Well, you can go back to looking for shelter or return to the cave.

  I glance at the bodies, the humans and the animals. My gaze turns forward to the direction I was heading.

  Maybe it's best to turn around, considering all the threats that seem to be coming from that direction.

  I don’t take long to debate on it, but I do squat down next to the dead bodies and search the pockets of one of the men. His ashen face is frozen in surprise, his mouth wide open with blood trailing out of it. Blonde hair partially covers his green eyes which were just as wide. An arrow sticks between those same eyes.

  I feel no sympathy for him as I retrieve the thick leather wallet from his pocket. I already know what I’m going to find in it, but I open the wallet anyway. Sure enough, the first thing I see is an indenification card almost identical to the other cards we found on royal guards.

  Gods, how many guards is the queen going to send my way before she stops.

  Maybe she won’t stop.

  The thought stops me cold. For some reason the queen has fixated on me and it doesn’t look like she’s going to stop anytime soon.

  Then I survive here and kill the bitch as soon as I get back to the castle.

  It looks like I can’t just sit around and wait for my original plan to become the champion to play out. I can’t wait to pluck the royals off one by one.

  I need to go straight for the queen as soon as I can.

  Once you cut the head off a snake, the body will die too.

  I get rid of the queen, I get rid of the guards.

  I push to my feet, tossing the wallet. I don’t need it when we already have a collection of others back at the cave from the other guards who came.

  Turning, I head back in the original direction where I came from.

  How long is the trek back to the cave?

  I know that I can find my way back, but how long will it take to get back?

  Sighing, I rub at the spot between my eyes before starting the walk.

  I’ll be sure to tell Walker that his stupid shape-shifting, ancient ass bird took off without explanation.

  I hope she gets lost out here.

  Just as I clear the first couple of feet, there’s a rustling before something sharp cuts my neck and then Ragna is once again standing in front of me in her human form.

  Her beady eyes instantly find mine and she takes a step forward.

  I place a hand to the sting on my neck, pulling my hand away to find a trickle of blood.

  “Did you just cut me with your beak?” I ask with wide eyes as I place the pieces together.

  Ragna rolls her eyes. “That is of no worry now, girl, you will heal.”

  “I may heal, but that doesn’t give you permission to just cut me when you please.” I grit my teeth as I glare at the woman.

  “Always complaining,” she says before her eyes peek over my shoulder. “That is of no worry right now, though.” She walks behind me and I turn to watch her as she stops beside one of the dead bodies.

  She bends down and for a second I’m unsure of what she’s doing before she starts to remove the arrows from the fallen men. She moves quickly and once she’s done, she retrieves the fallen bow and quiver. She places the bloody arrows back into the quiver before marching over to me. She jabs the bow in my direction.

  I raise a brow at her in question.

  She lets out an irritated grunt. “There are more men headed this way, including Samir Luick. I’m sure you would like to run, considering that you’re a coward, but we don’t have time for that, so we’re going to have to stand and face them.”

  “What?” Before I can fully process her words, I find myself under attack for a third time in the same clearing.

  I duck out of the way of a sword and listen to the clunk of it as it connects with the tree I was standing in front of. I turn sharply as the man abandons his sword and throws a fist at me. He just barely connects with my jaw and pain explodes in my face. Growling, I throw my head forward, listening to the sick crack from the headbutt. It doesn't do much in making my head feel better, but it does throw the man off long enough for me to drive Gwev through his chest.

  Before I can pull Gwev back, someone charges into me. I stumble but manage to stay on my feet as I look for the attacker.

  My breath catches slightly when I find myself face to face with Samir Luick himself.

  Fuck.

  When a renowned warrior stands in front of you, there’s no time to fuck around. His dark eyes watch me closely as he charges forward, drawing a sword. Unlike the other men I’ve faced and defeated in the last couple of days, Samir isn’t stupid.

  When I try to use his momentum against him by moving out of the way at the last second, I’m rewarded with a strong elbow to the back of the head.

  I stagger but refuse to go down.

  If he gets me on my back, he’ll kill me within seconds. There won’t be an escape like in the past.

  I take a couple of steps back, keeping my gaze on the man but remaining aware of the rest of my surroundings. Grunts and fist smacking can be heard from behind me and I have no doubt that Ragna is kicking the ass of the other men without any problems.

  Samir’s eyes trace my movements. When I move for the dagger in my boot, he rages forward. I roll under his attack, drawing my dagger with the movement and turning around quickly enough to jab it in the man’s back.

  I curse when it lands just below his right shoulder blade instead of in his spine like I’d like.

  He’s quick.

  He doesn’t even let out a grunt of pain, my dagger still sticking from his shoulder as he swats at me with his sword.

  Fuck, I need to get that thing from him before I slip up and he actually manages to decapitate me.

  I move backwards again, finding myself without most of my weapons. I do a mental calculation of what I have left and feel the lone dagger in my left boot.

  Shit.

  Samir’s eyes track me like a predator, and I know the second I reach down for the dagger, he’ll charge forward.

  If I can’t get the dagger out quick enough, he’ll have me.

  It's as I’m weighing the odds and possibilities that the man takes one small step forward before throwing his sword at me.

  I’m in shock as the sword comes at me, thrown perfectly straight and with enough force that it comes at me, end first without wavering. I try to jump to the side, but I’m not fast enough as blistering pain shoots through my cheek.

  Warm, sticky blood instantly starts to trail down my cheek and it's almost impossible to push past the pain as Samir comes at me.

  I try to avoid his outstretched hands but it's to no avail as he wraps his hands around my neck. His eyes blaze with fury as he starts to choke the life out of me.

  I gasp, slapping at his hands as he cuts off my airflow.

  My face is full of agony and I can just manage to see the long stream of blood as it drips from my face onto the man’s hands. His lips curl into a snarl as I kick out at him with my feet.

  Fuck.

  The man’s face changes suddenly, as he lets out a howl and then I’m being released. Spots form in my vision as I fall to the ground. I manage to get a glance at Samir as he reaches behind him. He goes stumbling back.

  I glance up as I try to gasp for breath.

  Ragna stands in front of Samir, her eyes ablaze as she faces off with the queen’s champion. She lets out a hiss before moving forward.

  Samir ducks out of her way and I watch in shock as the man tucks tail and runs.

  Holy fuck, he’s retreating. What did she do?

  My gaze moves to Ragna and I find her watching me. Her gaze shifts back to the retreating man and I can tell she’s debating on whether to go after him or deal with me.

  I look away from her to Samir’s retreating form and it's then that I see what she did to him. Where my dagger was once under his shoulder blade, it has moved down and there's a long gash along the man’s back bleeding like crazy.

  Fuck, she nearly cut half of his back off.

  I can’t focus on that though as my vision starts to waver again. I reach up a hand to my cheek, wincing at the blood that instantly covers.

  A long sigh comes from Ragna before she’s squatting down in front of me. Her lips turn down in disapproval as she studies my face. “The sword only grazed you, which is a miracle, considering that he threw it like a spear, and you sat there and waited for it to come at you like an imbecile.” Her words are negative, but I can’t even be bothered by it as she places a hand under my chin and studies my face. She lets out another sigh. “It’ll scar nasty if your healing magic doesn’t kick in.”

  She says it so casually that I’m taken off guard. And then her face changes, almost the same face as earlier as she looks off and seems to concentrate on something. No, not concentrating, listening.

  She mutters some foreign words under her breath before she places her hands under my arms and jerks me to my feet. “You are a nuisance, girl, but I will return you safely to the others. Do try to keep up on the trek back. Walker will be mad with me if you fall out in the middle of nowhere from blood loss.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  The longer we walk, the dizzier I become. Ragna tore a piece of one of the guard’s clothing, throwing it at me and telling me to press it against my face to stunt the bleeding. I’d made a snarky comment about the shirt being dirty to which she only glared at me before shifting back into a bird.

  So now I’m following behind a maniacal bird, moments away from passing out with my legs sore.

  Hell, I can’t remember the last time my legs hurt from so much walking.

  I trained in scenarios like this and couldn’t have predicted this.

  Along the trek, we come across the bodies of more than a few competitors. Upon studying them, it becomes clear that they weren’t killed by guards. No, this island and its creatures have taken them out, which was supposed to be the point of this.

  If you ever find yourself in an unknown location with the prince, it’s your job to protect him.

  That’s the whole point of this part of the calling. It's why it isn’t public knowledge so that people can’t try to over prepare for this specifically. They want to be able to throw you into an unknown scenario and they expect you to survive it. They don’t care how that survival comes, which is why they don’t bother to monitor the competitors. When they finally end this whole thing, whenever that is, they’ll only look at the fact that you survived.

  Well fuck it, I don’t care how many guards they send after me, I’m going to make it through this whole fucked up situation.

  The thing that I can’t ignore though is the fact that the queen can end this whenever she wants, or she can keep it going for as long as she wants.

  When Conrad and I assessed this part, he told me that it usually only lasts a little over a week. Most of the competitors are weeded out within the first couple of days with the extreme circumstances so the extra couple of days is just to see how many more people can be dwindled down.

  Two weeks at most, is what he’d told me.

  So, if I survive the next week, will I make it out of here or will the queen keep this shit going?

  It's not like anyone can actually stop Pamula or tell her that trying to personally attack me is wrong. And at the end of the day I know I brought this all on myself. Conrad has explicitly told me for years that when we come, I have to stay under the radar.

  That didn’t even last past the first five minutes of me getting to The Calling. I’d immediately had everyone’s attention because I was a woman, which was to be expected, it was just something that was inevitable. But when Elyjah had addressed me for the first time, I’d shown too much spunk. Yeah, at the time you couldn’t have told me that, but now that I look back I know it's the truth.

  “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “I’m here to compete, obviously.”

  The second I'd mouthed off to him about being allowed to be here because of the rulebooks, I’d not only caught his attention but also The Bae Twins. I’d had Walker’s only moments before when he’d walked into the arena and spotted me. He’d read me as the threat that no one else did, assessing not my tits but the weapons attached to me.

  If I would have stopped there and tried to stay low on the radar after that then maybe things would have been okay.

  But then I’d had to go and beat Walker in the first obstacle in a showy fashion and it became clear then to everyone that they needed to keep their eyes on me.

  If I let Walker win, there would have been less heat on me, no matter how much my pride would have been wounded.

  But my pride has always been one of my biggest downfalls.

  I’d refused to fucking kneel on instinct alone at The First Ball, which picked more attention. Orrtyn caught it for sure and warned me against it, and while I’m not sure, I think Queen Pamula caught it too. I’d caught her eyes on me at the time, and unwisely held her gaze, but couldn’t quite figure out why she was watching me in the first place, but she’d have to have seen. Not to mention I ended up getting into a staring competition with her that Orrtyn had to pull me out of.

  Then there’d been the next obstacle which I just barely lost to Walker who shoved me off a fucking cliff. That’d ignited the murderous spark I’d felt between us even more and when I confronted him, it only drew the royals in more. And then I’d passed out and they’d gotten me to the infirmary.

  Which is when things started to blur.

  The thought strikes me suddenly, but I know it’s true. Maybe at the time I hadn’t been willing to see it, but it’d changed things.

  That same day, I was exposed to the queen’s powers and I think that’s when she started seeing me clearly as someone to target. She’d shown me the power she could wield over me, but I don’t think I was exactly someone she saw as a threat.

  If she did, she would have killed me then and I wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it as she’d controlled my limbs with her gift.

  Everything from there had been a shit show, only making the royals pay more and more attention to me.

  Maybe I should have let Conrad pull me after the attack from Delia that was issued because of the queen.

  Anyone with a smaller ego would have recognized the moment for how dangerous it was. I’d only let it drive me more and look at where I am now.

  On a forsaken, bat shit crazy island that I may not get off of and working with royals who may want to kill me just as much as I want to kill them.

  Gods, and don’t forget the fucking stupid dreams you’ve had about Orrtyn and Walker.

  I instantly push that to the back of my mind, turning my attention back to the scene in front of me.

  I waver slightly on my feet and Ragna lets out a squawk as her beak scrapes my neck. As much as I want to complain, the sharp sting helps me focus slightly and stay alert.

  Blowing out a breath of air, I push forward and when the scene in front of me starts to become slightly familiar I know we’re close to the cave.

  My feet cross over each other and I almost trip. I grab onto a nearby tree and take a deep breath.

  Rustling makes my head snap up and I weakly grab for Gwev. The arrow quiver is on my back and Ragna managed to rig the bow to fit back there easily enough too, but I’m too weak to try to reach back and grab it.

  I try to hold Gwev with one hand as I keep the shirt pressed against my face with the other, just in case there isn’t an actual threat. If there is, I’ll just drop the shirt and put forth more of an effort to wield the sword.

  My eyes shoot to Ragna.

  That little bitch better come through if there is a threat, though, because I may pass out five seconds into the fight.

  I tense more as the rustling comes closer but then Orrtyn is slipping in front of me. His blue eyes hold concern as he watches me. Over his shoulder, Brielyn and Walker make an appearance.

  The fight goes out of me and I waver. Orrtyn’s hands slide under me, holding me up and I can’t even protest at the warmth or strength. Gwev falls limply from my hand. “Gumdrop, you just can’t stay away from trouble, can you?” Orrtyn mutters and I can’t even find it in me to argue with him. “Walker,” he says sharply.

  Seconds later I’m being holstered into the air as my eyes flutter shut. I drift in and out of consciousness aware of someone carrying me. I try to form words, but they only come out slurred and a mess.

  “It nearly looks like someone dug a dagger through your check. What the hell cut you?” He doesn’t wait for any response to his answer before he starts to berate me. “You really are an absolute mess, princess. How many times can you end up hurt in the span of a couple of days?” If the nickname didn’t alert me to who was carrying me, the snark behind the words certainly would.

  I try to tell Walker that this is all his fault, him and that damn bird. If he wouldn’t have taken my dagger, I wouldn’t have had to get away to keep from killing him. And it’s Ragna’s fault, because… well, because she’s an absolute nuisance and I wish I could just make some bird stew out of her.

  But I don’t say the words, not because my mouth won’t move the way I need it to, but because the same thought from earlier appears in my mind.

  I’m off my game.

  It’s no one’s fault but my own that I keep getting hurt.

  The jostling stops a while later and my vision clears up some as I’m placed on something hard. I try to make out where we are but it's unfamiliar and there’s still a lot of black spots in my vision. Muttering comes from somewhere in the distance and I can’t quite make out who’s speaking.

  I still feel dizzy and when I reach a hand up to touch my face it’s still sticky with blood. However, it doesn’t seem to be dripping out at an alarming rate which is a good sign.

  I take deep breaths, trying to push away the dizziness. After a few moments, my head clears slightly.

  I find the strength to sit up, shaking my head. The second my vision clears I know I’m in a cave, it’s just a different one from last time.