Betrayal: An Urban Fantasy Academy Series

by Bob Dattolo

  I swear, the mage didn’t know what to do until Samantha held her sword out and said, “This is gonna stab the shit out of you in 60 seconds if you’re still there.”

  They were gone.

  The last stared at us in shock as they too were dragged to the test and pushed to take it.

  Then Cesar was gone.

  Samantha started walking again, “Ice, water, fire, and earth are gone. That leaves just metal, right?”

  “Yeah. How’re we doing this with dragons coming?” Parece looked at me.

  “You guys go first. Samantha? I’d recommend you or Angelica. Get across and join up with them. Make sure they’re safe. There aren’t many others making it through this test right now, so they should be safe. I’m just worried. Then we get the rest of you through. When the last starts, I’ll grab the next open one and we can go through at the same time.”

  Levi turned towards the hallway we came through, “That, or we fight shifted dragons and whoever’s with them?”

  The roars are much, much closer. “Yeah…or that.”

  The five people at the test don’t want to move. Threats were made. They’re not very creative, but I’ll give them an A for effort.

  I was prepared for them to attack; I just wasn’t prepared for the three air affinities behind us to attack at the same time. My first inkling that it was happening was a surge of magic that had me flinging up a huge shield behind us. I was going to put it up in front, but…yeah, surprise attack, amIright?

  Samantha, Levi, and Angelica waded into the five attackers, battling with magic and weapons, while Parece impressed me by coming around the side and taking down a metal mage with a flurry of spells, a brutal punch, and a stabbing dagger.

  The air affinities aren’t together based on what I’m seeing. Two are mages, with one dragon anchoring the end a little farther from me. The closest is yelling something about die fucking stricken, but I can’t hear him over the sounds of fighting. Nor do I care to.

  Frankly, it’s all I can do magically to stop them from getting through and hurting me or my allies.

  The middle air mage rushes, slashing with a dagger that misses. My stomp took out their knee and ended their attempt to cast a spell. They were mid-fall when a spell from the other air mage took out most of their chest. I don’t think it was on purpose, but it still helped me.

  I hit him with another spell to get his power, which I also locked away.

  The air dragon hit me before I knew he was coming, ramming me into the ground. He’s larger than I am, being much taller as air affinities tend to be, but I’m not sure he’s ever fought someone with my strength. He gloated for maybe a second above me before I wrenched his hands from my neck and pulled him in to collapse the front of his face with my forehead. He fell to the side and I rolled to my feet, directly into a gravity spell combined with a wall of air. I went head over heels and was rammed into the floor by another spell, sending a river of blood from my nose.

  That’s the point that I shifted, again, and the spells hitting me faded quite a bit. The air mage stared in horror as I got up, then he was blinded by a simple light spell and then set on fire.

  What can I say? They laughed a little louder than others.

  His screams were music to my ears, as were his moans as he died and fed more power into me.

  Also locked away.

  The air dragon took my distraction as a sign that he can shift. In the middle of a room of dozens of us.

  Not a great idea.

  Not that anyone else beat me to him. He’s right there, so he died to a driving fist and fed me even more power.

  The fight for the test was still going on, with only Parece’s guy being out of it. Dead, by the looks of it. The rest are going toe-to-toe and holding their own

  Hmm…

  Stone walls grew without warning, stopping their movement except towards my allies, then ice formed around them, locking them into place at least for a moment.

  That’s pretty much when the fight ended. My allies swooped in and tore them to shreds, not quite literally, and left their corpses behind.

  Samantha jumped at the test and started it as we took up a defensive line to watch for others. The room is silent for the longest moment, which is just about the perfect time for the hallway to vomit more visitors.

  First through is a steel dragon. They’re hurting and bleeding, but still a dragon.

  Hot on their tale is a fire dragon.

  An air dragon comes next, with a water dragon literally swooping at them as they clear the hallway into the room.

  Then there’s another six people behind them, all trying to kill the air dragon.

  “Umm…I say this with utmost love, but get the fuck through the test. Right now.” My calm voice belies my fear at what’s about to happen here.

  Parece heard it, though, and hit the test as soon as it was free to start.

  Our huddle stayed together as the rest of the room took in the newest visitors and began coming together to fight the more dangerous enemy.

  Levi stayed at my side, “This isn’t good. Like at all. We have to get through this. If this goes sideways…I’m not sure how even you can win against this many of us.”

  “Yeah, trust me, I don’t want to try it if I don’t have to.”

  Angelica’s pained laugh made me feel at least a little better. “You just need to stop holding back.”

  Levi looked to her, “Umm, what? Holding back?”

  She nodded my way, “She does. She knows some impressive spells, she just doesn’t show them much.”

  He looked back to me, “What?” Then back to her. “Like what?”

  She winked my way, “In Florida? When you had the tracking spell on the truck? Do you know how we found it?”

  “No? I figured you saw me somehow and paid someone to check the truck?”

  She pointed at me with her sword, “Nope. All her. She tried to play it off, but we knew she could do it. Found them with no problem. Crushed them with her bare hand when she got annoyed at not being able to do it on command. If she let go? I’d bet good money that she could win against those four dragons. Maybe more. She just doesn’t let go.”

  He turned back to me, “You found the tracker spell?”

  “Yeah.” I didn’t really want him to know that.

  “How? That’s a specialty spell!”

  “The grimoire that was destroyed last year was really, really good.”

  He blinked slowly, “I’m thinking you gave me the answer, but it’s nothing like someone would assume.”

  Angelica laughed, “Seriously. Now, one of us can start the test in maybe 20 seconds. Who goes? Me or you, Levi.”

  He tilted his head and studied her for a moment, then turned back to the dragons, “You go.”

  She took a step back, “Are you serious? I wasn’t expecting…”

  “I know what you were expecting. I’m sure you guys are all thinking I’m going to attack at any time. So go. You’re way up there. Help watch out for the group. We’ll head through as soon as we can.”

  She didn’t react other than to raise an eyebrow at me.

  “Just go. Like he said.” She nodded once, then turned back to the test to wait for the earliest moment that she can start in.

  Levi flexed his hand on the sword and waved the dagger. “So, what do you say? Should we take all of the metal weapons now?”

  I couldn’t help laughing, “No. Not with four dragons here. How do you want to do this? You know we’re gonna get attacked any second now.”

  The fight is edging out way and it’s more than obvious that some of them want to incorporate me into things.

  “You were nearly fucked with metal balls. What about an orgy of metal balls? Or…what else can we do? Something that doesn’t take a lot of power to start?”

  My mind lit up, “Umm, how about…” power flowed out of me and I pictured what I wanted. One after another, balls of electricity began forming up towards the ceiling. Levi caught the
m when I looked up and his mouth fell open at seeing them. “Fuck. Me. Electricity?”

  “Electricity. Get some balls or blades or something formed? I’m creating 100 of those electricity balls. They hurt worse than you’d think to touch them. In, oh, 10 seconds, they’re coming down and will begin zooming everywhere. Everyone they touch should be shocked. They won’t be locked in place, but it’ll mess up their attacks.”

  “What do you want me to do with the balls or blades?”

  Fuck. “I’d prefer not to kill everyone, but maybe…broken hands? Or knees? Something that won’t outright kill them or force them to die here?”

  “I can do that.” He nodded towards the dragons, “Why not force them to shift back?”

  Ooookay, I hadn’t thought about that. My smile grew wider, “I like how you think.”

  The closest dragon had just turned towards us, leading with a jet of fire breath that battered against a shield backed by a rock wall, when our gifts arrived.

  100 electricity balls the size of grapefruit began zooming everywhere, bouncing from every surface. Within the first 20 seconds, almost everyone was hit once.

  They screamed.

  The dragons roared.

  Then they freaked when I headed into the fight and pushed my power out, forcing them to shift back one by one.

  The fire dragon died as others attacked him and before I even thought to stop it from happening.

  That’s about when the balls and blades arrived.

  More screams. Attacks started coming our way, but they faltered under the rain of shocks and pelting metal.

  We held everyone back long enough that Angelica was through and I pushed Levi at the test. “Get through. Now!” His spell died as he started the test, leaving me to run to the side for another open spot. My electricity was still running, still messing with people and making their magic falter with very touch.

  I expected to start the test without a problem. It’s just that the ground had a different idea as it exploded, sending me tumbling away from the line of tests. I didn’t stop until I rammed up against the wall. My electricity spell died from the chaos and the impact, leaving an odd silence in the room that soon filled with Marc’s laugh. “Huh, looks like I found you!”

  The earth mage looks happy as can be as he enters the room. He has five people with him. I’m not sure he knows that Tiffany, Eva, and Brody were in the opening behind them.

  “What do you want, Marc? If you can’t see it, everyone here is kinda busy. How about you just concentrate on the trial?”

  His smile grew, “Yeah, nah. You’re here. We’re here. I think it’s time for you to check out.”

  “Seriously, what is your fucking problem? You don’t have enough to worry about that you have to come in here and hunt for people?”

  He barked a laugh, followed by those with him, “That’s just it. I’m not hunting people. I’m hunting you.”

  “You don’t have to do this, just take the test and get through!”

  More laughter around me as others started moving this way. “Oh, we will. Just as soon as we deal with you.” Marc’s magic is rolling hard, and I can’t figure out what’s happening. His six are there, with another ten or 12 fellow students coming in from other directions. They’re not fighting because they want to kill me.

  Lovely.

  I did say that I’m a unifier. I just didn’t mean this way.

  Chapter 47

  My wings fluttered as I tried to come up with a plan. I can’t tell if they’re all gonna rush or attack with spells or maybe do both at once. I just can’t tell. I do know that I need to mess with them, though.

  With that, my mind ran wild for an eternity across maybe a second. Magic rushed from me in a tidal wave as my hair stayed dark, and I stared past Marc and let my mouth fall open, “Oh my fucking God!”

  They all turned, expecting to see something horrifying. When they turned back, Marc was beginning to laugh. Probably to say something about how I was being lame.

  Instead, they were met with their own personal sun as the rest of my magic triggered.

  My command to shift into dragon form dropped some where they stood, forcing their shift. Others were blown over by winds, gushing water, smacking rock and earth. Yet more were hit with shifting gravity that picked them up and threw them.

  None died. On purpose.

  For my part, I used another bit of rock to catapult me towards the test. I had my feet in the starting spot when spells I wasn’t ready for triggered, blowing me over in a veritable tornado of winds that wrenched at my wings to the point that I thought they were gonna be torn off entirely.

  My shift back stopped that, and I absorbed the wind, trying to figure out who cast it. No one stood out to me, so I raced for another test.

  This time even more wind came, combined with a solid ten other spells that I’ve never seen before. I was missing teeth by the time I was able to counter them. Blood was pouring from my shattered nose as I pushed my way up. I should have been paying attention to the others, because I made it to my feet with just enough time to catch a knife in the stomach. The girl that stabbed me was screaming something about die. She died instead as I shifted and tore her throat out. Her magic got locked away just in time for others to find me.

  Magic battered me as I worked to counter everything I could and to try to attack back. It just became too much for me to do both, forcing me to let more spells bounce from my scales. Or hit me when they didn’t dissipate.

  More blood poured from injuries. My scales are torn open in too many places, and I can’t seem to stem the tide of attacks.

  The dragons I forced to shift never made it, having been killed by others. That means…shoot, another four are dead?

  It doesn’t matter. If I don’t get the fuck out of here, it’ll be me too at some point.

  Marc’s laughter reached me through the pain, and I felt his sword ram into my shoulder as I tried to twist away. My magic triggered and every metal weapon that I could reach began to tear apart under my spell.

  That just pissed him off, and I ended up being smashed between two rising blocks of rock. His laughter got louder, which makes me think he thinks I’m dead.

  I caught the coming rock soon enough and I’m just sort of squished in here.

  Okay, I need to get away from here somehow. I don’t want to kill everyone. I really don’t. I will, though. I just would rather not.

  My magic goes to town, with some carving off to heal me a little, and more hitting the floor and creating an opening that I slid into. My plan was to crawl, but I found it easier to stay still and let my magic move me along like toothpaste. Sort of. Behind me, I left a metal statue of myself. Not great work, but it’s being done on the fly, so I have to go with what I can do.

  No one seemed to pick up on the shifting ground as I made my way towards the tests. I kept my ears open for the reveal as he pulls the rock apart to see my body.

  I’m not disappointed as he freaks at finding a statue and not my pulverized corpse.

  More magic goes into shifting the ground where I’m aiming for, hiding me just a bit. I’m more than shocked to create an opening, only to find Eva there.

  Fuck.

  She stared down at me, then at the rest of the room, “You really know how to piss people off, don’t you.”

  “It’s a gift?”

  Shards of one of my teeth come out.

  She shook her head, “You’re at the water test. Can you take it?”

  “I can, but…”

  She took a deep breath. “You have…45 seconds. Maybe. I’m gonna flood this area and send them out into the hallway. You have to be in the test so that I can get in before they come back. Can you do that?”

  “Why are you helping me?”

  She stared at me longer, “What can I say? I really liked the essential oils.”

  Instead of smiling, I crawled past her and readied my magic. Hers built as people freaked, searching for me everywhere, and it wasn’t unt
il someone spotted me that she triggered her power and floodwaters raced through the huge room, sweeping everyone towards the door except us.

  My water powers added to it, pushing them farther than before. Then I created another small maze for them to get through on the way back.

  And then I was in the test.

  C’mon, magic, we gotta go fast or she’s gonna get attacked for this!

  These affinity tests typically require you to do various things with your affinity. This one is no different. Filling containers. Fine control of it. Breaking down other spells. Wiping out the element in a container. It’s far larger than I would have dreamed of, but I raced through it. I managed to catch Eva starting the test before anyone made it back into the room.

  Then I was out, and my allies fell in around me as my magic went to town, healing me.

  “What the fuck was all of that?” Samantha took the lead again.

  “Umm, Marc’s kinda pissed?”

  “Don’t give me that. The water? You did that all yourself?”

  “Myself? No. I was trying to escape without killing everyone. Or trying to. Eva helped me.”

  The girl of the hour stepped from the test, magic strong around her as she stared at the group with me, “Maddie. You’re looking better than you were before?”

  “I’ve found that nearly dying is a wonderful exfoliant.”

  She smirked, “I bet you have. So unless we’re gonna fight now? I need to go find Tiffany.”

  “Umm, no fighting. Although… I have something for you if you’d like?”

  She cocked her head, “What would you have for me?”

  My hands went up and I pointed my palms at my eyes, then at her, “Want one?”

  Her eyes went wide, “You…you have more? You’ll give me one?”

  “You saved me? Or helped save me, which is the same to me. I have one if you’d like it?”

  She stepped up to me and lifted my palms to her eyes, and I connected with her. She has soooo much power inside of her.

  And now she has more.

  She smiled when I was done, nodded, and then ran off. Leaving me with the others.

  Kynal hit my arm, “I ask this with all kindness before we have to go running for our lives, but what the fuck was that?”