Page 63 of The King of Frost and Shadows

“You sunscorched Seelie,” the dusky-haired woman croaked.

I opened my eyes despite the grit and saw the woman lunge at me. I tried to roll, but she landed on my side and clawed my face. I elbowed her in her side, making hergroan, and changed my momentum so that I rolled on top of her.

My vision edged red as I straddled her stomach and punched her in the jaw. Her head jerked to the side, but before I could strike her again, someone reached around my shoulders, grabbed me by the neck, and lifted me off her.

I gagged, trying to gasp for air, and kicked my leg backward into my attacker with as much muscle as possible before my strength could vanish. The chain jerked, holding some of my strength back, but I’d caught the person by surprise, and they’d loosened their grasp on my neck.

Not wanting to lose my leverage, I reached behind my head, grasped a handful of hair, and yanked. A moan rumbled deep from a man’s chest, but he didn’t loosen his hold, so I dug my nails into his skin and ran my hand down his face.

Warm liquid trickled out as the dusky-haired woman recovered enough to stand before me. She bent down, grabbed the loose chain, and rasped, “Rona, get closer to me.”

Rona moved, a smirk on her face, watching me struggle as the dusky-haired woman picked up more of the chain, readying to slip it over my head and choke me. There wouldn’t be a way to get out of that, so my goal was not to get into it in the first place.

A noise clicked from below, and we all froze.

The sound was similar to the noise right before a bomb exploded … from what I’d heard on TV.

Suddenly, a platform sprang from underneath us all, lifting us into the air, and then dropped back to the ground.

I landed hard on my feet before crashing on top of the dusky-haired woman. And just as soon as the motion stopped, it lunged us upward again.

Two loud screams echoed from below, and I lifted my head and counted. One of the six groups must have fallen off the ledge from the sudden stop.

Silence.

“Blighted abyss,” Rona rasped, looking over the ledge. “I can’t even see them below us now because of the gas.”

I slowly climbed to my feet, all of us stunned and confused. Gas hovered thick below us, and we were suspended in the air, though I had no clue how far up we were because we couldn’t see the ground.

Taking in our surroundings, I couldn’t believe what I saw. If the last trial had been horrible, I wasn’t sure how to describe this. It was some sort of obstacle course in the sky, but unlike the shows back home, I suspected these were deadly. There were five obstacles with a flat platform between each one, leading to one in the center. That had to be where we needed to go before the two hours were up.

I further understood why they’d paired me with Lorne. Even if the prisoners didn’t kill me, it was unlikely we could get through all these obstacles with him injured. The platform closest to us, about two feet away, had the swinging axes from the last trial, and we had to crawl in the dirt to get through them. Next was a plank with swords below and around it. If that wasn’t bad enough, the third course was a steep incline with a chain, a blazing fire underneath, and you had to climb up one side and down the other.

Something a man with an injured leg would struggle to achieve.

Then there was a collapsing walls course and monkey bars suspended over quicksand like last time.

Five obstacles that we had to survive, with an empty platform like the one we stood on between each one, and then the final one in the center after themonkey bars.

My heart stopped, and my mouth went dry.

The ten of us glanced around and stared at the course then at each other.

Then, there was another click, and my heart lunged into my throat.

21

LIRA

Isquatted on the platform to lessen the jarring of my body as I waited for the quick drop into the nightmare gas. My entire body clenched, remembering the misery of the gas from last time.

Would the Unseelie be okay with every single prisoner dying? Where was the fun in that, especially with the course from hell right in front of us? Why go to all that trouble to let us die here—but that could be the point, to make it more shocking and impactful.

Maybe that was why Eldrin had proclaimed that any survivors could have a reduced sentence—he knew no one would survive to claim it. That sounded like something manipulative he would do.

The platform didn’t drop right away but, instead, creaked underneath our feet.

The other prisoners squatted as well. Lorne flinched, and his face twisted in agony as he tried to crouch like the rest of us. If he fell, he’d drag me down with him.

---