idea this time.

  “Jude and I can throw the farthest,” Gage says, cracking his neck to the side. “And we can jump farther as well.”

  “Obviously that’s Plan Z. What’s Plan A through Y?” I reasonably ask, knowing he can’t possibly be suggesting that as anything other than a last resort.

  They ignore me, and I ignore the firefall’s edge that we’re getting closer and closer to. Okay, so maybe I don’t really ignore it at all. It actually has most of my attention.

  This is so not the time for this bug to be speeding up. In fact, this is the worst possible time for it to finally feel like it’s motoring along.

  When they continue to stare at each other like they’re calculating the probability for survival and considering this ridiculous plan as their true course of action, I throw my hands up.

  “That can’t possibly be the right answer to the riddle,” I shout at them.

  Remember what I said about the drop being fifty feet? I was very much off on that calculation.

  The closer we draw, the more I realize my depth perception has been masterfully deceived.

  That drop now seems endless before it levels back out again.

  Damn that Devil and his illusions.

  I don’t find myself any fonder of plummeting from a firefall than plummeting from a mountainside. And I close my eyes, because if I can’t see it, then it doesn’t exist.

  I can also ignore the roar of the falls that only seems to add to the drama of the dire situation.

  “I don’t see any other option,” Kai says like he’s frustrated and furious. “You’d better damn throw me harder than anything you’ve ever thrown in your life,” he tells someone. “Because I’m up first.”

  My eyes fly open as I gape at them, but I don’t yell anything because I sure as shit don’t want to distract them when Gage is already winding Kai up, spinning him out like a father would a daredevil child for giggles.

  I’m not seeing why those masochist children find this amusing right now, because my stomach is in my throat, terrified a hand is going to slip and Kai will be skipped across the deadly surface.

  Just the image and fear of this has me convinced children are sociopaths. It’s always the ones you least suspect.

  About ten feet from the edge, he launches Kai, and Kai sails over the massive divide.

  I watch with my mouth hanging open, even as Jude starts
winding up Ezekiel, preparing him for the same thing. My heart is divided in halves, watching as Kai sails and Ezekiel is being wound up to do the same.

  Kai lands with a crash on the other side, bouncing so hard and rolling out of sight.

  Before I can shout for him, my words are stolen as I stand frozen and watch Ezekiel sailing faster across the same distance.

  My eyes are bouncing everywhere when Jude and Gage dart to the back of the beetle and get into a launch position as they stare straight ahead.

  I glance over as Ezekiel lands just as harshly, rolling into the shadowed land hidden from us amongst the fiery lake that is coming to an abrupt end.

  Just as the tip of the beetle starts over the edge of the firefall, I turn in time to see Gage and Jude rushing by me, grit and determination shading their eyes as they pass through me in a blur.

  I whirl around with them as they pass, watching as it all seems to happen in slow motion. They run to the last tip of the beetle they can reach before they leap as hard as they possibly can.

  For an agonizing tenish seconds, I have repetitive heart attacks.

  Jude barely makes it across, and he immediately rolls back up to his feet so he can turn in time to see Gage’s fingertips just barely graze the ledge a fraction of a second too late and centimeters too short.

  Gage’s eyes widen as he falls to his back, reaching for the hands that make it another fraction of a second too late to grab onto him. Resignation is painfully immediate in his eyes, and his hard gaze turns cold as he falls helplessly toward the lake. My heart lurches as I leap over the edge, diving for him, zapping myself closer to make up ground.

  Our fingertips just barely touch, and I turn whole, grabbing onto him as that light bursts from me again.

  No magnificent strength saves us as I scream as loud as I can, begging for a miracle of some sort to stop this from happening. I stay whole, knowing those flames won’t simply pass right through me like this.

  But I don’t care. I refuse to let him die alone, even as I scream and feel the tears rushing up the sides of my eyes.

  A vine slaps against us, and I try to snatch it, having no idea where it came from. Seconds later, a body barrels by me, and Ezekiel turns upside down, reaching out with one hand and grabbing Gage by the wrist.