Summer Ruins by Trisha Leigh Page A

simpering, Althea.”
    Zakej pins my arms behind me in a cruel pinch, and my heart sinks when I feel the slippery Spritan gloves cover my hands and wrists. They block our powers. Will they staunch the bracelets’ ability to help us travel, as well?
    “Just in case the three of you get any wild ideas.” He spins me around and grins, and the sight of his gleeful face makes my knees sag with fear. I topple into his chest for a moment, but before I can heat my body up enough to burn him, Zakej pushes me an arm’s length away. “Nice try.”
    My heart stops when he leans in close, but with my arms pinned behind my back there isn’t much I can do. With a cheek brushing mine, he inhales deeply. When he pulls back slowly, his eyes lingering on my mouth, vomit crawls up my throat until I gag.
    It doesn’t stop him from tightening his grip in my hair, forcing my face closer to his until our mouths are a breath from touching. At the last moment he bites my bottom lip, hard. I scream, tasting a combination of my blood and his saliva, and gag again until puke dribbles down my chin and drips onto my shirt.
    Zakej only grins. “I don’t break the rules, Althea. No fooling around with the hosts. And for all of your fine qualities”—his eyes roam over my body, and the hungry look in them makes me believe he can see through my clothes—“you aren’t good enough for me. Plus, you stink. Let’s go.”
    Tears fill my already swollen eyes and relief makes it hard to walk. He’s not going to touch me. I’d rather he just kill me.
    I lick my lip, trying to clean up the blood, but it’s still gushing. It’s swollen, too. Add that to the layers of dirt caking me, the weeks without bathing, and the scar on my face, and I can’t imagine anyone less tempting.
    We don’t talk at all during the walk through the underground tunnels. Zakej shoves me ahead of him, yanking my shoulders painfully when I stumble, and eventually we step into the expansive lighted cavern that Lucas, Pax, and I invaded the night Deshi betrayed us. Except the staircase is gone, along with all of the cages that dotted each landing. It hits me again that Cadi’s dead, but there isn’t enough room inside me to grieve for her. There’s too much fear.
    If the bracelets don’t work, if a miracle doesn’t come through in the form of Deshi, we’re going to die tonight.
    Zakej walks me through the room with the tables filled with cards and poker chips. The benches are empty of Wardens, lending an eerie feeling to the space. The sight of playing cards reminds me of Pax’s inane story about Wild Bill Hickok and his hand of aces and eights—the dead man’s hand.
    That’s what the three of us are holding tonight, and I don’t see how it’s going to be any luckier for us than it was for Wild Bill.
    At the back of the game room, Zakej shoves me through two thick wooden doors. On the other side of them is an amphitheater space exactly like the torture chamber in the hive—except this is real. It looks like the place they tortured Ko for information about the four of us after they found out about the Elements’ affairs.
    The benches that rise against all four sides of the room are filled with Others—Wardens, white-clad Refreshers, and more whose jobs and duties I’ve never learned. The Prime sits in the raised center seat at the front of the room with Kendaja twitching behind him.
    The Elements are nowhere to be seen, and Deshi isn’t present, either. But in the middle of the room, tied to marble chairs with their hands stuffed into gloves and bound behind them, are Lucas and Pax. When Zakej marches me around to the third chair, between the two of them, their eyes darken in unison at the sight of my face.
    So it is as bad as I imagined.
    The Prime’s son shoves me into the seat, then secures my hands behind it. He goes to take his place at his father’s left hand, settling in with a faint smile. No one speaks for what seems like an hour. Even though it’s