The fae were the first to bring all of their containers down to the ground level—they had all twenty-one there while the Lucky Bastards and the Savage Seven, the Beastkin, had basically started a war to snatch containers from other teams. The orcs had joined in—potentially just to cause mischief but all three teams had blood on them. They were making their healers work overtime.

  The minute the fae were finished, Crewel shouted, “Round one complete. Nice work, Winners. Now, bring them all backup. The team that finishes with the most rounds will win the day and get to sleep tonight. Win both Downtime and your Chaotica match, and we’ll throw in a hot meal, the best in Pit City.”

  Midj perked. “Here that guys? I betcha he’s bringing in Gorgonzola’s. I mean, he does the make the best food around. Let’s get at it.”

  They were taking their last load down.

  In the stairwell, Gray heard echoing voices of squads talking about Chaotica, what it was, and the how it was played. It was news to them.

  Gray clung to that one data point. His mind kept going back to the Tomi problem. Was her bitter sarcasm helping them or hurting them?

  They managed to complete three rounds of carrying the containers up and down the stairs. None of their stuff was stolen, though Freek’s team had tried to grab a container. Midj had been there to crack down her mana hand in front of them.

  There hadn’t been time to eat, though, and Midj started to complain. Tomi, though, did the opposite. She went silent.

  In the end, the fae won, which had Tillwick Duskdrop smiling and laughing with his friends. Pinch stayed emotionless.

  They were all marched over to the stadium where they were paraded around with the stands packed with spectators. There seemed to be more than there had been for Culling Day, and they went through the same pageantry.

  Crewel floated above the field, introducing all of the squads, their names, their logos, their color.

  Gray liked that Squad 23 had none of that.

  They were just five recruits, in First Field green, grim-faced and already exhausted from hours upon hours of work. And so hungry.

  The six Watchfire families watched from their boxed seats—from the fae and their queen behind her veil around to the dragon families, by far the richest and most powerful of the families who ran each city. Freek’s father was there—the acting duke—and they looked shabby and arrogant, trying way too hard to be impressive.

  The first Chaotica was going to be between Squad 1 and Squad 49, the fae and Blythe’s squad.

  Gray and his squad were put in the special section along with the other squads, who threw around elbows and trash talk. The Lucky Bastards hadn’t been so lucky—they’d come in dead last in that day’s Downtime activity. What that meant was anyone’s guess.

  Gray had thought they would post the schedule of that day’s Chaotica games, but they didn’t. He knew why. Crewel didn’t want them to know what was going to happen to them. He really was trying to break them.

  The squads watching the game were given water and ironbites, but that was it. And the muffins were old, grainy bran things with hard little raisins in them. Eating them on an empty stomach was going to be rough on Gray—he was still getting used to them.

  Rynn ate without a single word. But she was sitting close to him, their legs touching.

  Midj ate her ironbite with one hand while holding Gray’s in the other.

  Captain Sette Sevanya was nowhere to be seen. Gray had no idea what she was doing, but it was clear that he would have to keep the spirits of his team up. That long week was going to be all about morale.

  They watched as the fae and Blythe’s team ran the ball back and forth across the field. It was as brutal as ever. Blythe couldn’t fly, but she could shift into her dragon form, and she could breathe fire. Her squad’s main strategy was to get her into the kill strip, where she would shift, and leap forward, her bulk pushing everyone back.

  And yet, the fae worked better as a team. Pinch scored goal after goal, so Squad 1 was in the lead when the second quarter began. Blythe was then forced to fight the demons that were let out on their end zone. They were envy dogs, but they had something wrong with them—they were smaller than the ones that Gray had seen, and their tentacles weren’t as strong. They still had teeth and claws, and were vicious, completely vicious.

  Gray noticed the fear on the faces of some of the players—clearly, it was the first time they’d seen demons before.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  The game shifted, and it would’ve been a complete blowout if Blythe hadn’t gotten her new dog woman, Sindara’s replacement. She was squat, fast, and brutal, and she started to score points by shifting into her massive beast form and bashing her way into the end zone. With her was Flaraminda, who had some sort of charm to her that would make the fae pause. It was like they didn’t want to hit her or harm her in any way. That had to be magic.

  Between the dog woman and Flaraminda, they kept the game close, but not close enough.

  The demons wrecked havoc on Blythe’s team, and they ended up losing.

  The fae had won…again.

  Duskdrop seemed thrilled. It looked as if Pinch couldn’t care less. But she didn’t throw Gray any more glances. Ironically enough, he was the one who couldn’t keep his eyes off her. He just hoped that Rynn didn’t notice. Or Ames, who sat silently, retreating into herself.

  How would she hold up?

  The minute the game was over, the fae were given a banquet of food and rest while the remaining seven squads were matched out of the stadium and put in the Ashblood River, up to their waste.

  Crewel was there, with his umbrella orc, keeping him dry as the rain fell in cold droplets. “You will stand here until the next game. If you leave the river, your time at First Field will be done. Make no mistake, if you quit, you can never, ever return.”

  The leader of the Lucky Bastard, the hard-faced woman, raised her hand. “Will the squads be able to continue if they lose a recruit?”

  Crewel glared at her. “I didn’t say I was taking questions. Take her.”

  Fieldkeepers surged forward, grabbed her, and led her off. The rest of the squad didn’t show their shock, but they had glares of their own for the Magistrate. One of the gamblers took charge.

  Gray was feeling the exhaustion take hold. He could only laugh. He’d found someone who hated questions as much as Captain Settie. Why was she called captain anyway?

  With the crowds cheering, the squads were escorted out to the Ashblood River. There were sections cordoned off for each of the squads, with their number and logo there. The ribbons corresponded to their squads’ color scheme. For Squad 23, it was just green, drab, utilitarian.

  The water was freezing, far colder than it should have been. It wasn’t as if the Belly was on a mountain peak. The frigid water was because of the Weeping Hell. It was hell’s cold kiss on their skin as they stood there, up to their waists in the river.

  Midj, being so short, had it worse. Most of her body was submerged. The goblin girl was white as ghost as they stood there, fighting the current. Their feet immediately sank into the mud. If they weren’t careful, they’d lose a boot, and Gray knew they wouldn’t be able to go back to Third Barracks to get a new one. Playing their first match of Chaotica barefoot was not something they needed.

  “Tomi, lift her,” Gray said.

  Between Tomi and Ames, they got the little goblin woman mostly out of the water.

  Ames was silent, stone-faced, retreating back inside of herself. Rynn was the same, and something strange was happening. Both were generating mana.

  Gray knew why. For Ames, it was the pain. She’d grown up with her own form of Soulshred Week, every minute of every day, being tortured by her father. This was familiar territory.

  For Rynn, she had struggled free of her downward spiral after Pinch’s beating on the Chaotica field in Lust City. She knew she was strong enough to handle this. It was only a little cold water after all.

  Midj and Tomi were a different matter.

  “We don’t know, do we?” the little woman asked.

  “Don’t know what?” Tomi growled, looking a little desperate.

  Gray answered that question. “We don’t know how long we’ll be here. We don’t know when we play our Chaotica match. We don’t know when we’ll get to eat again. If we are allowed in the canteen, we need to horde food. At least we have all the water we could drink.”

  Tomi grimaced. “Ashblood water sounds delicious. I’m sure those fae upstream or adding their own special recipe for us. No, I’ll pass.”

  “Not sure I can do it,” Midj said quietly. “I’m so hungry. They’re going to feed us, right, Gray? We have to eat.”

  “And sleep,” Tomi added.

  Gray considered his next words carefully. He couldn’t paint a rosy picture. And he couldn’t talk about self-mastery but what else was there?

  “We’re together,” he said finally. “We’ll be strong because we’re together.”

  “Inseparable,” Rynn whispered. “Unstoppable.”

  “But not the Lucky Bastards,” Tomi pointed out. “They took Mean Marla away…just for asking a question. I don’t think they would disqualify a squad if one person drops out. But what do I know? I’m up to my waist in frigid water hating my life.”

  “We can’t play Chaotica with a team of four,” Gray said. “So no one is dropping out. We are in this together, and we have to play this game a certain way.”

  “What game?” Midj asked.

  He heard teeth chattering and realized it was Ames. She was so thin, she didn’t have much insulation. Rynn was the next to join in.

  “The game is getting through this moment, and there is no other moment. You’ve heard people talk about living a day a time. Well, we are living a minute at a time. There is nothing but this moment. Let’s get closer to stay warm.”

  They huddled together, which helped, but they still had to be careful of the current would sweep them away.

  Gray kept talking. “Our minds will try and trick us. They’ll promise that all will be better if we only drop out. But that’s just our minds being assholes. Because they minute we drop out, then our minds will give us a bunch of shit for not being tough enough to endure the torture. For the rest of our lives, which is going to be long, we would regret it. What’s a little cold water compared to that?”

  “But I’m so hungry,” Midj said.

  He touched her back. “And you’ll eat again, I promise. Even if I have to steal the bread off the Magistrate’s table.”

  They talked more, and Gray wanted to believe that his squad would hold together, but he wasn’t sure.

  Hours later, they were led from the river and back to the barracks. Mean Marla joined back up with her team, and her face was as hard as ever, but there was a fear there that hadn’t been there before. What had Crewel down to her?

  Instead of getting to go back to their rooms, they were escorted down into the basement and into complete darkness. It was a cold, bleak blackness, and they were still wet from their hours in the river.

  Crewel was there to laugh at them. “Welcome to your new home. I hope you get used to the stone. Oh, and be careful of the scorpions. The big ones are down here.”

  The minute the door closed, Tomi shrieked and broke away from them.

  From the sounds, she was ripping away her clothes and shifting into her hulking form. “I can’t. I can’t do this. I can’t. Let me out! Let me out!”

  Gray’s heart fell. It was the end.