My eyes opened to a darkened blur, several tiny lights poking through from the corners of my vision. It took a moment to realize I was underwater as I coughed, expelling liquid from my lungs.

  How am I breathing?? I struggled to make sense of it as I somewhat hesitantly let the liquid refill my lungs, realizing it felt much like breathing air, only heavier. What is going on?

  Scouring my mind for answers, a chill ran over me as I remembered being taken by something. Did one of those…things…take me back to its nest?

  Craning my head and blinking rapidly, I tried to focus my vision on the lights or my body, anything, but my world remained a cloudy smear. Instinctively, I raised my hands to rub my eyes, only to panic when I realized they were restrained by…something. So were my legs. The restraints felt soft, almost sticky.

  I pulled at one arm, straining to free it as a strange buzz entered my mind. It was Belial, I realized, trying to speak to me. I focused on the buzz but no amount of concentration turned the distant ringing into words.

  A shadow moved over me, hovering for a moment, before moving away again. One of those…lobsters? I noticed my chin was trembling as I imagined where I must be. Encased in some…nest, about to be eaten by its young.

  I should at least make them work for it. I thought, straining my arms and legs against each of the sticky restraints. Suddenly a voice cut through my mind.

  “STOP! You’re safe! Stop moving, you’re going to break the machine!!” Belial’s shout echoed in my skull. I could feel tears forming as I scrunched my face. Relief shuddered from my chest as I let out a sob.

  I was safe…not monster food.

  “blrrrrh-nnghhh.” For some reason I tried to speak, only then remembering I was underwater.

  Where?

  “You’re in a tank, your vision should return any moment, the nanites were moving through your optic nerves.”

  His response only brought more questions as finally the world came into focus. I lifted my head to find myself lying on a flat surface, with a glass dome overhead. It was shaped like a tube, filled completely with some amber liquid…the same liquid I was breathing. My arms and legs were encased by large metallic cuffs, the inside of which looked to be some kind of jelly, holding my limbs in place. As I stared at them, I noticed the tingle.

  What is that…that stuff?

  “Ah, that. It’s quite ingenious. From what I’ve gathered it’s a sort of gelatinous membrane that allows nanites to move directly into the capillaries of your dermis.”

  My…what?

  Belial sighed heavily. “You know what, it’s not important.”

  Do you mind at least explaining how I’m breathing underwater? I eyed a door across from me, suddenly realizing I wasn’t laying at all, I was almost upright. The tank I occupied was tilted at an incline.

  “You’re not.”

  WHAT?

  “You’re not breathing water. The liquid is a perfluorocarbon. It's breathable.”

  Perf- I gave up, deciding that breathable liquid wasn’t as pressing when a knock came against the glass. I turned toward the sound, noticing Oren hovering there with a smile on his face.

  “Whehhrhgggnn,” I tried, feeling stupid when bubbles streamed out. I tilted my head to listen as Oren’s words came muffled through the glass.

  “No sense tryin’ tae speak.” He laughed, “Yer safe now. Sorry if waking in there came as a start, but ye were hurt bad, and we’re on a tight schedule.” He gestured toward the other side of my tube with his chin. “This here’s my friend, the weaver I told ye aboot. Probly best I let her explain.” I rolled my head to look at her, but she didn’t seem to notice me at all, preoccupied instead with the datapad she held. Oren cleared his throat, finally prompting her to look up with an annoyed sigh.

  “Sure, why not,” she said, glaring daggers into Oren. “Not like I’m busy doing anything else.” she motioned to my tube with her pad, flustered. “Aine, was it? You have a network of pathways running through your body. It isn’t unusual for anyone who’s been given vita, but they aren’t typically active. Yours is more like a second circulatory system.” I stared blankly at her, trying to parse out all the new words, when Oren interrupted.

  “She could probly do without the science lesson, Corin.” She let out another breath.

  “That system is pushing your body to do things it was never meant to do and cannibalizing other parts of your body to do it. You were close to dead when Oren got you here.” My eyes went wide. I knew pushing myself made me tired but, was I really that close to dying? Why hadn’t Belial tried to warn me?

  “I’m sorry, you seemed to be a little busy at the time.” he snarked. “And I knew what I was doing. You were fine.”

  Fine? It doesn’t sound like I’m fine. What’s this about cannibalizing parts of me? What are you doing to my body? I shuddered involuntarily, my imagination running wild at the thought of being consumed from the inside out.

  “Ugh. Not anything you need, and not anything I can’t just regenerate later. Besides, she’s being dramatic...what was I supposed to do, let you be eaten by a lobster?”

  I frowned, feeling the argument leave me as I realized he had a point. Despite barely knowing him, I didn’t think he’d hurt me intentionally, but at the same time he wasn’t the most competent person...was he even a person?

  “You know I can hear you, right?”

  “Right now, I’m repairing the damage all the rapid regeneration has done to your cells and giving you a treatment that will gradually remove limiters to your genome. That doesn’t mean this won’t happen to your body again. Your body has a ceiling; enhancements can only do so much. If you continue to push past that ceiling your organs will shut down and you will die. Do you understand?”

  I wouldn’t need to push myself if I weren’t being forced into a tournament. I nodded anyways, fighting the urge to roll my eyes. Her words sent a hundred different questions sprinting to the tip of my tongue, all of them impossible to ask while I was submerged in this perf…fluid.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Perfluorocarbon.”

  SHUT UP. My muscles hummed with pent up frustration as I eyed my restraints and the surrounding glass.

  “I’m sure you have a lot of questions, we’ll have time for that when the treatment is done.” she said, her voice soothing in a way that reminded me of my mother. “I should warn you, there might be some intermittent discomfort throughout the last part of the procedure.” She flashed a sympathetic smile, tapping a few characters on her pad before handing it to Oren. “I have Patients upstairs in my actual clinic. If there’s an emergency press the call button on this pad and I’ll come down as soon as I can.” She directed him, strolling to the door across from me. “Otherwise, I’ll see you in a couple of hours.”

  Hours?? I wasn’t sure I could stand another minute. The treatment only added to the discomfort of being confined as parts of my body seemed to itch from the inside. I curled my toes as the feeling made its way into my legs. It dissipated after a moment, which made me wonder what intermittent meant.

  “Could be worse. At least you aren’t being devoured by a swarm of baby lobsters.” Belial offered, his attempt to console suddenly reminding me of something else.

  “Eughnihhhhhgggg,” I bubbled, hoping Oren could read my lips. He just stared blankly, tilting his head as I growled in frustration.

  Where is Eunice?

  Oren’s eyes went wide as he seemed to realize what I was trying to say. “Och. Right. Eunice! Come show Aine here yer alive.”

  Eunice walked into view, a weak smile on her face as she set her palm against the glass. She no longer wore the elaborate servant's dress. Instead, she sported a plain sleeveless shirt with matching gray shorts. There was a slight bulge on her right side. She must’ve noticed my stare, because she lifted the tank to reveal a bluish medical pad covering her wound from the pipe.

  “The doctor said I'd be okay; these are to fight off any infections before closing the wounds.” She said, turning to show a similar medical pad on her back. “The water carried me to the railing.” She explained, smiling as she mimed stretching out the sleeve of her suit. “I managed to tie my sleeve around it before I passed out.”

  “Was able tae find ye by the torch ye stole,” Oren laughed. “Eunice wasna far behind.”

  I listened intently as they explained, trying my best not to choke up. As they spoke, a weight slid off my chest. A burden you’d only notice once it was gone.

  It took a moment to understand what it was...all the dread I’d felt when that creature ripped me away, leaving Eunice to drown. The failure and guilt, knowing it was my fault she was there…that I’d killed her, the same way I’d killed my family. All those feelings were gone. Taken from me, like someone had reached down and peeled away a blanket of lead. My breath caught, which is a strange feeling when your lungs are full of liquid. It sent me into a fit off coughs, thudding my head back in frustration when it finally ended.

  At least, it was impossible to tell I was crying in here.

  “Thank you for coming after me, Miss Aine,” Eunice said, her smile tightening in a way that said she was holding back tears as well, only something about her seemed off. The way she fixed her gaze on the floor afterwards, as if she didn’t want to look at me. Is she upset with me? Oren interrupted my thoughts with another clear of his throat.

  “Right. I ken I’ve been tight lipped about the mission, but I may as well tell ye now that we’re safe. The Lord’s plan is tae sneak ye inside before the games start. Fer it tae work, I’ll need tae meet our contact, that’s where I mean to go now. I’m leavin’ ye in Eunice’s care while I’m gone.”

  Eunice’s eyebrow rose in a way that told me she hadn’t been told either. “How?” She asked, “won’t they be looking for Aine at all the entrances?”

  “No’ if they believe she’s dead. Which they should, given they shot down the shuttle she was on. A shuttle covered in her DNA.” He answered with a wry grin. “An’ just in case yer thinkin’ o’ slippin’ free.” He turned back to me, drawing back his arm. Eunice and I both flinched as he hammered his fist against the glass. I expected it to shatter, but it only thudded off. “Graphine. No’ somethin’ ye’ can break, so sit tight until I’m back.”

  I reminded myself to breathe, feeling my heart begin to calm as he turned to leave. The thought of escaping had crossed my mind. Part of me hoped a way out of this tournament would miraculously appear somehow, but the other part knew how unlikely that was. I was out of my depth in this world, I couldn’t even understand the symbols on all the devices they used and aside from all that, where would I go?

  Oren handed Eunice the datapad before exiting through the same door the doctor had.

  “Well, that was rude. He could’ve just told you it was unbreakable.”

  Yes, I thought, the initial shock turning into anger. It was.

  Eunice lingered there, her head down in thought. I wondered if she was thinking of saying something now that Oren was gone. Instead, she only nodded, avoiding my eyes as she ambled out of view.

  Is she mad at me? I asked, eyebrows lifting into my hairline. I remembered what she said about her family, their contracts. Was helping me putting her family at risk?

  “She’s upset about something.” Belial said, sounding uncharacteristically grave.

  Yes, but what? I asked, rolling my eyes. Belial made a series of labored thinking noises that went on so long I’d actually started to believe he might puzzle it out.

  “Let’s start with what we know. Clearly, she’s madly in love with Lord Caelan. She’s probably views you as competition.”

  I choked.

  COMPETITION? You got all that from her KNOWING HIS FIRST NAME? I know your first name.

  “Yes, and you care about me very much.”

  My wrist caught in my restraint at the sudden urge to slap my forehead. NO.

  “Well now I know the real reason Eunice won’t speak to you.” He sputtered as if I’d just slapped him across the face. “You’re mean.”

  I sighed out another jet of amber liquid and bubbles, suddenly feeling very stupid for thinking Belial would have a rational explanation for Eunice’s coldness. Turning my head to the side, I saw Eunice holding the rubbery backpack she’d worn in the tunnel. She paced the room, staring at the ceiling, as if looking for something. My eyes narrowed into slits, as she pulled the knife from her bag. The same one I’d taken from the guard I’d killed.

  What is she doing?

  “Maybe she has an itch she can’t reach on her back.”

  What? Did whoever sent you here set you to wrong-answers-mode or something? I shook my head in disbelief, Belial’s idiotic theory distracting me until I watched Eunice move toward the door, clutching the knife pointy end down.

  She wouldn’t meet my eyes as I tried my best to call out to her despite the liquid in my lungs, temporarily filling my view with bubbles. By the time they dissipated, Eunice had pressed a button on the pad that I could only assume would call the doctor there. My heart sank as she stood next to the door, her back to the wall, waiting for the doctor.

  Can you lock the door, like you did at Lord Caelan's estate? I asked Belial, thinking it might be better to keep Eunice from doing anything until I understood what was going on.

  "No, unfortunately, I can still access the network here but it seems the doctor takes her cyber-security pretty seriously. Door controls are firewalled off."

  Fire- I gave up, it was clear from context alone that the answer was no. Why is she doing this? Is she going to free me? Does she think she has to since I saved her life? No... If that were the case, why wouldn’t she look at me? This was something else. Is she working for someone else? Someone other than Lord Caelan?

  The door slid open to reveal the doctor. She seemed flustered, as if she’d been pulled away from something more important. Her eyes narrowed at me squirming in the tank, spewing bubbles as I tried to warn her.

  “I seriously doubt-” Belial started, before being cut off.

  “What’s wrong with the patient?” The doctor asked, noticing Eunice too late. “What are you-” I looked on in horror, time slowing as she turned to face her. She wore a confused expression, as if she didn’t understand what Eunice was doing even as she buried the knife in the side of her head.

  The knife I’d handed her. I railed against my restraints as the doctor, her eyes wide open in shock, fell lifeless to the floor, knife sticking from her head. The liquid caught in my throat as I tried to scream.

  If I hadn’t given Eunice the knife...If I hadn’t saved her... The doctor was Oren’s friend. She helped people, and now she was dead. All because of me. I didn't want this. If Eunice had done this for my sake, she'd only end up dead too.

  Why? I mouthed the word to Eunice, who finally met my gaze. Her eyes were dull, words monotoned as she regarded me.

  “I’m sorry.” Her hands hung limply at her sides before she lifted one to her ear, “I’ve secured the feral.”