Page 62 of Slay Ride

I turn to Bennett. “Are we up first?”

“No, we all go at the same time.” He grabs my arm and starts hauling me toward the first lane.

“But I don’t know what we’re doing,” I whisper as I try to keep pace with his long strides. “Can you go first?”

“Nope.” He brings me to a stop at the head of the lane. “Take off your clothes, swim to the end of the lane, and drown the Cattle at the end. If you get too cold, tag out and I’ll jump in.”

“Tag out? How do I tag out?”

He rolls his eyes and starts unbuttoning my coat when I don’t move. “Just yell my name, and I’ll jump in and save the fucking day. Like I usually do.”

With a glare, he rips off my coat and gets to work on my pants.

“Won’t we die of hypothermia?” I ask.

He shrugs. “That’s why you’re going first. So I can decide if I even want to torture myself.”

I peer down to the end of the lane—which looks impossibly long, now that I know I have to swim in it—as the workers position Cattle at the end of each rectangle. The Cattle’s hands are bound behind their backs, and their feet are wrapped in a heavy chain that trails into the water.

“Are we supposed to pull them in?” I ask. “I don’t have the upper-body strength for that.”

“Figure it out,kitten.”

The pet name is no longer doused in longing and lust. Now it’s dripping with condescension and hate. Something is definitely wrong.

“Hey, maybe we should talk before we have to rely on each other in this game, you know?” I say.

He finishes unlacing my boots and looks up at me. “Pull your fucking feet out of the boots.”

I do as he says, and he pulls them off.

“How has your day been, Cat?” he asks.

“This wasn’t the sort of conver?—”

“Mine was great too. Now take off your clothes. You’re holding everyone up.”

I look down the line, and he’s right. A bunch of nearly naked people stare back at me, each of them shivering and looking miserable.

Shit, shit, shit.

I shed the rest of my clothes, and Bennett does the same. Now that we’re all down to our swimsuits, the games can begin. The games that I don’t know the rules for.

“On your marks!” Ezra yells.

I look back at Bennett, mentally pleading with him to give me a hint.

“Get set!”

Bennett smirks.

“Go!”

I jump into the water, expecting the freezing depths to bury me up to my head, but my feet collide with the ground when I’m only chest deep. With a squeal, I shuffle through the water and try to remember to breathe. My lungs don’t want to work at these temps.

But as I shuffle along, I realize the water isn’t as cold as the air outside. In fact, it’s almost bearable in the center of the lane, which makes me think there’s some sort of temperature control at work here.

It’s still miserable, though. The cold penetrates my skin like needles, and each breath comes in too quickly. I grit my teeth and shuffle forward a few steps, and the freezing water rises past my shoulders.

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