Page 363 of Hunters and Prey

Chapter 6

Our prison lowered with a chug and a whir. Down, down into the pit we went, until we were level with a chamber lined with weapons. Thank god we weren’t being sent in empty-handed. The bars between us and the armory slid up, and Dante was the first to stride out. He went straight for a broadsword.

“Anya, it’s Jezebel.” Helgi rushed across the dusty ground and grabbed my axe off its perch on the wall.

I took it from her, sighing as my hand wrapped around the handle. It was like coming home. Helgi handed me the leather straps and sheath that housed my axe, and I quickly donned them before sliding Jezebel home. Helgi grabbed her crossbow and a couple of daggers. My blades were still tucked into my boots, so I’d be all right for a close-up mêlée weapon.

“These must be the chips.” Bran held up a black disc. “How are we going to do this?”

But there was no time to plan because the buzzer blared, the crowd roared, and the bars between us and the pit slid into the dirt.

Once again, Dante was the first to exit. He strode into the arena, his powerful body unfurling and straightening. Was he taller, wider? My eyes had to be playing tricks on me. We followed him out into the ring. We were about to feed the Dragon Bloods’ hunger for violence and peek under the thick veneer of civility that they donned with their pretty clothes and perfect hair. They pretended to want peace, to want a stop to the bloodshed, and here they were clamoring to watch a death match. At least we didn’t lie about who or what we were. We accepted our flaws and our mutations. We accepted that we needed to hunt and kill and fight. It was in our blood. It was a part of us, just like it was a part of them, yet they adopted a facade of control that was a lie.

The chamber we’d just vacated sank into the ground. There would be no retreat for us. The world began to shake. Shit, it was going to do that rectangle drop thing again. This time a massive section of the ground gave way less than a meter from me and a chasm of darkness swallowed the dirt that spilled into it like a waterfall of sand.

“Get back!” Dante ordered.

Fingers closed around my upper arm, and I was yanked away from the abyss. Adrenaline flooded my limbs, delayed and potent, and then the chasm was filled with the roar of fresh Wyverns as they rose up to meet us.

Purple. These were purple Wyverns with a strange deep blue ridge running along their backs, and their tails had a bulbous barbed tip.

Dante let out a string of curses. “Heads up. These are a venomous breed. Their saliva is laced with toxin. Some of them spit.”

As if on cue, the middle Wyvern expelled a jet stream of mucus right at us.

I dove to the left just in time, hitting the ground in a roll.

“Anya, catch!” Bran threw a disc at me.

I caught it neatly and tucked it into my back pocket.

The Wyverns were going wild, thrashing and screaming, shaking their heads from side to side. The collars were making them crazy. There was no time to think or to coordinate. It was each man for himself as we ran about, ducking and leaping to avoid the crazy creatures. There was only the buzz of the crowd, the roar of blood in my ears, the sting and scrape of hard-packed dirt as my knees scraped the ground, and the overpowering scent of sweat and fear.

The collar of the nearest Wyvern winked at me tauntingly, but to get to it I’d have to mount the beast. I’d have to climb the six-foot height and manage to stay on while the twelve-meter monster thrashed about. Shit.

I slashed at a tail as it whipped toward me, managing to scour a scrape along it, then ducked to avoid the lash of another one, all the while aware of my fellow Skins around me—Helgi to my left, Dante to my right, and Bran and Jasper just out of view on the other side of the ring. We needed to take down one of these beasts and quick.

A bellow slammed into me. Someone was hurt. Bran came barreling toward us, his face speckled with crimson.

“Jasper’s down.”

Shit. I caught a glimpse of Jasper pressed up against the far wall, hand clutching his abdomen. He was going to bleed out if we didn’t get him some medical attention soon. We needed to end this fight. I needed a launch pad to get up onto a beast that was barreling toward me with crazy red eyes that rolled about in agony.

“Heads up!” Bran spun to counter the Wyvern coming at us from behind.

Shit. A Skin sandwich.

Movement at the periphery of my vision.

Dante.

Jezebel cut through the air with a whistle, glancing off a scale with a hiss of embers. I ran along the side of the Wyvern, toward Dante.

We locked gazes as I desperately tried to communicate what I needed, unable to find the breath to yell the words. Was that a nod? And then he dropped to all fours a couple of meters away from me, in time for me to leap up and use his back as a vault up onto the Wyvern. Scales scraped my palms, snagging on my clothes as I made my landing. For a moment, there was nothing but the euphoria of being astride such a beast, and then it bucked, almost dislodging me from my perch.

The disc, I needed to get the disc. It fit in the palm of my hand, snug and ready. Just one step away now.

“Anya, do it!” Bran shouted.

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