One of them jumped to her feet and called Silas’s name.He turned and she smiled, waving to him.She was so beautiful, it was as if the sun shone from her.My stomach knotted.It was her, the female who’d once been his intended.I didn’t need him to tell me.I instantly knew.My hand went to the handle of my axe all on its own when he lifted a hand acknowledging her as well.
“They’re the fucking enemy, Silas.Or have you forgotten?”I bit out.
He said nothing, just took his place beside me, facing off with Nathaniel and Eloa.We were supposed to fight as a team, and now he wouldn’t even talk to me, let alone look at me after what I’d said to him.Like he was actually hurt.Like he’d been telling me the truth.But how?
Why had I said anything?Way to fuck everything up, Ursula.I glanced up at him and something had changed.He looked almost unrecognizable.The control he always carried around like armor was gone.Obliterated.
No one cold or emotionless could look like that, could they?
The doubt inside me deepened.
I touched this arm.“Silas?”
Lightning flashed, forking from the sky and singeing the ground in the center of the arena.Felditch appeared, shooting down the lightning and landing in his superhero pose.He was even wearing red and blue today.He was a clash of colors in his glittering jumpsuit and cape with his orange hair flowing around his face like dancing flames in the sunlight.
He shot to his feet, lifting his hands, encouraging the crowd’s excitement, hyping them up for several minutes, then finally slashed his hands downward, asking them to quiet.“We have two events for you today,” he called, his voice echoing around the arena as if he were wearing a microphone.“For the first, a penalty must be paid.”The leaderboard flashed up, huge and high above the crowd, showing our scores, and that the angels were ahead, thanks to last night’s game of truth.“Team Hell will be taking on a creature with a craving for immortal blood!”The cheers rose again.
Motherfucker.I was about fucking done with this asshole’s monster collection trying to take a bite out of me.
“And the second event?If our losers survive, what better way to finish this than a fight to the death!”
This time when everyone cheered, I noticed the knights, Lucifer and my sisters, weren’t.They had no idea that they could potentially be forced to watch me and Silas die today, and it was a definite possibility with Silas refusing to actually kill anyone.
“Of course, there is also the cowardly option of surrender,” he added.
The randoms in the crowd booed, letting us know they’d rather see us slaughtered.
“Hell, are you ready!”
Silas nodded, and so did I.
Felditch flashed his maniacal grin, then slowly lifted his arms.As he did, a thick stone wall rose from the ground between us and the angels, separating the arena in two with a tall, thick wall, and simultaneously giving us less room to get away from whatever he was about to unleash.
The tunnel we’d just walked through now had an iron gate concealing whatever was behind it.
“Whatever comes at us, we need to take the offensive,” I said.“We go after it, over and over again, until we exhaust it.”
Silas nodded.“If it can bleed, we need to make sure it loses as much blood as possible.”
At least he was talking now.I shook out my hands and pulled my axe free, while Silas rolled his shoulders, laser focused on whatever the hell was behind that gate.
“Ready?”he said to me.
“As I’ll ever be.”
Seventeen
Ursula
Chains rattledas the steel gate juddered into action and was slowly raised.When it was a quarter of the way up, something smashed into it, impatient to get out.
“Fuck.”I gripped my axe tighter.
“Everything has its weakness.We just have to work out what it is,” Silas said.
I braced as the thick iron that was keeping the monster contained climbed higher.
With a roar, a huge head shoved through, thrashing against the gate that wasn’t wide enough yet.Silas swung his sword, warming up, a grim expression on his face.The creature shrieked and hissed and slammed against the gate, trying to break through, desperate to take a bite out of us.