Page 20 of Pyne

For a moment, I can only stand here, my chest heaving as I try to catch my breath. Then, the reality of what we’ve just accomplished hits me. Relief floods my veins as I realize I did it. Against all odds, I made it out of that nightmarish maze alive. And while I know our partnership is far from perfect, I can’t help but feel a flicker of hope that maybe Klst and I might be able to put aside our differences long enough to survive the next challenge in this twisted game.

I seek out Pyne’s gaze once more, my heart swelling with a fierce, aching affection that takes my breath away. He’s grinning from ear to ear, his eyes shining with pride and relief as our gazes connect.

One thing is certain. I won’t let anyone, not Klst, not M’Berra, not even the vicious machinations of this sadistic game, snatch away this fragile, magical connection that’s growing between Pyne and me.

Chapter Sixteen

Pyne

The upcoming baking challenge is the last thing on my mind as I stride into the gleaming chrome kitchen beside M’berra. My thoughts are consumed with the immunity challenge Becca and I just endured. Neither of our teams won, neither has immunity, which is why my thoughts are circling my mind like birds of prey.

Dear Goddess, she almost died twice in that competition—and that was just what I witnessed! Who knows how many other catastrophes almost killed her? When she was teetering over the abyss of poison, I almost lost my head to a swinging scythe as I watched, helpless because I was across the arena from her.

We’re down to twelve teams—several didn’t make it out of that last challenge. I’d like to believe they were saved, it was ahologram after all, and exited the competition with consolation prizes. The technology has created realistic holograms—the shallow cut on my arm from the swinging scythe is a testament to that reality. Usually, there are safety parameters in place, but something tells me their deaths were real. Maybe it’s just my pessimism seeping through after so many decades as a slave.

Becca enters the room, Klst far too close to her side, a mocking sneer on his face when he catches me staring. When Becca spots me, the creases on her forehead smooth and she gives me a forced smile. I’ll find a way to speak with her during this cooking challenge. Perhaps I can calm her, reassure her, although I have nothing but worthless promises to give.

When she makes her way to her cooking station on the other side of the room, I look at the ingredients on the counter of my station: butter, sugar, and spice. How in ten thousand hells am I going to pull off baking anything halfway decent without Becca by my side?

I can practically feel M’berra’s smug satisfaction radiating off her in waves. She slinks up beside me, her tail grazing my hip. “Looks like it’s just you and me now, gladiator. Hope you’re ready to heat things up.”

I resist the urge to roll my eyes. “Let’s just focus on the challenge, okay? We need to make…” I squint at the recipe card, the foreign ingredients blurring together like some cosmic joke. Sugar cookies. Cute, whimsical sugar cookies with festive holiday shapes and sparkly icing. It’s the last thing I feel like dealing with right now, but here I am, stuck in this gleaming chrome kitchen with M’berra, trying to figure out how we’re going to pull this off.

M’berra makes a show of preheating the oven, bending over just a little too far to show me the furry mounds beneath her low-cut chef’s jacket. I keep my gaze fixed firmly on the recipe.

“Okay, first step—cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy.” I toss in a stick of neon green butter and start mixing furiously.

“Whoa there, handsome.” M’berra taps a claw on the counter. “You might want to go a bit easier on the mixing. At this rate, you’ll have cookie dough on the ceiling.”

I grunt and reduce the machine’s speed, trying to find a balance between ‘gentle’ and ‘gets the job done’. I paid attention to Becca when she was teaching me, but this is harder than it looks.

As I struggle with the dough, my thoughts drift to Becca. Is she safe? Is Klst keeping his claws to himself? The memory of his leering gaze makes my fists clench around the spatula so tight it snaps in half.

I should be there watching her back, not stuck here with M’berra. But I can’t do a damn thing about it without getting us disqualified. So I grit my teeth and focus on the task at hand.

Finally, after what feels like hours, we have a batch of dough that looks vaguely cookie-like. M’berra rummages through the drawers, pulling out a dizzying array of cookie cutters.

“Ooh, look at this one!” She brandishes a cutter shaped like a swirling galaxy. “It’s called the ‘Cosmic Cyclone’. This one’sthe ‘Meteor Shower’. How adorable! And this? ‘Holiday Tree’. I wonder what that means.”

I pick up a cutter shaped like a lumpy star. “‘Supernova Splash’. Who dreamed this up? It’s lame.”

We press the cutters into the dough, but it quickly becomes apparent that something’s not right. The dough is too sticky, clinging to the cutters in gummy clumps.

“Uh, Pyne?” M’berra says, holding up a cutter with a glob of dough stuck to it. “I don’t think this is how it’s supposed to work.”

I frown, poking at the dough as if that will magically make it the right consistency. “Maybe we overprocessed it? Or added too much… something?”

M’berra sighs and looks at the large clock counting down on the wall. “Well, we can’t start over now. Let’s just try to make it work.”

What follows is a frustrating dance of yanking, prying, adding extra flour, all to the accompaniment of muttered curses as we try to wrestle the uncooperative dough into submission. By the time we’re done, the cookies are misshapen lumps only vaguely resembling their intended designs.

“Well,” M’berra says, surveying our sad collection of ‘Cosmic Catastrophes’ and ‘Supernova Splatters’. “At least they’re… unique?”

I snort. “That’s one word for it.”

We slide the trays into the oven and start on the sparkly icing. As I watch the colors swirl together, I can’t help but think of Becca’s eyes, warm and brown with those glints of gold.

Hold on, sugarplum,I think fiercely.I’m going to rescue you. No matter what.

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