Page 64 of Run of Ruin

“I missed you too, Hollis,” she whispered against my hair.

When I finally stepped back, I offered them both a small, bashful smile. “Not that I’m not happy to see you, but… what are you doing here?”

“I believe I can explain that,” Zaffir’s voice cut in, smooth and infuriating as ever, as he stepped out from behind the kitchen island. “I may have… accidentally gotten their camera operator fired.”

I blinked. “You what?”

“There’s a long version,” Zaffir said, a flicker of something unreadable crossing his face, “but the short of it is I’m officially their new camera op. And since it’s easier for the camera team to live in-house with their Challengers for daily check-ins, interviews, b-roll…” He gestured vaguely at the room. “Well, here they are.”

“You got him fired?” Briar asked, one brow arched.

“Accidentally,” Zaffir corrected smoothly.

“Because you asked to edit our footage too?” Thornepressed, his tone somewhere between suspicion and amusement.

I whipped my head toward Zaffir, narrowing my eyes. He what?

“Yeah… something like that,” Zaffir admitted quickly, offering me a crooked, unapologetic grin. “What can I say? The fans are desperate for more Wildguard content.” He shot me a look that sent a fresh wave of heat rushing through my bloodstream.

I glanced around the room, acutely aware of four sets of eyes fixed on me, each carrying their own brand of heat. It was the kind of attention that made me want to both bask in it and bolt out the nearest door.

“So, Ezra, buddy,” Thorne started, his grin all sharp teeth and trouble as he tossed an arm over the back of the couch. “You wanna be bunk buddies? Unless, of course,” he turned to meet my eyes, “you want to openyourroom to me, love,” he added, sending me a wink that made my stomach flip.

“No,” Ezra bit out, his voice low and rough, eyes narrowing on Thorne like he was seconds away from lunging and finishing what they started in the woods.

Zaffir raised a brow, glancing between them like a man watching a match he didn’t mind betting on. “Okay, okay,” he intervened smoothly. “Ezra can crash with me. You two can take his old room.”

I didn’t miss the flicker of shock, followed quickly by interest, that passed across Ezra’s face. My mind went straight to ten minutes ago, and I wanted a repeat performance immediately.

“So,” Thorne drawled, kicking his feet up on the coffee table like he owned the place. “What’s for breakfast? I’m starving.”

Ezra didn’t look away from me. His gaze pinned me whereI stood, heavy with everything unspoken and sinful. His lips curled into a smirk.

“We already ate,” he murmured, voice dark and loaded.

I could’ve combusted right there.

This was going to be…veryinteresting.

CHAPTER

SIXTEEN

Ezra

The next severaltrials were simpler in concept but no less lethal.

For the textile trial, we were herded to the top floor of a crumbling ten-story building on the outskirts of city limits. Each of us was handed a pile of mismatched fabrics, sheets, tablecloths, blankets, whatever could be scavenged. Along with a single spool of thread and one needle. The task? Fashion a makeshift rope, climb down, and hope you didn’t meet the ground headfirst.

I’d never sewn a damn thing in my life. By the time I pricked my finger for the twelfth time and bled all over a pale blue sheet I was trying to attach to a fraying green tablecloth, I admitted defeat. Instead, I shifted over to help Bex however I could. She was nimble with the needle, her fingers steady and sure, no doubt from patching up the hand-me-downs she and her brother had scraped by with.

Briar and Thorne teamed up too, working side by side as ifthey’d done it a hundred times before. They chatted easily with Bex, laughing like old friends. I guess surviving several days alone in a forest together does that to people. Now that they were our housemates too, I couldn’t help but wonder if their bond with her would only tighten, and selfishly, I hoped mine wouldn’t unravel because of it. If Bex had room for all of us in that battered heart of hers, I could learn to share her affections.

Franklin Shale, the chosen from Horizon Collective, was the first to test his makeshift line. He made it to the third patch before the knot gave out, sending him plummeting. The sickening crunch of his body hitting the ground echoed up to us. Bex buried her face in the crook of my neck, trembling as I held her. Franklin didn’t die right away, we heard the screams as they hauled him off, but judging by the sounds he made, I bet he wished he had.

Cayal Orin of Ember and Fenly Nots of Stormwatch were the first to reach the ground unscathed, claiming first and second. Nile Fulton and Dani Cale from Oasis and Steelheart weren’t far behind, taking third and fourth.

Once Bex finished her line and Briar and Thorne completed theirs, the three of them made the smart call to twist their ropes together for extra strength.

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