Page 74 of King of the Unsightly

Death lingered in the air, and one emotion resonated deep within me.

Dread.

Fell’s voice echoed around us, but he remained hidden. “Should you fight the beasts behind the wall, or should I have you learn the true meaning offear?”

I stepped back, my heart palpitated as Fell’s words slithered across my skin.

A deep sigh encircled me. “You’re taking too long. I’ll make the decision for you.” Fell hummed and its rhythmic patterns sounded like a clock ticking. He spoke again and it cut through the stadium. “If you reach the end, you succeed, but I have to warn you. My last participants didn’t survive long,” he sang out, his voice full of delight. “Good luck.”

Roots broke loose from the soil, throwing me off balance.

They stitched together, creating mountainous walls, and enclosed me on all sides except for two.

Kaschel dropped next to me and rose to his feet. He looked entirely too good for the shit we just went through.

“What the hell did you agree to?” he snarled, cutting his words short. “You never make a deal with a fae, let alone the king of tricksters.Fuck.” His jaw clenched and his neck muscles strained in response.

“Do you even hear the hypocrisy in what you said?!” I shot a glare at him. “And that man had shadow creatures behind him. Aren’t shadows supposed to be your thing since you ... I don’t know ... control them?!”

Kaschel’s scowl darkened, and a flicker of an emotion I hadn’t seen before crossed his face.

Was he ...pouting? At a time like this?

“They are not mine to control.” Kaschel huffed.

Shadow daddy, my ass. Levisus lied.

Massive metal doors slammed in front of the pathways—symbols burned and etched into both.

One door had a realistic grieving face with vibrant eyes, and its mouth was full of fangs. It looked like the embodiment of two conflicting emotions.

The other mask emitted a malevolent aura with its serpent-like eyes and tongue split in two as it hung out of its mouth.

I gulped. Did we really have to choose?

I couldn’t read the chicken scratch symbols on it. So, how would we know which door was right?

I glanced back at Kaschel, hoping he looked more confident than I felt.

“If we split—”

My heart hammered violently as those words left his lips. “Fuck no. Have you never seen a horror movie?!” I looked at him with incredulity. “You never split up, and I’d be the first to die.” I mumbled the last part.

“Movies are not real life.” He creased his brows like I was the idiot here and not him.

“No. It’s crazy. It seems like you quit thinking altogether.” I enunciated the wordyou.

“If you long to be by my side that badly, you just had to say so, little flea,” Kaschel said in a condescending tone as he stepped closer to the metal doors.

For real? “Sure. You figured me out.” I rolled my eyes. “Strap me to your chest, baby. I can’t stand being away from you.”

His cool and collected attitude pissed me off. How could he be so ...insufferable? Didn’t he just say I royally fucked up our situation?

Kaschel ignored my remark and muttered under his breath. “I think it doesn’t matter what path we take, there will be hardships regardless. Some will be worse than the others.”

I leaned closer to the masks, analyzing them a little more carefully.

If we chose the vicious looking one, would it be too obvious we hoped it would be the opposite? Or do we need to take the one sporting two emotions, hoping our initial instinct was incorrect?

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