Caelynn
My skin is clammy,my stomach uneasy, as we pass into the arena. Today’s journey was tiring but uneventful. Of course they’d want to screw with us one more time before it’s over. One time while the crowd can watch our pain.
Wonderful.
We approach the orb slowly, ignoring the cheers and screams and boos—for me, obviously.
“Welcome champions!” a cheery pixie says, darting around the arena as her voice amplifies over the roaring crowd. “You’ve nearly completed your third trial. But you have one task left.”
“Of course we do,” I mumble. I am exhausted, both physically and emotionally. I am so ready to collapse and sleep for a week straight.
“Your final task will be to enter the orb for a second time. This time, your task will all be the same. You must prove your ability to sacrifice anything for the greater good. You must be willing to kill in order to save.”
My lip curls. Kill? Who must we kill? I know the orb shows us very real illusions, somehow getting inside our minds and projecting something as we have seen it.
“The person you will face inside the orb may or may not be someone you currently know. It may be a complete stranger. Only you will be able to see their identity. Your last task of this trial is to kill your fated mate.”
Rev
My whole world fallsaway as the pixie’s words register.
We are going to be shown who our mate is. And then we have to kill them.
My vision is blurry as panic fills me. No.
No, I don’t want to know.
“You okay?” I hear Tyadin whispers to Caelynn, I glance at her pale face and my stomach sinks again.