Vengeance (The Prince's Games Book 1) Rebecca Grey (first e reader txt) 📖

throbs the more I fiddle with the rough rope. I tie a knot I know won't slip on its own accord and toss the rope down into the hole. As it falls, a tightness in my chest loosens with it.

I don't stay to see if they use the rope. Nor do I hang around to watch them reach the top. I've done all I can or am willing to do. Every step I take away from the pit, toward Hedda who waits, toward the Elf whose back is turned to me as he limps down the hall to the Safe Haven, the murmurs of the crowd follow.

Their gazes searing across my skin give me life. I turn toward the thrones. King Caspar and Queen Aradel sit stone faced and stiffer than someone with a metal pole up their ass. Opening both my arms out to my side, I bow low. A mocking curtsey.

"You haven't killed me yet!" I shout. "How much money have you lost on my life?" Pressing my fingers to my lips, I blow him a kiss that ends in my middle finger pointed toward the crown. I'm the queen now, fuckers. I rule your emotions. I'm taking over all of your thoughts.

Grubby green fingers tighten against my wrist. Hedda snatches my gestures right out of the air with some mixture of a laugh and a snarl at the same time. I shuffle through the dirt following behind her.

"Am I putting on a show for you now?" I point my free finger at the king, dragging it out to point a finger at the crowd. They'll really be entertained when I perform the greatest act of my life and kill the king.

A shadow falls over us as we reach the tunnel out of the arena. But before I lose sight of King Caspar, his lips twitch into a smile.

#1 TEAM MARCRUX:

Thomos - Male, Orc

Lachlan - Male, Elf

India - Female, Elf

Rafferty - Male, Dwarf

Costello - Male, Orc

Danisha – Female, Dryad

#2 TEAM RIVERIA:

Lux - Female, Elf

Alastar - Male, Darf

Amory - Female, Orc

Credence - Male, Elf

Rumi - Female, Orc

Bullie – Female Vampire

 

#3 TEAM ASHFORD:

Mavi – Male, Elf

Davison – Male, Human - DECEASED

Rake – Male, Saytr

Calik – Male, Vampire

Dakota – Male, Werewolf

Jefferson – Male, Elf

#4 TEAM WINDSOR:

Nilsa – Female, Human

Juilliard – Male, Elf

Marcello – Male, Elf

Finnegan - Male, Vampire

Sloane – Female, Vampire

Hedda - Female, Orc

#5 TEAM CUTTINGTON:

Bekke – Female, Elf

Isla – Female, Vampire

Orchid – Female, Vampire

Winona – Female, Dryad

Noor – Female, Werewolf - DECEASED

Washington – Male, Faun

 

In the blinding lights of the Safe Haven, I still don't feel safe. The entire warehouse sized room is quiet except for the babble of the running river. Hedda drops my hand the moment we're in.

We're the first team in, and maybe it's only because we had been the first team to fail the dart toss none of us were ever meant to win. The true challenge, the real event, had been to fall, survive, and escape the black pit of mud. A trial made for my own very particular skill set.

My feet move even without me thinking where exactly I'm going. I float from tent to tent, feeling lighter than I had before we went into that arena today. I only blink when I'm stopped standing outside the large white medical tent listening to Juilliard’s string of curses.

"Don't just stand outside the tent, Nilsa." Sloane calls. "I can smell you out there. Come in here and help Marcello while I get Juilliard set."

My body jolts at her words, my mind far away, lost in thoughts of murder and salvation. The edges of the tent's entrance are stained with bloody handprints and dirt. My fingers do it no favors with the collection of mud under my fingernails. I pull the flap away and step inside.

Marcello lays across a cot with a large towel pressed against his leg. Crimson soaks through the material. I'm moving, silently, quickly, knowing Marcello's half hooded eyes stay on my skin. Shouldn't he be watching his friend writhing in pain? Maybe that's too much for him. Maybe I'm just the distraction.

I'd rather be the distraction. Holding his attention for a moment, knowing that I won't be his focus for too long quiets the half of me that still hates him.

Juilliard holds two long planks of wood against his leg. Sloane had moved quickly, the broken skin already pulled tightly back together with stitches. I'll have to revisit mine after today's fall. The Vampire wraps the wood tightly to his leg.

The mattress of the cot dips as I sit on its edge. Marcello narrows his attention on the supplies in my hand.

"You're going to put stitches in me?"

"I've stitched myself up a time or two. Plus, I know the discomfort you're about to feel and the thought that I'll get to be the cause of it is too enticing to pass up," I say it softly.

"Are you going to undress me too?" His forehead wrinkles, amusement settling in his features.

"Stop," Juilliard groans, doubling forward to glare at us. "I'm in enough pain, I don't need to listen to the two of you flirt while you pretend like you hate each other."

"I don't hate Nilsa." Marcello smiles at his friend.

"She hates you," Juilliard says, falling back onto his back. Sloane snorts at his side, finishing up the wrapping. "We're in the middle of the deadliest event in The Oasis and neither of you are taking this seriously."

Marcello blinks. "I am too."

My spine stiffens. Maybe I'm a little offended too. "Are you kidding me? I took this seriously when I climbed six fucking stories worth of mud