Chapter 482

Enzo

The gates rattled upward just as the silver ropes were cut from my hands and neck. Moments later, as I stumbled out into the dusty arena to battle one of my closest friends to please some bloodthirsty warrior queen, I felt my wolf begin to return to his usual strength.

“We should kill them,” my wolf growled, bristling from days of being caged in silver. “Kill them all. Especially that bitch queen.”

“I know you want to,” I replied. “But we have to go through with this first. It’s the only way for any of us to get out of here.”

“And put our friend in danger? For what? The Dragon ‘queen’ didn’t even make any promises.”

I narrowed my eyes as I peered up at the jeering crowd. “Neither did I,” I replied inwardly, raising my hands in a placating gesture. “I only said I would win the fight. I didn’t say I would kill him.”

My wolf snorted in excitement. Across the arena, the other gate raised; Luke stepped out a moment later, rubbing his wrists and looking a bit bewildered but determined nonetheless.

Our eyes met, and in that moment, I channeled all of my energy toward him in a singular gaze, as if to say, “Follow my lead.”

I knew that Luke understood, because he nodded almost imperceptibly. It was time for our plan to come to fruition. I just hoped that the so-called ‘queen’ was as gullible as I expected her to be.

With that, I shifted into my massive dark wolf form, my hackles raised and my lips curled to expose my deadly white fangs. The crowd cheered, stamping their feet on the stands. Drums pounded, shouts became deafening in the impossibly high ceilings.

Across the arena, Luke braced himself, blue sparks already dancing between his fingers.

We had to make this fight look brutally real for the bloodthirsty spectators. Especially for Mila, and although I hated to say it, for Nina as well.

It was safer for her to truly be in the dark on this, just in case we got found out at any point. I wanted it to be believable if I wound up having to tell Mila that Luke and I planned this and that Nina had nothing to do with it.

“Let the battle begin!” Mila’s amplified voice shrieked out, wild and thirsty for gore. She raised her arms, and the pounding of the drums increased.

It was time.

I let loose a bone-chilling snarl and launched myself across the arena toward Luke, kicking up sand in my wake. He swept his sparking hand in an arc, prepared for our ‘battle’.

I nimbly dodged the sizzling bolt, using my momentum to shoulder-slam him. He went sprawling with a grunt but rolled swiftly back to his feet, his eyes meeting mine again.

Another nod. I had to be careful with my strength in this form; I couldn’t actually injure him too badly at any point, especially not before the climax. And he had to always miss with his jolts of electricity. Just by a hair’s breadth, of course. If he singed me, then even better.

I lunged again, snapping my jaws barely even half an inch from his torso. He jumped back, peppering my shoulders with stinging jolts.

Roars swelled from the frenzied onlookers above. I could hear them chanting and writhing, like a mass of flesh and fur and feathers; some of them in their human forms, some not. All of them mad and full of a lust for bloodshed.

We circled each other, Luke blasting out rapid shots from his fingers while I evaded and darted in to parry him with my fangs and claws. I managed to rake my claws across his chest, leaving deep gashes in his skin. He didn’t bleed, of course; but Mila didn’t need to know that. I caught my own leg in the frenzy, allowing blood to splatter across his skin.

There, that would look believable from afar, and that was all that mattered. Now, they wouldn’t know whose blood was whose.

Luke aimed a corkscrewing bolt at my face. I caught it against my shoulder as I twisted aside. The impact drove me back a step with a snarl. Had to make this look convincing.

I rushed him full-on once again, plowing through another sizzling bolt of electricity. My bulk crashed into him, knocking us both down in a thrashing tangle of limbs.

I snapped at his neck, but he pressed a palm against my chest. The jolt singed my fur, but hardly more than that; he was holding back. I flung myself off of him with a fake yelp of pain, causing the crowd to swell.

We gained our feet, panting theatrically as though we were actually fighting. I licked an oozing claw-gash along my foreleg. Not bad for round one. The energy in the arena had reached a fever pitch.

Now to start act two.

I shot forward again. Luke tried to backpedal, but I was too fast. My jaws latched onto his writhing arm. I bit down just hard enough to pierce the flesh of his human disguise, but not hard enough to cause him any real pain.

Luke shouted. He blasted my shoulder repeatedly with his sparks, making it appear as though I had been forced to release him. I circled around, limping theatrically and letting out pained whimpers. Had to play up the fight, make it seem real. Soon, though, it would be over. And no one, not even Nina, would be the wiser.

I felt bad having to keep her in the dark, of course, but it was for the best if only Luke and I were in on it. Last night, when Nina had been fast asleep, we had whispered our plans.

“Get him! Tear that mongrel’s throat out!” Mila screeched from her viewing stand. My lips peeled back in a menacing snarl. Sure, keep shouting, you lunatic bitch.

Luke took advantage of his brief opening, driving me back with concussive shots. I yelped as a bolt scorched my flank. Snarling, I launched straight into another charge. He tried to check my rush with both hands pressed outward in a sizzling current.

Just as planned.

At the last second, I twisted away from his grab. My momentum carried me around him in a blur. Then, before he could wheel to track me, I slammed my full weight into his back.

He sprawled face-first in the dirt. In a blink I was on him, my jaws clamped hard onto the back of his neck. We were both panting, my rank wolf breath ruffling his hair.

Got you now, my friend. He gave an infinitesimal nod. Approval. It was time for our spectacle to come to an end.

I clamped my jaws shut like a steel trap, biting hard into muscle and sinew. Luke’s body convulsed, then went abruptly limp. I held my crushing grip a moment longer, then reared back from his corpse with a triumphant snarl.

The crowd roared, pounding their feet and flapping their wings even harder. Up above us, Mila had risen from her seat, her hands clamped together and a cheek-splitting grin spread across her manic face. Beside her, however, Nina continued to sit as still as a stone; tears streamed down her cheeks.

“I’m so sorry, Nina,” I thought to myself. But she couldn’t know that it was all an act. For good measure, I even grabbed Luke’s shoulder with my jaws and shook him like he was my prey before flinging him away.

His limbs splayed lifelessly when he hit the ground. The arena erupted into another cacophony of roars.

I threw back my head, letting out a howl of victory. Inside, though, I desperately hoped that our ruse worked—that Mila and her faithful servants really believed I just took Luke’s life.

And I hoped that Nina would forgive me for playing her like this when she eventually discovered the truth.