Page 177 of Bloodguard

“It’s all right,” I say. “Let’s get out of here so you can have all the nice things you deserve.”

The buzzing vanishes. That doesn’t mean we’re safe. The rattles increase in the next crate, and the one I already passed rumbles with an escalating chorus of growls.

“Now or never,” I say.

She nods but is having a hard time staying focused. I all but drag her with me. The moment we step out of the crate, the music resumes. “If the music stops, you stop. Understand?”

Outcries from the crowd erupt all around us.

Pega’s eyes dart back and forth, and she sways. “Yeah,” she mumbles.

The music slows, and I have to hold her back when she starts to move faster. “Follow the rhythm, Pega,” I tell her. “If it’s fast, you go fast. If it slows, you do as well. Whatever you do, don’t leave the circle.”

I haul her out of the way when the saws puncture through the sand and charge. A third emerges, chasing the others.

How many of these things are there?

I check behind us. For now, it’s only these three.

Only?What am I thinking?

With Pega, it’s a fight to avoid the saws. Throw in that wretched music, and it’s all I can do to keep a level head.

Pega, as doped up as she is, does her best and permits me to lead. As the saws disappear, the music picks up. We bolt, her hand clutched tightly in mine.

If I can save her, I will. But to do so, I first need to save myself.

We race at high speed to match the orchestra as the crowd screams and cheers.

When the music slows, so do we, and Pega gasps for air. Whatever they gave her makes her barely fit to walk, much less run—yet she does her damnedest.

I speak as quickly as I can. “There’s something waiting in each crate. If you’re not with me, I can’t be sure it won’t go after you.” Still walking with Pega in time to the music, I glance up. “Can you climb the crates?” I ask.

She doesn’t hesitate. “Yeah.”

The tempo picks up again. We’re short on time.

“Can you leap from one to the other?” I ask.

She looks up at a crate as we pass, checking out the distance. “Yeah.”

I’m not so sure, but I keep that tidbit to myself.

“All right, Pega, listen,” I say. “The moment we stop in front of the next crate, climb it. Don’t wait for me to open it. When whatever resides emerges, leap to the next one.”

“There could be anything in there,” she mumbles.

“I know,” I agree.

Her words are getting easier to understand. After years as a seasoned gladiator, her metabolism seems to be burning through whatever they drugged her with fairly quickly. At least that’s my hope.

The music slows, taking up the familiar, slow melody that began my match. “The only way to win is to kill everything that attacks me until only one crate remains.”

I steal a glance in time to see her pupils dilate in and out. “I’ll make it if I’m on that last crate?” she asks.

“I don’t know, Pega,” I admit, trying to go over Ugeen’s rules in my head. I’m not confident in my assessment. “But that’s all we’ve got, and we have to try.”

Something that resembles hope fills her expression. “I trust you, Leith,” she says clearly.

---