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LEO
When Anna and I reach the field south of the school, legs shaking and lungs burning from our hobbling run back up from the sea caves, we find Silas and Hedeon already waiting for us, each holding their piece of the puzzle. Hedeon had been looking anxiously in all directions for the rest of our team, while Silas simply sits on the grass, as taciturn and expressionless as ever.
On the opposite side of the field, I see that Mikhail and Johnny have of course already returned, both having completed their tasks far ahead of Anna and me. Likewise, Sam and Liam seem to have retrieved their puzzle pieces.
“I beat him back,” Silas grunts, jerking his head toward Sam on the opposite side of the field. “We each had to fight three opponents. I beat the third before he was even done with the second.”
The evidence of Silas’s battles is clear on his face. His left eye is almost swollen shut, and his nose is making a strange whistling sound. He doesn’t seem bothered by his injuries. I’m not entirely sure Silas is human.
“Liam finished before I did,” Hedeon admits. “He’s such a fucking good shot.”
Hedeon is a decent marksman, but not even top five in our year. If I had known what the challenges were going to be, I would have picked someone like Chay, or even Gemma Rossi, as awkward as that might be.
“It’s alright,” I say. “They can’t put their puzzle together without the rest of the pieces.”
“What took you so long?” Hedeon says, frowning. “Mikhail’s been back a long time, and Johnny even longer.”
“Sorry to keep you waiting!” Anna snaps at him. “We were just drowning ourselves while Liam was showing you up at target practice.”
“It wasn’t stationary targets—” Hedeon starts, but I hold up my hand to cut him off before he and Anna can get into it. I put my arm around Anna’s shoulders for good measure, pulling her against my side. She’s still pale and shaking, not at all recovered from our ordeal.
“It doesn’t matter,” I say. “Give me all the pieces—let’s see if we can put any of them together.”
From the way Mikhail, Johnny, Sam, and Liam are bunched together in a tight circle on the opposite end of the field, I suspect they’re working on the same thing.
“What is this?” Hedeon says, turning the irregular metal lumps over in his hands. “How are these supposed to fit?”
“I don’t know,” I say.
At that moment, I see Marcelline running out through the Kingmaker’s gates, the sun glinting off the gold in her hands.
“She got hers,” Hedeon says.
“Where’s Matteo?” Anna asks.
We fix our eyes on the gates, hoping to see Matteo following close behind. Every second that ticks past feels interminable. Iunderstand now why Hedeon looked so strained when we finally ran up.
Three or four minutes later, Matteo comes puffing across the field, his round face flushed from running.
“I’m sorry,” he pants, shoving his puzzle piece into my hands. “We had to solve a code—fuck it was so hard. I’ve never seen anything like it. That Marcelline is a goddamned android.”
Before I’ve even added Matteo’s piece to our pile, Pippa likewise comes sprinting up from the direction of the river bottom. She throws her puzzle piece triumphantly to Liam.
“Fuck,”Hedeon mutters under his breath. “If Pippa’s back, we’re done.”
“They’re still missing one piece,” I remind him, but I feel the same sense of impending doom. There’s no sign of Isabel yet, and if Sven beats Ares, I doubt it’s going to take Pippa long to solve the puzzle.
“Let me see those…” Matteo takes the pieces from Anna. He turns them over, examining all sides. “Ah!” he mutters, managing to click two of the pieces together.
His early success is deceptive—after another five minutes, he hasn’t made any progress on the other four.
I’m watching for Isabel and Ares. I expect to see Isabel first, since Pippa is already back, but instead Ares comes limping up the road from the village, hunched over and deathly pale.
I run down the road to him, shocked by the sight of his gray face.
“What the fuck happened to you?”
In answer, he leans over and vomits up a large quantity of water.
