Blood Lands (Savage Lands #5)(88)

“The only reason I’m stopping, bitch, is because what’s ahead of you is even worse.” Boyd straightened his uniform, sneering at me. “Mark my words, you are going to die tonight, slow and excruciating... and the last voice you will hear will be mine.”





Chapter 24





When the guards unchained Killian and me, hauling us out, I knew what was ahead. Where they were taking us.

It was time for the Games.

My heart pounded with each step, the air shifting when we reached the tunnel leading to the arena. Energy hung in the air like serrated knives, the crowd’s chants resonating down the passage, a call for blood. For death. Anything to distract from their own despair and anger. How easily we all turned on each other, becoming the monsters they deemed us—cannibals eating our own instead of coming together and attacking the one starving and torturing us.

My gaze shot over to Killian, really taking him in—pale, sweaty, gaunt, and broken. The iron robbing him of his energy to heal, sucking the life from him.

“Kil—”

“Don’t worry, Ms. Kovacs.” A forced smile ticked up his lips, bleeding with a sorrow he couldn’t hide. “I’m ready to face whatever comes my way.” As though he was ready if death came for him too. “I will always fight until the very end.”

“Take the collar off of him,” I sneered back at Boyd, the chants outside the tunnel growing louder and louder, the pounding of feet and clapping hands, the bright light of the ring shining into the passage.

Boyd tilted his head.

“Look at him. You know the iron is killing him. Give us at least a chance out there. Doesn’t it make for a better show anyway?”

“It’s not my decision.” Boyd moved through us, unlocking the gate with giddy cruelty. “Nor do I care.”

Clank.

The sound of the gate opening instantly tripled my pulse, a reminder of the traumas of all the times I had been here before. The clank of the key echoing in the lock, the certain pitch the gate made when it opened, felt as if nails were being hammered into my spine.

How many times would I be able to go in and walk out? One of these times, I wouldn’t.

And tonight, might be the time I didn’t.

Or worse, Killian doesn’t.

“I thought you two would be happy.” Boyd’s mouth curved, his shoulder pushing the gate fully open. “You get to reunite with all your friends.” He waved behind us. My eyes followed his gesture to the arena.

My body wanted to curl up on itself, to scream and wail, denying what I saw.

Once again, Markos put in every single person who mattered to me. The thought of only me and Killian was horrendous enough, but seeing all my friends, my family, I knew what Istvan had in store was much worse. And our numbers had already dropped significantly.

Kitty, Ash, Scorpion, Rosie, Wesley, Birdie, Lukas, Kek, Hanna, and to my horror, even Nora stood in the pit.

A large figure moved in front of them; his jaw twitched as his eyes took in my beaten face.

“Warwick.” I called his name privately between us, my legs already moving to him. His arms scooped me up, crushing me to his chest, his mouth claiming mine hungrily.

I knew instantly what he was doing, the warmth of his shadow, the magic we weaved together, poured into my veins, healing and strengthening me. Taking one look at Boyd’s work, he was getting me battle ready.

Breaking the kiss, he growled against my lips, his thumb sweeping over the bruises and cuts on my cheek. “Whatever it takes, princess. Fucking survive.”

Slow clapping whipped my head to the balcony. Warwick set me down, my body turning toward the reason we were all here.

Istvan, in his finest uniform, stood over us, arrogance cutting his features sharply. Olena, on his left, had the same haughty expression.

Istvan’s guest list had doubled.

Ivanenko, the Ukrainian Leader and father of Olena, who I had met several times at parties, where he always propositioned me, stood on the other side of his daughter. On Istvan’s right were Leon, Sonya, the Romanian Prime Minister Lazar, and his sociopath son, Sergiu. The man I was supposed to marry.

His dark eyes narrowed on me with a mix of utter disgust, hate, and fury. The aura of violence and cruelty inside him wafted from him, making me realize how lucky I was fate took my life down a different road.

Smirking at Sergiu, I stepped closer to Warwick. I might be a prisoner, tortured, beaten, and about to die, but my life was still a million times better than being forced to be his wife.

“If you told me a year ago the girl I took in, raised, loved, and cared for as a daughter would stab me in the back?” Istvan’s voice snapped my attention to him. “Would stand before me now with her fae friends and her half-breed lover? I’m not sure I would have believed it. Though, I guess that is my own fault. Deceiving and backstabbing run in her veins.”

Istvan placed his arms behind his back, pacing a few feet. “I should be furious with you, Brexley. What you did to my lab, my experiments.” Clicking his tongue, he tsked me. “I should have someone come down there now and slit your throat.”

A snarl reverberated next to me, Warwick’s frame rigid and threatening. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ash and Lukas step up next to me, could feel Scorpion behind me, and I knew Killian was also near.

Istvan’s mouth pinched in amusement, watching them move in around me.