Change of Darkness (The Change Series Book 3) by Jacinta Jade (best new books to read txt) 📕

up at Baindan and saw his stormy-grey eyes meet hers, his gaze holding a fierce light. She hoped it wasn’t the remnants of the drug still in his system. But as she continued to look into his eyes, she saw them shift slightly to focus on something beyond her and stay there, as they grew wider and more disbelieving.

Siray glanced back at the pit, tensing as she did so, and took in a silent gasp of breath.

Now that the sounds from the pit had stopped, the guards had kicked loose a rope ladder that had been curled up against the wooden posts close by, its ends tied to one of the beams. The pair seemed to be watching in stunned silence as someone’s dirt-encrusted hands and a mop of tussled hair began to emerge from the hole.

And as the figure climbed the last part of the ladder, and shakily straightened up to a standing position, Siray couldn’t help but stare.

Dirty, bloody, bruised, and thin, it was the female who had been thrown into the pit the previous morning.

***

‘How did she do it?’ Genlie’s awed voice floated to Siray from across the space of the cell. Her words had been quiet, but surrounded by stunned and exhausted people, with no other sounds to impede them, her words were clear.

They had just been herded into their cells and had settled down into their own places on blankets along the wall, various groans and moans rising from them as their injuries barked at the movement.

Siray had activated the washroom light, allowing the faint glow to reach a little way into their dark cell, so that they might see each other as they spoke.

And not feel so alone.

Kovi and Genlie were the farthest from the cell door, sitting close together against the far wall but not touching, and Siray sat at a right angle to them, Baindan and Zale seated to her right and left.

Siray knew who, and what, Genlie was talking about. ‘It must have been desperation,’ she murmured, her words as clear as Genlie’s in the quiet. ‘It gave her the strength to defeat both of them.’

For there had been no doubt about the outcome after the guards had let the female emerge from the pit. The rules had been clear—you could not leave the pit until you had proven yourself, and there was only one way to do that.

Upon reflection, it was obvious to Siray that the howls she had heard after the male and female had been thrown into the pit had come from the female who’d already been in there. She wondered grimly how the petite female had done it. Had she taken one of them out while they had been unconscious? Then turned on the other and—

Ugh. She had to stop thinking about it. But erasing the image of the bloodied female after she had climbed out from the hole and stood scanning all the captives like a predator would take a while. The female had looked at all of them, assessing and weighing the risks of everything she saw, before she would even take a step away from the pit. Then once she had taken that first stride, she had kept going, her head swivelling constantly to keep everyone around her in sight as, knees slightly bent, she had made her way warily but quickly across to the barrels of food.

The captives nearest the barrels had backed away slightly, especially as the female bared her teeth in warning as she saw them all watching her. But it was the image of the female, her hands and face bloodied, reaching in for portion after portion of food and ravenously devouring each one that really stuck in Siray’s mind.

And which made her ask the question. What would she do to survive?

An image of herself emerging bloody but victorious from the pit popped into her mind automatically, making Siray wince. When she glanced at her friend again, she saw Genlie looking across at Kovi. What would Genlie do, she wondered, to protect the one she loves?

Siray had already seen Genlie fight today when Kovi had been threatened, seen the female’s lack of self-consideration as she had thrown herself between her mate and his opponent. Yes, Genlie’s reaction had been fuelled by the drug in her system, but as Siray was starting to realise, the drug had to have a base emotion to act on first. She pitied the unit with which the guards had placed the wild-looking female from the pit. And hoped it was Melora’s unit.

‘Do you think they’ll drug us again tomorrow?’ Zale asked the room at large.

Kovi snorted, touching the healing strip that angled across his forehead. ‘They could have drugged us again tonight, for all we know. But it’s not as if we can start skipping meals, even if they are.’

Baindan nodded. ‘I imagine that there would be a punishment if we refused to eat at certain times. But even aside from that, given the demands placed on us, I think it would be unwise at any stage to skip a meal.’

‘But I had no control over what I did,’ interjected Genlie, ‘just this insatiable urge to win, at whatever cost.’ Her voice was low, as if she not only regretted her actions from the fight earlier that day but was repulsed by them.

Siray decided to state her theory. ‘I think the drugs create a state of mind that feeds off emotion. Today, when I was fighting Melora, all the little taunts that she had made while we were at the Gonron Facility came back to me, fresh as the day she made them.’ She swallowed. ‘And Tamot, he nearly left the lines this afternoon to pick a fight with Captain Raque. Because he was thinking of Jorgi.’

On her right side, Baindan shifted a little, and Siray tilted her chin his way slightly. He was looking at her with concern.

She angled her face away, not wanting to acknowledge verbally that she might have also