Candi's ears were still not functioning properly, but she could see that Leonardo was fine. He kissed her and picked her up from the burning wreckage that was all around them.
Then, she saw lights come on everywhere.
"What's going on?" She tried to ask him.
He responded with something, but her ears were still ringing from the blast and she couldn't quite hear what he said.
He leaned down and kissed her a second time and then turned and carried her into the back waiting area of the Pantheon.
"Leonardo. I can't hear very well. What's going on?" Candi reiterated, still reeling from the shock of all that was happening around her.
He gave her a worried frown and took her to a settee where he placed her down. He reached out with healing fingers and touched her ears.
In seconds, her hearing was restored.
"Can you hear me better now?" His voice was worried.
Candi nodded.
"I can hear again. Thank you." She sat up and touched his head with a worried frown. "You were bleeding so heavily, I was so afraid."
"I'm fine. It's stopped because you took such good care of me."
Candi blinked and looked down. She had been in shock, but now that she was returning to normal, she could distinctly see the Pantheon full of people.
She had seen Lorem Ipsum as well…which meant the entire thing was faked.
"Liar. You were never hurt." She looked up, her eyes full of recrimination.
Part of her felt relief that he was not badly hurt but part of her was upset that she had been so terrified she was bandaging him in a way that would make his head wound even worse.
"You scared me so much." She gritted her teeth as angry tears began to fall from her eyes.
Leonardo reached up and brushed her tears away with gentle fingers. He sighed and pulled her into his arms.
"You took such good care of me, my little Cancandi girl, that I never once felt afraid even though at that moment, I truly was bleeding quite heavily."
He touched the makeshift bandage on his head.
"You tore the one thing that assured your visible declaration of royalty, your royal dress, to save me. I will ensure that for the rest of your life, you will never have to rely on a dress to ensure royalty status."
"I don't give a shit about a stupid dress." Candi sniffed, pushing him away. "I was scared that I wasn't bandaging you properly and causing your head wound to get worse."
She looked at him with a scowl.
"But it seems you're okay and all I did was make a fool out of myself in front of all those people."
"No, no Love. Nobody out there thinks any less of you for acting as you did. They're all cheering you on. You came in first place again, for this event."
She sniffed and looked away. He couldn't fool her again.
"You're lying to me again. None of the other Avgo Females were even there. We haven't even started the event yet."
Leonardo pressed his lips together and stood up.
"Listen to me." He looked down at her. "I'm sorry I had to act as if I was very injured and take part in the event. It was required of us Princes and we all did what we had to do. But you flew through that with such ease and elegance that I could barely contain my pride."
Seeing her petulant face, he reached out and cupped her face in his hands.
"The Event is over. The scores have been tallied. You came in first place. I'm not lying to you." He waved a hand and a virtual monitor appeared.
The monitor showed an empty platform that had the cream rug and the brown leather sofa. It was the same space that she had walked into not long ago.
From one corner of the room, Jenna came through. She sat down on the sofa, just as Candi had done, waiting. The virtual screen sped through fifteen minutes of her just sitting around waiting for the other contestants to appear.
The moment the Event officially began, the center panel disappeared revealing a table holding all the same tools that Candi had been given. There was the same hammer, pliers, scissors, a knife, and a bundle of rope.
Jenna stood there pondering over the tools for a moment when a panel opened up to her right. A Prince had been tied up onto the column with chains but this time, it was Byron.
He was also bleeding, but this time, from the chest and looked half dead.
Now that Candi knew it was all an act, she rolled her eyes at his playacting, but Jenna didn't know that.
The cat was frantic. This was the man she had set her heart on to marry and he was dying in front of her eyes.
She saw Jenna run to him and tried various ways to unshackle him, but of course, she could not remove the chain.
It was at that point that the bomb appeared.
Jenna took one look at the bomb and ran to the tools table. The one item she grabbed was the scissors, but for a very different reason.
Approaching the bomb table, she looked at the bomb with a critical eye. After using up half of the allotted five minutes on the bomb timer, she took the scissors and, with a deep breath to calm herself, made a final cut.
BOOM!!!
The bomb exploded.
The force of the bomb threw her half way across the room, but because the orange Avgo was protecting her, she was not badly hurt.
Byron, on the other side of the platform, got the full brunt of the blast. Candi gasped and covered her eyes.
Even though she knew it was a test, it was still horrifying to see that happening to one of the Erenveil Princes.
As the fire roared through, burning everything, she could see Byron emerge from the flames unscathed.
He called out a single command and the fires subsided. Then he calmly walked over to Jenna and picked her up from where she had fallen.
She was right on top of the bomb when it exploded.
Even with the Avgo's force shield protecting her, it could not stop the blast from flinging her across the room. Jenna had been knocked unconscious from the fall.
Without waiting for Lorem Ipsum to say anything, Byron had carried her into the back area to get medical assistance.
"Where is Byron and Jenna?" Candi jumped up from the settee.
Leonardo gently pressed her back down.
"Relax. They're in different Celestial Pantheons."
"Different? How many of these places are there?"
"As many as there needs to be. We make duplicates of the real one and float them wherever we need a quick Pantheon for various functions."
"Like a—a disposable theater?"
Leonardo shrugged.
"Something like that."
Candi covered her mouth.
"I hope Jenna is okay."
"She will be fine. My staff have all been on standby just in case there were injuries." He smiled.
"Would you like to see how well Anaïse Paroles did?"
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