Wicked Challenge (Darkwater Reformatory Book 2) Read online

  Knowing this part of the challenge involved using our brains, not just our running legs and flailing arms, reassured me somewhat. The water hovered, but if we handled this right, it might not attack.

  “Do we think each of the equations involves subtraction?” I asked. And how the hell were we going to figure out the other numbers?

  “There is one circle for each of us,” Akimi said. “We are a team and must each play a role.”

  Brodin winced. “There’s a problem with that,” he said. “Well, more than one problem, but let’s address the most obvious one first.” His hand swept toward the wall. “Five missing numbers. Four, that is, now that Jacey has filled in one circle.”

  A golden two had appeared where she’d traced it.

  “Four of us, and…five missing numbers.” Mumbling, I backed away to look at the problem as a whole rather than bits and pieces. “The sound inside the wall suggests this puzzle controls the locking mechanism. If so, we guess the missing numbers correctly and we’ll be given access to what’s on the other side or, if we fail…”

  “We drown,” Jacey finished with a gulp. She scrubbed her palms down her face. “Don’t guess wrong you guys, okay?”

  “But why one extra circle?” Brodin asked, frowning at all of us.

  “It cannot be too easy,” Akimi said. “Like any test, we may face here, we must trust in each other to conclude this correctly.” She shifted closer to the wall, her roots dragging across the jungle soil made up of leaves, bark, stems, and small branches in various stages of decomposition.

  Whenever I moved, puffs of dusty spores swirled up into the air. They were absorbed by the wave of water.

  “I believe I have solved the missing component on the top and, thus, I shall take my turn.” One of Akimi’s branches dipped forward, a tiny tip pointing. “On the top right, we have a one. In the middle peak of what Jacey named the roofline of a house, we find a four. And in the left roofline…” One of her branches snapped forward, and she traced a number inside the empty circle. “We need a three.”

  Another click ground through the wall.

  “Awesome,” I said in a whoosh of relief. “Two spots filled in and three left to go.”

  “How did you know it was a three and not a five?” Brodin asked her.

  “When we arrived at the start, we were told to pick fruit offering only three pieces.” Akimi’s head dipped toward him. “Naturally, we needed a three.”

  He shook his head. “Naturally.”

  This was too simple.

  And dreadful, because I had no clue what “my” number should be. It couldn’t be related to the fruit. And it wasn’t the animals since they’d run away from me. I hadn’t seen anything since we started this part of the challenge except…

  “Ah,” I said. “I think I know another number.” Moving around Brodin, I approached the wall and studied the remaining blank spots. In the far left circle, on the left where the “roof” met the “wall”, I found a three. And on the left of the far right shape, in the same position of roof-to-wall, another three. Three minus three equaled zero, yet a zero didn’t fit with my guess. None of the other positions offered my number. I’d need a five, a seven, or a three. Only one spot worked. However…

  “They’re not all subtraction,” I said. “Mine takes addition.” Without hesitation, I drew a six—for six poles on the path—in the blank circle in the roof-to-wall position.

  I had to admit, when another click resounded, my knees went limp. I leaned against the wall with my forehead soaking in the coolness while I caught my breath. What if I’d been wrong?

  Jacey patted my shoulder. “Fantastic. You knew what to do, like me.” She leaned against the wall beside me. “What a relief, right? I would’ve died if I’d guessed wrong.”

  Literally, perhaps, but that wasn’t quite what she meant.

  “The poles on the path were my clue,” I said. “I ran into one and assumed I was clumsy, but what if it ran into me? Brodin teased me about them,” I fed him a smile that contained no irritated kick, “but I started counting. Six. There was only one open spot for a six.” Simple, really, but I had a feeling Brodin was the one here who’d be fully tested. “Better watch out, Brodin. I added the numbers to reach mine. Two subtractions for Akimi and Jacey and one addition for me, which might lead us to assume your number is arrived at by addition, but who knows?”

  His face paled. “Here’s the other part of that problem I mentioned. I don’t remember a number.” He glanced around frantically. “I didn’t see anything that stood out. Maybe I wasn’t looking or maybe… hell, I don’t know.”

  “There are two empty circles, which means you have four number choices. A five versus a seven, or a three versus a five.”

  He peered up at the water hovering over our heads close enough if I jumped, my hand would get wet. “One plus four or four minus one. Or, the other spot would need six minus one or six plus one.”

  Crossing around Jacey, I stood beside him and leaned into his shoulder, staring up at the wall of water. Shudders rippled through me when I spied wizard-sized creatures darting around, deep within the mass. They waited… The shape of a mouth with long, jagged teeth appeared at the cusp of the wave. It grinned, savoring the chance to crash down on us.

  No need to worry about drowning. We’d either succeed here, or we’d be engulfed and eaten.

  “You must’ve seen something, Brodin,” Jacey said, joining us on his other side. “Think about everything that’s happened since we got here. Or even all the way back to when we climbed down the stairs to start the Challenge. The clue is hidden somewhere. You’ll find it.” Looking up, she gasped. The wave mouth flowed down and engulfed her head. When it retreated, her teeth chattered and backing into the wall, she hugged her arms around her waist. “It’s…truly alive.”

  The waved dropped again, creeping closer, as if taking advantage of the opportunity the huntress had given it. It breathed, a musty, dank cloud of misery flowing around us, coating our sinuses with crud.

  “I…” Turning, Brodin’s pleading gaze met mine. “I don’t know what to do.” With a growl, he spun to face the wall with his hands fisted at his sides.

  I joined him and, taking one of his hands, loosened it, and linked our fingers together. “All you can do is try.”

  “I need to remember,” he said in desperation. “I must’ve seen or been involved in something. Three or five. Five or seven. Which is it?” He faced me and linked our other hands together. His voice cracked with dismay. “Which?”

  “She cannot decide for you,” Akimi said. She’d backed against the wave, so close, water trickled down her front. A smack of one of her branches and the water jolted and slid back a foot. “Never forget, Brodin. We are a quadrad. To complete this phase of the Challenge, each must play a role. Each of us has been given the tools we need to succeed. All four of us must reach the Reformatory. That is the rule.”

  If only I could forget my suspicion about Warden Bixby’s involvement in this. If this was another game for her, a more exciting way to deliver death, it wouldn’t matter what we did. We were expendable, toys to be set into motion with no possibility of survival.

  I tugged Brodin closer and linked my fingers around the back of his neck, then pulled his head down until our foreheads met. “No matter what, it’s going to be okay.”

  “How can it be?”

  The vulnerability in his voice made my chest ache.

  “Because it already is.”

  A smile teased across his lips. “For so long, I thought you’d done it, and I hated how torn I felt inside. How could I be falling for someone who’d killed the person I loved most? More than anything, I hoped you’d be able to prove you hadn’t done it.” His smile became truer before it faded and melancholy took its place. “Things between us… Hell, I don’t even know if there’s a possibility of an us yet, but I wish…”

  For too long, I’d fought my growing feelings for him. “Me, too.”

  “We wi
ll find time to talk.”

  “I’m holding you to it.”

  He chipped a nod. “Count on it. We’re going to get through this and then…”

  “Then?”

  He cupped my face with his warm hands. “Then I’m going to show you the world.”

  “I can’t wait to see it.”

  “Guys?” Jacey said, but we didn’t jolt apart. We stepped closer together. If only…. “Really love where this seems to be going between you two, but we’ve got a water problem.” She flicked her hand to the wall creeping closer, despite Akimi trying to hold it back with outstretched branches. “Let’s get this over with and prove to the catacombs we can win against anything it throws our way. Then you two can…I don’t know…take off together.” Her soft smile contained a hint of envy, reminding me she’d lost the guy she loved, Rohnan. “Or something.”

  Were we ready for that? A sense of urgency filled me. The Master Seeker wanted Brodin dead and would not stop until it happened. Fear fed my need to get closer to Brodin.

  “Pick,” I said softly to Brodin. “No matter what, it’s okay.”

  Turning, he stood straighter, resolute. His hand lifted, and he traced a five on the bottom right of the middle shape.

  Silence reigned.

  Then part of the wall of water plunged down onto us.

  Soaked through and shivering, we cringed as the wave sloshed and rose higher above us again, cresting with whitecaps flickering across the tip. Its mouth gaped wide and it roared, a screeching-bellowing sound that cracked my eardrums.

  Dripping, Akimi left the wave and approached where I stood beside Brodin. “I believe you will only be granted one more chance,” she said. “Hence, five circles. We are allowed one mistake and that was our single warning.”

  “You can do it,” Jacey said. “The four of us can. Together.” Stepping forward, she stood tall—as tall as she could at only five feet even—beside Brodin’s. Akimi joined at Brodin’s back. One of her branches dropped down to rest on his shoulder, and Jacey placed her hand on the other.

  I took Brodin’s hand and squeezed it tight. “Do it for yourself.”

  He lifted my hand and kissed it. “Nope. I’m gonna do it for all of us.” His free hand lifted and hovered over the same circle where he’d failed, before moving to the other blank spot. His eyes closed and his lips moved as if he spoke to someone who wasn’t physically present but who encouraged him in spirit.

  His fangs protruded before disappearing back into his jawline.

  Eerie.

  Did he walk through dreams in his ghost-shifter saber-toothed tiger form, seeking the answer?

  After sucking in a great gulp of air, he opened his eyes and drew a number in the empty circle on the far right side, where the roof met the wall.

  Seven

  Tria

  Brodin drew another five, in the second location.

  The wall shuddered and mortar between the stones crumbled, widening until the stones separated and an arched doorway appeared. With a groan, the panel inside the arch shattered. Dust boiled out of the opening and rocks spiked around us like a pile of exploded nails.

  Stumbling backward, I ducked, protecting my head. When the cloud and rain of debris ended, a dark, impenetrable entrance in the wall awaited.

  “Whoa,” Brodin said. “Glad I guessed the number right.”

  “A guess?” Jacey said, releasing a shaky laugh. “Fantastic job, though.”

  Akimi dipped her head toward Brodin. “A valiant team effort.”

  Brodin’s gaze met mine and he gave me a subtle shake of his head. So, he hadn’t guessed?

  Frowning, I pinched the front of my prison garb, tugging it away from my body. Dry. How had that happened? I should still be soaked from when the waved drenched us.

  A subtle sound behind me sent me spinning.

  “It’s gone,” I whispered. Nothing remained of the massive wall of water. No wet ground. No dripping trees.

  “For now,” Jacey said, moving to stand beside me. Her hand took mine and squeezed before letting go. “While I’m eager to move onto the next test, I’m…” Her shoulders slumped.

  “Scared?”

  “I keep hoping I’ll see a sign or…” Staring forward, she blinked fast. “Most of all, I hope I’ll find him alive and waiting.”

  “Rohnan.”

  Turning toward me, she swallowed hard. Her eyes shimmered. “You understand, don’t you?”

  My nod was an admission of my changing feelings toward Brodin.

  But while Jacey loved Rohnan, I barely knew Brodin. The only thing I was certain of was that I wanted to know him better. “I hope he’s waiting for you at the next test.” In my voice and my facial expression, I projected complete confidence it could happen, until Jacey stepped away, toward the archway. Then my belly sunk, because the odds of us finding Rohnan alive were worse than the chance of Titan joining our team.

  A short distance behind us, the huntress called. “Grook, grook.” My head shot in that direction as I sought movement in the trees, but I only caught the impression of shifting leaves. Even the bugs and birds hadn’t stirred yet. Another grook suggested the huntress remained stationary. She wasn’t coming closer but she also wasn’t leaving. If we didn’t go on to the next challenge, she’d send another wall of water after us, without another test to use as an escape.

  “We’ve got to go,” I said, turning to face my friends. “Does anyone have any idea how many tests we’ll be expected to take? Two down and…” A lifetime left to go? It already felt that way.

  “I imagine they’ll come one after the other until we’re eliminated or…” Jacey’s grim expression made me glad we were on the same team. “That is not an option. We’ll do whatever it takes.”

  “I won’t give up. Ever,” Brodin said, his shoulders tight.

  What was in this for him? Originally, he’d said he would go wherever I did because he intended to make me pay for murdering his mother. Now that he knew I hadn’t done it, what drove him to the Challenge? Maybe he hoped to escape Darkwater, like me, and the only way out was through the Reformatory. And he knew his father, the Master Seeker, had murdered his mother. He must intend to seek revenge, as one of his possible paths had shown me.

  He might need to take a number. I also hoped to visit the Master Seeker… Force might be my only way to break the blood bond I’d foolishly made.

  “What’s your goal here?” I asked Akimi, curious. She stood near Jacey, as silent and stoic as an ancient, sturdy oak tree. “Why did you jump into our triad and turn us into a quad?”

  Her gaze drifted past my shoulder, toward the jungle. “I seek that which cannot be found.”

  Frowning, Jacey leaned against the wall near the archway, her arms folding across her chest. “That means nothing. Perhaps now is a good time to explain, before we find ourselves deep in the next challenge.”

  “You and Brodin saw my possible paths,” Akimi said to me. “Jacey did not.”

  In one, she was ripped apart by Titan while Warden Bixby and her brother, Duvoe gleefully cheered him on. In the other, she’d been punished by Bixby for helping us and sentenced to remain root-bound in front of the prison, her branches forever reaching upward for something she’d never find, her roots always parched. And as for her… “You’re looking for your fated mate. Your true one.”

  Pain flashed through her eyes. “One who may not exist. But I will seek forever.”

  “You think you’ll find this person inside the Challenge?”

  “At the Challenge or the Reformatory. I have not found them at the prison.”

  Imagine choosing to endanger your life to find the one person who could make you feel whole. My attention flicked to Brodin, but too much was unsettled between us to consider him someone as important to me as that. But there was no denying I was drawn to him.

  “I understand,” Jacey said, blinking fast. “I will do anything to be reunited Rohnan.”

  “I’m also interested in hearing if we�
��ll share your power, Akimi,” Brodin said pleasantly. An edge of steel tightened his words. “You’re not wearing tennas, so your magic isn’t blocked like ours. From what we heard back at the prison, everyone entering the Challenge is only allowed to tap into their team member’s particular magical skill. Tria and Jacey can use my Influencer abilities, me and Jacey will have access to Tria’s Seeker skills, and me and Tria can tap Jacey’s healing and necromancy. While I can already see how valuable you are to our team in general, I’d like to know if what magic you’ll contribute and if we can use your skills.”

  “Grook!”

  The call came from so close, I almost jumped out of my skin. The ground shook, and water sloshed, a growing roar that would soon be upon us.

  “Great questions. No time,” I said, flipping my hand toward the archway. “But do hold the thought.” My intent gaze fell on Akimi. “We will get this settled.”

  Her head lowered, but I had the feeling she’d only reveal what she chose.

  “Go,” Brodin said, his eyes widening as he peered toward the jungle.

  I didn’t need to look. The stink of the wave huffed around me like the corpse of a long-dead beast.

  “Let’s do it.” Jacey strode into the hole with what appeared to be full confidence, but her hands trembled. She disappeared from view the moment her feet left this part of the Challenge.

  Akimi glanced at me and Brodin, and my skin prickled with…I wasn’t sure if I’d read defiance or worry in her eyes, but I’d be on guard until I figured it out. She floated into the next trial, her roots scraping across the ground like dry sticks rubbing together in the dead of winter.

  Brodin shook off his unease like a dog spraying water, and I did the same. We’d do our best to prepare for whatever was coming but sometimes, it made the most sense to jump in with wide-open eyes than hold back while the future crept up on you.

  As we stared at each other, our lips teased upward at the same time because…