Chapter 261. The Competition IX

Chapter 261: 261. The Competition IX

Maisie

For the first time, I trusted my gut completely.

I snapped the cuffs around my wrist in half and cut the act.

I didn’t care if the Queen found out I was no longer affected by ash. I didn’t care for my hatred, not at the moment. The lives of the people in that stadium, on the school grounds, my friends, Quinlan, Jericho... Mercer... It mattered more to me than giving that away.

Bastian’s grey eyes widened with alarm, but I moved faster than he did, throwing a punch that sent him flying across the gravel and smashing into the van.

Alarmed yells rang through the rank of guards as I took off through the same tight hallway we’d come out of.

A hand caught the back of my shirt, but I ripped free, thighs burning as I slammed into the left wall, following the noise swelling inside the stadium.

"Maisie!" Bastian’s voice thundered far behind me. "Don’t make me shoot you down!"

I ran faster. My injured shoulder screamed and my lungs burned, but I didn’t care.

I had to get inside. I had to warn them.

A guard shot out from the side passage and I ducked beneath his arm. Someone else caught me from behind. I drove my elbow backward.

The guard cried out and dropped me.

The moment my boots hit the floor, I was running again. And my heart leaped when I burst through the end of the hallway, right into the stadium.

The din swallowed me whole, nearly deafening me. "Chas-tain! Chas-tain! Chas-tain!" I heard the crowd roaring, while a different faction yelled, "De-neb! De-neb! De-neb!"

The feeds were fixed on the very aggressive game of lacrosse happening at the dead center of the stadium. The arena had been adjusted and made into a field and the world around me seemed completely insane and oblivious to our impending doom.

The Queen was all the way across and I doubted the guards would let me get close enough. I didn’t think telling them, "Hey, so it’s raining fucking ice outside and I have a feeling we’re all going to die if we don’t get out of here now," was going to get me an audience with her.

I had to get on that field.

The thought hadn’t even settled in when I heard movement behind me. The guards had gained on me. Shit.

I sprinted down the steps, nearly smashing my teeth in when I tripped, and I ducked, barely missing getting snatched up, changing my direction to avoid getting stopped by the other guards who had noticed the ruckus.

Or maybe Bastian had called for reinforcements.

I began jumping over the seats and took the race between the rows of yelling students. I bounced off a Hellsgrave blonde and she hit the ground with a yelp.

"Sorry!"

I kept moving. Another student shouted after me when I chipped his shoulder. "Hey!"

My boot came down on someone’s foot. "Sorry!"

"What the hell--" "Hey!" "Watch it!" "Is that--?" "Ow!" "Get off me" "What is her problem?" "Dude, seriously?" "Watch where you’re going!"

I made it to the front row after what felt a deathly chase, only to hit a huge wall and rebound hard onto my ass.

I looked up.

Ryder Hunt stared down at me. He was dressed like the others, though he was slightly larger than I remembered him to be. And there was a scar along the side of his face that hadn’t been there before. It looked like a burn.

And the sick delight in his eyes told me he wouldn’t hesitate to snap my neck if he got his hands on me.

Then I saw the guards pouring in from either sides of the front rows, closing in.

The stadium had begun to notice, and it didn’t help when a couple of the large screens switched the fields from the games to the commotion I was causing.

"I just want to talk to the Queen," I said to Ryder. "It’s urgent--"

He lunged for me, and I braced hard on the ground and pushed, sliding through the small space between his legs.

Laughter erupted in the stadium as I vaguely missed slapping my face against his crotch.

The Game’s commentator whistled as I scrambled to my feet behind him and began sprinting. "It appears we have an unexpected interruption from... Wait a minute. Isn’t that--"

Another chimed in as I ran for my dear life. "It is she. The Murdering Man-Eater, herself."

Huh?

I didn’t let myself think too much about it as the guards chased me onto the field, completely disrupting the game.

And my face finally appeared on the enormous screens ahead. For one second, I stared at myself. My blue eyes were wide with terror. My shoulder was bleeding and had tracked blood all over the field. I looked pale as snow.

Everyone was staring at me now.

I gestured wildly at the cameras. "You all need to get out of here!"

My mouth moved. My arms flew through the air. I pointed toward the ceiling, at the skies beyond. "Something’s coming!" I pointed towards the exits. "Need to leave!"

The commentator spoke again. "Is she... dancing?"

I realized then that no one could hear me. I might as well have been performing a series of stupid, embarrassing moves in front of the entire school and the Councils presents. And the Queen.

Real original.

Then the outrage turned to me as the students began yelling angrily, "Get her off the field!"

Someone grabbed my arm from behind and I looked back, finding Quinlan staring down at me through his helmet. He was sweaty and his uniform was stuck to his body and he smelled like sweat and I wanted to lick it off his skin--

"What the fuck are you doing--are you hurt?" He asked, taking off his helmet and tossing it to the ground as he glancing at the blood running down my shoulder.

A vicious snarl tumbled out of him. "Who shot you?"

But he glanced over my head and I guessed the guards had finally had enough of my running. There were so many of them.

He shoved me behind him protectively, looking squarely at Ryder who stalked forward.

A different commentator, a female this time, clapped excitedly. "The game is taking a rather interesting turn. I believe we’re about to witness a pissing contest."

And that’s when I realized what I needed.

A mic. I needed the commentator’s mic.