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

to one of the chains behind the beast without waiting for me to confirm the proposal. I hardly even hear the plan he presents around the shrieks coming from every direction. He pulls the chain. Hard. The Criosphinx stumbles to the side becoming aware of Marcello's presence, jerking me along with it.

The moment its snapping jaws are no longer focused on me and its head is zeroed in on Marcello, no longer thrashing, I let go of its horns. My body arches around the curve of its spine until my feet hit the floor. I don't wait for it to realize what I've done before I'm sprinting toward my team.

Hedda's eyes go wide and she holds out her hands, waving me forward. "Move faster!!" she yells.

I will my legs to stretch farther, to complete every rotation of my steps quicker. I'm already moving as fast as my body can go. Hot breath fans against the back of my neck, a long line of drool dripping down the back of my shirt.

Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit.

I'm only a hair’s length away before I know the chains will hold. Juilliard is gaping, his mouth opening and closing while he watches my life flash before his eyes. I push off the ground, lunging forward. A current of wind rushes by my feet. Gnashing fangs missing my toes by mere centimeters. Hedda hooks her arms under mine and pulls me back.

"Marcello!" I call. "I thought you were going to distract the damn thing."

"I tried!" He balances his hands on his hips watching the beast as it watches us. "Most of the other teams either sacrificed a team member or killed the thing. We're all in one piece. It's fine. This is fine." He repeats the last part, most likely trying to convince himself.

Brushing the dirt that clings to me off, Hedda helps me to stand. "Humans move like Orcs. With rocks in our feet." At least she is learning something about the dying Human race, even if it is just that we don't run as fast as most of the Immortal bloodlines.

With the monster at our back, my gaze bounces from one face to the other. Mildly dirty or a tad bit scuffed, but otherwise everyone is fine. The blood that's splattered over us is Davison's, and already dried. It takes a minute, while air pillages my chest, before I notice the swirl of movement and the hissing I've mistaken for the crowd.

Green serpents slip and slither over each other's bodies. Their pointed faces poke out for a heartbeat before another's body buries them in the pile. The walls. The fucking walls are made of snakes. The warning was laced in the announcer’s words, the serpentine maze.

I hadn't thought about it then. I had been more worried about dealing with the Criosphinx with my bare hands and that Marcello had used my name for the entire team. Just like the monster at the entrance, the snakes reach for us, their fangs revealed in a long hiss before their jaws clamp down hard. I imagine my arm there, between its sharp teeth, and wonder if they are poisonous. Of course they are. This game is made to inflict death.

A loud groan drags my attention away from the crawling walls. The Criosphinx pulls at the chains. Another long groan. He growls, but the noise isn't coming from behind his bared teeth. The sound comes from the metal anchored into the ground.

Dirt starts to lift around the bolts the beast is chained to. The metal links start to stretch. I shuffle backward, moving in unison with the rest of my team.

"That's not good," Juilliard whispers.

"I thought you were supposed to be a genius. It doesn't take a genius to figure that out," I say.

Sloane and Finnegan stay shoulder to shoulder, even as they move down the long hallway. None of us are able to tear our eyes away from disaster taking place in front of us.

This had been the king. This had been his doing. I'm certain. And if I live through it, I'll read it off of the list of sins I'm mentally keeping for him. The list is growing long rather quickly, a testament to the hate that I harbor for him and all things he's helped create.

"I'd love to chat and quiz Juilliard on his knowledge, but I think it—” A chain link snaps. The golden body of the Criosphinx lifts up on its back legs, looking more rabid now that it’s freed. "RUN!"

That's all I need. That's all we, as a team, need.

The halls for us to travel are wide enough, but the serpents have some of a reach. We form a messy single file line, sprinting with no real direction. The hall stops abruptly with the choice to move either left or right.

Metal pings off of metal. A wild howl cuts through the air. Those large hammer-like fists pound into the ground. I don't have to look behind me to know. Not when I can see the reflection of the Criosphinx in Hedda's gaze as she turns to look at it. It bounces off the walls, the snakes biting into its flesh then letting go, but the creature is unbothered.

"Go, go, go!" Marcello points to the right, shoving us forward, as he takes the last spot in line. His hand presses to my back, forcing me to move quicker than I think is humanly possible. I press my hand into Hedda but her brick-like weight feels much harder to move.

The maze turns then turns again. One by one we skitter around the corners. Not only has our beast been let into the maze but at some point there is potential to run into an opponent. Though I know that could slow us down, I'm less worried about one of them trying to kill me than I am the