“Remember the plan, everyone?” Cade asked as he and his team took the ramp up into the arena. The thief absently rubbed his sweaty palms against his tunic, the increasingly familiar weight of his bracers a warm comfort as he took the stairs two at a time. He turned over his shoulder and peered down at this crew, each of them somewhere between excited and beleaguered. He couldn’t blame them. The crowd above was thunder incarnate, but the previous evening could’ve been graciously classified as sleepless.
The night had long since bled into the morning before all of their questions about his new magic had ceased. It honestly wasn’t until Nora returned, obsidian sword strapped to her back and a stormcloud of her own looming behind her eyes that killed their enthusiasm. He shuddered. The raven-haired paladin still appeared like a vengeful spirit as she walked at the back of their group. Even cheerful Evie was giving her more space than usual as she flitted up the ramp with a skip in her step and a tune on her lips.
“The plan? That’s what you want to call it? You literally just told us to run interference while you prowl about the underbelly of this accursed place. How is that a plan?” Elena grumbled loudly. “And that’s not even to mention the bloody trial we’re about to take. What’s your plan for that? Wait, don’t tell me... “
“Don’t worry about it,” Cade and Elena said in unison, though the thief was far more cheery about it. Despite their annoyance at his vague reassurances, he did have a plan. Light coursed through the tunnel as the ramp ended, and they entered the arena proper. The sandstone glimmered like polished marble beneath his leather boots, and he smiled at the gathered tens of thousands.
“Trust me, my friends. Just stick close to me. Gavin? You gave Greta our money, right?” Cade asked lightly. The handsome telepath had barely met his gaze the whole morning, which only confirmed Cade’s suspicions. He knew they would need to discuss what Cade saw the night before, but he also knew that the timing would have to be perfect. He couldn’t afford to scare off their only communications expert.
“That’s another thing!” Elena yelled over the din of the crowd. “You took all our money, and gave it to that old half-eared mutt of a barkeep!”
“Language,” Orro and Jer chided at once, and Elena lifted her fingers in a rude gesture.
“Don’t worry about it,” Cade repeated, and he quickened his pace when Elena started to roll up her sleeves, hot fury plain to see in her gaze. Her temper cooled into something far more menacing when the three other teams took to the field as well, all freshly decked out in new gear of their own.
“I’m going to gut that traitorous bastard,” Elena promised as she took in Hugh’s team farthest from them. The elves glided over the sandstone edged with flowers and ivy, while the dwarves and draugrs shuffled into position to their left and right. “Him and his crew. Especially that big brute, Jug!”
“MY CHILDREN,” Life declared in her succulent voice. Cade’s eye twitched, and his pulse quickened at the sound of her. It grated against his mind like a cheap whetstone. There was nothing beautiful about it anymore. It was like the veil was lifted from his eyes, and he saw the goddess for who and what she really was: A tyrant, who smelled of flowers.
“IT IS TIME FOR YOUR NEXT LESSON. PRESTIGE AWAITS YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS GLORIOUS MOMENT. EACH CONTESTANT TO SUCCEED IN LEARNING WHAT I HAVE TO TEACH WILL BE GRANTED THEIR OWN ACCOUNT AT THE PENNYWEATHER BANKS.”
The goddess lifted her hands and drank in the riotous applause this declaration caused. Cade found it strange for the deity to pronounce the reward before the trial, but he couldn’t say he minded. His mouth watered at the thought. His education, as well as his time under Hugh’s wing, taught him the unspoken truth about the Pennyweather Banks. Gold was the cheapest thing they stored in their legendary vaults. And soon, he would have his own access to those same treasure troves. His mind whirred with a dozen schemes before his breath could catch up to him. When he looked around at his crew, all but Nora and Evie appeared downright ecstatic at this change of pace.
He smiled at all of them. If everything went as planned today, they would all have a hefty sum to serve as their down payment into those new accounts.
“LET THE GAMES BEGIN!”
At Life’s proclamation, the world blurred around Cade and his team. Unlike the previous two trials, however, he felt no loss of his senses. Instead, he watched as great walls of ivy and stone rose up all around them, the distinct interlocking pattern of a maze rising up from the floor. His team gasped, but he was ready. It made sense, given what he had deduced from the nature of these challenges. If he was right, they were about to make a ton of money.
“Stay close to me, okay?” Cade requested of his team while the walls locked into place thirty or so feet above them. The glint of blackthorns caught the morning sun near the top of each of the walls, removing Cade’s first and most obvious plan to climb them. The shouts and cries of the crowd dimmed a bit, but was still very much present. He soaked it in, neatly sinking his hands into his pockets. “Let’s go.”
Cade walked into the maze.
His team followed tightly on his heels, weapons drawn while he sauntered through the maze. Immediately, vines snapped out to either side of them, but when Cade neared, they settled back down into their nearly invisible cubby holes. Elena cursed at the sight, but they continued onward, Cade at the lead.
They turned a few more corners, and a series of darts shot out from the sky, only to have their enchantments and momentum fall just short of their leather boots, as if a bubble surrounded them. The disbelief of his crew grew with each passing minute they delved deeper into this labyrinth of walls and traps.
“Cade, be careful!” Rayka hissed to his left.
He shrugged, strolling through the maze without a care in the world. Ahead of them, a set of axes swung on pendulums, their edges glowing white hot like the center of a forge. Behind them, the floor they had just passed caved away into a pit of spikes. Still, Cade did not bother himself with concern.
He strode toward the dozens of blades, hands still in his pockets. His best friend blurred in front of him, dark cloak billowing in his wake. Cold eyes greeted his own from under the assassin’s deep cowl.
“Don’t,” Orro demanded as he placed a half-gloved palm on Cade’s chest.
“I don’t know what you’re up to, Cade, but this is insane, even for you,” Jer added cautiously, and Cade noticed the tension carved into the acrobat’s jaw. His muscles feathered in his cheeks while he waited for Cade’s response. He saw the same hesitation mirrored in the expressions of his crew. He knew that wariness. It was time for him to prove his worth to his team.
“My friends,” Cade said, and he held his hands out to either side. “Trust me.” And before Orro or any of the others could stop him, he jumped straight toward the axes.
They stopped midair. Cade rolled out of his dive and stood in the center of the sizzling collection of pendulums, untouched and unharmed. His chest warmed slightly, but he paid that no mind. Though it might’ve been his imagination, the crowd seemed to gasp in shock, though a single cackle arose from somewhere near the base of the arena.
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“What in Destiny’s name is going on?” Nora blanched, her face unusually pale.
“How in the four blazing rings of hells did you manage that? Does your core stop time or something?” Elena demanded, hands on hips while her red hair popped out of its braid. Cade met their confusion with a wide smile. He tapped his chest and then placed a hand in his pocket. Then, using his focal stone, he answered, though his grin never faded.
“I made a deal with one of the Lifekeeper janitors. I have a null field of exactly ten feet in diameter that immediately stops any and all traps within that sphere. They use them for maintenance. I figured we could use it for something a little more... lucrative.” Cade gave himself a few moments to bask in their various reactions. Disbelief, amusement, and a bit of ire seized each of them.
“You sly worm, you,” Rayka sent, poking him in the side.
“I can’t believe you held onto this! Well done, boss!” Jer added with a cheeky grin and a hearty slap to Cade’s back.
Boss.
The term had flowed so effortlessly off Jer’s tongue that he didn’t seem to notice what he’d said. Cade, meanwhile, beamed at the honorary title.
That was, at least, until he remembered his conversation with Nora the other night.
The paladin cleared her throat, the dark blade strapped to her back cutting a sinister image. “So. You cheated.”
And just like that, the levity dissolved. Cade rubbed the back of his neck, frustration rising to the surface.
“No, Nora,” he said through the shared connection. “I explored unorthodox options. There are no rules to these trials. I found a way to keep us safe—to help us win—and I took it.”
She huffed indignantly and looked away. “It’s not exactly noble.”
“Noble?” Jer said with an air of confusion. He glanced at Elena. “Has she been paying attention to anything we’ve said or done?”
“Evidently not,” Elena answered.
“Cute,” Nora replied dryly. “Really cute, but you know what I meant.”
A surge of irritation hit Cade in the chest, and he briefly lost control of his magic. Wind and fire pushed at his palms, aching to be freed, and the air above his skin began to simmer with heat.
He knew he needed to focus.
He knew this was literally life and death, but the magic in his bones wouldn’t calm down.
“This isn’t about playing fair,” he said flatly, foregoing the focal stone to actually speak, and his voice carried a hard edge to it that he’d never heard before. “This is about survival. Nobility doesn’t matter when our lives are on the line.”
All eyes focused on him. Though almost everyone else paled and took a few steps away from him in surprise, Nora and Orro didn’t flinch. Nora’s eyes narrowed, and their gazes locked.
“Of course,” she said sarcastically, her voice cold as ice.
But she left so much more unspoken in that glare of hers. The anger. The tension. The grief, and the guilt, and the doubt.
She was tormented by more than just the dwarf’s murder. He could see it in the way she carried herself, and her confession yesterday only cemented it.
But she needed to focus.
“We will talk about this later,” he said firmly. He paused to look each of his teammates in the eye to drive the point home, and no one argued. “Right now, staying close to me is your best bet at survival. If you want to chance the traps the noble way, feel free to do so.”
At his final words, his intense glare shifted back to Nora.
After a brief spell of silence, she sighed in surrender, evidently not wanting to waste any more time.
His point was made.
Good.
As Cade’s words hung in the air, a sudden chill ran down his spine. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, and an inexplicable sense of foreboding washed over him. He glanced at Nora, noticing her body tense, and her hand instinctively move towards her weapon. Their eyes met, a silent acknowledgment passing between them.
Cade’s gaze darted around the trap-laden corridor, searching for the source of this unseen threat. The axes continued their suspended dance, casting eerie shadows on the walls. For a moment, all seemed still.
Then, a long, dark shadow stretched across the ground from around a nearby corner. The team collectively held their breath as footsteps echoed off the walls.
Hugh.
Their former boss sauntered into view, his face twisted in a mocking smirk. He began to clap slowly, the sound reverberating through the maze.
“Well, well, well,” Hugh drawled, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Isn’t this just adorable? Little Cade, playing at being a leader.”
Cade’s jaw clenched, his earlier frustration with Nora instantly redirected toward the one man he hated more than anyone else on the continent.
“Hugh,” he spat. “Come to inspect the competition?”
Hugh chuckled, a mirthless sound. “Competition? Is that what you call this ragtag bunch of misfits?” His eyes roved over Cade’s companions, lingering on Nora with a hint of recognition. “You’re in over your head, boy. Always have been.”
“Better to be in over my head than to have no heart at all,” Cade retorted, his hands curling into fists at his sides.
“You’re still the same arrogant brat, aren’t you, Cade?” Hugh sneered, taking a step closer. “Thinking you can outsmart the system with your little tricks.”
Cade’s eyes narrowed, his voice low and controlled. “And you’re still a pompous blowhard who mistakes cruelty for strength. Some things never change.”
“At least I know how to command respect,” Hugh shot back, his lips curling into a cruel smile. “Your ’team’ looks ready to bolt at the first sign of real danger.”
“Respect?” Cade scoffed, his hands clenching at his sides. “Fear isn’t respect, Hugh. It’s just a poor substitute for actual leadership.”
Hugh’s eyes flashed dangerously. “Bold words from someone who can’t even keep his own crew in line. I saw your little spat earlier. Trouble in paradise?”
Cade felt his team tensing behind him. He could almost feel Nora’s glare burning into his back. “My team trusts me enough to voice their opinions. Can you say the same about your sycophants?”
“Trust?” Hugh laughed, the sound echoing off the maze walls. “Trust gets you killed in this game, boy. Obedience is what keeps you alive.”
Elena leaned towards Jer and lowered her voice to a whisper. “This isn’t going to end well, is it?”
Jer shook his head slightly, his eyes never leaving their former boss. “Not a chance. Be ready for anything.”
Orro’s hand drifted to a hidden blade, his voice barely audible. “On your signal, Cade.”
“Ah, yes, the fearless Orro,” Hugh said with a mocking smile. “Obedient as ever.”
The assassin’s grip tightened on his hilt, and the creak of skin on leather filled tense air.
“You always called me your mentor,” Hugh said with a mock bow. “So, I think it’s time for a little lesson.”
With a snap of his fingers, the atmosphere in the maze shifted dramatically. From various offshoots in the labyrinth, seven figures converged on Cade’s team. They moved with fluid grace, taking up positions around Cade’s team with practiced precision.
Including that asshat, Fenwick.
Ugh.
Cade’s heart sank as he realized they were completely surrounded. These weren’t just fighters Hugh had found on the street—they were seasoned killers, their eyes glinting with the promise of violence.
Hugh’s smile widened. He stepped forward, his presence somehow filling the narrow corridor.
“Now then,” Hugh said, his voice carrying a weight of authority that Cade couldn’t help but envy. “Let me show you what a real leader looks like.”
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