Lightning Bringer: (Lighting Seeker Book 2)

Half Intoxicated

"Pants?" Reign scrunched up her nose in protest. "Please tell me you are joking."

Vale pulled on her boots and tied up the laces. "Nope."

"But... pants?!?" Reign squeaked. "That's hardly appropriate for this place."

Vale stood up and pulled her hair back, glancing back at Reign with sharp green eyes as she tied her raven-colored hair in place. "We don't know what today holds Reign. I can't move well in heels or a dress. And just in case we run into any more AI's, I'm not being caught dead in any more dresses."

Reign huffed, torn, trying to decide if she should follow Vale's lead. Vale threw her a carrot from a small pouch at her hip. "Oh and don't eat any food they give you. Apparently, they're poisoning it."

Reign, who already had pale skin, went white as a sheet. "What?!?" Her voice rose in panic.

"Got this from the roof along with a few other pieces of food." Vale looked away as she pulled on her jacket, hoping her eyes didn't betray her as Sky flew into her mind. "They have a garden up there."

"What if this food is poisoned?" Vale plucked a carrot out of her pouch and took a large, unladylike chomp. "If I'm dead soon, you'll know."

After several minutes of deliberation, Reign finally, and somewhat painfully, decided to wear pants too. Vale would have laughed at Reign's pout as she looked at herself in the mirror if every choice they made wasn't the difference between life and death.

A quiet knock on the door caused the air to leave the room. "Who is it?" Vale called.

"Pavi," the small voice replied. After pulling their barricade apart, Vale yanked the door open, her metal fingers itching to transform in case danger waited. But when she saw Pavi, the short voluptuous girl with deep brown hair standing there, a sense of calm washed over her.

The servant looked Vale and Reign over with a quick flick of her dark eyes. "I've been asked to bring you to the ships." She gave them a nod of approval at their clothing choices. "You aren't allowed to bring anything."

Vale nodded and took off her small pouch. Handing two cucumbers and a potato to Reign, Vale shoved more vegetables into her own pockets. Pavi shot them both a confused look but didn't protest their food hoarding.

Several minutes later, Vale stood in the belly of a sleek transportation airship surrounded by dozens of girls in day dresses. After counting the ships and estimating how many girls in each, Vale's heart dropped.

Only 400 girls were accounted for. Did half die from poisoning? She scanned the ship, her mind racing. Is that why we are leaving the Devinus castle? So they can collect the bodies without us seeing them?

Vale realized that all of the deaths had been behind the scenes thus far. Any girl who didn't know what to expect would assume that the other girls had gone home. But when will Kebar decide he doesn't care? When will watching someone die be a game?

She scanned the faces of the girls huddled in small groups, giggling and habitually adjusting their hair, and clothes as they glanced out the window, eager to see where the day would take them. Oblivious of the fact that most of them would die. She didn't see Cee and Osti. Fox sat in the corner, her dark green skirt making her hair shine like fire. She wore tall riding boots and a black blouse. She sat in silence, her eyes calculating as she scanned the room. Her eyes met Vale and she offered a single nod of greeting. She's more serious than I am, Vale thought as she offered her a small wave.

Reign had joined a group of girls, all of them giggling over something out of earshot. The engines roared to life and Vale moved to an unattended window, watching as the airship jolted into the air. The castle grew small in a matter of moments, the world below tiny.

Servants walked through the ship, offering champagne to the girls as they gazed through the windows as the scenery changed. Vale was offered several flutes of the bubbling liquid but she declined each time, not trusting it. Even if it was untampered with, she wanted to remain clear-headed. Instead, she fished a cucumber out of her pocket and ate it, her mind scanning the world outside, trying to map out their location.

They flew for several hours, and just as Vale was beginning to relax, the ship's engines suddenly went quiet, the ship dying in mid-flight, thousands of feet above a dark lush jungle. "Good Morning Ladies!" came Kebar's voice over a loudspeaker. "It's time for your next test!"

The ship went silent, all laughter gone. "The ship is going to crash," Kebar continued, his voice chipper.

One girl cried out in panic. Another dropped her glass of champagne. "Thankfully, we are prepared. Under each seat is a parachute."

Vale already saw the problem before Kebar continued, dropping the rest of the information like a hammer, shattering the final straw of sanity in a ship full of half intoxicated girls. "There aren't enough for all of you, so act fast, or you'll be left behind." A beat of silence. "Have fun, and see the survivors on the other side." Then the loudspeaker went dead, sending the ship into chaos.