Chapter 3

The sand was like a hot skillet. Every step sent a fresh wave of fire shooting up my legs. I gritted my teeth, forcing myself to move forward. Stopping meant baking to death under the sun.

The livestream chat was probably a frenzy of bets and cruel jokes.

`User482: I give her an hour. Tops.`

`LiamFan1: She deserves this! Go Chloe!`

`TruthSeeker: This is messed up. Is this even legal?`

Liam's voice came down again, full of false concern. "How are you holding up, Ava? Is it hard? Maybe now you'll think twice before being so arrogant."

Chloe's fake-pitying tone followed. "Oh, Liam, don't be so hard on her. It's just sand. I had to walk through thorns and over sharp rocks because of her."

Thorns? She had walked on a paved city sidewalk. The audacity of her lies was breathtaking.

I refused to look up. I focused on putting one foot in front of the other. The skin on my soles was already starting to blister. I kept my eyes on the horizon, a blurry line of heat and sand. I would not break. I would not give them the satisfaction.

"Thorns and rocks, you say?" Liam's voice was filled with a terrifying rage. "She needs to understand real pain."

He shouted another order. The helicopter circled and flew ahead of me. One of the bodyguards leaned out, holding a large bag. He upended it.

Hundreds of small, metallic objects rained down onto the sand directly in my path.

Nails.

They scattered across the ground, sharp points glinting in the sun. A minefield of rusted metal.

My blood ran cold. This wasn't just a lesson anymore. This was torture.

I stopped. I couldn't walk over that.

"Walk, Ava," Liam commanded from above. "Or we'll add something else to the mix."

I looked down at my feet. They were red and swollen, covered in angry blisters. Then I looked at the path of nails ahead. There was no way around it.

Tears of helpless fury welled in my eyes, but I blinked them back. Crying was a sign of weakness, and I wouldn't show him any.

Taking a deep, shuddering breath, I took a step.

A searing pain shot through my foot. I looked down. A rusty nail had pierced the soft flesh of my arch. Blood, dark and thick, pooled around it, staining the sand. I bit my lip so hard I tasted metal, stifling a scream.

I took another step. And another. Each one was a fresh agony. My feet were being shredded. Blood left a trail behind me.

The onboard doctor's voice, amplified and anxious, cut through the air. "Mr. Stone, this is going too far! Her feet are bleeding profusely. She's losing too much blood, and with this heat, she could go into shock!"

"It's just a lesson, Doctor," Liam replied coolly. "She's tougher than she looks. Besides, she brought this on herself."

"But her health records... she has a delicate constitution," the doctor insisted.

"She looks down on people like us, Liam," Chloe's voice whispered, just loud enough for the microphone to catch it. "She thinks we're bugs to be stepped on. Now she knows how it feels."

That was the final push. Liam's voice turned deadly. "You think you're above us, Ava? You've always been afraid of things that crawl on the ground. Let's see how you handle some real company."

My mind went blank with terror. I knew my deepest fear. He knew it.

The helicopter lowered again. The bodyguard reappeared, this time with a canvas sack that was writhing and twisting.

He opened it and dumped the contents onto the sand, a short distance in front of me.

Snakes. A writhing mass of them, slithering across the hot ground, their scales shimmering. Venomous snakes.

I remembered a conversation from years ago, laughing with Liam about my paralyzing phobia. He had held me and promised he'd always protect me.

That memory felt like a lifetime ago. I stood frozen, my mangled feet forgotten, my entire being consumed by a cold, primal fear. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe.

The world dissolved into a blur of sand and scales and the memory of a promise he was now breaking in the cruelest way possible.