Page 67 of Psycho Devils: Aran's Story 2

The Legionnaire Games: Day 6, hour 5

I dug my toes into the silky grass and closed my eyes.

The crashing surf, howling wind, and sulfuric stench faded into the background.

In my mind I stood in a flower field.

Two fae suns warmed my skin.

Lothaire shouted over the icy wind, “For the first four games, only a few competitors from each team will be selected to represent their legion.”

The mirage broke, and I opened my eyes.

The eclipse swallowed the sky and cast everything in blood red. The salty air whipped my curls into an unruly mess.

We stood in our lines on the west side of the island on what used to be rocks.

It was now an arena.

Neon-green grass was squishy beneath my bare toes.

A perfect circle of lawn was surrounded by dozens of wide pillars. They jutted high into the cloud cover. The arena was about the same size as the gladiator stadium in the fae realm, but there were no surrounding seats.

A small silver set of bleachers sat off to one side.

The seating was comically out of place compared to the height of the posts and the tall spires of the academy.

Sadie glanced over at me with a wide smile like she was having fun.

I grimaced back.

She wiggled her chest in what was supposed to be a shimmy but came across as an uncontrollable tick.

Competitors glanced over at her with raised eyebrows.

“Stop it,” I mouthed.

Sadie shimmied faster and mimed thrusting her hips sexually in my direction.

I pinched the top of my nose and pretended that the lunatic woman with white hair wasn’t gyrating in my direction.

Her mate Cobra wrapped his arm around her shoulder. He pressed her against his side to stop her movements.

She smirked at me, and I purposefully looked in the other direction.

Lothaire’s braid whipped in the wind. “Every team has been assigned an approved substitute. This person will be mandatorily subbed into a legion if a member becomes indisposed.”

Indisposed.

“Do you think he means dead?” John asked as he clapped his hand across my back like he always did.

Pain jolted down my spine, and I swallowed a scream. “One can hope.”

Lothaire gestured to his side. He waited for something.

CRACK.

Dick and Lyla appeared out of thin air.

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