Wicked Challenge (Darkwater Reformatory Book 2) Read online

  “Hard to say but I doubt Bixby would leave a book around that would unlock all the mysteries of Darkwater Island, right?”

  Akimi jutted forward, dropping the cup with the veggie smoothie she’d been drinking onto the table. Greenish liquid sloshed over the lip. “What does the book say? I… I have lived the longest on Darkwater. Perhaps I should be the one reading.”

  Jacey shrugged. “You’re welcome to look it over once I’m finished.”

  “I will go to this room with you once we are done here.” She lifted her cup and drained the rest of the liquid.

  “As for the drulings,” Jacey said. “The poor little birds seem hungry.”

  “There are seeds we could give them, though I’d like to look around in that room before we use anything there.”

  “Perhaps you’ll find enough to share?” Her face pinched. “I’m worried about the poor things.” Her gaze drifted to the buffet. “I actually tried to bring them some food from here last night, but it disappeared from the plate the moment I stepped outside the room.”

  “A piece to the puzzle, maybe,” Brodin said. “I’d like to look through the weapon’s room.”

  “And me?” Akimi frowned, and her attention shot to me then away. But the malice I’d seen before was gone. “After I view your room,” she said to Jacey, “I believe I need to build a wall. I will examine the items in that room.”

  “Looks like we all, sort of, have an assignment,” I said.

  “Is that what you believe this test will be? Us completing tasks?” Akimi said in a neutral tone.

  “What else? We’re here, there’s a room for each of us—”

  She huffed. “Other than the food and bathing chambers.”

  “Which are here, I guess, to keep us alive. Frankly, I’m grateful to have them.”

  “And the eggs,” Jacey said. “Everything may tie together.”

  Akimi’s gaze fell on Brodin and what looked like jealousy flashed through her eyes. I had to be misreading her. She had her true one waiting somewhere. “I know very well what you are grateful for.”

  Brodin’s hand sought mine and squeezed.

  We were here at this moment to complete a challenge. I’d like to find a way back to friendship with Akimi. I missed knowing she cared. But I wouldn’t beg. She needed to meet me halfway.

  We split up. I went to the room with the gardening implements and sorted through them. Rakes. Hoes. Trowels. Plus hammers, nails, boards, and the watering can.

  And the packet generically labeled SEEDS. I tore off the top and dumped the contents into my hand. Eight seeds. Hmm.

  For whatever reason, I gathered up a bunch of the tools and dragged them down the stairs to the first floor.

  The door had reappeared.

  Knowing I could be foolish but unable to stop myself, I tugged open the door and stepped outside with the things I’d gathered.

  Titan stood on a low hill nearby, watching. The moment I appeared, he shifted into a raptor and barreled down the hill toward me.

  Though my heart flipped and everything inside me told me to run, I stood strong. Tall. My legs trembled, but I refused to give myself away. Something… Who the hell knew what, told me to stand my ground.

  Ten feet out from me, he shuddered to a stop as if he’d slammed into a clear wall.

  He turned back to his wizard form and glared. Shook his fist. “You can’t stay in the tower forever,” he said. “When you leave…”

  “Maybe we will. Maybe we won’t.” Turning my back to him, I gave in to my urge to inspect the low boxes surrounding the tower. I walked around, counting four.

  Too much coincidence here. Could this puzzle be this simple?

  I repaired the boxes then planted one seed inside each. I was tempted to plant them all but kept thinking about the drulings. Rushing inside, I filled the can with water at the buffet then lugged it down, making four trips until each seed had been watered. Tucking the packet with the four remaining seeds into my pocket, I went inside and returned the tools to the room where I’d found them.

  I climbed, my legs aching, my back aching, my lungs on fire by the time I’d reached the level with the small library. Stepping inside, my feet eased across the floorboards until I’d reached Jacey, finding her hunched over the book.

  “Anything new?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “It’s mostly dry history. Did you know, when they built Darkwater, the island was empty? As soon as the building was finished, the creatures appeared as if from the very air around them.”

  “As if they knew the prison needed magical guards?”

  “I wish I knew, but the book doesn’t say.” She glided her finger down a page. “The fae didn’t build the prison.”

  “Who did?”

  “Those who came before.”

  My mind rushed back to my grandma’s words.

  “Whoever escapes the building…?” She’d smacked her thigh with her palm like she was killing a nip. “Becomes the hunted. Not by the guards. Not many of them be needed, like with the bars. It’s what waits for the poor soul outside they need to be fearin’. Creatures.” Her voice hissed, weaving more beastly pictures in the air. “And beings older than the fae.”

  A soft, plaintive cooing behind me made me turn.

  Four cages, each containing one pale gray druling clinging to a perch. They stared at me and softly whistled.

  I had four remaining seeds.

  “They’re hungry,” Jacey said, standing quickly. “I’m worried about them. I tried to set them free, hoping they’d be able to leave through the top of the tower, but they wouldn’t come out of their cages. They just sat on their perches, staring at me mournfully, and cooing.”

  If I fed them the remaining seeds, and mine didn’t sprout, there would be none left to plant. A sense of urgency filled me. I had to grow something in the planters. But the birds…

  I’d never forgive myself if they starved while I hoarded seeds. I dumped them into my hand and carefully dropped one inside each bird’s tiny feed tray.

  Together, they flew off their perches and gulped down the seeds.

  “Nothing’s happening,” Jacey said from behind me.

  Dread solidified in my belly. I’d given the seeds away when I might still need them. Had I doomed us with this thoughtless action? Unsettled, I left Jacey and climbed to the room where Brodin sorted through piles of leather, tools, and even small vats of oil.

  He paused when I entered the room, and the emotion flitting across his face made my steps stall. He took my hands and tugged me close, into his arms.

  We kissed, and the fire that had licked through me the night before woke all over again.

  We pulled apart, breathless. Sharing laughter.

  He cupped my face with his palms and kissed me again. “This is a promise.”

  I tilted my head. “Of what?”

  “It’s yours. I give it freely. You can claim it whenever you want.”

  “Hmm.” I tapped my chin and my smile wouldn’t be denied. “I’ll have to think about this before asking.”

  He kissed me again and I stepped in closer, stumbling against him when my knees turned to mush.

  After kissing again, we parted, and I joined him at the workbench.

  “What’s the purpose of all this?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure if it’s good for anything or why it’s here,” Brodin said, gesturing to where he’d been working, cutting leather into long strips. “I’m not even sure what I’m doing. Just fiddling with the stuff, I guess. Did you know my mom was a leatherworker? It was a hobby. She didn’t tan her own hides; she couldn’t stomach the smell or the process, but she did work with the finished product. Said something good should come from the death.”

  “What did she like to make?”

  “She—we—would craft small bags. Pouches. And sometimes, she’d get a commission for harnesses or riding gear.”

  “To ride what?” From what I could remember, my sister Fleur was the only one who rod
e a creature and then only when her boyfriend Donovan shifted into his dragon. Which was a secret to most, but he’d shared it with me. His ancestors had been hunted by the fae, nearly to extinction, because the fae thought dragon bones gave them extra power.

  “Some of the sketar witches living deep within the forest still use large birds for hunting.”

  “Like the people who raise hawks or eagles?”

  He shrugged. “I suppose so. I helped her in her shop every now and then, though it was in secret.”

  “The fact that you were helping her had to remain a secret?”

  “Not the work but who she did it for. My…father was eager to locate a certain sketar witch, though he would never say why. Since my mom was friends with many in the forest, he believed she should share their names and where they hid, but she refused.”

  Was this why he’d killed her? But by killing her, he’d shut himself off from her knowledge.

  Unless the Master Seeker thought Brodin also knew…

  “Anyway, I should get back to work.” I joined him at the table again. “What are you making? A pouch?”

  He held up a strip with evenly spaced holes. “This? It’s a harness.”

  I’d be foolish not to believe there was some connection but I said nothing. We each had a task. The big question was: how would they all tie together?

  He tugged me into his arms again and kissed the top of my head. “You go do your thing, and I’ll get back to mine.”

  I nodded and left, but as I climbed the stairs I couldn’t help believing that I’d already done my thing. Or part of my thing. Waiting was all that loomed in my future.

  Climbing all the way to the top, I pushed open the door to the room with the eggs and stalled, horror filling me.

  Akimi was wiggling a brick into the wall she’d built, one that blocked all the windows.

  “What are you doing?” I shouted, stomping into the room.

  “What needs to be done.”

  “We need light.”

  “For what?” she snarled. “If you need sunshine, step outside.”

  “I’ve already been outside. You shouldn’t have blocked the windows.”

  “I did what I felt needed doing.”

  “And I’m going to rip them down.” Pivoting, I hurried from the room, aiming for the floor with the chest where we’d hidden the hammers. I smacked into Jacey partway down the first flight of stairs.

  “What’s the rush?” she asked.

  I explained.

  Her spine stiffened. “Show me.”

  We returned to the top of the tower and faced a defiant Akimi together.

  “I’m going to bust them out,” I said. “We need light. The wind. The access.”

  “Access to what?” Akimi growled. “If anything, you should be thanking me. ‘Tis I who has protected us from Lars.”

  “He can’t reach us.” I told them what happened with Titan as Brodin joined us in the room. “We’re safe here.”

  “Until we solve the puzzle,” he said.

  I nodded. “Which we will.”

  “We have done nothing!” Akimi hollered. “Not yet. And we will be punished for what we will do.”

  “By who?” I asked.

  Silence greeted my question.

  “This is wrong.” I turned into the shelter of Brodin’s arms. “We need to tear them down.”

  “I think you’re right,” he said low, only for my ears. “But let’s leave them for now. If we break through, she’ll only rebuild them. Remember how I can’t seem to stop working with the leather?”

  “He’s right,” Jacey said louder. “We’re all assigned a task here. We just need to figure out how they all tie together.”

  The next morning, I woke before Brodin. I tiptoed down the stairs and poked my head out the front door.

  Plants! In each bed, a single deep purple sprout had poked its way above the soil. Thrilled, I retrieved the can and gave them more water. From the hill, Titan watched, the gorelon a cesspool blob at his side. Lars circled overhead but didn’t come near.

  Over breakfast, we talked about what we’d been doing so far.

  “I’ve found more clues in the book,” Jacey said. “About those who came before, the ones who built the prison. The magic holding it all together is old, like them. And it’s indestructible.”

  Brodin talked about the harnesses he’d made, though he admitted he had no idea what use they’d see.

  “How are the drulings?” I asked Jacey.

  “Thriving. They sing in their cages, now. I still want to free them, if they’ll leave, but I haven’t been able to coax them out.”

  I turned to Akimi.

  “My walls are finished,” was all she would say.

  Dark, gloomy, her project shut out the light.

  “Maybe instead of closing us up inside, you should be doing something to create,” I said carefully, not eager to anger her again. “Like something with the eggs. That could be your task.”

  “I already told you what I wish to do with the eggs.” Death rang out in her voice.

  “I’m not letting you destroy them. That’s not our purpose here.”

  “You know this for a fact?” she snapped.

  “No. It’s just a feeling.” Growling in frustration, I stormed from the room. I ran all the way down through the floors until I reached the one holding Rohnan. I dropped to the floor and stared down at him. Cute. Not that physical appearance meant much when the heart was involved, but I could see why Jacey had been attracted.

  “What did you see here?” I asked him. “And what did you do? I wish we could talk to you, that you could explain. And I wish you were here for Jacey. She needs you. Loves you.”

  I wonder…

  Closing my eyes, I pulled in sketar mist—bits of it present even here, inside this part of the Challenge. I’d begun to believe nothing could stop it from forming. Like dew in the morning, it collected whether I needed it or not.

  Then I sent it out with a command. Awaken.

  I stared down, hoping something, anything, would happen with Rohnan. I swore his eyelashes fluttered. Leaning forward, I studied his face, watching and waiting.

  Nothing.

  Slouching back on my butt, I groaned.

  “If only he was free,” Jacey said, coming down the flight of stairs above me.

  If I told her what I’d done, it would only hurt her. Was she stronger when she could maintain hope?

  Was he even alive? I couldn’t imagine being trapped underneath the floor. I’d go out of my mind.

  “I can’t get past the idea that time is running out,” I said.

  “I agree.” Jacey’s chin lifted. She stood over me, over us, her gaze fixed on Rohnan. “I’m not leaving him. If we finish the puzzle, you three will go on without me.”

  “That’s not possible and you know it. That’s why we forced Akimi from the middle world. Besides, how will you stay? We’re not given a choice. We solve it, and we appear at the next test.”

  “I won’t be part of the solution. I will find a way!”

  “Then we may all be stuck here forever.”

  She dropped to her knees and placed her palms on the floor as if linking their fingers together. It stole my breath to watch. “I’m sorry. Don’t you understand? I can’t leave him. He’s my sole reason for doing this.”

  “I think you’re doing this for yourself, too, aren’t you? For revenge.”

  She shrugged. “It’s hard sometimes to remember why I keep trying. When I first arrived at Darkwater, the need for vindication burned through me, a flame nothing could put out. I was determined to get through the Challenge and kill the king.”

  “And now?”

  “Now I see that you can lose yourself in revenge and forget what truly matters.”

  Rohnan.

  “I do understand,” I said. Because I’d do the same. I got up off the floor. “I’m going to go check on my plants.”

  “I also need to read more in the book. When I
last studied it, I’d reached a section that talked about the Reformatory Challenge.” Her fingertip traced Rohnan’s face. “Maybe there will be a clue in that section that will break this curse.”

  I placed my hand on her shoulder. “I hope you find it.”

  She tilted her head to lay it against my arm. “Thanks. The reading is slow going. It’s in olde fae, which I haven’t read that since I was a kid in school. It was never my best subject.”

  As I walked slowly down the stairs to the ground floor, I worried my lower lip. Would we move forward, onto the next test, while she remained locked in the tower with Rohnan?

  I crept to the door and cracked it open. No Titan and no Lars. And fortunately, no gorelon, either.

  I gulped when I saw the plants. On each of the purple stalks, three broad leaves extended, tipped to soak in the sun. A smaller stalk had emerged from the three and at the end, a bud had opened. As I stared, the blossoms fell off, revealing a rich red seed pod. It dangled then dropped to the ground.

  I gathered the pods up and raced inside, finding Jacey still on the floor with Rohnan. I showed her what I’d collected. “What do I do with them?”

  “Hold on to them. You’ll know what to do when the time is right.”

  Clomping up the never-ending stairs, I located Brodin in the leather room.

  “There you are,” he said, nudging his head to the workbench. “I’m almost finished. Four harnesses.”

  So weird how we plodded along, working on one particular task, with no goal in mind yet feeling we couldn’t do anything else but finish. The number four was shining through it all.

  Leaving him, I went up to the top of the tower but found no one there. I approached the eggs and, juggling the pods into one arm, I dropped my hand down on top of the egg on the far left.

  Something inside shifted.

  Gulping, I backed away and ran into someone. I yelped and whirled around.

  Akimi loomed over me, a sledgehammer in her hand.

  “You’ve been snooping,” I said, meaning finding the hammer.

  “There is one for each of us,” she said. “You may do what you will with yours, but I must do the same.” Her face softened. “You… We…” I waited but the only thing that happened was her face tightened. “Please understand,” she finally said.