Page 23 of Gilded Curses

“Secrets, demon. We all have our secrets,” Desmond told him. “Now, please, watch the wood.”

Sahira stopped breathing as a low growl issued from Zeth. Desmond’s condescending words had finally caused the demon to snap and his instincts to surge to the forefront.

Desmond’s smile didn’t falter as a sinister gleam lit his eyes. This bastard was seeking to provoke them into an attack.

When Zeth started to rise, the guards lifted their spears as they stepped closer. Elsa seized Zeth’s wrist. “Your son,” she hissed.

Orin grasped Sahira’s hand in his. A flicker in the shadows alerted her that he was preparing to draw them forth, but they couldn’t leave the others behind, and she didn’t see how they could get out of this room with so many guards surrounding them.

Zeth stood, trembling as his yellow eyes raked Desmond. He didn’t have to say the words; Sahira knew he’d marked the dagadon leader for death.

After a few more tense moments, Zeth finally settled into his seat again. Desmond didn’t bother to hide his sigh of disappointment.

“Anyway,” the man continued. “We shall celebrate your survival and conquering of The Tournament for a week at least. Then you shall be set free.”

“A week?” Sahira practically squeaked.

These things expected them to stay here for a week! No, she wouldn’t do it… but she didn’t have a choice.

Orin could cloak them all in shadows, and they might be able to slip past the guards and back into the town, but then what?

There was no food out there and nowhere for them to go except back to Belda’s, where they would be monitored, hunted, and destroyed. If the Golden Ones did somehow control the scarog beetles, and they must, they might be able to unleash them on the town at will.

Not to mention, they’d have to make it back through all those trials first. And she didn’t have it in her to battle the spiders, geysers, and sand monsters again. Not to mention, they didn’t have the food or water to get them through it either.

They couldn’t escape via a portal, and the dagadon were dangling freedom before them. She didn’t trust them, but what choice did they have?

Unless they somehow managed to kill Desmond and all his freaky friends, they had no choice but to remain here, where they were far outnumbered. And if they did slaughter everyone here, they’d still be trapped in this realm.

The pounding in her head intensified as tears burned her eyes, but she refused to shed them. They’d come this far and succeeded where so many others had failed; she wasn’t about to give up now… even if it seemed hopeless.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

They had to suffer through two more hours of Desmond’s company before the very drunk Lord of Epoch finally declared an end to the night. He and Sheree rose from their seats, and while they’d barely acknowledged each other all night, he draped an arm around her shoulders.

She helped walk his staggering ass out the doorway where the prizes were all taken earlier. Some of them had returned to join the line of servants standing along the wall; each stood behind the new dagadon who had claimed them.

Orin suspected these assholes traded them fairly regularly, and this was nothing new for them. Still, his lip curled in revulsion over it.

“See that our guests are taken care of,” Sheree commanded without looking back at them.

It was ridiculous she referred to them as guests when they were clearly prisoners, but it was all part of their game. The seven of them may not be in a dungeon, and bars didn’t surround them, but they were far from guests.

When some of the women who’d helped clean and dress them rushed over, almost all the guards accompanied them. He didn’t know many guests who would have such a large contingency surrounding them, but his idea of a guest and Sheree’s were different.

“We’ll take you to your rooms,” the woman who tried to follow him into the bathing chamber said.

Orin squeezed Sahira’s hand before releasing it and standing from his chair. When they were ready, the servants led them out of the dining hall through the doors Desmond and Sheree didn’t walk through.

From the main entrance, the servants led them to the floating staircase and the second floor. Guards surrounded them as they followed the flow of servants down a white brick hallway.

Most of the white doors lining the hall were closed. The only bit of color in the hall was the wood frame surrounding those doors and the sparkling, magical lights in their golden sconces.

Near the end of the hall, the servants separated, and seven of them stopped outside seven doors. Following their lead, seven guards moved to open the last seven doors in the hallway.

“These are your rooms,” the woman who had offered herself to him said.

The three brownies grouped closer together. “We’re staying with each other,” Pip declared. Loth and Fath nodded their agreement.