The Lotus Flower Champion by Pintip Dunn

Author:Pintip Dunn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Thai mythology; Thai folklore; Thai fairytales; Island Romance; forced proximity; competition; competition romance; Teen Young Adult Coming of Age Fiction; Teen Young Adult Dating Sex Fiction; Teen Young Adult Magical Realism Fiction; Teen Young Adult Loners Outcasts Fiction; Teen Young Adult Fantasy Romance eBooks; Teen Young Adult Romance eBooks; Teen Young Adult Social Issues eBooks; Entangled Teen; YA Romance; YA Mythology; Forbidden YA Romance; Young Adult Romance; YA Fantasy Series; YA Mysteries; Teen Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy eBooks; Teen Young Adult Fantasy Supernatural Mysteries Thrillers; Action Adventure Romance (Books); Teen and Young Adult Romance; Coming of Age Fiction; Teen and Young Adult Coming of Age Fiction; Teen and Young Adult Literature and Fiction; Teen and Young Adult Literature and Fiction eBooks; Teen Young Adult Mystery Thriller Action Adventure; Teen Young Adult Romantic Mysteries Thrillers; Entangled Teen; Hardcover Romance; Book boyfriend; YA Fantasy; YA Romance; Coming of Age Romance; Adventure YA Romance; magic; magic systems; paranormal romance; paranormal YA; PNR; coming of age; enemies to lovers; forbidden love; opposites attract; reunited lovers; YA vampire fiction; young adult; The Lotus Flower Champion by Pintip Dunn and Love Dunn; The Lotus Flower Champion; Pintip Dunn; Love Dunn; Pintip and Love Dunn
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC
Published: 2023-09-04T15:56:02+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Three

No.

My mind rebels, refuses to compute. Mateo can’t be dead. He cannot be gone. Just this morning, he was talking to me about Lola. Rae just gave him permission to date her. He has to go back to camp. They have to pursue their relationship, see where it leads. He simply can’t be gone.

But nothing stops his fall into the pit. The birds don’t form a flock and shepherd him to the ground, like they did with Sylvie. He doesn’t suddenly sprout wings and fly to safety. Even the shorter arms, which I might or might not have imagined, don’t do a damn thing to help him.

He just falls and falls and falls.

I close my eyes, unable to witness his impact with the ground.

“Mateo,” I whisper, the anguish strangling my voice. I want to yell until my throat is raw. I want to beat my fists against the rocky ground until they bleed. But the shock robs me of any energy, so all I can do is sink listlessly to the ground.

Not so with the others. They scream, babble, and cry so loudly that I can’t make out a single word.

And then, a loud rumbling fills the cave, as though a piece of machinery is coming to life. Right before our very eyes, a metal beam shoots out from the top of the opposite cliff and extends all the way to our side, where it snaps into place.

My mouth parts. Bodin, Sylvie, and Rae fall silent. A bridge across the pit. But only if we’re willing to walk a very narrow beam across a crocodile pit, twenty feet in the air. It might as well be a tightrope.

“Cross the beam if you want answers,” a voice intones, its volume magnified so that it fills every vein and capillary in my body.

A message from God? Surely not. But the voice has the same omniscient vibe, as though it can peer into our brains and see our every thought.

“It’s a loudspeaker,” Bodin says.

The four of us look at each other as the implications sink in.

“What?” Rae explodes. “That’s Xander?”

“If there’s a loudspeaker, there must also be cameras,” Sylvie deduces.

“They’ve been watching us this entire time.” I moan. “We never had a chance of getting away.”

And here I thought I couldn’t feel any worse. Despair washes over me, mixing with the grief and creating an unbearable cocktail of emotions.

I can’t do this. I can’t stand this much pain. I can’t exist any longer—

Clap…clap…clap…

The slow clap disrupts my pattern of thoughts. Across the pit, Xander emerges from the shadows. He appears freshly showered, unlike the rest of us, although he’s wearing the same clothes as before: raggedy jeans and an old Yale sweatshirt. Either our resident evil scientist is extra thrifty, or he’s got multiple versions of the same outfit.

“Really, Xander?” Rae shouts across the cavern, all bravado. “Get a new act. This slow clap and popping out of nowhere is getting boring. You take down the sinister vibe a notch every time you repeat it.

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