His lips merely twitch because he’s an unapologetic dick.
“And therefore, my epiphany has been that none of you deserve me. You can look. You can fantasize. Like I’ve had to. Try to bring home a woman, and I’ll make farting noises while wearing a dolphin costume and acting like I’m humping each of you. See how long you can hold an erection then,” I carry on, feeling a little proud of that threat as they all eye me like the psychotic girl in the room. “But even if I get whole and you beg, I’d never give in. In fact, I’m going to see if I can’t figure out how to attach myself to one of the other quads the next time we’re around some.”
Ezekiel turns and stalks out, not saying anything.
As I take a seat, Jude leans over me, caging me in as I stare up at him, unafraid.
“You’re trying to fuck with us again right now, aren’t you? See if you can make us jealous?”
I snort derisively, then outright laugh. “Make you jealous?” I ask around my laughter.
He backs up, a confused expression on his face.
“Why in the hell would I attempt to make you jealous? You don’t even like me! You play head games. Three of you finally tell me good night, only to act like I’m the devil’s advocate the next day just because I had a fluke where I finally got to feel someone, and surprise surprise, there was almost sex involved. That was apparently me trying to break you up, even though I’ve been quite shameless in voicing what I want the second I get whole, and I’ve been voicing it from the very beginning.”
They all look a little confused for a second.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, there are a few books open in the library where you guys were trying to research me. I’m going to go see if any of those books hold the secrets to getting myself hitched to four guys who appreciate how awesome I really am. Ghost girl out.”
I should have left off the ghost girl out part. My speech was epic until then.
Hands shaking and heart thumping in my chest, I stalk up the stairs, ready to commit to this new plan of action. I’ve been toying with the idea since the gauntlet, but until now, I didn’t have the lady ghost balls to go through with it.
As soon as I pass through the door in the library, I see a book shutting. Jude is smirking, his fingers closing another book.
Kai closes a few as well, since they apparently siphoned in here.
Gage props his feet up on a few open books, before shutting a few more beside him, challenging eyes on me the entire time.
“Real mature,” I grumble. “If you want me gone so bad, then why would you shut all the books?”
Gage toys with an ink pen, smirking and not looking at me.
“All the better to annoy you with, my dear,” Jude drawls.
“We’re not letting you go until we understand what it is you really are,” Kai goes on with a shrug.
“Fine,” I bite out with a fake smile on my face as I cross my arms over my chest.
My outfit changes to the sexiest one yet. It’s a little Egyptian Princess in style, gold and alluring. Ornate gold sleeves wrap up my arms, and the laces of the sexy shoes go all the way up to my thighs.
The bodysuit-ish outfit has a neckline that dips all the way to my stomach. The bottom has a touch of long, light, gold chains that hang to the knees, but is spaced apart so you can still see all the way up.
I’m not sure why it’s the one that I choose, but it pops into my mind, so I go with it.
Gage falls out of the chair.
Guess I have a winning outfit for him.
Kai sucks in a sharp breath, and Jude is suddenly in front of me, trying to snatch me. All of their eyes light up gold, and I take a wary step back as they start coming toward me like mindless drones.
“Okay. Not funny anymore. What’s wrong with—”
I squeal when Kai lunges, but when he passes through me, I roll my eyes at myself for being an idiot. I whirl around just as Gage tries to tackle me.
Shit.
For whatever reason, they really like this outfit, or they seriously hate it.
Because they look feral. Ruthless. Savage even.
I’m suddenly in that dolphin costume I threatened them with for a whole new reason, my head poking out the dolphin’s belly, and they all blink like they’re waking from a trance.
“What the hell is wrong with you idiots? It was just an outfit. And so help me, if you blame me for that, I will—”
They all disappear from the room at once, and I curse, losing the dolphin costume and donning some normal, very respectable clothing.
I almost don’t go look for them, because I know they’re going to be doubly suspicious of me. But unfortunately, I’m worried about them, because that clearly wasn’t natural.
I really need to detach myself before my attachment gets me killed.
My hurried steps slow when I hear them talking in the kitchen.
“You saw that,” Jude is saying.
“I saw that she freaked out and turned into a dolphin to snap us out of that shit. She definitely didn’t want us in that trance. Whatever in the hell it was,” Kai grumbles.
“She’s all I could see for a minute. It was…not the outfit. It was something else. Something in the air,” Jude goes on.
“Why a dolphin?” Gage asks.
“Really not the important part,” Ezekiel says. “What happened?”
Before the guys can explain to him that once again I did something suspicious, the door swings open.
Five men come walking in, and my heart stutters. Why isn’t the spell keeping them out of they mean them harm?
Leaping off the rest of the steps, I race to follow them.
“Hands on your heads,” one of the men shouts.
Running up behind them, my hand comes up reflexively, but Jude’s eyes meet mine, and he gives me a subtle, but still distinguishable, shake of his head.
His hands go to the top of his head, jaw tensing as he holds my eyes for a minute longer. I barely manage to stop the power on the tip of my fingers, because it knows something is wrong. And it only works when they’re in trouble.
Life threatening trouble.
And I really want to use the power. It almost hurts not to when it’s so close to the surface and begging to be set free.
Kai gives me the same barely-there headshake, also telling me to stand down.
My hand falls to my side, and I ignore the annoying prickles that spread over me, punishment for denying whatever this power inside me is.
Ezekiel’s gaze meets and holds mine as the men start walking behind all of them. They pull out cuffs, and Gage glances my way before speaking.
“What are we being taken in for?” Gage asks.
I wish they weren’t all staring at me like they’re worried I’m about to save them—as though it would be the worst thing ever. Don’t they want to be saved?
When no one answers him, Kai speaks, even as they continue to pull their hands into some weird black cuffs one at a time.
“Under the guardian’s privilege rules, you’re required to tell four guardians who’ve entered the trials the reason they’re being taken in,” Kai tells them dryly.
“It’s protective custody,” one of the guards tells him flippantly. “There’s still a hit out on your names, and as contenders in the second round of the trials, we’re required to offer you protection under the crown.”
The guys all stare at me, until Ezekiel finally makes a subtle gesture with his head for me to join them. Right. They’re about to be zapped out of here, no doubt.
I barely make it to him in time to stick my hand out, and then we’re suddenly inside a cell. The men who cuffed them are nowhere to be seen, and I whirl around, taking in the blackened stones surrounding us.
The iron door will be twice as hard to pass through, so I opt to go through the creepy stone, poking my head through to see what’s around us.
Bad idea.
My breath runs out in a rush when a flame shoots straight up into the air like it’s trying to take my face off. I reel back, but carefully peer back out to take in the cylinder prison we’re in.
All the many pointless cell doors are visible in this large circle tower. Right in the middle of us is an endless pit of fire that shoots straight up whenever it has to hiccup or fart or something.
I’m assuming we’re in hell right now.
Just a guess.
Why even have the doors when you clearly can’t walk out of them?
“Not even the soul stones stop her from passing through,” Gage muses, not sounding even the least bit distressed by the fact we’re literally in a hell cell.
“I thought nothing could breach them,” Ezekiel immediately adds.
Pulling my head back in, I look at the four of them in all their relaxed glory like they’re idiots.
Kai pulls his cuffed hands under his legs and works them down until they’re in front of him. The other three do the same—like they’ve done this a hundred times.
“Just curious if the four of you have figured out Manella has put you in here to kill you finally, since you’ve managed to thwart his attempts in the other world,” I decide to point out.
“Of course we’ve figured it out. It’s also why they’ve cuffed us, so we can’t use our abilities,” Jude states with a shrug.
“I’m not even sure what your abilities are,” I tell him honestly as I turn around and poke my head through another wall, hoping to find a hallway or something.
No such luck. It’s another big pit of fire in the center, cells lining up as high as I can see to a fiery ceiling as well.
So I stick my head beside us, finding another cell and a very gnarly looking occupant.
Both of his eyes are dangling, and he’s hunched over like he’s looking for his precious, while chewing on a mangled piece of meat that smells rancid even from here.
Pulling my head back in, I shudder.
“Doesn’t matter what our abilities are,” Gage says.
“The cuffs keep them contained. It’s sealed with the devil’s crest.”
“How do you get the cuffs off?” I ask them when they withhold any answers about their abilities.
I turn around as Kai shrugs. “They’ll wait a few days before attempting to kill us. It’d be too obvious to kill us too soon, so we have time to figure it out. It’s easiest to trick a guard into taking them off, since they know the words to speak.”
“There are words to speak?” I ask, perking up. I can go find these.
“Not just anyone can say them. They have to be spoken by the chosen guards who’ve been blessed,” Ezekiel calls to my back, but I’m already passing through to Smeagol’s cage.
“We could use a protective spirit right now,” Jude calls out, acting amused.
I step back in immediately, then see their mocking grins.
“Real funny. Why does this guy next to us look like a Gollum? Are those real?”
“No,” Ezekiel says, his eyes dancing with humor. “It’s hell, Keyla. If you’re cast here after death, your soul starts transforming, morphing into the monster you really are, depending on your transgressions. Once the metamorphosis is complete and a physical form has manifested, they decide what to do with you, based on what you are.”