(Book 5 in the #DawnSeries)
A gift of light,
The laden of sight...
Theia, the goddess of light and daughter of Thanatos and Aurora, is unwittingly pulled into a weave of myth, monsters and magic as she travels to a dystopian earth to unravel a trave...
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The Jade Trap
We were escorted out into the arena by ten guards at our front and fifteen at the back. Estra's security certainly wasn't messy around.
It was the day of the games and Shaban and his servants had taken their time to prepare and instruct us on the entire process- start to finish. It was a whole lot of information to take into account, and before we'd even had a chance to process most of it, we were thrown into a carriage and ushered to the playground.
The playground was the general area where Manos' team would be introduced and judged after every event- if they were still alive, that is...
The carriage had dropped us off at the back and we were escorted inside, a hoard of guards at each end. There was no possible way to escape- well, for a mortal perhaps.
We eyed the other two teams walking into the large arena; one from the left and the other entering from the right side. We were guided in through the middle gates and as we approached the large structure, I noticed that it looked oddly familiar.
Wasn't this a replica of the old, mortal building, the Colosseum?
It certainly looked like it, but definitely larger and more spacious. This arena could easily hold about one hundred thousand people. It was massive and decked out with expensive marble, gold accents and an array of exotic trees and plant life growing around the base.
Manos liked to play around with his money, clearly...
"Move." A brute of a guard pushed Malreus forward when the young man beside me slowed down to look at something. Mal growled at the guard, but did as he was told.
"What is it?" I asked under my breath as we continue to walk up the ramp, towards our gate.
"Nothing. It's just..." Malreus looked around with a frown. "We have a lot more security than the other two teams."
"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that." Simos said quickly and stared straight ahead.
I narrowed my eyes at him; "Does this have something to do with that 'shock' you were talking about yesterday?"
"I do admire your intellect, Theia."
"Stop avoiding the topic and just spill the bad news, Simos." I snapped at him from the side and he stared at me with wide eyes. "You're cranky this morning."
"Sorry..." I apologised and sighed; "I didn't sleep."
Simos tried to reassure me, but the guard shot him a glare when he tried to pat my back. He withdrew his hand back with an innocent smile.
And just like that, he'd managed to pull me away from the crux of the conversation again. A man in a general's uniform approached us and pointed at the large, steel gate. "Stand there. When it opens, walk straight ahead to the mark." The tall man leaned in to hiss directly in my face; "And don't think about doing anything smart, little girl. You'll be dead before you could even try."
