Betrayal: An Urban Fantasy Academy Series

by Bob Dattolo

  Angelica shrugged at my look, “Up to you, Maddie. Up to you.”

  We broke into a jog, leaving the craziness behind us as people tore through the little maze I created. Let’s see how many make it through that bottleneck. Kynal hit my arm as we rounded the corner, “C’mon already, out with it. What was that?”

  Ugh, “Umm, I have a spell that lets me take in power but not absorb it. I can lock it away. And then I can feed it out to other people. Or use it myself.”

  I swear some of them nearly tripped, which is kinda funny.

  “What the hell? That’s supposed to be impossible!” Cleo’s angry voice was the loudest of the responses.

  “Umm, no idea? My grimoires are pretty good. It works, although I didn’t think it would. Or at least not as well as it does.”

  “I don’t get it?” Paige is a little out of breath, but it’s not too bad. “What do you mean? Are you saying you took someone’s powers and then, what, gave them to Eva?”

  “Yeah. That’s exactly what I’m saying. That’s what I did.”

  More jumbled comments, “That’s freaking crazy! Can we learn it?” Cleo again.

  “You can? But really, how often will someone absorb powers and not keep it for themselves? For me, I have enough and I know that some others are weaker and looking at their parents killing them if they’re not powerful enough, so it seemed like a good spell for me to learn.”

  “Oh, huh, yeah. That makes sense. I can’t say that giving the power away is the first thing I’d want to do.” Cesar hit the nail on the head.

  We rounded the next corner and found a balance beam type thing. Not too large, but it does zig-zag across the gap.

  “What the hell? Is the surface of that thing sloped?” Samantha moved up to the edge. Sure enough, it is sloped.

  Levi looked into the hole, “What about if we’re shifted? Can we fly over?”

  Everyone looked to me, “I’m not sure? Seems kinda ballsy to force a dragon to shift back, but maybe?”

  “You gonna try to fly across?” The others looked around at the walls as if looking for traps at Samantha’s question.

  Hmm, “Sure?” I flapped up without waiting and edged over the gap. Nothing. Nothing. I almost cleared the edge completely when the spells triggered, driving me at the hole. A quick spell of rock let me hit a platform that didn’t exist before, and I dropped into a roll to end up on solid ground again.

  The others stared at me in shock, “What the hell was that?” Riley kicked the stone as I pulled it back. “They really don’t want dragons flying over this?”

  “Apparently not. So in that case, can we go with the same type of spells that Maddie put up last year?” Angelica’s question made last year’s classmates smile

  “You think it’s possible?” Levi this time.

  “What was done last year? Keep in mind that we need to get going because others are gonna come up after us at some point. Probably sooner than we want them to.” Stacey looked back towards the way we came in.

  “Umm, the last challenge for us was a straight balance beam. You couldn’t use magic to stop you if you fell, so I basically created walls at an angle that stopped you from starting to fall. Like training wheels. Sort of.”

  Joint looks, “I’m willing to try that? This doesn’t look impossible, but I don’t like how the surface changes direction. Flat is bad enough. This just looks like someone was being a bastard.” Cleo’s disgust came through pretty easily.

  “Let’s try. Want me to go first in case we can’t do it?” Nods and general consensus of yes, so I cast the same spell. I stayed in dragon form so that they can’t see my magic move either way, then stepped onto the beam.

  Nothing. I moved out to the first turn with nothing happening, even when I leaned against the walls. “Umm, so far it seems okay.” They could see me leaning against the walls, which means this should be possible.

  “What’re the chances that’s what we’re supposed to be doing to get across this? Can we also cast a spell on the surface to make it flat?” My eyes dropped down at Samantha’s question and I ignored the other comments. Another spell cast without me saying anything and I continued walking, finding it much better footing from that point on. I couldn’t help smiling when I got to the end, “Okay, that seemed to work. No idea if we could just create the same thing anywhere else, but flattening the surface worked just fine. C’mon across!”

  A small army of allies flooded across one at a time, with someone coming in just as Levi stepped on the beam.

  Angelica watched another person enter the room, “What are you gonna do?” Her voice was low, meant just for us, “Keep it up? Drop it? I’m not sure how many others are gonna think about the walls idea or leveling it.”

  “Fuck. Yeah, that…that could be bad. Especially since people behind them could push them off with magic.” Kynal looks disgusted at the thought.

  “Group vote. Keep up the walls and the surface? Or let it go and let everyone else deal with it?” I don’t know which way I want them to vote.

  Shared looks and some comments, with a slight majority coming out to leave it up. No one outright voted to remove it, they just weren’t sure what to do.

  “Okay, then how about this?” More magic went out and the floor on the other side where the two people were watching us and sweating like pigs began to scream. They backed up in shock as words appeared in the floor.

  Samantha hit my arm, “What the fuck did you do?”

  “I left a note for people saying that I put up guardrails and leveled the floor and that dragons can’t fly over.”

  She laughed, “You’re too much.”

  On the other side, a girl from last year threw her hands up, “Yes! Thank you, Maddie!”

  “You’re welcome, Rose, good luck!”

  Tom, from the islands, stared between us, “What does that mean? We can’t cross that; everyone will try to kill us!”

  Her voice disappeared behind us, but she went into a quick story about last year to explain things. Let’s see who all can get across that.

  Our group ran. We had two more challenges, which we passed without a problem. Four more tests. Blood at two of them, bodies in two of them, but we didn’t run into anyone in front of us or coming up behind us.

  The tests were pretty tough for most of them, but they made it through with minimal coaching but a huuuge loss in time.

  Then we arrived at the present room and the eight huge doors. Only one of which is currently open.

  “What the hell is this?” Gage moved to the front of the group. “Can we open the other doors?”

  Kynal tried one and it didn’t budge, “Nope. Any others?”

  We split up and tried them, none of them would move, which had us back at the first one. “It just looks like another hallway, although there are steps down. This doesn’t feel right. Something’s gonna happen here. I just know it.” Gage peered down the steps.

  “Yeah, in this place? It is. But what?” Samantha felt the frame of the doorway, as if expecting it to do something.

  I stretched out my senses as I felt a flare from the door when she touched the wood. My mouth went dry when I realized what I was feeling. “Umm…this may not be good.”

  They picked up the nervousness in my voice, “What now? What’d you figure out?” Samantha patted the wood again, getting the spell to flare more that I was feeling through.

  “In general? This is a sorting room? Basically? The door will allow only one person through it, then it closes, and another door opens. Then it’ll continue down the line.”

  Everyone looked across the doors before turning back to me, “How do you know that?” Cesar shakes his head, “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Yeah, how do you know? You’ve been doing some odd things in here that I just don’t understand.” Cleo makes it sound like I helped design the place.

  “I have a spell that doesn’t work all the time. I can pick up what spells do. That’s what I’m getting from the door
. If that is the case, there are 12 of us, which means four would potentially have someone with them. Assuming the hallways don’t change in some way. How do we do that? Wait for others to come, which’ll let more of us have someone with them? Or do we try to make it somewhat balanced in power level?”

  Samantha hit the wall, “I believe her. She does some crazy stuff, but she doesn’t lie. Given that? I think we should try to do what you said. From a power level standpoint, me, you, Angelica, Parece, Levi, should be on our own. Anyone else think they stand a good chance of continuing on alone? My understanding is that we connect again, so we have to last that long?”

  “Assuming that’s how this works? Then I’m not sure who’s more powerful among the rest of us.” Cleo looked to Cesar, “I think I can go it alone.”

  Her boyfriend nodded, “I can as well. That’d be seven of us?”

  Stacey frowned, “Fine. I’ll go alone. If we want to have specific people together, then we have to plan that, then.”

  We set up a rotation as I watched the doors and listened for anyone coming up behind us. “I think I should be in the order where we think the next person behind us will come. Maybe our strongest should be there, like the next two or three. Just in case we get people coming in quickly.”

  Paranoid looks abounded, but they quickly agreed, and the first person slipped through the door. I waited until the fifth door was opened and darted through, leaving a quick good luck behind me.

  Sure enough, the door closed, leaving me in a hallway with stairs leading up. There are like 60 of them, so I flew up instead of climbing, ending up at the top wondering just what the hell is going to happen.

  This is diabolical of them. We’re kinda driven to get allies, but this deliberately breaks them up. That means that we can’t use consensus on how to get through a test. Can’t help through a challenge. It also means that we’re almost guaranteed to run into people that aren’t connected with us. It puts us in more danger.

  You utter bastards.

  The hallway ahead of me is long, so I stayed aloft as I moved. I’m tempted to stay running so that I have just about the same speed as everyone else, but I’m crazy nervous about this. If I can get to a point where more hallways open up, I can smell for my allies and possibly backtrack to find them. Maybe.

  It’s a possible plan, so I may try it if it seems workable.

  I flew wide to the right and planted my feet on the wall at the first turn, staying away from the inside edge.

  And a waiting classmate with a sword in hand. He looks horrified to see me as I drop to the ground, “Hey, Nolan. Imagine meeting you here. You waiting for me?”

  He took a step back, “Waiting for you? No, I’m not waiting for you!”

  He didn’t lie, but I know he’s not telling the total truth.

  “Uh-huh, right. You’re not waiting for me; you’re just waiting for anyone to come along so you can take them out.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

  “Don’t I? Don’t lie to me. I can smell ‘em. Now, how about you run along and continue on your way?”

  “You don’t tell me what to do, you freak!”

  “Words hurt, Nolan. Didn’t your parents ever tell you that?”

  He spit on the ground, apparently trying to reach me. He didn’t even come close, “Why don’t you come over here and make me run along?”

  Hmm, “Okay!” I smiled wide as I furled my wings and walk towards him. His eyes lit up like he’s getting his most anticipated present. Right up until his sword disappeared from his hands.

  Gotta love the metal affinity.

  “What…what the fuck?” He jumped back from me, “Bring my sword back!”

  “I’m gonna go with no on that. You told me to come make you run along? I’m doing that. You wanna stay and play, I’d be fine with…hmm, how about collecting a foot and letting you try to finish the trial that way? That sounds like fun, doesn’t it? After all, you were involved with fucking up my stuff. With laughing at me.” Too bad he can’t smell my rage. “I’m willing to share the pain. You ever wonder what it’s like to try to run on a cauterized ankle? I’m thinking it’d be super painful. Maybe with a hand missing?” My teeth clicked together, “I’m feeling peckish, and you’re conveniently made of one of my favorite meals.”

  He blanched and backed up quicker.

  “Right. Now you’re getting the message. Run along and finish the trial. We got more of us coming up behind me, so you should get a move on before someone less reasonable than I am shows up.”

  I expected words. An attack. Something. Not for him to turn and sprint away.

  Stupid.

  He’ll never be able to keep up that pace.

  Chapter 48

  Instead of flying after Nolan, I decided to stay on foot this time. I also stayed shifted, since that gives me an easier ability to weather attacks and I’m taller and more muscular, so jogging is way easier than at my normal height. Not that it’s hard in my human form. My strength more than makes up for it. I do like the ability to cover more ground per step, though, it feels…I don’t know. Different, maybe?

  Stupid thought while in a trial. It really is. As if being tall will help me stay alive through this. Which…I guess if it does that’d be great, yet I’ve never seen anything that would make me think it’d be a huge advantage.

  Another physical challenge, this time sloped blocks that we have to run across, like angled steppingstones. We have to run across, one foot per block, pinging back and forth. I’ve seen this on TV in those physical fitness contest shows but never thought I’d get to try it.

  Huh, weird, I remember watching those when I was young. I definitely never saw those after turning 9 and before breaking free, so that’s funny. It’s kinda random the stuff that sticks with me through that freaking spell.

  Another test. Nolan’s gone, so I have to assume that he either died in the hole at the challenge and I missed it, or he made it through that and this test.

  Let’s see. No instructions or symbols. There’s a floating mass there, so that’s obvious. There’s a…box with an open lid? “Oookay? Are we supposed to get the stuff in the box? That seems too easy.”

  We’ve done stuff with spells needing to move things, so moving this can’t just be it. The more I look, the more confident on that I am. The box can’t hold all of this stuff. Whatever it is.

  Oh dammit to hell. “I remember, you sneaky bastards. We never practiced this, but he freaking mentioned that it’s a sometimes-useful spell!” My anger stopped building as I concentrated.

  We had been talking about various uses for spells, and our teacher mentioned needing to compress things. Not just cram it into something and then push down, but actually compressing the entire thing.

  I’d bet my legs that’s what we have to do now. Squash this stuff down and put it into the box and then close the lid. I think we’d get hurt if we stuffed it in and then pushed down on it like squashing down the trash.

  So let’s compress.

  My magic triggered, and I watched the stuff compress. It fought me the entire way, and then simply wouldn’t compress any further at one point. That’s probably where I stop, then.

  It moved easily enough and slid into the box. The funny thing is that as soon as I start to ease up on the pressure, it tries to break free. That’d probably be a bad thing, so keep the pressure up and close the lid.

  Boom. Through.

  Yikes, that one might trip people up. I hope not, but I’m thinking it’ll catch people. Unless you can just squash it down and I was overthinking it. That could also be it.

  Instead of fretting, I continued on, watching every corner for a waiting Nolan. I can smell him and his fear. And exhaustion. I have to assume that he’s slowed at this point. I hope so. He didn’t have to run away quite like that.

  The next test has a body in it. It smells vaguely familiar, but I can’t place it. Not Nolan, that’s for sure. A girl, just not one that I can figure out sin
ce she’s been wrecked beyond the ability to simply look at her and come up with a name.

  The test doesn’t make any sense as I look at it. There’s nothing there at first. Until I step into it and see a 20 second countdown as four objects appear.

  Walls go up, deflecting the moving ball so that it hits the bumpers in the order that they’re numbered, then into the goal at the end

  Another timer as the bumpers move, increase, and the ball starts again.

  Then another, with 20 bumpers appearing this time.

  Fuck, that has me pushing the ball faster, since it’d never clear the course in 20 seconds otherwise.

  The ball hit the goal with four seconds to spare, and I stepped through the barrier, sweating. Damn, that’s an interesting one. No wonder she died in it.

  The next challenge has a walkway with huge balls swinging across it. Looks like we have to time it to move. Thera are two paths this time, one being gigantic for dragons and one being smaller for humans.

  Huh, you know what? I’m a dragon, so let’s take it.

  Let me say this about that? It’s way easier to dodge dragon size balls than human sized. The spaces are spread out way more for a 50-foot dragon than for a human, so passing it was easier than I think they would have liked it to be.

  I expected a test to come up next, but it’s a test followed immediately by a challenge. There are separate testing stations for each affinity, while the challenge is the same. There’s a cone shaped hole in the ground and circling objects that I can’t quite make out from here. We have to make it past that and through the hole. Thankfully, they make it obvious that the hallway continues down there. Otherwise, I’d just try to avoid it entirely.

  Which test to take? Hmmm, how about…water?

  Thought to deed, I stepped up to the test and it became visible. No timer, but it’s best to be quick, so I create a mist within the first few seconds. The test flares and the little symbol changes, getting me to create water. Then it changes again, and I suck the water out of the space. Then create barriers of water. Walls, basically. Then wash a car that appears out of thin air. Then delicately wash what looks like a 3-d crystal snowflake. I have a feeling breaking it means we’d fail.