by Eva Ashwood
Even Eden had nerves in her voice. “Once all the challengers have arrived, there will be a portal for each one of you. Kind of like the ones that brought us to the school, except these portals are specially made by the gods. Only you can go through your portal. Just step through, and on the other side, the challenge will begin.”
“Will you be able to watch?” I asked.
Eden nodded. “Parts of it. They’ll put up a big magical screen for anybody who wants to watch, and they’ll broadcast it for other magic users to watch too. We’ll still have to continue our classes and stuff—but it’ll always be playing out here. They don’t broadcast everything. Just the highlights. But they try to catch the most exciting bits, you know?”
“Oh, goody.” I rolled my eyes. “I’ve always wanted to have my life broadcast to thousands of people. No pressure or anything though, right?”
Eden’s gaze flashed back and forth between the three men behind me and the other challengers waiting at the top of the hill before it rested on me. Her voice was quiet and serious when she spoke again.
“Remember, keep your mind focused. The gods will be watching, and so will everyone else. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that you stay alive and safe.”
I gave her a stout nod and hugged her one last time before turning and taking my place on the pavilion. Merrick, Lachlan, and Trace were only a few paces behind me as I stepped up next to the other contestants, and the sound of trumpets roared from the sky as we all settled into place.
Everyone went silent and watched as portals began to open in front of each one of us. Each and every challenger waved to the crowd of our fellow students, garnering enormous roars of applause and cheers before stepping through to the other side.
I was the last one to go, and I tried to ignore the way the cheers died out as all the people Merrick had turned against me stopped clapping.
Whatever. Don’t let it throw you off your game, Aria. And if you get a chance, kick Merrick’s ass.
Facing the swirling portal, I closed my eyes and stepped through.
There was no forward thrust or tumbling motion like when I’d arrived at the school, and I found my footing much faster than I had the first time I’d traveled by portal.
Opening my eyes, I glanced around at my new surroundings.
So this is the godly realm, huh?
The only thing I’d been able to find out about this place was that there was a lot more magic here than on earth.
And as it turned out, everyone I had overheard talk about the magical surge was right. I could feel the intensity and buzz of my power coursing through my veins. It felt like someone had given me a booster shot and jumpstarted my magic, and a little thrill of excitement went through me as I waggled my fingers.
But I was also certain that with increased magic came increased threats, a power that I hadn’t seen on earth before.
The other challengers were gathered around in a rough circle—we’d all arrived in the same configuration we had been standing in back on earth. Each of us glanced around at the thick, lush jungle in front of us. The colors were so vibrant that it almost hurt my eyes, and everything seemed to be alive and moving. There were sounds of animals I had never heard before, and up above, the sky swirled with wild shades of purples, blues, and oranges.
I closed my eyes again and centered myself, reminding myself that I had to keep my focus.
A thunderous roar broke out, moving across the still waves of air. A loud, booming voice followed. It was Dean Frost, her words magically projected across dimensions.
“Welcome to the Gods’ Challenge. You are the ones who have surpassed all expectations and won the right to compete for the honor of meeting the gods themselves. You did well in the initial challenge, combining your skill and intellect to win the game.”
Across from me, Trace’s lips tilted into a self-satisfied smile, and it took extreme effort to yank my attention away from him and focus on the dean’s words.
“But beware,” she continued, “from here on out, it will take much more to succeed than what you’ve been taught in class. Your goal is to collect an object, a bright and sparkling gem. There is only one gem in the course. This semester’s course is the wild jungle of the gods. Whoever reaches the gem first will be the winner. Remember, you are not only competing against the trials, tests, and dangers of the gods’ jungle, but against each other as well.”
Each of us looked down the line at the other contestants. Friend or foe, everyone was competition.
“However, you are not being led blindly into this jungle.” Dean Frost’s voice boomed overhead, seeming to fill the entire sky. “The gods are just and fair. They have placed clues throughout the jungle course to help lead you toward the gem. Also hidden throughout are supplies, weapons, and other important items and spells that you may need to fight off the dangers of the world in front of you. We wish you good luck and hope to see you on the other side. As the magical community’s saying goes, mageía mésa, ísos se óli, ‘Magic Within, Might Throughout.’”
The dean’s voice dropped away, and the sky’s colors began to swirl wildly before flashing so brightly we all covered our eyes.
When the blinding light dissipated, we stood surrounded by the jungle, our portals gone, nothing but the sounds around us and the magic bubbling inside of us.
This was it. The students and professors back at school—hell, the entire magical community—would still be able to track our progress, but as far as we were concerned, we’d been completely cut off, left alone in the godly realm to face the dangers that awaited us.
My pulse surged, blood rushing through my veins as anticipation filled me. My entire body felt spring-loaded, tense and alert.
Like in the fight ring, it was just me against my opponents.
The only difference here was that my “opponents” could be anything.
It could be the grass beneath my feet, the tree limbs that swayed back and forth in the warm breeze—and it most definitely included the nine other challengers arrayed around the small clearing with me.
The game was on.
And I had no idea what I had gotten myself into.
Chapter Ten
An electric, anticipatory energy hovered on the air. I could feel it all around me, seeming to suck up all the oxygen in this strange place. It wasn’t just my nervousness; it was the anxiety of every single one of the contestants down the row.
For a moment, everything was calm.
Quiet.
But it didn’t stay that way for long.
From the canopy of the swaying trees that loomed higher than any I had seen before came a strange sound.
I heard small noises of surprise from the other challengers as their heads snapped toward the trees, tracking every single movement or rustle of leaves, trying to find the epicenter of the noise. I narrowed my eyes and took a step forward, watching as the trees began to wave wildly in the distance.
Oh, gods. That doesn’t sound good.
A loud, ear-piercing screech rose above the rustling, flapping sound.
Then it emerged. I almost choked on my next breath as a mountainous beast flew out of the trees, heading straight toward us.
“What the fuck…?”
The challenger to my left, Knox, whispered the words that were on the tip of my tongue.
It was some sort of bird. It had to be. But it wasn’t like any bird I’d ever seen on the earthly plane—not even one created by magic. It was the size of a small commuter plane, and its wings looked as if they were on fire, swiping down through the limbs of the gigantic trees, breaking the branches as if they were nothing more than toothpicks.
As I tried to process what the hell I was seeing, other creatures just like the first one came into view. They tore through the forest, throwing splinters of wood in every direction, knocking the trees to the ground.
My feet were moving before I even realized it, and I looked back and screamed out at the other contestants, “Run! Ru
n, you idiots!”
Half the trick to surviving as many fights against much larger opponents as I had was knowing when to go all in and when to cut and run.
And this was definitely a running type situation.
Everyone scattered—except for Brielle, a first-year girl from my Magical Defense class, who was frozen in place.
The birds broke through the edge of the woods, and I picked up my pace. Throwing another look over my shoulder, I watched in horror as one of the flaming birds dove toward the girl and snapped its beak shut around her waist. She screamed out in agony, throwing her arms up, but her magic was too late. The bird wheeled in the air, disappearing from sight before I could even see what had happened to her body.
My stomach churned. All the air seemed to have left my lungs, but I kept pumping my arms, trying to get as far away from the monsters as possible.
Behind me, the sound of the flapping grew louder.
I looked back just as one of the birds hurtled toward me like a torpedo.
When it was just feet away, I threw myself to the ground and rolled forward, feeling the spray of dirt where the bird had missed me and ripped up the soil beneath its talons. I rolled back into a standing position and flipped around, snapping my hands toward the ground. Energy blazed through me, and magic was at my fingertips before I even consciously thought about it.
The fire bird swooped around and came back for me, bringing one of its friends along.
With a swipe of my arm, I threw a long stretch of magic at the one on the right. The white light wrapped around the bird’s wings and strapped them to its sides. I yanked hard, trying to knock the flaming creature off course even as I shot a stream of magic toward the second bird.
But the damn things were smarter than I thought.
As the bound bird hurtled toward the ground, squawking and screeching, the second bird dove in a sharp movement, ducking underneath my magic.
I released the first bird just feet from the ground and watched it is it slammed hard into the dirt and grass, throwing up a billowing cloud of dust.
My eyes shot back to the second bird, and I dropped face down on the ground as it swooped just inches over my head. The thing was too large to make quick maneuvers, which gave me an opening. I darted to my right, pumping my arms and breathing heavily, trying to get away from it as fast as I could. I hoped like hell that if I got into the woods, I’d be able to hide in the underbrush until it flew right past me.
Unfortunately, I was so focused on reaching cover that I didn’t see the third flaming bird heading toward me until it was too late.
Ah, shit!
I hunched my shoulders and turned sideways, ramming against the incoming bird like a linebacker as I collided with its black-scaled talons.
The thing had to weigh more than twice what I did, so my full-body blow barely shook it, but it wasn’t able to grab onto me. It did, however, throw me about ten feet through the air, between two large trees, and into a pile of dirt and debris. The air left my lungs in a rush, making me feel like I’d been flattened into a human pancake.
Ow. That fucking hurt. At least I made it into the woods.
I just had to get away from these godsdamned birds.
My palms and knees stung and my chest ached as I picked myself up, swiftly scanning the surrounding area. There were no other contestants standing where we’d originally been deposited by the portals, and I caught sight of a couple of them as they disappeared into other parts of the woods.
The piercing shriek of the birds sounded once again, and my breath trembled as I glanced up, searching for the source of the noise. Even at the edge of the forest, the trees were so tall and wide that I couldn’t see the threat coming.
It didn’t matter. I had to go.
I took off again, heading deeper into the woods, thankful that I’d decided to wear heavy boots. I ran like hell, not even thinking to listen for the screeching, the flapping of the wings, or anything else. The only things I could hear were the sounds of my heart beating wildly in my chest and my gasping breaths echoing through my ears. I didn’t know how long I sprinted, but by the time I slowed down and braced my hand against one of the trees, bending at the waist as I tried to breathe through the stabbing pain in my lungs, the birds were gone.
My mind couldn’t wrap itself around anything at that moment, and it wouldn’t until I could shove aside my panic.
Calm down. Breathe, Aria. Breathe. Your survival depends on it.
Shutting my eyes—and hoping nothing snatched me right up off the ground—I breathed in deeply through my nose and out through my mouth. Three or four breaths later, the sharp pain in my chest began to dull. I turned my back to the tree and pressed against it, taking in my surroundings.
All I could see were scattered piles of leaves and enormous tree trunks stretching as far as the eye could see in every direction. The trees were all different sizes. Some were the size of large cottonwoods back on earth, and some were so huge that all of the contestants could stand hand-in-hand around just one trunk.
Fucking hell. If the trees are this large, I can only imagine what the other creatures who live here look like.
A somewhat manic laugh bubbled past my lips as I imagined the largest squirrel I had ever seen. If that were the case, maybe I could saddle it and ride it to get where I was going faster.
Shaking my head at my vaguely insane thoughts, I winced looking down at the palms of my hands. They were red and bloody, and the knees of my pants were ripped. I was already beat up, bruised, and scraped, but having been a fighter for so many years, the pain was almost grounding.
With slow, deliberate steps, trying not to make too much noise in the crunching leaves, I walked forward until I’d made it halfway around one tree trunk to peer between it and the tree adjacent to it.
Everything at the portal landing spot had been so chaotic that I wasn’t exactly sure what direction I had run when the birds had attacked. I had no idea what was around me or if I was even close to heading in the right direction. Attempting to get my bearings from where I stood was useless. There were too many large trees rising to all heights around me. I’d never be able to see far enough in the distance to know if I was going the right direction.
I put my hand on the tree trunk, feeling the strange soft yet brittle consistency of the bark beneath my fingertips. A pulse of energy surged through me, and I quickly pulled my hand away. As I did, I noticed that my palm stuck to the bark, almost like chewing gum to a table.
Woah. Cool.
I was no dummy, and I’d watched all the Spiderman movies during a short-lived Marvel movie kick. Maybe that was why my magic had unconsciously mimicked that power, creating an adhesive effect that allowed my hand to stick to the tree’s bark.
Still, watching Spiderman do it in a movie and doing it myself in real life were two very different things. I craned my neck to look upward, finding the canopy of the trees hundreds of feet above me.
I knew what I needed to do. I needed to get up there, at least high enough that I could see above the tops of the nearby trees. I had never been a climber, tending to like my feet on the ground, but I didn’t have a choice.
Very slowly at first, I used one hand and then the next, pushing magic out of my palms and using it as an adhesive to the surface. It wasn’t perfect, but it kept me moving upward. My boots seemed to slip on the soft parts of the bark, but my hands kept me stable.
By the time I neared the top of the tree, I was breathing heavily and covered in a sheen of sweat. My arms shook as I scooted out onto one of the branches and hung my legs over. This tree was one of the largest in the area, so even at this height, I could see over most of the nearby trees.
With extreme caution, I put my feet up on the branch—it was wider than my body, but rounded and unstable. I reached up and grabbed the branch above it, holding my breath as I lifted myself up to a standing position. I could see across the forest, through the holes in the plant life. In the distance, I caught sight of
a structure with a dome-like top reflecting a bit of the midday sun off its tiles.
I didn’t know if that was where I needed to go, but it was the only structure I could see.
Might as well head in that direction. Maybe it’s a clue, or some of those supplies Dean Frost mentioned.
Mind made up, I began to make my way back down the tree. It was slow going—unlike a squirrel, I wasn’t brave enough to try climbing down head-first. Instead, I worked my way down backwards, praying my magic held up and kept obeying my commands.
But as I neared the base of the massive tree, something stopped me. Close by, on the forest floor, I heard the cracking and crackling of leaves and branches breaking. I held very still and craned my neck, looking down at the ground.
From my left, a man with light blond hair emerged from a thick patch of vines that seemed to cling to him as if they were sentient creatures.
Merrick.
He muttered under his breath, hacking at the vines with slicing arcs of magic before finally extricating himself from their hold and moving quickly through the forest. He wore a heavy-looking pack on his back, making me think he must’ve managed to snag a bag of supplies somewhere along the way.
My mouth curled into a wicked grin.
Well, this is fucking perfect.
I needed a pack of supplies, and this way, I wouldn’t have to go looking around for them.
Merrick’s path took him almost directly beneath where I clung to the tree trunk about fifteen feet above the ground. I tried to move as quietly as possible, sending my magic down to the soles of my boots and back up to my fingers again, renewing my hold on the strange bark.
When Merrick passed below me, I pushed away from the tree trunk, using my arms and legs to propel myself through the air as I released my magic sticky-hands. I landed directly on the blond mage’s back, tackling him in a forceful hit.
“What the—”
He didn’t get the full sentence out before we hit the ground hard.
We rolled across the dense underbrush, finally splitting apart and each slamming into one of the nearby tree trunks. We both jumped to our feet, staring at each other angrily. Of course, my stare was a bit more triumphant, and I could feel a grin stretching my face.
