Page 105 of Shadow Bonds

I laugh at his perverted little mind. “Let’s see how good you are first.”

He steps toward me with a small curl to the left side of his mouth. “Nothing about me is good. But I promise to make every inch of you feel it.”

“I—” The ground trembles and shakes, distracting me. A minute later, the sand starts dipping inward a few feet in front of us as a huge black structure with multiple components rises from the ground.

It keeps rising up and up until I’m craning my neck and looking up at the colossal thing.

There are dozens of platforms layered on top of one another, each with something different on it that could kill you. Some drop up and down while others have shooting axes and blades. Once you get to the top, you have to leap from pole to pole and avoid the arrows shooting at you, run across a platform without being knocked off by a giant swinging log, before diving from a wide ledge to a large circular platform. But I can’t make out what’s on it.

“What happens once you get to the platform?” I ask.

“You grab a weapon to secure your place in the fight tomorrow,” Theon replies with a savage smile, but I don’t feel even the tiniest bit of confidence or excitement they all seem to have.

No wonder they were able to run through my baby obstacle course. That was small blip in comparison to this monstrosity.

“Promise me you will all be careful?” I ask them and feel hands curl around me, pulling me back.

Glancing up, I find Theon behind me.

“We’ll be fine. Don’t worry,” he says.

Knox frowns. “I don’t know whether to feel insulted or grateful you care.”

“Grateful. Also don’t die, or you’ll never get to touch my wings,” I warn him.

He gives me a wicked smirk full of sinful promises. “I’m planning on doing a lot more than just touching them.”

They all give me a hard kiss, each with a promise to make it through this before heading for the starting line.

As soon as they hit the first platform, the monstrous obstacle course starts moving quicker. One of the Shadows from our academy immediately falls off into the sand. But he keeps sinking, quickly getting sucked in by it, disappearing in seconds.

As if the dangerous, vicious platform with multiple obstacles that could easily kill you isn’t enough, they had to add quicksand.

The guys start making their way up the platforms easily enough, but a third of the way there, on the platform with the blades, a few Shadows break them off and start attacking each of them.

My stomach churns when they go out of view. I follow them from the edges, moving around the side of the structure to a small area of large rocks.

My heart thunders as I watch Knox dive out of the way of a blade to the head. But another Shadow sneaks up behind him, and he doesn’t seem to notice.

I open my mouth to shout up to him when something yanks me backward into the rocks.

Snapping out of my shock, I pull away from whoever is holding me and whip around.

Four males dressed from head to toe in black surround me, all with long blades in their hands.

I glance around, looking for a way to escape, but it looks like they’ve dragged me into a small area surrounded by rocks, the only exit being through them.

They take a step forward, and a long white glowing sword appears in my hand.

Something happens again. Just like in the obstacle course. But this time instead of having an out of body experience, it’s as if part of my brain was asleep and is now wide awake.

I move without thinking, shoving them back and slicing through them, my body stronger, more agile and swift.

Using skills beyond anything I’ve ever learned; I easily take two down and then a third.

The fourth manages to slide his blade across my arm but I barely feel it as I lunge forward and strike, taking him down.

Along with my glowing sword, they disappear as fast as they arrived and into nothing but shadows. The only evidence that they were even here is the long cut on my arm.

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