Helping the Wolves (Madison Joshi and the Wolves series- Book 2)

|26| Madison

Maddy, Xander and the two male faeries were taken away from the main arena and were made to sit in the stands along with the rest of the crowd.

The moment the bells pealed a second time, signaling the start of the first round, Alexa and Jeremy immediately took defensive positions but they didn't attack. They were still trying to figure out how to make to make the opponents bleed without touching them.

"Another thing," Tatiana said. "Minimal injuries should be caused."

Maddy looked around the arena. The ground was clear. There wasn't anything to throw at the faeries to make them bleed. At least if any stones were present then they could have thrown it at the faeries to make them bleed.

Brigette and Cordelia, like Jeremy and Alexa, didn't have any weapons with themselves. The two of them were busy talking among themselves. It was clear that they were trying to figure out how to win the round.

Most of the faeries in crowd were leaning forward with excitement and were eagerly waiting to see what was going to happen next. Some faeries had even figured out about how to go about this challenge and were shouting at the contestants but their voices were lost in the wind.

Suddenly, Brigette seemed to have gotten some idea. To everyone's surprise, her wings popped out and before anyone could tell her anything, she flew away.

Jeremy and Alexa seemed to be shocked at first and then it turned to disbelief. Maddy turned to Tatiana. Surely, she would disqualify the faeries for using their wings. The rules clearly stated that they couldn't use their magical powers including wings.

Jeremy turned to Tatiana. "That is clearly disobedience of the rules." But Tatiana just continued to watch as if nothing had happened.

Maddy watched with squinted eyes as Brigette flew higher and higher. She was so high up in the air that she was a mere dot. She flew towards one of the faeries on guard duty. Brigette started talking to him and after a few seconds of conversation, the faerie gave his bow to Brigette.

Brigette flew back to the arena with the bow. The moment her feet touched the ground, her wings retracted. Maddy watched as she drew the bow back and released the arrow. Before Alexa could warn Jeremy, who had his back turned, facing Tatiana, the arrow went and hit him in the shoulder. Naturally he started bleeding. It was a very little, but it was bleeding nevertheless. Jeremy took out the arrow with a shocked expression. He didn't look to be in pain. Thankfully, the arrow hit the shoulder which hadn't been dislocated although the dislocated shoulder had already healed.

"This isn't fair," Jeremy roared at Tatiana. "They clearly violated the rules."

Tatiana turned to Brigette. "Explain."

Brigette grinned. "Your highness, the rules clearly stated that I couldn't use my wings to hurt him and I didn't use my wings to hurt him. I used my wings to attain a weapon and using the weapon I made him bleed. It wasn't mentioned that I couldn't get a weapon. I haven't violated any rules."

"That's correct," Tatiana said as she smiled thinly.

Maddy took a deep breath in and out. What Brigette told was technically correct. The faeries seemed to be experts in reading between the lines.

Losing this round had made things very dangerous. Now there were two rounds left. They had to win both to live. At this rate, their chances were very less.

As Jeremy and Alexa walked towards Maddy and Xander, they had a defeated look on their face. "I should have figured that out," Jeremy said as he grit his teeth.

Maddy patted his back comfortingly. "You did the best you could. Even I couldn't figure it out until Brigette told her weird-ass logic."

As they made their way back to their room, the four of them discussed about the various strategies that they could use to win against the faeries. The seriousness of the situation had increased tenfold. If they didn't win tomorrow's competition, they would be dead for sure.

Maddy could feel the pressure building. Today Jeremy and Alexa had to participate. Without doubt, tomorrow, Maddy and Xander would have to face the two male faeries. Mady had no idea what the challenge would be as it wasn't announced yet so they couldn't prepare anything beforehand. Everything would be up to the two of them.

It was funny how after battling with rogues, if Maddy didn't win tomorrow's round, she would be dying because of a stupid game. Talk about stupid faeries and their stupid entertainment. Maddy hoped that the next day's challenge would be something like Scrabble because she was a genius at that game. However, the chances of that happening was next to zero.

"Maybe we could try and figure out if they have any hidden iron. We could definitely use that against them," Maddy suggested.

Jeremy shook his head. "Our trust with the faeries is fragile. If we try to steal the iron, they might take it as a sign of war and kill us. The four of us won't stand a chance against and army of faeries."

Maddy nodded. That made sense. Tatiana didn't seem to be too keen on letting them live free but something was holding her back from killing the four of them.

"Besides," Alexa added. "Judging by the challenge that Jeremy and I faced today, the game won't be testing your brute strength. It will probably be related to tricking the opponent or something. Iron won't help in that."

"What will help is a sharp mind," Xander said. They had reached the rooms in which they were staying by then. "You need to go to sleep now," he said as he pointed at Maddy's bed.

Maddy pointed at Alexa and Jeremy and said, "You might be their Alpha, but you aren't my Alpha. You can't tell me what to do and what not do. I'll go to bed whenever I want."

Xander sighed loudly as he ran his hand through his face. "Please," he added.

"That's much better," Maddy muttered and she started getting ready to bed. Xander was right. They needed to be at their best tomorrow. A good night's sleep was necessary. Even though she hadn't done anything to make her feel tired, Maddy was extremely exhausted with all the excitement and nervousness, so she didn't have a problem falling asleep.