Wicked Challenge (Darkwater Reformatory Book 2) Page 23

  “We are a team,” I said. “But we’re a quad, and we’ll need Akimi to succeed in this part of the trial.”

  “I’ll talk with her,” Jacey said, easing around us. “After exploring my floors, I’ll see what I can do before we return up here. Shall we meet on the top floor when we’re done?”

  Gnawing on my lower lip, I nodded.

  After she’d left, we started down the stairs with the hammers clanking together at our sides. Three landings down, we found a door that opened easily to nothing. Well, it opened to the outside, with the desert spread around us like a tan-colored plague.

  “Not stepping out there,” Brodin said.

  “Nope.” I peered down. The stone tower was wider at the base than at the top, as I’d seen when I’d approached, but it had to be a mirage since the highest floor was widest on the inside. Small paths snaked away from the building like spokes on a wheel. Surrounding the base, someone had built what looked like big garden boxes. Blown sand had filled the openings as the desert slowly reclaimed this part of the test. Would the main structure eventually be covered?

  We shut the door and moved down to the next landing, finding another door, only this one opening into a small room with one window and four beds.

  “Slightly creepy but expected,” Brodin said with a sigh. “I believe we’ll be here for some time.”

  “One for each of us, then.”

  He wiggled his eyebrows. “I’m happy to share.”

  I tapped his butt as I passed him, exiting the room. “I’d take you up on it if we didn’t have an audience.”

  He followed, eager. “Really?”

  “Why so shocked?”

  He shrugged. “I guess because…”

  Turning, I looped my arms around his shoulders. “Being alone for more than ten seconds might allow us to finally have that talk.”

  His warm hands slid around my waist, and he tugged me closer. “Here’s my share of the talk. I like you. I hate that I doubted you initially. But I’m all in.”

  Standing on tiptoe, I gave him a quick kiss. “Same.”

  “You doubted me?” His fingertips teased up my spine.

  “Nah, it wasn’t doubt. I found you irksome.”

  “Because I was being irksome.”

  “As irritating as you were, you still pressed some of my buttons.”

  “Only some?” He lowered his head, and his mouth hovered over mine.

  I rose to meet him. “All of them.”

  Twenty-Nine

  Tria

  We met up together later, on the top floor. If Akimi noticed the hammers were gone, she didn’t mention it. Brodin and I had hidden them in a chest tucked into a closet in a room five floors below.

  I dropped onto the wooden floor with my back to the platform that held the cupped eggs and Brodin sat next to me, his arm sliding around my back to brace on the floor.

  “What did you find, Akimi?” Brodin asked.

  “Most of my doors led nowhere,” she said. “To the outside and a drop to the sand.”

  Jacey leaned forward. “Same here.”

  Akimi gave her a pert nod in acknowledgment, but her steely eyes suggested she wasn’t ready to forgive Jacey for siding with us. “Three doors led to small rooms. One was filled with a mix of tools and implements, even battle gear.”

  Brodin and I shared a glance. Would we be expected to fight? Hopefully not with each other but against an advancing force. While some of what we’d find could be clues to completing this part of the test, they could also be false leads, used to distract or confuse us. We needed to keep that in mind.

  “What else?” I asked.

  Akimi stared in my direction but her gaze did not connect. When she returned to this level, Jacey told me she’d talked with Akimi but didn’t make much progress. I tried to shrug it off but it did matter. My chest hurt, and breathing had become my own, personal challenge.

  “Another room containing mortar, bricks, and tools for…building walls?” Akimi said. “I assume for such as this. Structures.”

  “Anything else?” Jacey asked.

  “The last contained one bed,” Akimi said. “Nothing else had been placed in the room.”

  “How about you, Jacey?” I asked.

  “Most of my doors led to the drop-off outside. I saw Lars out there, circling high above the tower. He’s watching, waiting for us to give him a chance. He’ll kill us, I believe, if we try to leave.”

  “And he can see at night as well as during the day,” Akimi said.

  “Naturally,” Brodin said.

  “We won’t be walking out of here as long as he’s around,” I said. “But those weapons could come in handy. I’ll check them out.”

  “I found a large bathing room.” Jacey’s face scrunched. “So odd. I’m sure we all noticed that the doors are affixed to the outside wall, but when we open them, they lead to a room that shouldn’t exist since the tower surface was smooth, not covered with bulges indicating rooms. This place is definitely magical, but—”

  “Hopefully not in the same way as the castle,” I said.

  She shrugged. “Who can tell? But there’s a decent-sized bath pool in the room, enough to fit all of us if we wanted to lounge around, and the water is warm. I was tempted to take a dip but didn’t, just in case.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Cursed water?”

  “If we’re here long, we might want to consider it,” she said. “There’s also a toilet, which was welcome and…no issues I could see with that part. I can’t imagine bespelling a toilet, but that wouldn’t be the first trick we’ve stumbled across.”

  “You used it,” Brodin said, maintaining a serious face.

  “When you’ve gotta go…” Her grin was a lighthearted breeze sweeping through the room that turned cloudy again the moment her smile fell. “I only found one other room. One with food; a buffet that seemed to replenish itself.”

  “Who dares to eat anything here?” Akimi asked.

  I grunted. “I’m more worried about the drinks.”

  Jacey shuddered. “No golden liquid that I could see. Face it, us figuring out what the castle was doing to us was part of the trial. The drink manipulated our minds so we couldn’t see what was going on around us. We made it through that test, so why repeat the same thing?”

  “Yeah,” Brodin said. “There haven’t been any repeats so far, but we’ll have to talk about this more, decide if we dare touch the food or not.”

  “Already did,” Jacey said. “I knew you three would be worried, so I took it upon myself to eat a few things and sample all of the drinks.”

  “And…?” I asked.

  “So far, I feel normal. We can give it time before we decide, though.”

  “You were very brave,” Akimi said as if granting a huge concession. Her gaze drifted over me and landed on Brodin. “And you? What did you find?”

  “We found doors leading outside, plus a room with four beds.”

  “I shall take the single room,” Akimi said.

  “Nope,” Jacey said.

  Akimi gaped at her as if she’d lost her only friend. And maybe she was right if she had already written off me and Brodin.

  “I think the room should be for Brodin and Tria if they want it,” Jacey said, slanting us a glance through her lashes.

  Heat rose in my face. Like, lay it out that we might have sex. But my belly tightened. I did want alone time with him, even if nothing like that happened.

  “No pressure,” Jacey said, smoothing over the conversation before I had to reveal—or not reveal—my thoughts on sharing a room with Brodin. He watched me with a neutral expression on his face. It would be my decision, then. I’d have to get him alone and ask him his thoughts on the matter. I sure wouldn’t put him on the spot by asking here. “What else did you find?”

  “Another room had a desk, writing tools, paper, and carrier drulings,” Brodin said. “Living birds, though I have no idea how they’ve survived. The room has a small library, and none of
the books seemed revealing.”

  “We can pull them out and look at each just to be sure,” Jacey said.

  “Why would one need a druling to send a message?” Akimi said. “Who would one send one to?”

  “No idea,” I said. “The last room we found had everything you’d need to grow a garden. Seeds, tools, gloves, even a watering can. Maybe there’s water at Jacey’s buffet.”

  “So, you think this is a way to grow food, maybe,” Jacey said with a frown. “I guess if I keel over from what I ate and drank, you three can look into that as an option.”

  “Not funny,” I said, but she did have a point. Maybe I’d poke around in that room again and see if it contained any clues.

  “Let’s hope there’s also something to make the seeds grow fast,” Jacey said. “Because Titan has set up camp below—did you see the big tent he erected? I imagine that’s courtesy of Bixby since the gorelon was hanging out in the shade, in front of the entrance to the tent, waiting for us to appear.”

  “Lars for the skies, Titan on the ground, and the gorelon to keep things entertaining,” I said. “It appears we need to find a way out of here either by fighting our way through or sending a druling to someone for help, though who the hell knows who that could be.”

  “Do you think the eggs are more drulings?” Jacey asked.

  “That or something else,” I said.

  “They will likely hatch and eat us,” Akimi said. “They are the ticking clock. We have to learn how to get out of here before they emerge.”

  “Whatever they are,” Brodin said. “I’m not convinced there’s anything inside them. It could just be a trick to confuse us.”

  But what if Akimi was right? I’d kept her from destroying them and my friends had gone along because I’d been completely convinced bringing the hammers down on them was the wrong thing to do. I could be leading my friends into another disaster. This time, I might not get another chance…

  “Titan and Lars here to add more interest to the game,” Jacey said, her lips thinning. “At least the entrance locked them out.”

  “Bixby is controlling this. Why would she allow us to lock ourselves inside?”

  “She enjoys playing with us before moving in for the kill,” Brodin said.

  “Unless, as Akimi said, the catacombs themselves are alive,” I said. “They may only let Bixby control some of the components.”

  Akimi dipped her head but didn’t comment on what I’d said.

  “I haven’t given up the idea that you’re right, Akimi.” Jacey’s gaze met mine and while it shouted trust, it was clear she wasn’t willing to let go of any option. “We may still need to use those hammers.”

  “I won’t do it,” I said, still convinced. But why? What compelled me to continue this belief? Instinct maybe.

  Akimi growled. “If we do not destroy them, then we will all die.”

  “We’re sort of dying already if we never get out of here or end up like…Rohnan,” Brodin pointed out. “We need to finish this test and then the next. That’s it. As long as we’re alive, there’s still hope we’ll find ourselves at the Reformatory.”

  I stood, facing Akimi. “You don’t know that letting them remain as they are will kill us.”

  She lounged back against the wall, her bark face tight. “No more than you know the truth about the middle world.”

  My gaze cut to Brodin, who sighed. His gaze suggested caution and patience.

  Things I was finding hard to hold on to.

  “She was dying,” Jacey said.

  I hushed her, but she kept at it. Like Akimi would care?

  “What do you speak of,” Akimi asked, like she discussed the weather.

  “A slake bit Tria while she was in the middle world.”

  “Yet here you are, alive,” Akimi said.

  “Brodin healed me when we’d returned,” I said reluctantly. Really, couldn’t we let this go?

  “How nice for you.”

  Jacey growled. “Don’t you get it? She brought you out and returned you to your body, refusing to let Brodin heal her until she’d helped you. A little thanks might be nice.”

  “Staying in the middle world was my only hope.”

  “I don’t believe your true one was there,” Brodin said.

  Akimi sighed. Not in anger but…as if she had been defeated. “How would you know this?”

  “I’m Eerie.”

  “Ah.” Her branches drooped. “I do apologize, then, Tria. I can understand your need to leave that world but you did not need to force me to return with you.”

  “We’re a team,” I said.

  Akimi’s lips twisted. “Is that the only reason you brought me back?”

  “If you believe that, there’s nothing else I can say to you.”

  Akimi just looked away but some of her fight seemed to have left her.

  “I wanted to help you,” I said, refusing to flop over and give up.

  “I am beyond hope,” Akimi said with renewed desperation. “Do you not understand?”

  “No one is beyond hope,” Jacey said.

  “I am.” Akimi rose and left the room, her roots dragging down the stairs.

  When time passed and Jacey remained the same, as far as we could tell, we went to the buffet and joined up with Akimi. We ate and drank. Then we took turns in the bathhouse, magically finding towels and new, clean clothing when each of us had emerged from the water.

  Parting, Brodin and I returned to the top of the tower and sank down against the wall together. The sun—assuming this place had a sun—had gone down, and the moons, all pale green and of equal size, rose slowly on the horizon, shedding a phosphorescent glow that should be soothing. Knowing what waited outside and not knowing what might wait for us inside, kept me on edge.

  “That single room,” Brodin said, taking my hand in both of his and dropping the knot of us onto his lap. “No pressure at all. I can sleep up here, in the room with four beds, or down on the ground floor. Wherever.”

  “I’d like to stay in that room with you. I don’t know if…”

  “Again, no pressure.”

  Leaning against his shoulder, I smiled up at him. “Then let’s take the room.”

  He kissed me, sharing a sweet, lingering taste of his soul.

  Fingers linked, we took the stairs slowly, passing Jacey in the room where Brodin and I had found the drulings, a library, and writing materials. The small lantern she’d lit sat on the desk, casting shadows across the room as she bent over a book, her finger tracing lines on the page. If she found something there, she’d let us know about it in the morning.

  Akimi was nowhere to be found, but perhaps that was for the best. The last thing I wanted was another confrontation. That could wait until morning, as well.

  Entering the single room, we dropped down onto the bed, lying side-by-side like an old married couple, only fully clothed. A small lantern glowed on the floor, drawing out shadows.

  Brodin took my hand and kissed the back.

  I turned toward him and snuggled into his side.

  This wasn’t about the desperation I felt knowing with each test, one of us might be lost.

  It wasn’t about the horror I felt knowing I might still be forced to kill him.

  Or the knowledge that even if we made it through the Challenge, we might still be torn apart.

  It was about him. And me. And us.

  His belief that, no matter what, I could do no wrong.

  The overwhelming joy I felt whenever I was near him.

  This was right. We were right.

  Rising up over him, I kissed him, our breaths mingling, growing more feverish by the second.

  I tugged off my shirt and arched into his touch. His clothing joined mine on the floor.

  Then we snuffed out the light and got under the covers together.

  Thirty

  Tria

  I woke as the sunrise peeked through the single window and Brodin shuffled around through the shadows. Dressing. Tryi
ng not to wake me.

  He leaned over me and kissed me, the taste of him softer than a butterfly alighting on a flower.

  “You… You make me complete,” he said so quietly I would’ve missed it if I’d been asleep. But his words hummed through me like a song or a poem or the happy ending of the best books I’d ever read.

  As he ducked from the room and the soft click of the door shutting echoed around me, a thump hit the bottom of the bed.

  Kai sauntered up the covers and stood over me, his green eyes winking. No judgment, just a subtle purr of approval. He curled up at my side and went to sleep as my mind blurred and I joined him.

  When I woke later, Kai was gone and Brodin hadn’t made a reappearance. I stretched then got up, and was hustling to the bathing room when a soft sound drifted up the stairwell.

  I tiptoed down two flights then another but paused when I sensed movement below, on the first level. I leaned over.

  Jacey lay on the floor, her hand resting over Rohnan’s heart. She whispered something to him and sniffed. Wiping her eyes, she continued speaking. Unwilling to encroach on her pain or bring it fully into the light of day, I turned and went back upstairs. I was glad to find the bathing room facilities empty.

  I hated that I was stepping forward with Brodin while Jacey remained locked with Rohnan in the past.

  After, I joined the other three upstairs, in the room with the buffet. I fixed a plate and sat next to Brodin.

  The smile he gave was solely for me. It reached inside my chest and gave my heart a squeeze that would’ve brought me intense joy if red didn’t rim Jacey’s eyes. How could I be happy while she mourned?

  “Plans for today?” I asked softly.

  “Back to the library,” Jacey said, fiddling with the food on her plate. Her spine stiffened as if she’d weighed her thoughts and set some of them aside to be brought out later. Her chin lifted and though her lower lip trembled, her eyes gleamed with hope. “I found a book…”

  I lifted my eyebrows.

  “It’s old, naturally, as one would expect in a place like this.”

  “A clue to the current puzzle?” Brodin asked.