The Veil Read online

  “I’m sorry too,” I breathed.

  Taking a step forward, I delivered a heavy roundhouse kick to the Pixie’s arm, forcing the weapon from her grip and sending it skittering across the ground. We both rushed for the blade and I pounced just as she dropped to her knees to collect it; I landed hard on her back and we both collapsed. Rolling over, I slipped from the Pixie and motioned to grab her. My hands faltered when I saw that her entire body was shaking and she was breathing in shallow wheezes.

  No…

  I rolled her over and stifled a gasp when I saw the blade buried deep into her sternum. I was vaguely aware of the thundering roars of the crowd as I crouched next to her, my hand covering my mouth in horror.

  It’s already too late.

  The blade had sunk into a vital part of her body at least six inches, and she was losing blood by the bucket loads. Tears streamed down her face as she stared up at me. I placed a hand to her cheek.

  “I’m so sorry,” I choked.

  As she parted her mouth to speak, blue blood seeped over her lips. “I-I just wanted to go home,” she whimpered. Tears spilled down my cheeks as I looked down at the young, scared Pixie as she took the final few breaths of her mortal existence. I took hold of her hand and she squeezed it tightly. “I’m frightened,” she sobbed.

  “Don’t be,” I whispered as I fought against the tears. “Soon you’re going to be in a much better place than this one. A place where you don’t have to be scared anymore.”

  Her eyes glistened as she stared up at me. “You promise?”

  The arrival of death had stripped the dying girl’s layers back to their core. Whatever she had done in her life up until this point – the choices she had made, the friendships she had forged, the hopes and regrets she had formed, the experiences that had shaped her into the person she had become – no longer mattered. Now she was simply a frightened soul, moving from the safety of the known into the terrifying unknown alone, and in her final moments, she was seeking reassurance wherever she could find it. I squeezed her hand tighter.

  “I promise.”

  The girl gave a final choking gasp as the life drifted out of her and then her fingers went limp. I lowered her arm gently to the ground and stood up, as the thundering roar of the crowd ripped around me, the sound only pushing me closer to my resolve to kill every single guard in the colosseum, ending with the twisted bitch Lilith.

  But for now, we have to win this fight.

  I glanced over at Troy. He was dodging blade attacks, whilst delivering a rapid succession of punches to one of the Elves, turning his opponent’s pale face into a bloodied mess. The Elf fighting Troy was more skilled than the other prisoners and a few of the blade swipes landed, cutting away at Troy’s uniform and drawing streams of blood from the thin wounds. I spun my head in Grey’s direction. He had the other two Elves on him, but was keeping them both at bay with jets of Pyromancy fire that he blasted down at their feet.

  Troy first, then Grey.

  I ran forward and jumped into a spinning kick, aiming towards the Elf’s head. He jerked backwards and swiped down with his dagger, and I gasped as hot pain ran down my left tricep. I rolled as I landed and came back up, barging another Elf – who had broken away from Grey – to the ground.

  “Gabriella, you okay?” Troy shouted as he dodged another blade swipe.

  That was a poor attack. I need to focus. My arm was streaming with blood and as I tried to tense it and felt pain radiate up to my right armpit, I knew that part of the upper tricep tendon had been cut. Even with the boosters in my system, I’d struggle to use it properly for a while.

  “I’m okay!” I shouted back.

  I lowered my bad arm and lifted the good one, moving back in towards the Elf. He thrust the dagger at Troy, who hopped backwards, avoiding the attack. I ran forward and waited until the Elf went to strike again, before diving to the ground feet first, sliding along the gritty sand and driving my boots into the Elf’s shins. His feet skated behind him, and as he fell forwards, I launched upwards, uppercutting him in the throat with my good hand. His eyes went wide as his windpipe closed up and he dropped the blade, clutching his throat with both hands. It won’t do any permanent damage, but it’s enough to take him out of the situation for a while. The Elf sank to his knees and started to dip into unconsciousness.

  I signalled for Troy to follow me. We both ran over to help Grey, who was backed against the side of the arena, his fire streams weakening as the exhaustion of constantly using his gift started to overwhelm him.

  “Troy, give me a boost!” I shouted as I sprinted towards the Pyromancer.

  Troy rushed ahead and then turned and dropped to one knee, clasping his hands together. At the same time the two Elves bore down on the tiring Grey, dagger and sword raised and ready for attack. I reached Troy and hopped onto his hand. He stood up sharply, using my momentum coupled with his strength to send me high into the air. I pitched over as I reached the peak of the jump and as I came back down, I bought one leg scissoring down onto the shoulder of the nearest Elf.

  Crack!

  My foot connected hard in the area where his shoulder finished and his neck began, and I felt his collarbone snap from the blow. I landed on my side, and from my position on the ground saw the Elf’s eyes roll up into the back of his head and then he collapsed like a Jenga tower. Troy ran in front of Grey, smashing out a brick-sized fist and knocking the second Elf’s attack off direction. He tried to follow up with a second blow, but the Elf slashed out quickly, raking a deep cut against the Guardian’s knuckles and sending out spray of blood. Troy let out a roar of pain and sank back to recover.

  The crowd went wild at the sight of blood.

  As I jumped to my feet, Grey rushed forward, dodging and weaving as the well trained – but desperate – Elf sent a series of deadly strikes towards him. I moved towards our opponent, and in the split-second that I distracted his attention Grey heated up a hand and delivered a hard palm slap to his face that landed with a shower of sparking embers. The Elf gasped in pain and clutched the wound. Grey and I ran forward at the same time, and both delivered a punch directly at the Elf’s face. As we both connected, I knew the battle was over. The Elf staggered a few steps back and then his arms went slack at his side, the blade slipping from his hand. Troy was behind him as his legs folded, and the Guardians caught the unconscious Elf, kneeling down and lowering him gently to the ground.

  The crowd was alive with a mixture of boos and cheers. I grouped together with Troy and Grey, staring up at Lilith, and doing my best to keep my fury in check.

  “There, we won! Four unconscious and one dead. You and your Populace have had you’re twisted little show. Now let us go!” I hissed.

  The Scorched Knight stared at us in absolute stillness, her unmoving frame resembling an empty suit of armour, save for the pulsing rivers of orange that streamed through the cracks in the metal. The crowd’s booing grew louder and more frenzied, and every face I saw among the masses was twisted with disgust.

  Lilith raised a hand and the crowd’s noise lulled, as if her appendage was a universal volume dial. The Scorched Knight stood up and stepped towards the balcony, joined by her many mouthless guards.

  “Congratulations on your victory, Taken. I expected no less from Chosen trained in the halls of the great Sage Faru.” She raised a gauntleted finger. “However, you appear to be forgetting one particular detail.” She opened out both arms wide, until she was indicating the arena in its entirety. “This is a colosseum, and in a colosseum we fight to the death.”

  Ice poured through my veins.

  “Those four are still alive. They must be dispatched.”

  I shook my head. “I won’t do it. We won’t do it.”

  Lilith shook her fist theatrically. “Curse you Guardians, interfering with my plans.” She let out a long laugh and then waved her hand nonchalantly at one of her guards. Before any of us could react, he had fired two rounds at Grey. They slammed into the Guardian’s chest
and his eyes went wide with a mixture of confusion and pain as he collapsed to the ground.

  “Grey!” I screamed.

  Troy and I knelt down next to him and ripped his clothes away from his body, as a cacophony of laughs and jeers thundered down from the crowd around the arena. As we lifted up his t-shirt, I had to stifle a gasp as I saw the network of wounds pockmarking his stomach and abdomen from all the torture he had endured. In the centre of his chest were two bullet wounds, pulsing blood in thick trails. Grey groaned with pain as I rolled him onto his side. One of the bullets had gone right out the other side – it’s black casing still whole and sitting in a pit it had bored into the ground. Holy shit, that’s an adamantine bullet.

  “Grab me a blade!” I ordered Troy as I turned Grey onto his back again.

  Troy leaned out and snatched the dagger from next to the Elf we had knocked out last. He spun it around and handed it to me hilt first. Without another word I dug deep into the second wound with the blade, whilst Troy held the thrashing Grey down. Nausea rolled through my stomach as I was forced to ignore his screams and dig deep with the blade, carving through flesh until I eventually felt hard metal. I notched my wrist up several times as I coaxed the bullet out of the wound. After what felt like an age, the knife emerged at the surface, pinning a crushed bullet against Grey’s flesh. The bullet had clearly hit something hard on its way in – which I couldn’t identify – but whatever it was had thankfully stopped it from reaching the heart. I cast the bullet away and then grabbed Grey’s hand by his wrist.

  “I need you to ignite your hand and then touch this,” I commanded, holding the blade towards him in my weakened arm. Grey was non-compliant for a moment as he swam towards unconsciousness.

  “Grey!”

  He touched a shaking hand against the blade of the knife, and the tips of his fingers engulfed themselves with fire. I held the blade in place until the metal of the dagger was red-hot and then released it. “Hold him,” I said to Troy.

  The Guardian had to use a lot of strength to hold the howling Grey down as I cauterized both the entry and exit wounds with the blade. All the while the crowd laughed and shouted abuse at us, and Lilith watched from above like a sentinel.

  When Grey was fixed, I slumped down next to him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “It’s going to be okay,” I said to him.

  He looked at me. “No it isn’t.”

  Lilith raised a hand and the crowd fell silent once more.

  I stared up at her, tears of anger and frustration brimming in my eyes.

  “As I said, this is a colosseum,” she said. “Everyone in this arena fights to the death. Finish it, or we will finish you.”

  I can’t…but… I looked at the wounded Grey, and the broken Troy, who was sitting next to me, staring down at the dirt. I don’t have a choice. They have to come first.

  “I’ll do it, Gabriella,” said Troy, starting to stand up.

  I took hold of his wrist. “No. I’ll do it.”

  He looked at me for a moment longer and then gave a slow nod. I stood up slowly, clutching the bloodied and still warm blade in my hand. None of these deaths will be in vain. We will avenge each and every one of them. I repeated the words over and over like a mantra as I moved over to the Elves. I knelt down and fought back sobs as I drew raised the blade over the first.

  I’m so sorry.

  I stabbed down hard and fast. I yanked the blade out and moved to the next Elf, repeating the deed until both were lifeless and seeping blue blood onto the ground. The crowd had switched to cheers and jeering encouragement as I moved over to the third Elf. He was starting to come around, his eyelids fluttering open. I bought the blade down and ensured that he woke up in the next life instead. Feeling hollow and sick, I staggered across the arena, past the body of the Pixie towards where the Dwarf was lying. As I knelt down, I saw that he had already come around. He was staring up at me with sad eyes, his chest rising and falling deeply. No. No…I can’t.

  “It’s okay,” he whispered. “I’ve lived a good life.”

  I raised the dagger up, my hand trembling as the gravity of my actions bore down on me. I had killed before, but this was different. These people weren’t soldiers fighting a war, they were prisoners who had been forced to fight against their will. I wasn’t killing these people; I was being forced to murder them.

  The Dwarf caught my gaze and then gave a slow nod. “It’s okay.”

  I let out a gasping sob as I drove the knife down into his heart. A harsh gurgling sound escaped his throat and I watched as the life vanished from his eyes. Letting out a scream, I hurled the knife away from me and slumped onto the ground next to the dead Dwarf. As the crowd went wild around us, I felt something inside me snap. Something that I knew I would never be able to repair again, something that would be lost forever.

  Lilith gestured out towards us.

  “Well done, Taken. Now prepare for your next fight.”

  31

  Scarlett

  The act of attacking the coward Udan had driven the wedge between Guardians and Lightwardens to the point of no return. He had recovered from his physical injuries fairly quickly – as was the Luminar way – but the humiliation was a wound that I knew would stay with him for a long time after. I had no sympathy for him. The sort of man who would sacrifice two of his own team – two children no less – so that he could gain the edge in a battle was no man at all in my eyes.

  Lightwarden Udan had called to Lightwarden Elissa for backup, but she had remained interestingly neutral to what had happened – acting only to help him remove his armour and dress his wounds, which had been bleeding so profusely they had stained the seat a dark blue. He had spoken quietly to her, but she had refused to engage with his words. I wondered to myself if she was angry with him too for what he’d done. It was possible. After all, Lightwardens were simply individuals who formed a military unit, just like us. It made sense that each one of them would hold their own specific sets of values and morals.

  I knew that Lightwarden Udan would try and retaliate as soon as he recovered, and as the Alstar Lightshuttle continued its journey through the Darklands, I kept an eye on him – as he stared out of the window and brooded – and waited for him to make his move.

  *

  I lay with Mikey on a blanket that we had pulled from a container in one of the supplies carriages. It carried the musty scent of storage but was cleaner than we’d expected, considering the plume of dust that had escaped the metal box when we’d prized it open. That was until we both lay down with it on one of the old bunks and the remnants of the Bloodseeker battle ruined it in seconds.

  Sophia, Iralia and Aran had agreed to stay in the dining carriage and take first shift watching the recovering Lightwarden, whilst Lightwarden Elissa headed back to the control carriage to check over the progress of the shuttle. The Guardians were under strict instructions to tell me if Lightwarden Udan so much as gave them a funny glance.

  I nestled my head into the crook of Mikey’s arm and sighed as he absently stroked the fingers of his good hand up and down my cheek. It was in those types of moments – when I was in the arms of the person I loved, that I forgot all the terrible things I had done, and would still do before my life was over; forgot about how I had failed to protect him, and how dearly that mistake had cost him. There was one single positive about the situation – something that I felt guilty even admitting to myself, let anyone else.

  At least now I have one person I care about who I won’t lose…to time at least.

  “What you thinking about, babe?” he said.

  “Not much,” I lied. “Just worried about the others.”

  I rarely talked to Mikey about the deep thoughts that had collected in my mind during my time as a Vampire. I rarely talked to anyone about them. It wasn’t that I thought other people wouldn’t understand – they probably would, at least to a certain degree. It was just that growing up, the situation of my stock – being the educated daughter of a onc
e noble Victorian gentleman turned poor potato farmer – had forced me to project an entirely different version of who I was inside, right down to the way I spoke. I had spent so long displaying that other image of myself to those around me that I no longer knew how to let people see the proper side.

  “Don’t worry about Alex, he can take care of himself. He sounded fine when we spoke to him,” said Mikey.

  “I was thinking more about Ella, Grey and Troy,” I snapped. “You know, the ones that have been taken to one of three deadly fighting arenas and given a week to live by some deranged psychopath?” Mikey stopped stroking my cheek and I knew that I’d been way too harsh. I turned over and kissed him on the lips. “I’m sorry babe, I’m just really stressed out. I always knew this was going to be difficult, but the reality is so much worse than I’d imagined…and we’ve only just started.”

  “I know that. But I don’t like it when you get like this,” he replied.

  “Like how?”

  “Distant, like you’ve gone somewhere else. When you do that it’s like I don’t know you. Your face changes to someone who’s on a bridge, about to jump.”

  “I’ve got a lot on my plate.”

  “No, Scarlett, we’ve got a lot on our plate. I know you’re trying to load all this onto your shoulders like you always do. You think that because you’ve taken on Huntmaster duties of this group that the buck stops with you…but it doesn’t. We’re all in this mess together, and whatever comes along, we’re gonna face it together. A problem shared is a problem halved and all that.”

  I paused for a moment, letting his words roll around in my mind. “When did you get so wise?”

  For a moment he didn’t say anything, and then his face broke into of his cheeky smiles that could disarm a girl at two hundred paces. “I’ve always been wise, you just get caught up on my good looks.”

  We both laughed and then fell silent, me resting my head back into the crook of his arm, and him stroking his fingers up and down my cheek. After a while, I gently took hold of his bad hand and inspected his bandages. “How is it feeling?”