The next few days went by in a blur for Lola. Hank agreed to head back to King Harrison to appraise the monarch personally of the situation between Lola and Drake, the Blood Challenge, and any other pertinent details he deemed noteworthy (taken from his direct words). He took Sir Thomas and most of the other knights with him but left a squire behind to “bear witness” to the Blood Challenge. If Lola should lose, which for some weird reason he did not think was likely to happen (judging by his demeanor, words, and body language), he was to be allowed leave to report at once to King Harrison. It was almost refreshing once they were gone though. It was one less thing to worry about.

But then thoughts of the Blood Challenge would inevitably burst into her mind and she would worry all over again. It made her constantly on edge, panicky, and irritable to be around, not that anyone was blaming her.

“We’ll be at my castle in a few hours,” King Finley said. They had all stopped to rest for a bit and get some food. “I truly did not want this. I had hoped you would remain safely in Alcroft for your whole life, blissfully unaware of all this.”

“Maybe, just maybe, you might have mentioned that your deranged son might come after me one day. It would have saved me so much…pain…and guilt,” she said, her voice catching as she tried to talk. “Or you could have done the sane thing and caged him. Imprisoned him. Anything.”

“Locking Drake away, my only heir, would have shown weakness. Enemies of my kingdom would have come for me.” He didn’t look directly at Russel when he said that but there was an implication made. “I imagine that’s why your father sent you to kill Lola. With her death and Drake’s madness eating away at him, it would have doomed Harvenk one way or the other.”

“Did you plan on sending for Lola then?” Russel asked, curious.

“It had been on my mind,” he answered, remaining open and honest despite having Russel there. It didn’t make much sense to deny the truth any longer. Carter Polver had known the situation. King Harrison as well. He wouldn’t be surprised if Queen Naila from Sarchi knew as well despite her kingdom being small and notoriously isolated. “Over the last ten or fifteen years, Drake has gotten much worse. He’s started to amass…followers, I guess you could say. Their belief in him is so deeply rooted they will do anything he says, no matter how cruel or gruesome.”

“Like slaughtering the people of my village. Murdering my parents. Trying to kill me.” Lola stood up from the sofa she’d been sitting on and started to pace the room back and forth. They were currently in one of the less known and frequented areas of Finley’s castle in Harvenk. The Blood Challenge was scheduled to happen tomorrow at midday in a place commonly referred to as the Pit. “What is going to happen with them if I win this fight?”

“There’s no way to tell,” Finley said. “I’ve had some of my people trying to determine how deeply Drake has infected my people but the numbers are constantly fluctuating.”

“No matter which way this goes, things could end badly for you,” Russel said.

“Don’t forget about yourself and the other Oclan wolves you’ve brought along,” Finley said. “All your lives will be in danger as well. I’ll have some measure of power left but if this does go badly, I cannot guarantee your safety.”

Russel looked at the pacing and worried Lola, his heart filling with a desperate need to keep her from the fight and hating himself for not being able to.

“Right now, I’ve got to believe that she will, somehow, make it through alive.” His eyes went back to King Finely. “Besides, if Drake does win, I’ll be doing my best to kill him right then and there anyway.”

King Finley didn’t have anything to say about that.

The three eventually left the room. King Finley split off from them after wishing Lola a good night’s rest. Then Russel and Lola returned to the apartment set aside for them and the other wolves from Oclan. As soon as they got inside, a hush fell over everyone. They’d been talking animatedly before they opened the door but now they were all quiet. Russel and Lola went into the living room and found the others still awake despite the fact that it was getting late.

“How’d the meetin’ go?” Ray asked. He had a toothpick in one hand and was busy trying to poke some bit of food out from between his teeth as he spoke.

“Nothing noteworthy to speak of,” Lola muttered. “I still have to fight Drake but now, if he wins, apparently you all might not make it out of this country alive. So there’s that.”

“Aye,” Kurt said. “But we already knew that when we signed up for this mission.”

“Don’t worry, Lola,” Tris said, coming over to put an arm around the girl. Over the course of their travels, the two (along with Lilith), had gotten pretty close. “Trust me, that’s only going to make things worse.”

“I’d kill the mongrel dog for you if I could, Lols,” Lilith chimed in.

“All this talk and lovey-dovey, positive thinking bullshit isn’t going to do the girl any good,” Roland muttered. He was sitting on a couch by himself and fiddling with a splinter of wood he’d gouged out of something at some point. “The best thing for you, half-breed, is to stand there and let Drake kill you quickly. Otherwise, it’s gonna hurt like hell.”

“Open your mouth again saying words like that and they’ll be your last,” Russel snapped.

The others in the room remained silent, not wanting to speak out against their prince, but there was anger in most of their eyes.

“You should get some rest,” Ays said, breaking the sudden tension. “We probably all should. Tomorrow is going to be a lot to deal with.”

“I agree, Ays,” Lola said. Sleep sounded like the perfect way to escape the tragic nightmare she found herself in. “I’m going to sleep and with any luck, tomorrow just won’t come.”

Before anyone could say a word back, she left the room and headed down a hall, through a door, and into one of the apartment’s four bedrooms. Inside, the room was dark but she left it that way. She didn’t want to light any of the torches. In fact, the only thing she wanted to do was lay on that bed and try to not think about the fact that she was going to be fighting the man who had killed her loved ones and destroyed her life.

Almost like magic, the nerves and fear she felt started to dwindle.

The almost buzzing, urgent need for revenge filled its place.

****

Midday came.

Lola, Russel, his brothers, and the other Oclan wolves, along with the human squire who had decided to sleep in a different apartment, were led by a procession of Harvenk soldiers and King Finley himself through the castle, down to its ground floor, and then outside. They followed behind as the procession took them past the comforting walls of the castle and into the main city of the kingdom’s capital. It was, Lola noted in a weird way, very clean. A lot cleaner than Oclan. In fact, the whole place looked completely opposite of how Russel had always described it to her.

Instead of mangy, barely-keeping-it-together werewolves, there were happy and smiling people dressed in nice, expensive clothing. Instead of grime-filled, trashy streets, the ones they passed were carefully swept clean and washed almost continuously. There were impressive shops. Blacksmiths. Bakeries with smells of fresh bread. Shops selling fine silks, dresses, clothes, and even weaponry. There was an order to everything.

A neatness.

Oclan, although impressive in its own way, was not nearly as well kept. It was larger in scale and the areas of the city where the rich dwelt were kept up nicely but once you step foot into the poorer parts, things became decidedly unpleasant.

She didn’t think much of it though, mostly because she didn’t believe Russel had lied to her. He truly thought that Oclan was better in every way. Growing up there, being a prince, had clearly put some heavy-duty blinders on the man, Lola thought but didn’t say out loud.

Each step she took, brought her closer and closer to the ultimate conclusion of this whole thing. The final confrontation between herself and Drake. The fear and nervousness, surprisingly, still didn’t show back up but that sullen anger kept growing larger inside her. It was like flames being on the verge of dying out but then someone comes along and stokes them back into a raging fire. That was how she would describe the feeling.

“I’m going to be right there, the whole time,” Russel told her. He held her hand, folding it into hers, trying to offer whatever comfort he could.

“Thank you,” she said. “For everything you’ve done. But this fight is mine now. There’s no backing down.”

She kept her eyes forward. There was a lot she had to do and she didn’t think she could do them effectively if she stared at him too long. She would see that worry inside him, eating away at his mind like a disease. It was only natural given what was about to happen, but she couldn't afford to let his fears corrupt her too. She had spent a long, long time trying to force that out so she could walk proudly into the fight and not have her legs shaking the whole time.

Eventually, they came to a large but plain wooden door. Faintly, shouts and cheering could be heard on the other side. Apparently, this fight had drawn a crowd.

King Finley looked at his daughter, his face unreadable but his eyes filled with despair.

“Ready?” he asked, not wanting to put that question out there but doing so anyway.

Lola nodded.

King Finley opened the door and they all filed into the Pit. It was a very large, circular room with stairs leading down toward a dirt pit. It was easy to see how the people of Harvenk had come to name the place the Pit. That was literally what it was. Sitting on rows of benches were maybe a hundred or more werewolves. She could tell because almost every one of them had eyes blazing with amber light.

In the center of the ring, dressed only in a ragged pair of black cotton pants and nothing else, was a lone man. His lanky, slightly hunched-over form was covered in rigid and defined slabs of muscle. As soon as Lola walked into the room, his unhinged gaze shot straight to her.

Drake licked his lips and then gave her a hideous, cruel smile.

Then he raised one hand and beckoned her forward.