Chapter 33

Khai's arms and legs felt like lead as he pushed through the water, each stroke taking more effort than the last. Every fiber of his being was writhing in pain, his aching muscles protested begging him to stop, but he was not one to give up.

His stomach twisted violently as the meager meal he had eaten earlier felt like a distant memory. His breaths were coming in short gasps as he felt his energy reserves draining.

Suddenly, his vision was enveloped in white and a hauntingly beautiful female voice echoed in his mind, Stay put baby!" The voice trembled. "Don't come out, no matter what happens. Don't make a sound, don't move. Cover your ears, here close your eyes, just like that. Just stay put." He heard a faint sob, followed by a short silence. The screams, rips and growls couldn't escape him.

An anguished wail tore threw his mind as he shot back to his senses. Adrenaline surged through him like a wildfire. The water turned into a blur as his body went in overdrive. Nothing, not even his own body could stop him now. Hell, even death was afraid to take a step towards him until he killed every last rogue on the planet. With a fierce growl, he increased his pace, his arms and legs moving in perfect harmony.

The water grew thicker with mud as he approached the end. Just as the pressure in his lungs became so intense that he thought they might burst, he felt the tips of his fingers touch the edge of the lake. He let out a loud gasp of air as he pushed himself out of the water.

"Two minutes and thirty six seconds. Fantastic!" Even Vinther's praise was tinged with criticism. The goal of the current exercise was to swim across the five hundred yard lake in less than three minutes.

Khai aggressively rubbed his eyes and cleared his airways before turning around to assess the other legacies. Phillip and Austin swam neck to neck for second place, while Elliot was trailing a few seconds behind them. Rowan would finish fourth, he was nearly twenty seconds behind Khai, with Matthew a few seconds further back.

Arnold, Drake and Sebastian struggled far behind the others, they would take well over four minutes to reach the finish line. Khai blocked out Vinther's whistles as he called out Phillip's time, followed by Austin's. Someone was missing. He scanned the group, unable to spot Trent. He narrowed his eyes, as they darted from one Wahren to another, trying to determine where Trent could possibly be.

Ten seconds passed since Elliot arrived and the timer went past three minutes. He hadn't spotted Trent in the last thirty seconds. He quickly scanned the clearing around the lake to see if Trent had beaten his time, by some miracle, and stepped out of the water.

"Damn it!" He cursed as he realized Trent was truly missing. The fool had drowned, probably passing out in exhaustion.

Gordon seemed to have figured this out just at the same time as Khai did. A deafening shout reached his ears. "Boys! Get Trent!"

Before he could hear the rest of Gordon's instructions, Khai dove underwater. Luckily for Trent, the lake was only a few meters deep. He struggled to see through the mud as he swam to Trent's lane. Elliot reached him and Khai motioned for him to scan left while he scanned the right side of Trent's lane.

His eyes relentlessly searched the bed of the lake for Trent when he suddenly spotted something gleaming at a distance. A tall slender figure with long hair stood floating underwater. He rubbed his eyes before looking again, wondering if the exhaustion was making him hallucinate. The figure glowed so bright that he could only see it's outline.

He changed his course, charging toward the light, to investigate, when a hand yanked him back. He turned to see Elliot pointing at Trent's unconscious body a few feet ahead of them on the lake bed. When Khai looked back up, the figure had disappeared.

Hoisting Trent's body from the lake bed, Khai and Elliot swam to the surface before handing him over to the others. Khai quickly dove back in to search for the figure, he looked around in every direction to see if he could spot the figure or at least a source of light, but there was no sign of it.

He got out of the water, perplexed by what he saw. Rowan was holding Trent to his side as he coughed up the water that filled his lungs. Gordon, Sebastian and Phillip hovered around him while the others stepped back a short distance to give him some air.

Vinther stood with his hands folded, wearing his usual gray expression as he watched Khai emerge from the lake. He regarded him in silence for a few seconds before walking up to him. With a short grunt, he smacked Khai on his shoulder and gave him a single nod of appreciation. As if he had nothing else to say, he pivoted and walked over to Trent, probably to check on his condition and make sure he regretted surviving.

"Maybe his life span shortens every time he praises someone." Elliot mused as he walked to stand next to Khai.

"You beast! You managed to earn approval from the most sought-after ring master in hell." Austin laughed.

Khai was too zoned out to register what his friends were saying. He turned to Elliot and questioned him. "Did you see something glowing underwater when we were in there?"

Elliot shook his head as he stretched his sore muscles. "I didn't, why do you ask?"

"Pretty sure I saw something. A tall figure, with long hair…" Khai stared back at the lake in confusion. Had he truly imagined it?

Austin rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Are you seeing Anaya underwater now?"

"Why don't we go back in and check who I really saw?" Khai's impassive gaze held a warning as he stared back at Austin.

Austin grinned, pretending to lock his lips, as Gordon whistled for them to huddle up. Khai snorted, jogging back to the group for their next exercise. He turned his head to glance back at the lake, his thoughts still lingering on the figure he saw in there.

*****

Natalie puckered her lips as she evaluated the two costumes in front of her. One was a sexy form fitting body suit made of leather, while the other was a powder blue crop top with harem pants.

She turned around to Jennifer and Shelby who were on a doom scroll on her bed. She frowned before clapping her hands for their attention.

"Hello? Opinions! Cat Woman or Princess Jasmine?" She motioned towards the costumes and stared at them for an answer.

Jennifer groaned dejectedly. "We've told you our opinion and we know it doesn't matter to you. For the millionth time Nat, everyone's going to only look at you, irrespective of what you pick."

Natalie snorted, looking hedonistic. She knew she would be the center of attention. She recently lost the last two pounds she was struggling with and the work she put into her glutes had finally started to show. She didn't even have to try, the boys would just line up at a glance from her.

"Well not everyone." She heard Shelby murmur before her friends burst into giggles.

Natalie glowered at them, knowing that they were speaking about Khai. He was fooling around with Anaya, leaving Natalie in humiliation. She opened her mouth to retort, but she knew Shelby was right and that only made her more furious.

"Get out Shelby!" She demanded, pointing to the door.

"Wait, are you serious? Nat, relax! I was just…"

She didn't let Shelby complete her sentence and screamed louder once again. "I said OUT!".

"God! You're so uptight!" Shelby muttered as she stormed out of Natalie's room.

Jen sighed, expecting Natalie's tantrum at the mention of Khai. At first, Jen believed that Natalie would somehow convince Khai to fall for her charms. As they grew up, she realized that Khai never showed interest in Natalie and only spent time with her at her mother's insistence. However, that behavior ended back in Orestes. Now that they were at Arcane, Khai had started to completely ignore Natalie, going as far as setting her up with other people to get rid of her. Despite this, her friend had developed such a thick skin over the years that she had grown oblivious to Khai's blatant rejections.

Her need to destroy anyone who got close to Khai bordered criminal obsession. Jen hoped that Khai was truly only fooling around with Anaya like he was with every other girl in the past. Jen actually liked Anaya, the girl was sweet and pure. She felt a tinge of sympathy, knowing what was coming for her if Khai was actually serious about her. But she quickly brushed off her thoughts as she got up to soothe Natalie's foul mood.