Page 98 of Psycho Devils: Aran's Story 2

I pulled away from him, shoved my pipe between my lips, and fingered my braids. The warmth in Sadie’s room had been an escape from reality. Everything had been richer, and even the air had seemed warmer.

Now I shivered from a phantom chill.

Lightning streaked down the walls, but I didn’t blink.

The world was dipped in gray.

I had no memory of getting back to the room, falling asleep, and waking up the next morning with a stomachache. Almost no recollection of Orion tracing black war paint across my cheekbones. I didn’t recall pulling on the all-white spandex outfits that were delivered to our room.

I barely remembered choking down a plate of eggs for breakfast and drinking three cups of coffee in the silent hall.

I hardly recalled stumbling back to the room to wait for our instructions.

I barely noticed that Lothaire entered the room an hour later. He said a bunch of shit, and I didn’t listen.

“The gods have selected Arabella, Corvus, and Orion to fight in this first round for the academy legion,” Lothaire’s voice penetrated the fog.

Those words I heard.

My stomach plummeted, and adrenaline exploded through my neurons.

The world snapped back into horrible focus.

I missed the haze.

Chapter 15

Corvus Malum

FREE-FALLING

The Legionnaire Games: Day 23, hour 9

I pushed Orion behind me protectively as Lothaire led us into the center of the field.

Arabella walked a few feet away with a blank expression on her face.

The bags under her eyes were black. They blended with the war paint Orion had put under all our eyes.

She looked awful, and she had cherry-colored marks along the side of her neck. It hadn’t escaped my notice last night that both her and Orion’s lips were swollen. He’d marked her like she was his to claim.

I’d deal with my Revered later.

For now, we had to survive the first competition.

I scanned the lawn and cataloged our competition. Fourteen people had been chosen by the gods to fight: two male devils from the House of Dar; two female assassins; two shifters, Sadie and the man called Jax; three male leviathans; and three angels, the man with heterochromia and two women.

There was a thick dark cloud cover, and the sea churned aggressively. The wind howled as it battered against us.

Conditions were rough.

The towering posts along the field’s perimeter cast looming shadows across the lawn. They jutted high into the scarlet sky, and the ends of the posts disappeared in the black clouds.

I flexed with anticipation.

A female student screamed, “Go kings! The royals love you!” There was a chorus of shouts and whistles of agreement, but the cheers were swallowed by the wind.

Arabella didn’t look at the crowd. She kept her eyes on the rough sea.

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