Page 49 of Courting War
VOLCANIC BALLROOM, CITY OF THE GODS
“Did you have to do that?” Theo spat at her sister.
Theo hated refracting as a human. It churned her stomach and made it hard to breathe. She gagged, holding onto the deer meat in one hand and pulling at her priestess torc with the other, trying to get more airflow to her lungs.
Havyn chuckled. “Of course I did.”
“We barely traveled . . . maybe fifteen feet,” Theo grumbled, slouching over, and clutching her knees for support. It felt like centipedes were eating the lining of her intestines.
Mortality was vile.
“Refracting wasn’t necessary.”
Theo was in a secluded alcove carved into the Grand Ballroom. If Theo leaned out, she could throw a stone at her champion—she was still that close.
Walking would have been less effort.
Theo gagged. The place smelled of cherry blossoms, but it tasted like arsenic, making Theo’s unruly stomach all the worse.
“Stop being so dramatic,” Havyn said, “you’re starting toact like Fire.”
Theo snapped up and glared at her sister.
Havyn held up her hands in fake surrender. “Come on, little sis, enjoy the revelry with me.” She grabbed a champagne flute from a footman and handed it to her sister.
Theo eyed the drink like it was a rotten body covered with maggots.
“I didn’t poison it,” Havyn said. “Just have fun, for once.”
Fun. Theo scoffed. She hated the nighttime festivities of the Sacrifice. The fake smiles and the rose-red lips dripping with trickery and disdain, with the air of narcissism and greed permeating every surface of the party.
Acrobats, jesters, fairy ballerinas, pooka illusions, and magicians performed on scattered platforms across the grand lava ballroom. Trickery couldn’t decide on one form of entertainment, so he chose all forms.
Exorbitant, lurid, and nauseating.
Three adjectives perfectly encompassed the God of Trickery.
“I don’t do fun.” Theo crossed her arms.
“Fine, then sit with me and watch the challenges.” Havyn sat down on a smooth lava bench and patted the seat beside her. Her eyes locked on a magic mirror that draped on the wall, replaying the champions’ first challenges. The footage was recorded from the eyes of statues throughout the games and palace.
The images intermingled with Trickery’s revelry, creating a tapestry of beautiful colors and sounds.
“Why have you brought me here?” Theo chewed on deer meat, standing in the shadows like a menacing guard. Mostly doing it just to spite Andromache. Deer were sacred to her, and Andromadens were forbidden from eating the meat. But Theodenites had no such qualms. And War was angry with both of her meddling sisters.
First, Andromache with the Medusa stunt, and now Havyn with whatever this was about.
The sister in question merely pointed to the mirror with her foot.
It depicted Cecile swimming in a sea of shadows, visions bombarding her from all sides, flickering through them like a silent film reel.
The Death Challenge.
“What is it?” The words slipped out of Theo’s mouth, and she found herself joining her sister on the bench.
“Her challenge was to face the darkness.”
Inner darkness?
