7 Deadly Instincts (The Sinfire Chronicles Book 1)

As Squad 23 wearily walked up the steps, Tomi dropped back. Between Gray, Ames, and Rynn, everyone was healed, but some wounds were not physical.

Gray went to her—to check on her to also see if Pinch was okay. The fae girl was the same. Tomi was different.

Tomi’s pain was visible on her face. “I’m sorry, Gray. I tried to make myself fight but…those spikes were everywhere…and I knew who he was. I couldn’t…I let you down.”

Gray gripped her furry arm. “No, Tomi. We won. You did your job well. Pinch is okay.”

“Is she?” Tomi asked.

Gray felt the lump in his throat. “No. But she’s not dead. You kept her alive, and if the fight would’ve gone against us, you could’ve picked her up and run. You did well, Tomi, and I’m not just saying that.”

“Thanks but…” the cat girl didn’t finish the sentence.

They reached the top to find the fae and the orcs impaled everywhere on Bellichor’s spikes. They had to duck through all the iron spears to get to the steel spike wall to the left. There, Tomi was able to use her massive karijun strength to pry about some of the spikes but not enough to let them through.

It was Midj that went and picked up the statue. “Well, at least we get a point. But we’re done with First Field after this, aren’t we?”

No one answered her. They all looked at Gray.

He found himself laughing. “Let’s just get out of this fucking tomb.”

That was when they heard Grumli Greedway call out to them. “Oi! What’s with the spikes? We came to check on you all but then we found this wall. Well, and the bodies. You playing some kind of game?”

Tomi grunted and laughed. “Hey, Grumli, do you want to hear about the assassins or the demon lord of the Offal Guard?”

“Assassins?” Grumli asked.

Gray shook his head at Tomi, giving her a bit of a frown. “We’re kidding about the assassins but not about the demon lord. Help us get through.”

Tomi worked with the dwarven kill squad and was able to create an opening wide enough. Sure enough, there were Limborda and Flaraminda on the other side, impaled.

Midj lifted the statue. “We’re going to take it up top. You guys can go see about the others.”

Grumli blinked at how bloody, dirty and scorched Squad 23 was. “Uh, yeah, okay. What’s the Offal Guard?”

“Shame on you,” Tomi said, turning back into a hulking cat girl. “Don’t you know your history?”

The dwarf shrugged.

“I’m too tired to teach you.” And she moved off with Pinch in arms.

The dwarves didn’t comment on the husk in Tomi’s arms.

They took the back passageway to get to the far side of the Colonnade Court where the Envy Steeds were still running. Gray and his squad hadn’t needed to fight any of the animallix demons to get the Ambition Instinct idol, though it would’ve been far easier than battling Belllichor.

From there, they were escorted to the surface by the elvish kill squad, the Covet Corp.

It was so bright outside! It was evening, and the sky was a bloody red and a bit chilly. After all the fire, the fresh cool air felt good.

And of course, when they walked out onto the field of the coliseum, the crowds were roaring. Strangely enough, Froggy’s Thunder were already there, talking with the Magistrate. That squad must’ve gotten lucky and found a way out. Good for them.

Settie hurried over to them—dropping her cane and flinging her hat and mask away. “Is it true? Was there a regalia down there? Was there?”

She then hugged Gray to her chest.

The stadium erupted even louder, though it was clear that there was some confusion there.

Settie gave him a kiss on the forehead before pushing herself back from him. “Gray, tell me what happened. All the idols have been found. Kill squads have been dispatched to collect the rest of the squads. I see you have an idol—Midjara does, but I don’t care. How are you not dead?”

Gray took Settie’s hand. “You know, Captain, I don’t like questions all that much. Let’s just say we fought an old friends of yours. It was Bellichor. He would send his regards, but he’s dead. And I bet you killed him all those centuries ago.”

Then Settie’s eyes found Pinch, and the look of horror and hurt on her face broke Gray’s heart. He didn’t have much time to process that long because…

“Squad 23!” Crewel’s voice rang out. He was floating above the leader board, painted in the sky. All the squads up there had a single point.

Gray was confused. Was Settie wrong? She’d said all the idols had been found but maybe she was mistaken.

“Squad 23!” the Magistrate repeated. “Come forward!”

Gray led his people out onto the field…six of them at least. Settie was with Pinch, on the ground, away from them. If he didn’t know better, he would’ve thought the captain was crying.

Midj pushed the idol into Gray’s hands. “You take it. I’m too short to put it on the dang pedestal, and I’m tired of using my mana hands.”

“I’ll take it from here,” he said.

He led his team to the front of the raised platform where there seven pedestals. Five held glowing statues.

Crewel frowned at them. “Place the idol on the pedestal and get your point!”

Gray laughed. “Hey, Froggy, aren’t you going to come and try and steal it from us?”

The she-orc laughed. “You just want me to get close so you can squeeze my boobs. Just get the damn point already, Grayson Fade.”

Gray climbed the steps and went to the empty pedestal near the Work Instinct idol. When he placed it, there was a flash of light and Squad 23 was up there in flames with a single hash mark across from it.

The coliseum shook from the thunder. Midj found her parents in the audience and waved. A dozen happy goblins waved back.

“Froggy’s Thunder!” Crewel shouted. “You have found the Status Instinct Idol. Place the idol and win gold!”

The coliseum cheered, but it wasn’t as loud as when Squad 23 got up on the board. There were even some boos.

Froggy’s laughed and swaggered forward.

Gray was still on the stage. He smiled, laughed, and shook his head. “You had it when we met outside the garden. No wonder you didn’t stay and help us fight.”

Froggy didn’t smile or laugh or flirt.

In fact, the she-orc got deadly serious. “It hurt me to leave you like that but…but there was no way we could’ve fought that thing. It was an honest-to-goodness demon lord, Gray. You let us leave, and I feel bad for it.”

“How bad?” Gray said with a smile.

“Get away from my man!” Rynn called out.

Those who were close enough to hear that laughed. But everyone was looking confused. Froggy had the winning points in her hand.

Ames had a different idea. “Kiss him!”

“Amaranthis!” Rynn said in shock.

Froggy gave him a sly grin. “Kiss me and I’ll give you the statue.”

Gray shook his head. “No. Fuck First Field. You can get the gold.”

The she-orc looked down at the statue for a long time. Then she shook her head. “The only reason we have points at all is because of you. It was your plan that helped us beat out the fucking Winners, the Raiders, and those damn Fire Flyers. And with seven recruits, you might not have found the idols, but you’d have figured out a way of taking them from us. No, Gray, this is yours.”

And she handed him the idol.

There were whispers, boos, and a ton of shock from the audience.

He and Froggy exchanged long glances. They were was mutual respect there, defeinitely, and a lot of history, none of it very good.

The she-orc broke first. “Should’ve made me lick my fuck button for it. But oh well. Take it. Win. You killed a fucking demon lord. None of these other buttlickers could’ve done it.”

Gray left her and put the statue on the pedestal. And suddenly, Squad 23 didn’t just have one point, it had three, and they had won the gold. The Savage Seven would come in second and get the silver, while there would be a three-way tie for the bronze—Froggy’s Thunder, The Golden, and Lucky Bastards.

Gray turned and the stadium was going crazy.

Squad 23 had won the Testing. And the other teams who would’ve come in second and third place? They were all dead. Killed by Bellichor. Or that was how the story would go.

Gray wasn’t going to trust that Crewel wouldn’t kill him for killing other recruits. It was just one more secret at First Field. It wouldn’t be the first, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last.

It wasn’t long before the other squads were marched into the field, and there was an awards ceremony, but it was also kind of a farce because the three squad leaders couldn’t fit on the podium, and so had to stand around the bottom awkwardly. Well, Krain Darkstone and Mean Marla did. Froggy took her place and laughed and smiled when the bronze medal was put around her neck.

More cheering, more announcements, more seacow shit.

The world stopped, though, when both Tillwick Duskdrop and Blythe Donnaruma came limping onto the field. Somehow, the dragon girl had survived those ghostly hands and made it to safety. She’d probably flown through the window and walked by Pinch’s body.

It was then that the rumors started…and they just didn’t stop.

But one thing had changed. Neither Duskdrop nor Blythe gave Gray or any of his squad a single look. They’d been bested, and they knew it. It had taken an ocean of blood, but the bullies at First Field were finally going to leave Squad 23 alone.

* * *

It was later, and Gray couldn’t sleep.

Midj had gone off with her family, along with most of Squad 23, and there were all kinds of parties for the end of the Testing, but Gray didn’t care. Part of him had died in the Underdwell. And it had been an unfulfilled love story that had killed it.

He sat with Pinch in her room at First Field. He’d not spent any time there before, and he was surprised at how nice it was. There was an expensive carpet on the floor, enchanted flowers in vases on polished wooden furniture, and since the fae girl was so good at carpentry, there were no holes in the walls or the ceiling. The room even smelled good.

He’d pulled up a chair from her desk and sat next to her bed. Even the bedspread was fancy, silky and soft with golden thread flowers in a sea of pretty red, kind of the like the color of the core she used to have.

Settie pushed open the door behind him. “If you’re not out with your wives, you should be resting.”

“I tried. I’m not tired.”

Settie walked into the room but stayed back from him. “Pamalee’s father was at the coliseum for the awards ceremony. He spoke to me, saying how heart-broken he is. His wife is a husk, and now, so is his daughter.”

“His ex-wife,” Gray said. “He broke the bond with her, which made her a husk. Fuck that guy.”

“Yes,” Settie said with a little laugh. “Fuck that guy.”

She moved closer but still stayed back. “Did Ames tell you she spoke with her father? He was also there.”

“Fuck that guy harder than even Egalis Thronpinch,” Gray said bitterly. “Ames didn’t tell me.”

“She knew you’d be upset.”

“For good reason. He tortured her.”

“I tortured you,” the captain said carefully.

Gray had to smile, though he didn’t feel at all like smiling. “It wasn’t so bad.”

“I’m glad you don’t remember. It was terrible. But look at you now?”

Gray turned. “Are you trying to justify what Ames’s father did to her?”

Settie shook her head. “No. He’s an idiot…a fucking idiot, as our Pamalee might’ve once said.”

At her name, the fae girl opened her pale eyes, registered who was in the room, but then fell back asleep. Then again, there was very little difference between her waking and sleeping life. Actually, when she was asleep, it was far less heartbreaking.

Settie continued. “I’m grateful you still talk to me, Gray. After all we’ve been through. When I didn’t answer your questions. When I was difficult.”

“You? Difficult? Never.” Gray laughed at his own sarcasm.

The captain merely smiled. “Ames will never have a close relationship with her father. She doesn’t need it. She has us.”

“Us?” Gray asked.

The captain nodded. “Yes. Us. Me. Our squad. Our future…together. Inseparable. Unstoppable.”

Gray let her words sink in. “The Testing. The Training. The Hunting. I’m not doing the Training at First Field. Fuck the Magistrate and fuck all the recruits. Even the dead ones. Especially the dead ones.”

“I agree,” Settie said. “But that is a different conversation for another day. I met with Emerilia Stone. We have something.…it won’t bring Pamalee back permanently, but it will create a kind of temporary core for her. And then? I believe, if you are willing, that you could bring her back to us.”

Gray couldn’t talk for a long, long time. He couldn’t trust that he wouldn’t break down completely and he didn’t want to cry in front of the captain.

All he could manage was one word. “How?”

Settie’s laughter was as gentle as spring rain in the seven cities. “Oh, precious Gray, you know how I feel about questions. But tell me…how much do you love our troublesome, troublesome fae girl?”

That was a question he could answer easily.

It wasn’t everyday that you got to make someone’s dream come true.