Page 138 of A Taste of Torment
There’s a crackling of light, which explodes into the room so quickly I throw my arm up over my eyes and shrink into Jarron’s chest. His arms are around me.
“Dominic,” a female voice calls.
Dominic stands on trembling legs and enters into the white light—a doorway, apparently. I’m half-tempted to rush past him and enter the room first. My answers are there. I want them now.
But instead, I release a shaky breath and force my shoulders to relax. We’re stalling, I remind myself. If we can wait long enough, the nullifier will fade and Jarron will have his strength back. That will be good. Definitely good.
My heart might explode while I’m waiting, but I’ll just have to deal.
The hair on my arms stands up as the white light flickers out, leaving the room in darkness.
“I’m next,” Corrine says.
“Are you afraid?”
She nods. “I don’t have room for that, though. I’m already here.” She straightens her shoulders.
“How long between each person?” I ask.
She shrugs. “Maybe ten minutes.”
I calculate quickly. Three more people before me, so thirty minutes. It’s already been five. “The second potion will run out first,” I whisper.
Jarron’s chin rests on my shoulder, and he nods so that I can feel it.
The following ten minutes feels like an hour. Finally, Corrine is called. I’m so tempted to grab her and try to leave anyway. Call me a coward, stupid glowing light. I couldn’t care less.
It feels so much more like cowardice to watch Corrine enter the light and disappear. I’m shaking now. The wait is killing me.
Another ten minutes. Bernard is called and enters the light. Another ten. Harold is called.
I’m the last one in the room, and Jarron scoots closer. “Trevor knows where we are,” he whispers in my ear. He wraps his arms around me. “He’ll be trying to find a way in.”
My heart leaps but then drops. Do we trust Trevor? If Bea was involved, what if he is too?Trevor wants the throne, did you know?
I don’t share my doubts with Jarron. If he trusts his brother, I’ll let him hold on to that. I pull my backpack closer and pull out a second vial of invisibility. “I only have two,” I warn. Worth it, obviously, but this will be my last one. “Only if you need it.”
I also grab the few other potions. Two more nullifiers, a blood-clotter and a random floating potion I doubt will be any help at all but I’d rather have them just in case. I shove them all in my pocket and jus hope the vials don’t break.
Finally, after nearly thirty minutes of horrible, awful waiting, the light glows and a voice speaks. “Candice.”
I shiver at the sound. The voice is echoing and strange but almost familiar. Forcing myself to my feet, I walk toward the light. Toward those responsible for killing my sister.
Jarron holds my hand as we step through together.
* * *
The ground rushesup at me, and I crumple to my knees. I grip something prickly between my fingers. Astroturf?
Above my head, I find a massive dome ceiling made of dark paneled glass and stands surrounding the large field we are now in the middle of. I work air through my stressed lungs.
The arena is familiar. I have class here daily.
I didn’t know I’d be fighting to the death here within only weeks. Such irony.
A glowing white light appears in the center of the field a few feet in front of me. I stand and face the being responsible for my sister’s death.
“Candice, I’ve been wondering when I’d see you,” that feminine voice purrs.
