Page 62 of Hunted in the Shadows
I pressed forward, easing away from the other hunters surrounding the door. “How many of these creatures have you squared off with head-to-head?”
He scoffed. “I could ask you the same.”
“We took out a nest in Wyoming,” Cliff said, appearing behind me.
A lie tinged with truth. It unsettled me to think what had come of Elysia after our departure.
“Get us some iron,” I insisted. “Cliff and I can snuff her out with no more than a burn here or there. She’ll be intact, wings and all.”
Rhett narrowed his eyes. “A whole nest, huh?”
I tried to steady my breathing, knowing that I was too eager, too emotional. And he was trying to figure outwhy.
When Rhett hesitated in thought, Cliff tacked on, “C’mon, what happened to us being assets?”
A slow smile grew on Rhett’s face as he looked between us. “Tradition says no more than one at a time in the Pit. That’s one I can’t help but agree with. Better decide quickly.” Then he shouted over his shoulder for someone to bring out an iron weapon—no blades or bullets allowed, lest I damage my target too much.
A heavy hand clapped my shoulder. Cliff spun me to face him.
“You don’t have to do this,” Cliff said under his breath, giving me an intense stare—a look that promised he was just as willing to put himself on the line to bring Sylvia home.
“Watch my back," I said.
“Nowak.” Gwen appeared from behind Cliff, giving a small shake of her head. “What the hell are you gonna do?”
I scowled at her. “Whatever I have to.”
Giving Rhett a meaningful look, I stepped forward—this time, there was no resistance. Two Pit keepers stripped me of my weapons and handed me an iron bar. Rhett smiled at me, leaning in close.
“I always thought you were the wildcard hunter between the two of you,” he said in a conspiratorial whisper. “Prove me wrong, yeah? I don’t want a drop of that bitch’s blood gone towaste. And hey—maybe I’ll throw in that silver you’re after if you do this right.”
I took a shuddering breath—hating the smell of him, how he reeked of salt and cologne and bloodlust.
“Touch me again,” I said. “And I’ll cave your head in before hers.”
His face paled slightly. “Easy, Nowak. Save that spirit for the Pit.” Rhett pulled away, sauntering toward the bookie to observe the newest round of cash bets.
One of the Pit keepers unwound the heavy iron chains and lifted the thick wooden blocker from the door. The door swung open into the dimly lit holding walkway, flooding the air with the stale tang of the alp’s blood. A fine mesh of steel netting separated me from the fighting ring’s inner dome—the last fragile barrier between me and what I had to do. My hand closed around the iron bar, gritty and cold against my palm. The sharp, metallic tang of anticipation flooded my mouth as I willed my feet to move.
“Hurry inside before it gets any ideas about flying out,” someone growled near me.
I stepped in, leaving the roaring crowd at my back. The door clanged shut and locked behind me at once.
It wouldn’t open again until one of us was dead.
12
Sylvia
There was enough iron present here to massacre all of Elysia—perhaps a dozen fae villages.
Its sharp aura clouded my senses and made thinking difficult. My wings ached from prolonged flight, but I didn’t have the luxury of landing to gather myself. Not if I wanted to survive.
Dodging around the dangling chains that wound through the peak of the dome, I searched the circumference for the seventh time. Surely there was a hole somewhere in the patchwork of materials, a sloppy gap someone neglected to reinforce with iron. None of the gaps were quite large enough to squeeze through without the risk of burning myself. Try as I might, I couldn’t summon magic this close to the fencing to do any targeted damage to the enclosure. Even the gem shard’s power was unresponsive when I plunged my hand into my pocket.
Begrudgingly, I acknowledged that the barbarians below me had done a very good job building this damn cage.
The evidence of past prisoners was written all around me—scorch residue, faint claw marks, caked blood disguised as rust. Spots in the metal had been torn away and rebuilt smarter. I couldn’t fathom how many creatures had died in here, teaching a new lesson to these brutes about monster containment each time.
