Wicked Challenge (Darkwater Reformatory Book 2) Page 22

  Past the cafeteria, we exited through a door leading into the middle of the building. This part of the prison was made up of four long, multi-floored buildings with a large arboretum in the center.

  I wasn’t sure where the Reformatory was. I’d been unable to find it when I looked out various windows and assumed it was hidden with spells.

  We strode down a path that wove toward the middle of the arboretum.

  “Is the entrance to the catacombs guarded?” I whispered. Around us, tree leaves fluttered, though there was no breeze.

  Low plants and bushes perked up. Had the Warden planted spylings here, too?

  Walking in front of us, Kylie winked over her shoulder. “The main entrance is, but not the one I’m taking us to.”

  Tiny shrieks were followed by scurrying in the bushes as creatures, hearing us, fled in other directions.

  Behind us, someone shouted.

  “Hurry.” Kylie broke into a run, and we followed. Rounding a bend, she approached a wall of two-story, thick spiky bushes planted in long rows. She dove between them, weaving back and forth, swearing when thorns scratched her skin. Rohnan and I remained right behind her.

  Emerging from the bushes, we came to an oval wooden door. Vines grew in profusion, draping across the opening, almost obscuring it. If I hadn’t been following Kylie, I never would have known it was here.

  Rohnan took my hand and squeezed, sending reassurance.

  My pulse galloped in my throat, not just from the run. This was it. Another trial to get through, but one that would bring me closer to revenging Daegan’s murder. I could taste the king’s screams on my tongue.

  After yanking vines off the door, Kylie pulled the pin from her pocket and inserted it into a small metal circle in the middle of the wooden frame.

  Blue sparks spurted from the hole and drifted to the ground like falling stars.

  The door creaked open.

  “Anyone want into the Reformatory?” Kylie said with a grin. “Because I’ve just stolen us access.”

  “We’re right behind you,” Rohnan said, waving for Kylie to enter ahead of us. He turned to me. “You’re ready?”

  “More than.” I gave him a quick kiss. “No matter what happens…”

  “We stay together.”

  Taking my hand, he stepped inside the doorway.

  I followed and was swallowed by darkness.

  The essence of damp mold clung to my sinuses, and underneath my shoes, tiny things crunched.

  “Where do we go?” I whispered.

  Rohnan’s hand was wrenched from mine.

  Behind me, the door slammed shut. My pulse leaped. I turned and scrambled for the knob but found nothing. Spinning, I leaned against the solid structure. “Rohnan?”

  No reply.

  Terror bolted through me, a beast raging like fire through my veins.

  “No,” Kylie screamed. “Please, no.”

  The fear in her voice clawed down my spine and made gooseflesh ripple across my skin.

  The echo of her cry faded, followed by silence.

  “Rohnan? Kylie?” Tears tumbled from my eyes and saturated the front of my prison jumpsuit. “Rohnan!”

  Kylie’s shriek shot through the darkness but was cut off abruptly.

  I took a step forward. Another, my hands outstretched.

  Rohnan’s hoarse cry of pain rang out ahead.

  “No! Rohnan.” I rushed forward, only to slam into something solid.

  Tendrils wrapped around my throat, tightening until everything went black.

  I startled awake and found myself lying on my bed inside the prison.

  Light streamed through the slice window near the toilet, and in the hall outside my room, footsteps stomped by.

  “Kylie,” I said, hoping she’d answer. Praying this had all been a dream. I ached for her to lean over the side of her bunk and tell me to get ready, that it was almost time to take the Reformatory Challenge. “Kylie?”

  A spyling winked yellow from the corner of the room, and I knew the Warden watched.

  I could almost hear her laughing.

  My heart thudded once. Twice.

  Turning, I curled into a ball and cried.

  Twenty-Eight

  Tria

  While Titan banged on the walls below, I put my arm around Jacey’s back.

  She jolted and her gaze met mine. “It’s… Fuck.” Sobs shook her shoulders. “He made it this far only to…” She raised her tear-stained face my way. “He didn’t make it to the Reformatory. All this time, I hoped I’d find him waiting for me.”

  “This proves one thing,” Brodin said.

  My gaze met his and I nodded. “The catacombs either reuse tests or—”

  “There is only one series of trials,” Brodin finished for me.

  “We cannot discuss this now,” Akimi said stiffly. “We must do something about this.”

  “If it helps, Jacey, I don’t believe he’s dead,” Brodin said.

  “He’s trapped here alive,” I said, gaping down. Rohnan’s face… His hands stretched toward us as if we only needed to grab onto him and haul him out of the glass, the only part of this structure that didn’t seem to be made up of solid stone.

  Jacey laid her hands against his. Head lowered, she pressed her forehead against the smooth surface and keened.

  My heart splintered, and my hand shot out, seeking Brodin’s. He entwined our fingers and squeezed tight.

  I leaned into his side.

  Akimi joined us. “I do wonder why he is here and not at the Reformatory. One would think…”

  Jacey stared up at her, tears streaking down her face. They plopped onto the surface and skimmed across the top. “What do you mean?”

  Akimi shrugged and, turning, leaned against the wall.

  “He made it this far,” Brodin said. “So should we assume he somehow failed this part of the Challenge?”

  “We can’t leave him here,” Jacey said.

  His fingers tightened on mine. “If it’s possible, we’ll find a way to get him out.”

  “The solution must be here, inside the tower, right?”

  Jacey burst to her feet. “You’re right. He’s here,” her gaze fell on Rohnan, “I’ll find a way to free him.”

  “Well, then,” I said. “Let’s take a look around. We’ll find the key or whatever will unlock him from where he’s trapped, and—”

  “And he’ll continue with us through the Challenge,” she said.

  “Is that possible?” Akimi asked, her attention shifting between Brodin and Jacey, skimming over me as if I didn’t exist. I hated this. We’d all chosen to bring her back yet she focused her anger solely on me. Why? “We are a quad. I have never heard of a team of five completing the Challenge before. Perhaps…this is where he must remain.”

  “Fuck, no,” Jacey said, staring at Akimi with horror. “How can you say that?”

  “What else can we assume?” she asked.

  Tension hung in the air, creating a wall between them.

  “At this point,” I said, interjecting. “I know none of us—other than Akimi—were at the prison for long, but for all we know no one has made it to the Reformatory.”

  “What are you suggesting?” Jacey asked. She stared around and I assumed she was hoping to find a puzzle or clue or anything that might help her free Rohnan.

  “Maybe everyone has been…” My gaze dropped to Rohnan. “Trapped inside the Challenge. Or there are a limited number of tests and we were lucky to hit a few that Rohnan also took, like this one.”

  “As in, some who took the Challenge before could still be here, trapped inside the catacombs?” Jacey said.

  “Like us,” Akimi whispered. “Taking one test after another until we either give up or are swallowed by a trial. Or until we are forced to…” She shook her head and her branches wavered around her cheeks.

  Despite the heat trapped inside the small space, I shivered.

  “What do you know about the Challenge and Reformat
ory?” I asked Akimi.

  “Only that whoever enters never returns.”

  Nothing new there.

  “We’ll keep going as long as we have to,” Brodin said, his fingers blanching on the railing. He started up the stairs behind Jacey.

  “I’m not giving up. Not on the Challenge and not on Rohnan,” I said.

  Jacey shot me a sad smile. “Neither will I.”

  “I…” Akimi drifted up the stairs beside us.

  I turned when she didn’t continue.

  Her gaze had settled on the stone steps but lifted to meet mine. “I will continue with this Challenge. I have a debt to settle but I fear no one will savor the outcome.”

  “And what does that mean?” I asked.

  She lifted her chin and said nothing else.

  Awesome. Just what I needed. I not only had to watch out for hidden traps in the Challenge, I now had to wonder what she was hiding.

  I turned on my heel and started up the steps, climbing until I reached the second landing. “A door,” I said, waving to my right.”

  “Let’s go as far up as we can and then work our way down and check out each floor,” Brodin said.

  I shrugged and kept stepping up. How many stairs made up this tower or would I find myself climbing for the rest of my life? My rueful laugh burst from me, darkness slicing through it. “Maybe this test involves climbing? Someone wants to see how long we’ll keep going before our legs give out.”

  The smile Brodin shot me—fangless—lightened my heart. His hand landed on my lower back and his fingers glided across the rough material. A thrill shot through me.

  Another flight of stairs was followed by the next. Until I lost count. My legs burned, my back spasmed, and my arms hurt from using them to haul me up one more step.

  “How tall was this thing?” Jacey asked, wiping sweat off her face. “I don’t remember.”

  “Probably because…” I puffed. “We were paying more attention to avoiding Titan and Lars than…checking out our destination.”

  “We are close to the top,” Akimi said.

  I grunted in agreement. “And I hope something up there tells us what we’re supposed to do next.”

  After rounding yet another landing, I started up the next flight of stairs, not even bothering to look up.

  “Finally,” Brodin said. He pointed when I lifted my eyebrows.

  A door at the top of this set of steps.

  He passed me then turned on the step above mine and extended his hand. When I took it, he tugged me up beside him and we continued climbing until we stood in front of the dark blue, wooden panel.

  “I imagine it will be locked,” Akimi said. “Like all the others. We should return to the bottom floor and decide what to do from there.”

  With a shrug, I reached out. The door gave way easily at my touch and creaked open. I was hit by a sultry wind that swept through the room and down the dank stairwell.

  “Inside?” I said to Brodin, keeping hold of his hand.

  “Together,” he said, and we stepped forward with Akimi and Jacey tight enough behind, their ragged exhalations hit the back of my neck.

  While we’d climbed, night had fallen in this world. Muted light filtered into the room from outside, where a cluster of creamy moons peeked through dusty clouds on the horizon.

  Our sneakers made almost no noise on the stone floor as we entered a round room that shouldn’t be possible, as it had to be a hundred feet across, while the tower had ended at a pointed tip. The open rectangular spaces were supported by wide pillars between them and covered with an arched roof.

  “Can Lars get us here, do you think?” I whispered, not eager to draw the shifter’s attention.

  “Maybe,” Brodin said.

  “Then let us not speak, please,” Akimi said dryly. “You will bring him to us.” One of her branches lifted, pointing, and her bark eyebrows shoved together.

  “What is that?” Jacey said.

  I stepped toward a raised area on the far end of the room. As I drew near, moonlight sliced through the clouds and outlined four low structures on the dais.

  “Looks like big cups with something inside them,” Brodin said, advancing farther with his hand extended.

  I stepped up beside him and tugged at his sleeve, holding him back. “Should we touch? Actually, maybe we shouldn’t.”

  “You’re right. It’s probably our next puzzle.”

  “Balls in cups?” Jacey said in disgust. “What will we do with them? Throw them at Lars when he blasts his way through one of these openings?”

  I stooped down and studied them. About two feet tall, they’d been painted dark blue with stars bursting from the surface like gleaming eyes. “They’re not balls inside the cups.” My heart slowed then skipped a couple of beats. “They’re eggs.”

  Akimi rushed up behind me, a sledgehammer lifted overhead. “We must destroy them before it is too late!”

  “Hold on there.” I jumped to my feet and grabbed her branches before she could drive the hammer down and hit them.

  “There are four hammers,” she wailed. “Four eggs. They must be destroyed. That is the test.”

  “And maybe that’s why Rohnan is encased in the landing,” I said.

  Akimi strained to break free from my hold. “I know this is the way. We must break them.”

  “What made you the one who gets to decide?” I asked.

  “Release me! Leadership belongs to whoever takes it, is that not right?” she said. “This is how you operate. You have set an example. I merely follow.”

  “Been there, done that, and I’m telling you right now, you won’t enjoy the end result.” I shoved her branch down and then pried the hammer from her grip. “As for me, I’m a work in progress. What’s your excuse?”

  She huffed but backed away, sidling behind Jacey.

  I tossed the hammer back with the others, and it clanked when it hit. “Let’s wait until morning to decide if we should bash things up. I imagine we have that long before we need to act.”

  “Always,” Akimi growled. “You are the one who makes the final decision. I will not permit this to continue.”

  “Um, Akimi,” Jacey said, turning toward her. She placed a hand on Akimi’s side. “Did some of you get left behind in the pretend middle world because…this isn’t you?”

  “Why must you be sarcastic?” she snarled.

  “Because I like you, the person you were when you weren’t angry,” Jacey said in pure kindness.

  “Maybe this is who I have always been.” Her gaze pinned us in place one by one. “I do not believe any of you have seen who I truly am.” She wrenched away from Jacey and backed until she hit the far wall.

  “What are you trying to say?” Brodin asked, crossing his arms on his chest. A tic drummed in his temple.

  “It is nothing,” Akimi said. “Forget I spoke.” Her gaze fell to the floor. “I see it is too late now. The end result would come about no matter what I did. What we did.”

  “Tell us,” I said.

  Her attention fell on me and for a moment, I read only kindness. And a wealth of sadness. “I cannot.”

  Tension spiraled through the air like a lethal fog.

  “We’re here in this Challenge to complete tests,” Brodin said. “You wanted into our triad and here you are. We’re still a team, so let’s act like it.”

  Akimi huffed and stared down at the floor.

  “Let’s look around,” he said. “Remember the leading doors off some of the landings. I assume they contain small rooms or…”

  “Entry to other parts of the test?” I suggested.

  “Hard to know.” He took my hand. “Let’s check them out though, huh? Don’t know about you, but I’m starved. Maybe we’ll find food here.”

  “As long as it’s not like the golden drink in the castle,” Jacey said, following us to the stairs.

  Akimi watched us but did not join in behind Jacey.

  “Do we dare trust her with the hammers?” I w
hispered to Brodin from the top step.

  “I don’t know.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Akimi. Why don’t you take the first few floors? Jacey, take the middle, and Tria and I will sort through the top, give or take a few?”

  “Always you pamper her,” Akimi ground out. “Top floor. Working with a second to make it simpler.”

  Something else was going on here, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

  “I like Tria,” Brodin said, squeezing my hand. He squeezed my heart along with it.

  “Very well.” Akimi pushed past us and floated down the stairs. “I shall examine the first floors.” She hit the first landing and glided around to the next set of stairs then was gone from view.

  “Heavy,” Jacey said, sharing sympathy. “I’m sorry. I think you should tell her you would’ve died from the slake’s bite if you hadn’t left the middle world.”

  “I don’t think it would matter if she knew,” I said. “I would’ve done the same thing even if I hadn’t been bitten. She’s pissed off and nothing is going to change that. The best we can do is get through this, assuming we ever get through it.”

  “It wasn’t just you deciding, it was us,” Brodin said. “We had to make a choice and we did. It seems to me since we’re all here, at the next test and not still stuck in that cave, that we chose wisely.”

  “You’ll never convince her of that,” I said.

  He growled. “That’s on her, not us.” His gaze landed on Jacey. “About those hammers…”

  “I had the same thought,” she said. Turning, she returned to the top floor and gathered them together, lugging them over to us. “Let’s see if we can find someplace to hide them.” She studied my face. “You’re sure we’re not supposed to use them on the eggs?” The glance over her shoulder was filled with shadows. “Maybe not breaking them means failure.”

  “It’s just a hunch, but I’m trusting it,” I said. Whenever I thought about bringing a hammer down on one of the eggs, my guts wrenched sideways. Something inside me curled into a ball and cried.

  “I believe you,” Jacey said.

  I flicked her a smile that contained more relief than happiness because this show of support meant a lot.

  Brodin grinned. “You know I’m already there.”