Page 95 of Hell Fae Captive
I’d clearly overstayed my welcome in search of answers.
Cursing, I glanced down the long stretch of the illuminated path that was my only escape route. A group of brides in the front were nearly at the end, a location I had noticed the Elites avoided. It looked like some kind of finish line, and I wondered if the Centaurs wouldn’t be able to cross over, like some sort of barrier or force field.
My questions were immediately answered when the first group of females jumped over the break in the ground.
Only to plummet down an invisible cliff.
Chills swept up my spine.
It may look like a border crossing.
Don’t fall for it.
The Centaurs snorted, drawing my attention back to them as they slowly surrounded me.
They seemed at home in this horribly heated landscape, as if they breathed fire on a daily basis.
And ate girls for dinner. Creepy-as-fuck assholes.
I definitely wouldn’t be giggling if they taste-tested me for dinner.
But something nagged at me. I couldn’t help but feel like the Hellbeasts were a key to the trials, something I was supposed to learn or figure out.
Perhaps it had something to do with their auras. So far I’d seen white and black, and the black ones had been pretty unfriendly and attacked unprovoked.
The white-aura ones had only attacked in response to aggression, which, if someone had shot a gun at me, I’d probably attack, too. I couldn’t blame them.
Maybe I could negotiate.
Because these Centaurs all had white auras.
“So, uh, what do you guys do around here for sport?” I asked, trying my best to give a smile as I opened my palms in an unthreatening motion.
The Centaur closest to me released a bull-like snort that didn’t sound very friendly.
“You like to charge things?” I surmised. “That sounds like, uh, fun.” I knelt, grabbing one of the broken stones. It burned against my palm, having absorbed the realm’s heat, but I wouldn’t be holding on to it for long.
“Have you guys tried jousting?” I asked conversationally. “You don’t even need horses. You can just run with sticks or something.” I hesitantly laughed.
They didn’t.
I couldn’t see their faces, but a few of them tilted their shadowed heads sideways.
I slid backward in a slow retreat, only to thump against something hard and heated.
Glancing up, I found I’d stumbled against the front legs of one of the Centaurs. He leered down at me, ash puffing from his face, insinuating he was preparing to maul me.
But he wasn’t, not yet. I seemed to intrigue him.
Keep talking, Cami.
“What about games of catch? I mean, you do have arms. Here, let me show you.” I demonstrated by hurling my arm back and throwing the stone as hard as I could. It sailed through the air, missing all of the Centaurs, but I wasn’t aiming for any of them.
The rock landed far off of the illuminated path, disappearing a moment later into the center of a lava pit.
Only, it didn’t burn.
A distinct clattering noise sounded a moment later as if the rock had hit something hard.
