The Immortal Blade Trilogy: Book #1: Fate's Destiny.

The Arena.

I woke up and Quinlan was awake and watching me sleep. He helped me up and set me down beside him. That morning was uneventful, but when afternoon came (or at least it felt like afternoon) a guard walked in.

"Come with me." He said. 

We both did and when we got out of the room, four more guards surrounded us. I held onto Quinlan's hand and he held onto mine. The guards led us to a room filled with about one hundred other people from my village. They were all being outfitted and dressed for the arena. The scene it's self was a living nightmare. The guards led us to a tailor who chose the right size of clothes for each of us and sent us to a room to get dressed. The clothes consisted of a thin cloth tunic, leather jacket, forest green pants, and leather hunting boots. Next, the guards escorted us to the armory where we got to choose a weapon. We stood in line waiting for our turn to choose our weapon. I saw Bentley walking by with his new weapon. He spotted me and Quinlan. 

"Alexandra! You're alright! I was so afraid when that stranger left you there." Bentley exclaimed.

Quinlan growled and Bentley turned to face him. He looked back at me. 

"Is he causing you trouble?" He asked me, referring to Quinlan. 

"No-" I started.

"He's the stranger!" Bentley yelled as he quickly swung his fist at Quinlan. 

I was expecting that for some reason and caught Bentley's fist, midstroke. Both of the boys eyes widened at that movement and I pushed Bentley's fist away. 

"I said he isn't causing me trouble." I growled. 

Bentley half-smiled. 

"I see you've gotten a little friendly with someone..." He said to me without taking his eyes off of Quinlan. 

Quinlan just stared angrily at Bentley, jealousy burning in each of their eyes. I just sat there, not knowing what to do. 

"Well, don't be expecting any help from me." Bentley said, finally looking at me, then he stomped away. 

Great. Now he's also my enemy. 

"Don't worry about it." Quinlan said calmly, turning away. 

I nodded but couldn't stop thinking about Bentley. It was Quinlan's turn to pick a weapon and he chose a sword. I was next in line and I had the choice between a bow and arrows, sword, dagger belt, dagger, axe, or mace. I chose the dagger belt. 

"You good with those?" Quinlan asked. 

I didn't reply.

There wasn't any place that we could practice so we just sat in our assigned places, awaiting the terrors of the next few days. My place was next to Cassandra's so we just sat there until someone told us what to do. I could see Quinlan on the other side of the room and Bentley right next to him. Madeline was to my left. When everyone was seated the people had formed a circle. A man stood in the middle of the circle and yelled "Everyone will go out of this gate," The man said, pointing to a gate behind Madeline, "and put on a show for the royals. Do not kill anyone until you're outside. This battle will last for one hour. The more people you kill, the bigger the feast. Also, the closer to the end, the bigger the feast. If you don't kill anyone, you will go back into your cells and wait until tomorrow, when we will have another battle." He finished.

I sat up and got into my running position. I was shaking from nervousness and needed to calm myself down. I sat back down, closed my eyes, and took a deep breath. I repeated the process once more then slowly got back into my running position. I looked back and saw Cassandra behind me. "Follow me." I told her and she nodded. I made eye contact with Quinlan and saw him get into his running position. I had no idea what we would be facing outside those gates, so I prepared myself for the worst. I heard the screeching of the gates and started sprinting towards the gate. There were only two other people ahead of me. One dark-haired girl, and one black-haired boy. I ran to the outside of the gates and stopped. I looked back to find Bentley right behind me. He ran up to me and I eyed him suspiciously.