A soft hand stroked my neck. “Mmm … Ryder,” I mumbled, opening my eyes.
Jayden sat before me, black eyes twinkling and shit-eater grin in place. “Oh my God, if we weren’t about to go into a battle for our lives, I would tease the shit out of you for that one.”
I sat up quickly. “Wait, we?”
Jayden grinned. “Yep, your homeboy Lucas must have some pull with all of his high-up friends, because we happen to be paired together, and we happen to be fighting the two weakest and injured guys.”
I squealed and jumped into his arms. He winced and pushed me back a little.
“Oh, damn. Sorry, Jay. Are you still hurt?”
He nodded and lifted his shirt to show stitches on his ribcage, and I noticed then that his calf was still bandaged.
“You don’t mind having a gay gimp for a partner?”
My mouth dropped open. “You’re gay?”
He rolled his eyes. “I love you, bitch.”
I smiled. “Right back at ya, bitch.”
And that was it. In our own special way we had just said goodbye.
Jayden and I stood in the training room with Bryan, Jayden’s trainer, and Ryder. On the bench sat a short dagger and a short wooden stick with a spiked ball hanging from the end. Our two chosen-by-the-other-side weapons. Freak me. I shivered.
Ryder lifted one foot and rested it on the bench seat, which from my angle only emphasized his muscular thigh and ass cheek. Damn, Ryder’s ass … not the time, Charlie.
I focused on my trainer’s words. “You two have a serious advantage here. No one in the culling becomes friends, it’s every man for himself. Even these two will be against each other, trying to get the last spots. The buzzer rings as soon as two ash die. It doesn’t even matter which two or which team.”
Jayden and I shared a look and nodded. No way in hell was I letting anyone take out my new best friend.
Bryan shifted his focus to me. “I saw your fight. Well done. Jayden is pretty badly injured, so I think he should have the spike ball. The dagger will mean you will have to get closer to your opponent…”
The rest of his sentence was left unsaid, but we all knew what the words would have been. Jayden might not survive being close enough to use a dagger.
Ryder interjected. “But Jayden is stronger. If he gets pulled to the ground he can handle himself. She can’t.”
“No, I agree. I’ll take the dagger.” I shut them all up. Ryder’s expression did that stoic, cold thing again. He seemed upset with my choice, but the buzzer sounded, eliminating any more time for arguing.
I grabbed the dagger, letting it roll in my hands, trying to ignore the dried blood at the tip. They couldn’t even wipe the blade down? Sometimes the members of the Hive were true animals.
Ryder approached me and leaned in so close I thought he meant to kiss me. Instead, he whispered in my ear: “Charlene Bennett, you are a direct descendant of the fourth house. Don’t forget that.” His words were strangely smooth and echoey, and something unfurled inside my chest, seeking, strong. Before I could say or do anything, we were thrust out into the fight.
As per the previous rounds, we were checked for unauthorized weapons, then the fight buzzer rang out. The stomping and hollering from the crowd was sickening. It rang in my ears and had the blood pounding through my veins. Crazy mofos, how could anyone enjoy this? This was not sport or entertainment, this was real live ash getting slaughtered. It was sickening. I wanted this entire goddamn Hive to burn down! I might be an ash, and I might have had ash friends now and a possible ash crush, but my hatred of the system still remained.
I forced myself to focus on the fight. I couldn’t change anything if I was dead. The two ash across from us definitely looked a little worse for wear. The shaved head ash, with his stupid pimp goatee, had his right arm in a hard cast; his other hand held the throwing stars. Great weapons choice from our sponsor. It was going to be near impossible for him to throw that with one arm all banged up. The other ash, who had long, light brown hair tied back at his neck, had a bandage over one eye and held a bow and arrow, which would totally screw with his depth perception. Still, they both had long range weapons. We needed to get in there fast.
“Stay by my side!” I roared, as Jayden and I took off. Bow and arrow guy dropped to one knee and expertly let loose an arrow. Shit! Even with sucky depth perception, he knew what he was doing. I hadn’t expected him to move so quickly and I was too close to dodge his arrow. The razor sharp end slammed into my thigh, lodging itself quite deep. I screamed, turning to find Jayden right beside me. In a flash, before I could protest, my friend broke the end off, leaving the head embedded. Holy mutha effing fuck, that hurt so badly. Luckily the adrenalin kept me moving. I followed Jayden as he dropped and rolled behind an obstacle barrier. We crouched side by side as I panted in pain.