Page 47 of Insatiable

We make our way slowly to the sofas, savoring our last moments together. The enormity of what's about to happen weighs heavily on all of us. Quinn's hand trembles in mine as we approach the others. Hades regards us solemnly, his dark eyes filled with an emotion I can't quite place. Is it pity? Regret? It's hard to tell with him. Beside him, Twila gives us all a slight shake of her head. It was a long shot. Anthura stands beside them, her expression a smug grin. “That’s everyone. Quinn, take a seat on the sofa. The rest of you have no place here, but don’t worry—you can watch everything on the big screen.” She narrows her eyes, locking onto mine. “Wouldn’t want you to miss out onwatching your friends suffer now, would we?” A wave of hatred crashes over me, seething through my veins like poison. She knows how much it will hurt me to see Quinn in pain… but then I realize she’s not talking about Quinn at all. My gaze shifts to where Felix sits on the sofa, staring at me as though he wants to say something. But the time for words has passed. Tomorrow he’ll be gone. I shouldn’t have left things the way I did.

“Now, now, Anthura, there’s no need for such words,” Hades interjects, though I don’t catch the rest of his sentence as Juliette pulls me away.

Juliette and I sit back in our booth, a heavy silence enveloping us as we watch the remaining contestants in the games receive their grim assignments. Each face is etched with fear, and as they stand to head toward the elevator doors, a wave of desperation washes over me. I want to leap up, to run after them, but my body is frozen in place, paralyzed by the weight of what’s happening.

“I slept with Felix again last night,” I finally admit, my voice barely above a whisper once they’ve all disappeared from sight. The confession feels like a boulder dropped into a deep, dark well; my heart sinks, heavy as stone. There’s no point in hiding it anymore. Quinn would have hated me for this. J Juliette will probably just roll her eyes and think I’m an idiot—which, deep down, I know I am.

Juliette turns to me, her grip tightening around my hand. “I guess I wasn’t the only one saying goodbye,” she says softly, her eyes filled with empathy. In that moment, I see the reflection of my own pain in her gaze, and it makes everything feel even more real. The weight of regret and longing crashes down on me.

“We should have tried,” I murmur, my voice cracking under the weight of what-ifs. “Quinn never gave up, and we just... did nothing.”

Juliette’s lips twitch into a sad, knowing smile. “Quinn was always stronger than us.”

I shake my head, the knot of regret tightening in my chest. “Do you think she would have gotten us all through?”

Juliette shrugs. “I don’t know. She certainly looked like she had a good idea, but then we got the text. I guess we’ll never know.”

Suddenly the lights flicker and the image on the giant screen that surrounds the canteen changes from floating cakes to Anthura smiling straight at the camera. I want to throw something at the screen but I have nothing to hand.

“Welcome to the third trial of the Inferno Games.”

Her voice booms out throughout the whole building and grates through me.

“As usual, the trial will take place in the Earthery. Just like the last two trials, the images you see are what the contestants will see. Only to them, everything they encounter will look, smell, and feel very real. Now George, can you tell us a little about this trial? What can the remaining contestants expect?”

It’s funny. I’ve never seen the games from this side before. I knew we were being watched, but it never really hit home what everyone was seeing before now. I glance to the side to see the canteen filling up with people. In the last circle, we were celebrities. Down here, the emaciated population never seemed to care about the Inferno Games, but now I see I was wrong in that assumption. They just weren’t as forthcoming as the residents of Purgatory and Lust. Now they are coming in droves to watch the final Trial.

The camera pans to George who’s almost shuddering in excitement. His belly wobbles as he talks. “The idea for this trial was actually inspired by Hades.”

The screen quickly cuts to a shot of Hades, his expression stoic.

“It’s a labyrinth of sorts,” George announces, his voice bubbling with excitement when the scene returns to him.

“So what makes your labyrinth different from Hades’ famous labyrinth?” Anthura inquires, her tone laced with excitement.

“In Gluttony, we feel hunger, but we cannot perish from it,” George explains, a strange gleam lighting up his eyes.

“I doubt the bastard has ever felt hunger a day in his existence,” Juliette hisses beside me, her contempt palpable.

“We can wither to bones and skin,” George continues, “but it cannot truly kill us unless…” He presses his fingers together and giggles, his jowly chin wobbling comically. “Unless they are in the Labyrinth.”

“Are you saying that people can starve to death in there?”

“They can and they will. Within the walls of the labyrinth, there is food. Some will be easy to find; others will be much more elusive. But here’s the catch: there’s only enough for about two or three of the contestants to survive more than a few days. As the days drag on, people will begin to wither and eventually die of starvation.”

“Days?” Anthura presses.

“Yes. This trial will only end when there are five people left alive. Those five will advance to the next circle.”

“Wow,” Anthura exclaims directly to the camera, her delight unmistakable. “So it’s either get through or die.”

“That’s about it,” George affirms, a grin spreading across his face, though it sends a chill through me.

“I’m excited, and I know those of you watching this on the big screen and on your portals are excited too. But before we go live into the Earthery, let’s have a recap of our contestants.”

A photo of Tate flashes up on the screen. She really was quite extraordinarily beautiful. I barely knew her thanks to Juliette’s unreasonable hatred of her, but I think we’d have been friends in another life. We both suffered similar fates that brought us herein the first place. I wait for words of derision from Juliette as Anthura reads out a short bio about Tate, but it never comes. I glance over at her. She just looks sad.

The next picture to flash up is Tomas. I grip Juliette’s hand as her ex husband stares down at her unknowingly from the big screen. Her grip on me tightens as Tomas is replaced with Felix. I’ll never get over how I ended things with him. I had good reason, but I could have been better.

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