𝘼𝙐𝘿𝘼𝘾𝙄𝙊𝙐𝙎 » 𝙟𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙘 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 ✓ [1]

I

CHAPTER ONE
EYES ON ME

'Ready?' he asks, the palm of his hand hovering over the red button.

'Yup.'

'You know you can do this from behind bars if you want.'

I swipe the sawdust from the creases in my pants, squinting up at the sunlight funelling its way through the bars between me and the arena floor. 'Where's the fun in that?'

Owen Grady shakes his head, as he always does when he knew there was no reason to attempt to persuade me out of a decision. He shot me another glance that asked me if I had considered what I was about to do long and hard enough. But I didn't meet it back in return. I stare out at the stretch of bark, the small cluster of palm trees, the metal door on the other side of where I stood. When I wanted something, nothing obscured me from it.

'Today'd be nice,' I tell him.

With an unamused, thin smile, he slams a hard palm down on the plastic. 'Smart ass,' he mutters.

A warning buzz sounds overhead, the metal gate slowly picking itself up from the bark. I slowly move forward, ducking under the metal and letting myself into the arena. The sky above was bright and stark, rebounding off of the silvery paint and glossy green leaves. All the murmuring conversations between the audience I'd seemed to have obtained above quietly filtered down, lips pinching together and hands wringing nervously. Another buzz sounded out, the metal pen across the arena clattering open.

A menacing set of yellow eyes were staring me square in the face. Pupils barely flickering. No fidgeting or stretching. Observing every flaw and, for all I knew, considering every tatic. She prowled out slowly, sensory claw already skittering across the surface of the bark.

Click, Click, Click. Click, Click Click.

Sunlight clung to her the moment she emerged out of the shadowy den she'd been in for the past three weeks. A brilliant, gleaming shade of worn yellow glintering against all her scales. It crossed past her claws, her snout, her sides where a little edge of rib was poking through the skin.