Page 60 of Of Bargains & Betrayal

Maksym eased away from me, but I almost went after him.

My skin was flushed, my chest heaving, and I wasn’t ready for whatever in the hell had just happened to end. In the dim light, Maksym’s amber eyes blazed, and a smug look settled on his face.

“Sleep well, Miss Wynn,” he said far too simply before turning to the Elixia member standing a few feet away with his attention fixed on the roof. “Apologies. I couldn’t let her leave without saying good night.”

I didn’t stick around to hear any more of their conversation.

My pounding heart carried me back up to my room on hasty feet, and it wasn’t until I pressed my back to the door and slid to the ground that I realized Maksym had slipped the vial into the pocket of my skirt.

13

THINGS OF NIGHTMARE AND HEARTACHE

ENORA

Just like Maksym said, a dark fae woman fetched me for the initium around the tenth evening bell the next night. But—unlike he had also told me—I refused to drink whatever was in the vial he shoved into my pocket, his feigned concern be damned. I knew when someone was underestimating me and looked forward to proving everyone wrong.

After donning the gauzy layers my escort arrived with and braiding my hair back at her suggestion, we set out for my initiation into the Agōn Ferr.

The upper floor of the Keep was deceptively serene, but once we approached the stairwell and atrium lookout, a buzz of chatter built. Not rowdy noise like the throne room the night before, or boisterous like with Maksym and his guards the afternoon earlier, but hushed chatter that was unmistakably eager.

As we came up to the railing, I braved a glance down.

A substantial crowd had gathered, far larger than the noise would’ve led me to believe, and in its center were several others donning the same gauzy layers—my fellow contestants.

I spotted a few familiar faces quickly amongst the crowd.

Maksym, of course. His mage, Jasper, whom I hadn’t seen at all at the feast. Gallan all cleaned up in his uniform. No Eilir, unfortunately. And even though I was about to face uncertainty and likely at least a measure of danger, I couldn’t help feeling a slight pain of worry that I hadn’t seen the sprite in two days.

But I shoved aside that thought as I entered the crowd of hopefuls and Elixia, surrounded by workers of the Keep and eager onlookers, and Maksym’s voice began to carry.

“I will keep this brief,” he called out, “as I know you were all eager to get started on this incredibly thrilling night.”

A rumble of laughter rolled through the crowd—a true testament to how not thrilling tonight would be.

“Your task this evening is one of simplicity—survive the night in the saunas. This is not a test of your strength or of your martial prowess. Nor is it a test of your knowledge or your ingenuity. This is a test of your fortitude and self-awareness, of your mind’s ability to tell your body to go fuck itself but to also listen to your body when it truly cannot go on. You will be given one waterskin between now and sunrise. Use it wisely. Your body will not last down there without it, but your mind may not appreciate what it must endure in exchange for hydration. If you lose consciousness at any point during the initiation, or the supervising Elixia fear for your life, you will be disqualified from competing. Are we ready?”

The cheers that broke out around me nearly overtook my own thoughts.

If I were correctly parsing what Maksym said last night about being sick or my mind being tortured and what he just laid out, there was something in that water that was not just water. Whatever was in that vial he forced on me must’ve been a remedy of sorts.

I was still glad I hadn’t taken it, but I was a little less eager to spend an entire night in a sauna with only one water skin and the prospect of my mind playing tricks on me.

Bodies around me moved and I was shuffled into a rough line behind a dark fae man who must have been two heads taller than me. We crawled forward a few paces at a time until it was my turn to come face-to-face with the king.

“Miss Wynn,” he said with neutrality and a dip of his head, as if he hadn’t just cornered me in the hall the night before and kissed me in a way I thought about until I fell asleep. “May Mina watch over you.”

I offered him a smile and nothing more before turning my attention to Gallan as he extended a waterskin and a towel to me.

“Good luck, princess.” He squeezed my hands as I took the items. “I’ll see you below.”

A nod was all I exchanged with the silent mage beside him before I slipped past and trailed behind the rest of the participants. We took a door just beyond the same double set I’d gone through on my trip to the throne room. This one brought us down a steep, spiral staircase lit with too few lanterns and a wooden railing that brokered no trust.

And with each step we wound down, the rising heat and thickening air became impossible to ignore. My clothing was already sticking to my body, but the man in front of me didn’t have so much as a sheen on his dark gray skin.

I was mountain-born and raised.

Cool weather.