Around me, there were sixteen other identical poles. They were spread out in a circular pattern within the enormous crater. Standing on every platform was a person.
“Lex!” Sophie shouted. She stood there with huge eyes, her back pressed against the pole of her platform. Something heavy sank to the bottom of my gut. If Sophie was here then…
“Cassie!” I screamed. A terrified whimper was my answer. I turned around on my hands and knees and found her a couple of platforms away. She was sitting with her back against the pole like Sophie. Her head was braced between her knees.
The lava roared below us. A gong sounded. Above me, an orb appeared on the tip of the pole. It glowed a metallic grey synonymous with the power of an undead magic user.
Nooo. It couldn’t be.
Movement on the beach drew my attention. The other contestants came into view along the ridge of trees that led to the foreshore. Each of them had an amulet around their necks. The colours of their amulets corresponded to the orb on each pole. My eyes ran along the beach until I hit on an amulet with my corresponding colour. Andrei waved at me. The grey amulet around his neck amplified the sickly pallor of his skin. This just wasn’t happening.
I made a rude gesture at him. His grin widened.
“Contestants,” Angus’s disembodied voice rang out. “You deemed these individuals to be the most important to you. Go and get them.”
This was someone’s idea of a sick joke. Andrei didn’t care about me. Then again, his one mission in life was to piss Kai off. He’d done this on purpose.
The gong sounded again. Every single one of them started running towards us.
44
Andrei weaved between the other contestants. They were all halfway down the beach when the first land mine went off. It catapulted the mage who stepped on it five metres into the air. I heard a shrill scream around me from a middle-aged woman. She was probably the mage’s mother.
I sucked in a breath as the mage landed. Thankfully, the elite guards weren’t homicidal. The mage lay still for a few seconds before his body dissolved. He reappeared at the top of the beach where they had all started. All the contestants came to a screeching halt. The beach was booby-trapped. If they hit a mine they’d be back where they started. Getting to us was going to be a problem.
All of that was pushed to the side as a golden arrow sailed through the air in front of my face. It smacked into the pole of the person to my right.
Shouts peppered the air along with the telltale whoosh of more arrows.
Somebody on the beach roared. I didn’t have time to see what had set Max off because the arrows were coming in thick and fast. Explosions went off on the beach.
I flattened myself to the platform and covered my head. That was all well and good except it would still make me a target. An arrow smacked into the pole just above my head. The thing was longer than my leg. It went clear through to the other side of the pole.
Son of a bitch! I scrambled around only to be assaulted with another arrow right where my foot had been. People screamed. I was well aware that if I was hit, it would be a slow and painful death by bleeding out or falling into the lava below. The steam from the crash of lava and water made the platforms difficult to cling to.
Surely this was just a ruse. Almost as though they were testing my theory, a soul-shattering cry pierced my ears. I rolled to the left and found the owner. She was a girl about my age. Her long straight black hair swayed against the breeze. Her face had gone whiter than a ghost. She clutched at her abdomen where a red bloom had appeared around the shaft of a golden arrow. Blood trickled over her lips. Mother of God!
They weren’t playing around.
I crouched to my knees and closed my eyes. There were more explosions on the beach. My eyes snapped open and locked onto Andrei. He stood rigid with sand coating his entire body. So he was one of the idiots who had been exploded. He still had his arms and legs, though, so that was something.
Despite my better judgement, I scanned the beach until I found Kai. Irritation made my jaw clamp. He was at the top of the beach. Chanelle lingered behind him. She tried to sidestep but he flung his arm out and stopped her. His face was etched in lines of contemplation. All around him, the other contestants were in various states of disarray. An arrow grazed my cheek. I squealed and made myself a pancake once more.
Sophie yelped. What scared me was that Cassie was deadly quiet. I peeled open my eyes and saw that her pole was littered with arrows. She scrambled on her hands and knees.
Sophie tried to draw a circle, but nothing was happening. It was no wonder none of the Fae or Nephilim on the platforms had flown away. They were serious when they said no powers.
I dropped into the Ley dimension. A blur of gold light spun past the left side of my head. I veered to the right. “Cassie! Down!”
She ducked the arrow that would have bit into her shoulder. A body thudded onto my platform. I saw it as a ball of light green in my Ley sight. The flaring of colour was a warning. I swayed out of the grip of the Fae girl and smashed my elbow into her gut. She doubled over just as another streak of gold hurtled towards us. I pushed her out
