Page 19 of House of Lilith

We do, starting to file out of the hallway in a perfect two by two.

As I walk through the door, I take the opportunity to look around the Ring. It’s an oval of beaten earth the size of three football fields, closed off by a high wall and empty except for the chair for the Guardian of the Obscura, which they've placed beneath the wall to the center.

Once we’re all out, for a second, there’s absolute silence, only magnified by the size of the Ring.

Then the crowd goes wild, its thunderous chanting pounding in my ears as I put one foot in front of the other, fighting the urge to lift my arm to shield my eyes from all the flashes.

My heart throbbing, I let my eyes sweep over the Ring we’re walking down and then the bleachers rising up from behind the wall and high, high into the air. I can't see them, but I know everyone who counts for anything is here today, watching. It’s dizzying and not exactly pleasant, being the center ofthiskind of attention.

So when the door on the other side of the Ring opens, I welcome the distraction. Just as our team comes to a stop near the center, the Fiáin one starts marching inside.

Once again, the crowd goes wild, and I see the opposing team’s Archon give a wave of her hand. But it’s not Archon, Cerys or Brogan that the crowd starts chanting.

It’s something else.

And I don’t manage to make out the name, but then I spot that alpha strolling next to her, throwing wide smiles at all the people sucking up to him. Mostly women, judging by the voices and the way everyone leered at him at the party. I sense Max tense up next to me.

What snaps me out of it is the opposing team coming to a stop and all eyes snapping to the man walking into the space between us.

It’s Uncle Ludwig, wearing his ceremonial robe and carrying the Box in his hands. It’s at the very center of the Ring that he stops and clears his throat.

“Welcome,” I hear his voice boom from the speakers as his eyes sweep over the bleachers. “Welcome to the first Games after a pause ofone hundred and fifty sixyears.”

I hear loud cheering and clapping all around me.

Uncle raises a hand to silence them. “Now,” he says as he turns back to the audience. He motions at the Box in his hands. “We all know what it is I’m holding in my hands. For over a decade, it’s been an honor and a privilege to keep this safe. After all, it was made by Dame Gothel, one of the most famous faes of all time, all in the hopes of creating an alliance between our then newly founded Academies. Now, over a century later…” He pauses for effect. “We find ourselves in need of forging that alliance anew.”

There’s a murmur of approval from the audience.

“Luckily for all of us,” Uncle continues in a more cheerful yet a little forced tone, “the Brothers Grimm, as well as the rest of the founders of the Alliance, they all liked to have fun, so it will be by playing five Games throughout the course of the following year that we'll be doing that.”

I hear weak laughter here and there.

Uncle awkwardly clears his throat. “So,” he says as he turns his eyes to the principals standing there, the silence now deafening, “Pied Piper, Archon, will you do us the honor and activate the Box?”

The two smile, walk up to him and shake hands, making the Box glow.

I hear the crowd break out into thunderous cheering as we watch them leave the Ring to take their seats in the Pied Piper’s booth, but at the same time, the only thing Icanhear is the pounding of my own heart in my ears.

Uncle opens the Box, slides his hand inside, takes something out and flings it into the air, Hourglass coming to hover above us all.

“Before we begin,” Uncle says, making people around me let out impatient grumbles, “let me go over the rules for you all. What the Game is, you'll have to figure out for yourselves. But no matter where it takes place and no matter what the Box comes up with, you begin when the sand starts running and you finish when it stops running. You can do whatever you want,exceptfor intentionally trying to injure others or trying to collaborate with them. The Box will know and will zap you out of the Game if you break either of those two rules. It will also zap you out if you tap your chest three times, signaling you want out, or if you get too close to getting killed.”

He pauses before he says with a nod, “That's all. Now, without further ado, I give you…” The last bit he yells out. “Your First Game.”

Instantly, two large, round goalposts appear on each side of the Ring and remain floating in the air, two scoreboards in gilded frames hovering above them. I sense thousands of heads snapping left right.

Then, the ground beneath us starts to shake, there’s this loud rumbling noise coming from it, and out burst dozens of stone shields of some kind, painted in our Academies’ colors. They remain levitating in the air, evenly spaced out throughout the Ring.

What the…

For a second, there’s silence, all eyes turning back to the Box.

Then, from its small rectangular opening, stuff comes flying out at record speed.

Glowing metal balls. And there are so many and they’re so fast, it sends my mind into overdrive.

I sense the players around me start to squirm, but before I can even process what’s going on, Uncle goes to take his seat, I see Hourglass flip and I hear the sand starting to run, marking the start of the Game.

---