by Kelly A Nix
The hybrid spots Sloan’s hilt holstered to his hip and dives for it. When the purebred kicks at her, Atae elbows Sloan’s shins, and he stumbles back. She snatches the unsheathed blade and scrambles out of arms reach. After Sloan finds his feet again, Atae tosses the hilt to him, and he catches it out of instinct. He stares at the device in distaste then glances up to find Atae swinging her energy blade at his head. Without thinking, Sloan activates his hilt and blocks the hybrid’s attack. Atae keeps pushing against the clashing blades, forcing Sloan to take a step back. Sloan’s red gaze darkens to black, and he adjusts his fighting stance.
“Sloan?”
“You helped Father do it, didn’t you?”
“Ugh. Come on, we don’t have time for this.” Atae says. She hustles away from the out-of-his-mind purebred. “I guess I’m going to have to hurt you more.”
“I’ll kill you.” Sloan lunges at Atae, and she parries. She shifts her weight to counterstrike, but Sloan anticipates the move and deflects it. He follows up with a jab to Atae’s injured ribs, and when she flinches, Sloan slashes his sword deep across her existing injury. Atae stumbles away, clutching at her bleeding side with her free hand. Beast whirls with rage, and Sloan smiles at the pain he’s caused his enemy.
“I see you haven’t learned much since our last match,” Sloan says. He flashes a ruthless smile that slips when Atae whines in response.
“You said I was doing better.”
Sloan pauses at the disjointed response from his ‘sister,’ and Atae uses the hesitation to her advantage. The hybrid launches forward and sideswipes the larger purebred by slamming the hilt of her blade into his thigh. The bone doesn’t break, but the pain forces Sloan to the ground with a groan. As he falls forward, Atae wrenches his arm backward. Sloan tries to turn for relief from the pressure of her hold, but the smaller Kajian shoves her foot into his shoulder and pulls. Sloan screams in pain as Atae dislocates his arm then snaps his elbow joint with a powerful palm thrust. Sloan drops the hilt from his free hand and digs at the bloody mud under him in his struggle to free his arm from Atae’s snare. Hoping that this trauma might finally nullify the effects of the poison, Atae releases the dark heir.
“Jent? What happened?” Tukk says. Atae spins around in surprise to find Jent smiling at his packmate as Tukk wipes water from the pipe off his face. Apparently, the Kipp hybrid wanted to wash the blood from his comrade’s face and decided to shove him into the small waterfall.
That’s why the pipes were activated after Jeqi reached the gate. Atae remembers that Jeqi mentioned drowning Marqee, and Atae stepped through the waterfall before Beast was freed too.
“The water is the cure,” Atae says. She smiles and twirls back to Sloan as he struggles to stand. As expected, Sloan’s eyes flare red again, and he’s more out of control than before. Beast flashes an orange warning to be careful, but Atae has a plan.
“That was pathetic. No wonder Father likes me best,” she says, taking a stab in the dark.
Sloan flinches from a sharper pain than his broken arm, and Atae’s heart aches for him. Then he snarls and lurches forward while the hybrid drops her hilt and braces for the attack. With Beast’s help, Atae dodges at the perfect moment and jerks Sloan’s foot out from under him. Once again, he tumbles forward, but this time Sloan lands face-first into the waterfall. Atae doesn’t hesitate to jerk him free of the water and shove him on his back. When she climbs on top of his chest, water drips from his face, and Sloan struggles against her with his uninjured arm and both legs. Atae scoots across his stomach to plant her knees into his thighs then pins his one working arm with both of her forearms. Immobilized, Sloan rages against her hold even as his eyes darken back to their usual black.
“Get off me,” Sloan says. The defiance in his voice riles Beast to extreme levels. At the end of her patience with Sloan, Atae embraces Beast’s need to dominate and shoves her closest elbow into the purebred’s neck. She presses down into his vulnerable arteries, and when she speaks, Beast speaks with her.
“Enough.”
Even without the effects of the poison, Sloan’s beast will not submit to Atae. The purebred continues to struggle until the pressure from her elbow causes his vision to darken. She eases a bit, and he blinks away the haze.
“Be still.”
Atae’s beast commands Sloan’s red-eyed counterpart, and his black eyes snap to meet her fuchsia. An instant later, something happens to Sloan that he’s never experienced. The creature that plagues his mind and demands control falls silent. The red eyes shrink back from Beast as he tucks his tail and drops his head in submission. Sloan’s constant battle for control ends, and the shackles of his beast’s dominance slip away. Sloan’s beast scampers off into the shadows of his mind, and the dark heir gasps as though it’s the first full breath he’s taken in seasons.
As Beast pulls away from Atae’s mind enough for her to feel at ease, the youngling watches Sloan’s expressions change from anger to uncertainty, then finally relief. She wonders if he’s still hallucinating, but Beast clarifies.
He will follow.
Atae doesn’t believe Beast’s claim given Sloan’s history. When he relaxes under her hold, Atae grows suspicious, and more so when he raises an eyebrow.
“Say my name,” Atae says. She wants confirmation that Sloan isn’t still hallucinating his sister. He smirks in a way that sends Beast into a crimson tizzy and an unexpected thrill through Atae’s body.
“If you insist,” Sloan says. His husky voice makes Atae blush and Beast melt. “Atae.”
The flustered hybrid clears her throat to gather her rampant thoughts and get Beast back on track.
“Yep, it’s you.” She stands up, shaking her head. Feeling Atae’s weight and warmth leave him, Sloan relishes the temporary silence of his mind and takes a moment to savor it before climbing to his feet as well. He stares at the blue hybrid that somehow bested him as she searches for their hilts, and a wave of gratitude washes over him.
“Here,” she says with an awkward smile as she hands him his hilt.
“Thank you,” he says. Atae pauses, sensing the weight of his appreciation when Beast purrs. Then she shrugs.
“We have to go now.”
“Lead the way.” Sloan motions toward the door, and Atae eyes the purebred covered in bloody mud. She frowns when she realizes that Sloan is missing something.
“You don’t have a key? Look at all these trestoids you’ve killed. None of them had keys?”
“They might have at the time. I wasn’t really focused on the keys,” Sloan says. He offers an unabashed shrug as he searches the mess around him. He spots an unconscious hybrid in the corner of the room. “I remember him. I think he was trying to steal something.”
“You remember your hallucinations?” Atae asks. Sloan searches the youngling in the corner and nods.
“Yep,” he says. Then he pulls a key band free with his good arm. “I’ve got one now.”
“Great, let’s go.” Atae shuffles out the door and heads straight for the room with the staircase. Beast notes that Jent and Tukk are gone, and only a handful of Kaji remain in the main chamber for the discard tunnel. Luckily, several purebreds slip down the rough slide as Sloan and Atae leave.
“It looks like most of the purebreds are waking from the poison, but they haven’t figured out how to reach the gate yet.”
“Okay,” Sloan says. “I don’t know what that means.”
“Just don’t get farted on again, and you’ll be fine.”
“What?” Sloan tries to stifle a laugh as he cradles his injured arm.
Atae glances around when they reach the cavern where she found Jeqi and Marqee earlier. She growls at the pools of water collecting in two corners and the lack of purebreds running around in the throes of insanity. Although a least a dozen still lie on the ground, incapacitated.
“Come on,” Atae ignores Sloan’s choked giggle. “Jeqi marked the right path.”
Sloan follows Atae up the staircases mark
ed by Jeqi’s sword during their first trek to the hilltop. Avoiding the steps with ‘X’ carved into the clay, the two younglings dart up the hill. When they arrive, Atae finds dozens of Kaji waiting on the spinning disk above the mountain, including Jeqi and Marqee. Beast twirls within a yellow ball of excitement at the sight of her packmate. The blonde waves at Atae to hurry, and she rushes to a nearby pole, knocking aside any dissenting classmates.
“Do you know how to use this?” Sloan asks. He pushes an angry, brunette hybrid down the discard tunnel and chuckles at the sight of Sepkie tumbling down the dirt slide. They watch another youngling grab the rope, and the pole lifts the purebred away.
“Yeah, I think so, but we have to wait for it to reset.” When Sloan lifts an eyebrow in skepticism, Atae explains. “Jeqi said she figured it out, but she also thought hitting you hard enough would snap you out of your hallucinations.”
“Well, that explains this.” Sloan motions toward his useless arm, and Beast smiles at Atae’s accomplishment.
“This thing takes two to operate, and we are wasting time. Besides, you’re just mad that I was able to do that to your arm.”
“Pff, my judgment was impaired,” Sloan says. He watches the pole descend back to its original position without a rope and the attached Kajian.
“So, you were still trying to kill me.”
“Not you.”
“Right, I know.” Atae nods at him, with an assuring smile. Then a new knotted rope drops down next to her. Sloan elbows a classmate reaching for the line, and the others gathering around them back away.
“How does this work?”
“It’s a balancing act. See?” Atae points toward the rope curving around the arm. “That’s why it takes two. One stays here, and the other goes up, but we have to time it perfectly.”
“I’ll go up.” He puts his hand up to stop her from arguing. “I’m bigger than you, which means I’m heavier. I’ll need the shorter end, so we don’t slip off the arm.”
Atae huffs and shuffles over to the pole. With her back against the construct, the hybrid intertwines her fingers to form a cup and leans forward with a nod to Sloan. The dark heir steps backward and cringes in pain while he adjusts his limp arm into a more comfortable position. Then he charges toward Atae and runs into her cupped hands so that when he leaps upward, she also propels him further through the air. Sloan slams into the arm above, and Atae grabs the rope below.
When the pole and arm extend out over the discard tunnel, Sloan hooks one leg and yanks himself up. He crouches on top of the narrow beam and shuffles toward the rope dispenser in the middle of the arm. When he’s in range, Sloan dips lower and waits with his one hand at the ready for the contraption to eject the knotted rope end. Sloan lunges for the free rope, and upon grasping the knot, he drops from the arm to swing on the opposite side from Atae. The momentum of his fall tugs at the rope and jerks Atae upward. One of the many knots along the rope’s length snags against the arm, securing the dangling younglings on either side of the arm.
Sloan dangles by one arm just above Atae on one end of the rope while the smaller hybrid writhes on the other. Atae cries out at the pain from her wounded side but keeps both hands locked onto the line. Sloan stares out over the gate to find Marqee and Jeqi waving to them.
“You have to hurry. The others have figured out what you’re doing,” Marqee yells. He points to a nearby pole where two purebreds attempt the same process. The one on top misses the rope, and her partner tumbles down into the discard tunnel. When Atae’s thrashing causes their line to slip again, Sloan worries that they’ll end up in the same position as the failed jumpers. He descends until he’s eye level with Atae, then calls out to his packmate to calm her.
“Atae, spin us.”
The blue hybrid cringes at the movement but releases one hand from her rope to grab the back of Sloan’s torn uniform. She tugs them around in a circle, wrapping the rope ends together to stop the slippage. With Atae latched onto his back to keep them together, he glances over his shoulder to check on her and catches sight of the giant purebred, Rakum, scaling their pole. Sloan growls in frustration at their helplessness to stop the overgrown idiot.
“Start swinging. We have to time this perfectly,” Atae says. The two packmates sway their bodies toward the rotating platform, and Atae groans when the rope untwists, spinning them as they swing. “On three. One, two, three!”
Both Kaji release the tether at the same time and leap for the gate. Sloan lands in a rough tumble that leaves him splayed next to the edge of the platform as he groans at the pain from his injured arm. Atae isn’t so lucky. Rakum manages to jump from the pole extension in perfect unison with the couple’s leap so that the uninvited Kajian snatches Atae’s ankle in mid-flight. The blue hybrid slams stomach-first into the edge of the gate, knocking the wind from her lungs. Gasping for breath, Atae scrambles to find traction against Rakum’s weight, but the smooth energy field offers zero friction, and she starts to slip off the gate.
“Jeqi!”
Atae calls for help, but Seva tackles Jeqi to save her packmate from the blonde’s interference as Rakum struggles to reach the platform. Fighting through the pain of his injured leg, Marqee attempts to jerk Seva off Jeqi.
Atae cries out when Rakum yanks on her thigh for leverage, causing her wounded side to rip further. She thrashes and kicks to get him to release her, but the movement only fuels his determination, and she slips farther. Sloan pushes past the pain of his dislocated shoulder and broken elbow long enough to realize Atae’s trouble. He lunges for her hand from his splayed position on the platform. Unfortunately for him, Atae latches on to the first thing in reach, which happens to be his damaged arm. She grabs his wrist just as she slips over the edge, and the combined weight of Atae and Rakum tugs Sloan’s head and shoulders over the side. He cries out from the pain of his broken elbow and shoulder displacing further from their rightful positions. Even so, Sloan swings his uninjured arm to grab Atae’s hand and keep her from slipping from his grasp.
“Don’t let go,” he says through his clenched jaw, and Atae nods. Beast roars at Rakum, reminding Atae to kick him away. The blue hybrid obeys, but the large purebred won’t let go.
“Rakum,” Jeqi calls from the edge next to Sloan with an inactivated hilt in hand. When Rakum glances up at her, the blonde chunks the device with perfect aim, and it slams into his nose with a crunch. He flinches, loosening his grip enough for Atae to jerk free, and he falls. Sloan would’ve chuckled at Rakum’s high-pitched screams, but the pain is too much. When he groans again, Jeqi rushes to pull Atae up.
Once on the platform, Atae lies on her back, cringing from the pain in her side. Sloan writhes on the ground next to her. Jeqi attempts to assess Sloan’s injury first, but he snaps at her to leave him alone, and Marqee assures her that he’ll be fine. Atae lets the Setunn hybrid check her wounded abdomen but complains when Jeqi forces her to her feet. Three more Kaji land on the platform before the gate reaches its fifty-student maximum, and the unfortunate fourth youngling passes through the energy field to tumble down the discard tunnel. Fifty cameras zoom in chaotic orbits around the platform, and the winning students celebrate.
As the platform glows gold, Skiska and Frack congratulate the winners, and Atae stares at her three packmates with pride. Beast dances across her mind with bursts of green and yellow flurries of pride and excitement.
We’re going to the Gridiron.
Chapter 43
“Welcome,” Queen Sula Ru-Kai says to the top fifty students of this season’s graduating class and their families. “I am proud to announce the final rank of every student who won this season’s tournament. I, along with faculty of the Sula Academy & Research Facility, am very proud to congratulate each of you on a job well done. I look forward to watching you compete in the Gridiron with my son, Prince Truin.”
The room explodes into applause and shouts of hooray as Sula steps back and motions toward Elder Warrior Feku. He commands his visual visor, and ev
ery Kaji in the room receives the final update to the class rankings. Jeqi grins at the confirmation of her hard work, and Atae bumps her shoulder with a proud smile. Unconcerned with the surrounding excitement, Beast sways within a calm, blue-green haze at the back of Atae’s mind. She grows annoyed when Schinn joins the two hybrids, but Atae ignores her. He motions for the blue hybrid to follow him, and she complies with a small smile. Schinn leads Atae through the crowd of younglings and family members to one of the large walls encompassing the massive event room.
Even living in the palace, Atae hasn’t had the time or the inclination to explore the countless rooms, but after today, she plans to spend more time in this one. When she and Jeqi walked in, Atae was surprised by the simple design, especially when compared to the rest of the palace. Jeqi explained that Queen Sula had the room built shortly after the construction of Sula Academy finished. The space consists of two bare walls, three glorious chandeliers, a large open balcony, and a small central stage.
Unlike the rest of the palace, the engraved artwork in this room grows every season. One wall depicts the familiar logo found on each student’s uniform and the unique architecture of the Sula Academy & Research Facility buildings. The names and dates of the highest-ranked student from each season surround the logo and buildings on the wall. Yesterday there were eleven names, and today the twelfth name, Jeqi, was added. The opposite wall lists the names of the other 588 students to complete the tournament over the past twelve seasons.
It’s in front of this wall that Schinn stops to point out Atae’s name. Ignoring the crowd shuffling past her and Schinn, she smiles at the new etching and runs her fingers across the characters with pride,
