by Ella Summers
She glanced at the timetable on his screen. “I’ll be fighting Monster Mixer, Blood Brothers, and…Mages of the Universe? Wow. Someone sure thinks highly of themselves.”
“Your first match is against the Monster Mixer. They’ll throw a series of three different types of monsters at you. You don’t know what you’re going to get until you’re in the pit, but the monsters they use tend to be things like giant frogs, harpies, dark ponies…”
Sera hoped she managed to avoid the dark ponies. Their coats were as bright as sunshine and their souls as black as night.
“…insect swarms, giant sand worms. The purpose of the Monster Mixer is to weed out mages with very weak magic. If you fail, you get dropped down to the lower testing tiers.”
“And if I pass?” she asked.
“Then you move on to the Blood Brothers.”
“Vampires?”
“Yes, two of them, it says here.” He scrolled down the list. “Then the Mages of the Universe. That’s another wildcard. You don’t know which mage you’ll get of the eight listed here. There are two from each of the main combative mage categories: two elementals, two telekinetics, two summoners, and two shifters. At the end of the day, after all the matches are over, they’ll evaluate the magic you used today and select your opponents for tomorrow’s matches.”
“What happens if I don’t use any magic?”
“Why would you not use magic?”
“If I don’t use magic, then they think my magic is weak and that they don’t need to push so hard to crack me.”
Kai shook his head. “That trick won’t work, Sera.”
“We’ll see. Surely, they can’t make me use magic?”
“No, but you’ll annoy Duncan Blackbrooke if you don’t.”
“The bossy mage I saved at Macy’s?”
“Yes, he’s the Game Architect for the Magic Games,” Kai told her.
Oh, goody. “Why am I not surprised?”
“Forget Blackbrooke. Worry about today’s matches. They shouldn’t be too hard for you. Concentrate on taking out your opponents and go easy on the battle banter.”
“I can do that.”
He gave her a hard look.
“What? I can be serious. See?”
He took one look a her ‘serious face’, then slowly shook his head. “Let’s just get down there and check out the fighting pit. We don’t have much time until they encourage us to leave.”
She followed him as he jogged down the steps. “Encourage us to leave? Or do you mean kick us out?”
He kept running, not even bothering to answer. Well, that said everything right there, didn’t it? Sera scanned the arena. There wasn’t a single person anywhere in sight, which was odd considering the hustle and bustle in the lobby. The Magic Games started in an hour, and the arena was empty.
“You didn’t get permission for us to check out the fighting pit, did you?” she asked him. “You paid those two guards to look the other way. And to keep everyone else out.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“The Magic Council would say it’s cheating.”
Kai didn’t appear moved by her words. “What are they going to do, kick you out of the Games?”
He had a point.
“Besides,” he added. “When it was their turn in the Games, you’d better believe that every one of them cheated.”
“You too?”
“We all did.”
She snorted. “Good. I was starting to wonder if the only rule you’d consider breaking was one related to parking.”
“Some rules are unjustified.”
“Such as the one against parking on sidewalks?” Sera teased, but she couldn’t help but wonder if he’d consider the death sentence for the Dragon Born one of those unjustified rules.
There was something encouraging in the smile he gave her as they reached the bottom—something that made her wonder if maybe Alex and Riley might be right. As they stepped into the pit, lights flashed to life overhead and a magic barrier blazed up all around them. They walked across the pit, their feet kicking up a cloud of dust. Born of sand and magic, the dusty mist rolled across the ground, hovering just over the surface. When it reached the end of the pit, it dissolved against a fiery magic barrier.
“That’s meant to do more than just keep the stands free of sand,” Sera commented, watching the veil of fire shift into a web of lightning, then to ice.
The magic shifted every few seconds, so fast that her mind had barely identified the element when it switched again. This game of magical musical chairs was giving her a splitting headache.
“Huh,” said Kai, sniffing the air. “That’s something new.”
“It smells like a car exploded down here. And then someone took a flamethrower to the debris,” she added, plugging her nose.
“The barrier is there to keep magic inside the fighting pit,” a voice called down from above. “And also any supernaturals fighting there.”
Sera looked up the rows of seats. Cutler stood at the top level, smirking down at them. No, at Kai.
“Get yourself caught in a trap, Drachenburg?” he taunted.
Kai glared at him, his magic slamming into the barrier. The flames pulsed, gobbling up his magic like it was candy.
Cutler chuckled. “You’re not nearly as scary trapped inside that cage.”
“I’m not trapped.”
Kai hit the barrier again with his magic. And again. And again. It groaned under the strain. Fissures crinkled across the frosty face, splitting off chunks of ice. One of those chunks fell into the pit, dissolving into a puff of mist the moment it hit the sand.
Cutler’s grin faded. “There’s no need to get testy. I’m only trying to help Sera.”
“Since when is it helping to anger the dragon I’m stuck inside a pit with, Cutler?” she demanded, waving her hand toward Kai.
With the barrier’s ice magic shattered, he’d moved on to lightning. The entire arena echoed with the clash of magic. It wouldn’t be long before Kai broke through the barrier entirely. At which point he’d turn his magic on Cutler.
Dense as he was, Cutler seemed to have realized that too. He began walking down the stairs, his hands lifted in the air. “I am trying to help. Don’t touch the barrier, Sera. It packs enough charge to knock a mage unconscious.” His gaze shifted to Kai. “Even a dragon.”
“Oh, really?” Sera said. “Thanks for warning me. Because I was going to step up to the freakishly glowing barrier and lick it.”
If her sarcasm inched him in the direction of common sense, he didn’t show it. Seriously, pissing off a mage who shifted into a dragon who could—and would—step on him? What was he thinking?
“The barrier isn’t the only magic lurking in the pit.” Cutler pointed at the cylinders hammered into the ground in clusters. They looked like big metal salt and pepper shakers.
“What are they?” she asked.
“Nothing good,” he said. “Various mists come out of the tops. Sedatives, poisons, elemental mayhem. Basically, bad news.”
“Ok, I’ll watch out for them.”
“That’s it? You’re not going to thank me?” He looked disappointed.
“That depends,” she said. “Are you going to try to proposition me now?”
“No.”
“Thank you.”
“Funny, Sera.” A satin smile slid across Cutler’s lips. “That’s what I like about you.”
The lightning sliding across the barrier fizzled out. Another element down. Fire flared up in its place.
“Cutler?” she called up.
“Yes?”
“Kai is almost done eating through that barrier. You should get going.”
“But—”
The flames let out a single, ear-piercing crack, then dissolved into steam. Kai’s blue eyes, lit up like an electric storm, glared out through the steamy mist at Cutler.
“Ok, fine,” Cutler said and hurried back up the way he’d come.
S
era caught Kai’s arm as he made to follow. He turned his glare on her.
“Let him go,” she said calmly.
Fire-charred steam snorted out of his nose.
“You wanted to call the commandos,” Sera reminded him, wiping the soot from her cheek.
Still fuming, Kai took out his phone. His finger had hardly tapped the screen, however, when Sera’s phone buzzed in her pocket. She checked the message—and froze.
“What is it?” Kai asked.
“Finn,” she said and turned her phone to show him the message: a picture of her and Kai standing inside the fighting pit, the word ‘soon’ typed out beneath it.
Kai’s magic pulsed out. A blast of wind shot out from the fighting pit, rippling up the rows. The seats clapped in protest. High above, the enormous television screen rocked.
Even before the wind had dissipated, Kai was talking into his phone. “Report.”
A soft rustle of words hummed out of the phone, but it was too quiet for Sera to hear.
“Put it on speakerphone,” she whispered to Kai.
She was surprised when he did as she’d asked.
“…was pretty well-hidden. No sign of the teleportation glyphs,” Tony’s voice buzzed out of the phone’s tiny speaker.
“Told you,” she muttered to Kai.
“The team of Magic Sniffers you told us to bring along had better luck,” said Tony. “They uncovered the glyphs. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough magic left in them to take us anywhere. It seems Finn’s crew cast a magic consumption spell as they fled.”
“I thought we’d decided to call them minions,” Dal’s voice piped up.
“No, you decided that.”
“Callum thought it was a good idea too.”
Kai cleared his throat.
“Sorry,” Dal said and fell silent again.
“The magic consumption spell Finn’s crew cast ate away at the residual magic,” Tony said. “It sped up the magical decay by over ten times. All that remained of the glyphs was little more than a skeleton.”
Kai looked at Sera. She sighed. Even if she had been there, she wouldn’t have been able to do anything. Finn’s minions—yes, she liked the name too—were sneaky. They’d learned a thing or two about covering their tracks since last time.
“Keep looking,” Kai told the commandos. “They must have left behind some trace. Question the prison guards. Atlantis is protected by magical barriers that are supposed to keep prisoners in and rescue teams out. Finn’s followers couldn’t have popped in and out of there without some inside help. Find out who helped them. Do whatever you must to find Finn.” Then he hung up.
“You think one of the prison guards helped Finn escape?” she asked.
“Perhaps. Tony, Dal, and Callum will find out.”
“I wish I were there, helping them.”
“They can handle it. They do this sort of thing all the time. And you have your plate full with the Magic Games.”
“I know. That’s why I wish I were somewhere else.”
“Your magic is erratic,” he said, his brows drawing together. “You need to calm down. There’s no need to be nervous.”
A pained laugh burst from her mouth. “Isn’t there? The Magic Council wants to crack open my mind and serve it up to an arena of overly zealous supernaturals.” She pointed up at the television screens. “With closeups.”
“Sera, listen to me.” He turned to face her, setting his hands on her arms. “You will be fine. We’re just going to take this one match at a time. Today is only the preliminaries. You are the best monster hunter on this side of the Atlantic. That’s all you have to do today: fight. The mind games don’t start until later.”
“When?”
“Don’t worry about it. Just focus on knocking down your opponents.”
“Knocking down opponents, you say?” she replied. “I can do that.”
“I know you can.”
Magic erupted from the levels above, blasting open the doors to the hallway. Security guards flooded inside, pouring down the aisles in a stampede of thumping boots. Every single one of them looked like he’d been built to smash rocks. With his bare hands.
“You’re good at talking your way out of trouble, right?” she asked Kai as the guards flooded the fighting pit.
“Of course.”
“Excellent. Because I’m only good at fighting my way out of trouble.”
He grunted in assent, then turned to the guard in front. “I am Kai Drachenburg.”
A few of the guards exchanged wary glances and shifted their weight. Apparently, Kai’s reputation preceded him.
“I know who you are,” the head guard shot back, unimpressed. “And you don’t belong in the pit. Come with us.” He looked as though someone had just spat in his coffee. A security guard who took his job seriously. Go figure.
“Your response time is abysmal,” Kai said as Mr. Serious waved the other guards forward.
“What?”
“We were here for ten minutes before you finally arrived,” Kai told him. “You’re supposed to be guarding the arena.”
“Yeah, not standing around the water cooler eating donuts and dishing gossip,” Sera added.
Kai spared her a brief I-thought-we-agreed-you-wouldn’t-be-talking look before returning his attention to the guards. “The Magic Council prides itself on always hiring the best and the brightest. I’m sure my colleagues on the Council would be interested to hear my report on your…unfortunate response time.”
Mr. Serious exhaled, some of the wind going out of his sails. “So this was a test?”
“That depends entirely on you,” said Kai.
Mr. Serious glanced back at the other guards, then at Kai. He stepped aside. “You can go. The Magic Games will be kicking off shortly.” Shifting his gaze to Sera, he pointed at a doorway at the corner of the pit. “Participants need to get to their designated rooms in the backstage area. Spectators and coaches must find their seats in the stands.”
“Go,” Kai told Sera, then walked around the guards to sit in one of the front row seats. He pulled out his phone. “I’ll be right here.”
She nodded and headed for the door. Mr. Serious and two of the guards followed her. The others walked up the stairs, spreading out to cover every section of the arena.
“You’re Serafina Dering,” Mr. Serious said. It wasn’t a question. “The guys and I have a pool going about how far you’ll make it before you crack.”
Sera wasn’t sure if she should be flattered or worried that he knew who she was. She settled for sarcastic. “How nice.” She smiled at him. “You’ve already lost.”
“You don’t even know what my bet was.”
“It doesn’t matter. You bet that I’d break.” Panic was throwing a party in her stomach, but she kept her face neutral—and her magic buried deep. “I won’t.”
“Everyone breaks,” he insisted.
“I’m not everyone.”
His frown cracked into a sick grin. “We’ll see soon enough.”
“Is something funny?” she asked, stuffing her bag into the locker with her name taped on it.
“You’re up first, peaches,” he said and gave her one of those testosterone-charged man slaps on her back. “I bet the guys $100 that you’d make it through the day. Be sure to put on a good show.”
12
Monster Mixer
A roar of applause burst through the open doorway that led to the fighting pit—until it was swallowed whole by a thunderous roar. The beast’s war cry boomed out, a shockwave of sound and magic. The ground beneath Sera’s feet rumbled and shook.
Light poured through the door, bathing the dark and dusty hallway in streams of red and blue. Ahead, somewhere inside the fighting pit, the beast was scraping its hard feet against the sandy ground. Hooves. It sounded like hooves. That narrowed down the list of possible monsters. Maybe it was a manticore. Or—Sera cringed—a dark pony. She couldn’t yet see the beast, but whatever it was, it didn’t sound frien
dly.
She walked toward the light. As she passed through the doorway, the magic barrier buzzed and snapped shut behind her. Inside the fighting pit, a large body was pacing around, its dark silhouette a blurred smudge against the bright background. Sera blinked down hard, and her opponent came into focus.
Her heart stuttered, then took an immediate nosedive into her stomach. An elemental bull. She had to fight an elemental bull.
Born of magic and rage, an elemental bull looked like a freakishly large bull—with one big difference. Magic, not hair, coated its body. A mixture of elemental magic, these glowing tendrils flared, sizzled, and swayed across the bull’s thick back. The beast’s dominant element shifted every few seconds, just like the magic barrier surrounding the pit. Green to red to blue to gold, the bull and the barrier were blinking like the lights on a Christmas tree.
Past the magic barrier, the stadium was packed full of spectators. Mages, fairies, and vampires sat in the audience, sporting binoculars and plastic glowing sticks. A few of them were snacking on hotdogs and pizza slices. Even more of them were drinking beer or magical cocktails served by the telekinetics walking up and down the aisles with mini concession stands hovering in front of them.
“Hey, pretty girl!” one of the mages in the audience called down to Sera, waving his beer can in the air.
Beside him, four other guys were singing silly songs and swaying in their seats. And they weren’t the only ones. It was barely the afternoon, and at least a third of the audience was already wasted. Kai was right. People came to the Magic Games to do more than just watch the fights.
“Girly!” the drunk mage shouted at her again. “Wanna go out with me?”
He was waving so wildly that the beer can shot out of his hand and smacked against the magic barrier. It dissolved instantly upon impact, but the low moan of dying metal lingered in the air for a few seconds longer.
The bull’s horned head whipped around. Its gold eyes found Sera immediately. It grunted at her, and lightning sparks spilled out of its nostrils. The bull’s magic was potent. Musk and magic hung heavy in the air, held inside the fighting pit by the magic barrier. Sera coughed, and the bull gave her an indignant, electrically-charged snort.
