The Mayaware's reign must end.
In a world of demonic beings with a hunger for human flesh and thirst for blood, Hesi Renen knows it well. When her siblings are taken to the harvesting farms, she must do everything she can to get them out, even if it...
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The air in the room was thick. It was hard to breathe as Hesi lashed out and slammed her fist into Rehema's waiting arm. The bride grunted but did little to stand against Hesi's force. Rehema's knees folded and thumped on the ground. Hesi exhaled and stepped back, her bare feet sliding across the dusty floor.
"Get up," Hesi instructed. A weight settled on her chest and shoulders as she huffed. "We are not done."
Silence filled the landscape. She glanced at the other brides training. A certain glum wrapped around their movements, dragging their swings back and holding their punches back. Rehema didn't move from the floor, her eyes glued to the cots which caught her fall.
Mensa's loss hung over their heads like an ominous cloud. Her death betrayed the ugly truth: the Mayaware would manipulate the trials to remove who they wanted, and the brides were powerless. Hesi failed to acknowledge it when she plunged into this mess. By joining the competition, she signed away her hopes for safety and freedom, as well as the agency to fight.
This was Berheqt. Everything revolved around power and survival. All Hesi had was fear and her desperation to save her siblings from a fate nobody deserved. This was the last penance she offered her parents, whose sacrifice should mean something. If she threw away this chance, if she stopped squirming against the invisible but clawed grip, what kind of daughter was she? What kind of sister?
If Mensa's death meant something, then it was vengeance.
Hesi scanned the faces zipping across her sigh. These brides were here not because they willed it. The Mayaware dictated their fate. As they prepare for the next trial, which could be anything but combat, the High Prince would call them one by one. They would watch him eat meat from their own kind, talking about whatever interested him. The only thing left to do was capitalize the opportunity, to try not to die and ascend to the top.
It shouldn't be so. Perhaps she laid the groundwork for another plan when she asked the women to work with her. To trust her. But how could they do that now when she got one of them killed?
A chink in the plan. A consequence of a mistake she didn't know she made. If Mensa's death meant something, it was to show them that one misstep, and the same thing would happen to them. Knowing the Mayaware's secrets—it put a target on their backs as it brought power on their hands. And for Hesi, it was a gamble she was willing to take.
But she has made too many gambles lately.
One of them was bound to result in a loss—one she maybe couldn't accept.
But a plan was better than none, so she offered her hand to Rehema and hauled the bride up when their fingers clasped. "We're mourning, I get that." Hesi turned to the others who paused training. "Mensa shouldn't have died."
Weight shifted between uneasy stances. Who would want to talk about losing a comrade before their eyes? Hesi didn't have a choice though. If not today, she might not get another chance. If only she listened to what Mensa aimed to tell her...
