Vengeance (The Prince's Games Book 1) by Rebecca Grey (electric book reader TXT) 📕

wraps Marcello's arm around his shoulder, looking back up to the Vampires. Hedda backs away, giving us plenty of room. She's as good as one of the spectators in the fucking crowd.

The Criosphinx’s movements slow. Its long snout opening and closing soundlessly as it's fight is drained from his body. Sloane holds his horns tight, letting out a grunt of effort as she jerks its head harshly to the left. A crack of bones snaps through the air.

My body flinches at the noise, I pray no one notices the movement. I keep my eyes trained on the monster as its body crumples to the ground, its head lolling to the side at an unnatural angle. Sloane, with more grace than I could ever muster despite my years upon years of training, steps off of its back as if the fall was to deliver her to our level once more and not a thousand pounds of muscle mass crashing down to the earth. Finnegan stands with a shaky smile that suggests this might have been more luck than skill.

Without the brash noises of the beast, there is only the hissing of the snakes as they try to reach us before they are swallowed back into the mass of the maze. Our gazes bounce off of one another until Juilliard is the one to speak up.

"We should keep going. Go back the way we came and head down the other direction." He lowers his voice, directing the rest of his speech to Marcello only. "Healing will set the bones soon and you'll be able to finish the event. I can re-break and set them for you when we're out of this mess."

Marcello nods his head. I step behind the pair as they start forward. Hedda still stares at the mass of skin, bone, and muscle on the ground. I hook my hand into her elbow and drag her along, able to recognize the startling realization that something might be out of your skill set.

Hedda had helped push me out of my comfort zone, dressed me and made me look semi respectable for the party the evening before. The least I can do is get her through this goddamn maze.

"Come on now, in together, out together. Or some other bullshit slogan we need to rally the team," I say.

Hedda walks forward. Both of us watch the creature's chest to ensure that there isn't any rise or fall that would suggest that it could jump back up to standing and eat us as we pass.

That thing... it doesn't just eat... it turns people to pulp. PULP.

We travel in silence until we reach the first wrong turn we made. A new sound catches my attention, out of so many that fill the open air around us, including the screams of what I can only assume are other players. I lift my chin up to a ceiling that feels like it's miles above, still holding Hedda.

I squint, the buzzing continuing. A black object overhead floats over the maze. A bird? Some sort of bug that will come down from its flight to sting us to death?

"What is that?" I point with my free hand.

Everyone looks up. Sloane and Finnegan even dare a wave of their hands. Marcello breathes heavy, starting to speak before Juilliard growls at him to shut up and looks over his shoulder at us.

"Cameras. So the crowd can watch it on the screens built into the back of the seats to get a better view at what we are doing in here."

I'm familiar with the term though in my years I have never seen one. People used cameras to take pictures and make films... like the old shows we would watch on repeat at the coven.

"If you'd like to give the crowd a message, now's your time to shine." Sloane blows a kiss. Her 'fuck you' to the people that banished her is much sweeter than mine have and will ever be.

I lift my middle finger up over my head, scowling. "For the king," I shout.

Juilliard huffs out a breath, "She'll never learn."

Then our small caravan is moving again. Hedda's shoulder bumps into me as we continue down the straight hall. After a moment, when we've turned another corner, she whispers.

"Without my gun I am like you, Human." Hedda’s eyes are wide.

"Hedda, you're stronger than me. If you wanted to, you could have probably knocked that thing out with a good right hook."

"No." She shakes her head. "It was too fast. My strength makes me slow. It would have eaten my entire arm before I got the chance to try."

Her confidence is shaken. Clearly so. But I'm not here to nurse her emotional wounds and cradle her until she feels capable again. I'm here to make sure we all get out alive. Most importantly that I get out alive.

There's another turn coming up, but before we can approach a girl comes skittering into our view. She hardly gives us a glance before she's sprinting forward again. I try to remember her name, only coming up with the vague idea that she belongs to the team mostly made up of females. The Dryad.

Juilliard continues forward, Sloane and Finnegan hot on his trail. He peers around the corner, Marcello straightening as if his pain is starting to lessen already. I hold Hedda tightly, nervous that if she gets the chance she'll bolt away and be lost forever.

I need to see what lies ahead. Being prepared, knowing how to twist the element of surprise to my advantage is how I work. I myself though, do not enjoy surprises.

When I press against the Vampires' backs, to see around the shining scales of the snakes, I watch as the girl finishes jumping over the large holes dug into the ground below her. When she leaps through the air an arrow flies.