by Cheree Alsop
“I think I felt jealous,” I admitted.
“And that surprises you?” Brie asked with a sweet laugh that drowned out the noise in the room.
I nodded. “I’ve never been jealous.”
She thought about that for a moment and then gave me a small, sweet smile I had never seen before. It made my heart beat faster and warmth tingled in my fingers and toes. “What?” I asked.
“No one’s ever been jealous about me before.”
I studied her sincere brown eyes as she stared up at me. I had never noticed the gold band that surrounded her brown irises like the first light of the sun, or the freckles that lightly spotted her nose. “I couldn’t help it.”
She gave me that special smile again and was about to say something else when someone called my name. I turned to find Jayce at my elbow. “How about it?”
“How about what?”
“A game of darts. I’ll play you.”
I shook my head, but Brie pushed my shoulder gently. “Go for it; it’s fun.”
“It’s not like he’s much competition,” one of the onlookers shouted. He laughed at his own joke and almost fell off his rickety box chair.
Brie tipped her chin. “Nikko will show you how to play.”
Nikko pulled the darts from the board and surrounding wall. “You can’t be any worse than Jayce.”
“Hey!” Jayce protested.
Nikko slapped him on the shoulder on his way past. “At least I don’t need to tell you to go easy on him.” Several of the onlookers laughed.
Nikko handed me the first dart. “Okay, now the goal is to hit the red dot in the middle. Of course, Jayce’s goal is just to hit the dart board.”
“At least I can do this!” Jayce balanced a dart on the tip of his finger for a moment. A passerby bumped him and the dart fell into someone’s cup. “Crap.”
“Nice.” Nikko gestured toward the board. “Go for it, Kale.”
I held the dart near the point like I had seen Nikko do and launched it toward the board. It floated through the air and hit the dart board just inside the edge.
“Not bad!” Nikko said encouragingly. “Try another one.”
I studied the dart for a second. The way it was weighted held some promise. I gripped it near the tip again, but this time flicked it underhand like a throwing knife.
The dart whizzed through the air and landed with a sharp thump in the second ring from the edge. I felt the surprised stares of several onlookers.
“Whoa,” Nikko said.
“Dare you to try that again,” Jayce challenged.
I shrugged and, more comfortable with the weight now, held the dart closer to the end and flicked it toward the board. The dart stuck in the ring that surrounded the red center.
Some of the onlookers clapped. “Dang,” Jayce said with his customary grin. “You’ve gotta teach me that. Do it again.” He handed me one of his darts.
I shook off whatever liquid coated it from the cup and flicked it toward the board. This time it hit the center. Nikko and Jayce cheered the loudest; a crowd began to form.
“Ten bucks says you can’t do that again,” Zach shouted from the door as Nikko gathered up the darts.
“That was a lucky shot,” Jayce said with a taunting grin. “I call for a rematch.”
Nikko handed the darts back to me and said under his breath, “Kick his butt, again.”
I chuckled and turned to the board. I threw my three darts in quick succession; each landed in the red center circle with a satisfying thud. The crowd cheered. A feeling I had never experienced before swelled in my chest like a balloon and I couldn’t help but smile.
Rory poked his head in the door. “Hey you guys, the Arena’s back on and the first fight’s just begun. I didn’t even know they were starting it up again.”
In that instant, the balloon vanished to leave a deeper void than before. I had hoped that somehow the Arena wouldn’t start again, that someone would find a loophole that would bring the whole murderous gambling show down. If the show disappeared, there wouldn’t be a reason for me to return to the Academy. Rory’s words destroyed that hope, and I cursed myself for letting Dr. Ray's intangibles get to me.
The crowd around us trickled into the living room. I moved to follow them, but Brie grabbed my arm. I turned to see my friends watching me. “We don’t have to see it,” Brie said.
“It’s not a pretty sight,” Nikko agreed.
I shook my head. “I need to see it; I need to know what it’s really like.”
The three of them exchanged looks, but no one moved to stop me. I made my way down the hall and into the overcrowded living room where everyone gathered around a small television.
I found a spot close to the window and leaned against the wall. Nikko, Jayce, and Brie took places nearby. I glanced around and was surprised to see uncertain expressions on most faces. Apparently the Arena games weren’t as welcome as I thought.
“Welcome to the return of the Galdoni Arena!” the announcer proclaimed in an overly loud voice. “We apologize for the slight setback earlier this year, but now we are back and better than ever!” The camera panned to a view of the Arena from the outside. I had to admit that it looked pretty amazing. The Arena was domed in reflective black with marble pillars around the outside. Flames rushed from the top of each pillar and flowed up silver paths to join at the peak in a bonfire that changed from red to green to blue and was mirrored on each facet of the black dome.
“Now, brought to you with ten additional camera angles and enhanced sound quality, I give you the Galdoni warriors!” Fake applause dubbed into the show sounded as the picture split to show two cages on the Arena floor.
My breath caught. I recognized the first Galdoni as the boy from the lunchroom so long ago, the one I had been whipped for not killing. He stood taller now, and clenched the mace in his hands like he knew how to use it. He glanced up at the Arena dome and flexed his brown-feathered wings. This was the first time either of them would fly without chains beside their time outside the Arena. I hoped they hadn’t spent the last six months behind the Academy wall.
I had only seen the second Galdoni once or twice at the Academy. He passed a scimitar from one hand to the other and bounced on the balls of his bare feet. Both Galdoni wore battle armor that made them look more animal than man. The Galdoni from the lunchroom wore dark silver armor that outlined his bones as though they were on the outside of his body. The armor was plated and the seams slid smoothly together as he walked to create a fluid, skeleton effect. He wore a skull mask with serrated horns; dark red outlined his eye sockets.
The other Galdoni wore dark bronze armor worked to mirror the sinewy body of a panther. Clawed gauntlets covered his hands and feet, rippling muscles were detailed along his back and chest, and his mask bore the snarling face of an attacking wildcat. Both of their armor covered their wings up to the joints, ending in wicked, serrated spikes that made for lethal weapons during flight or on the ground.
“AR527 squares against TI620 in this fight to the death.” The announcer’s voice dropped into a dubbed recording. “Remember audience, the Galdoni were bred for one thing and one thing only, to fight and to kill. As in all Arena battles, this fight is to the death. Parents are asked to take special consideration when allowing young children to watch as the following content will be graphic in nature.”
“You don’t get much more graphic,” someone in the crowd said. Another student shoved him and a brief scuffle broke out.
Brie put a hand on my arm. “You sure you want to watch this?” she asked quietly.
I nodded. My gut clenched as the cages opened and the two Galdoni stepped out. The students around us fell silent.
“AR527 takes to the air. He circles the Arena, watching for an opening. TI620 follows his movements from the ground. AR527 dives; he veers off at the last moment, inches from the other Galdoni’s blade, and throws his mace in a surprising attempt to catch TI620 off guard. It works; the mace slams into TI6
20’s shoulder. That’s gotta hurt!”
AR527 landed a few feet away, watching for an opening to get his weapon back. TI620 switched his scimitar to the other hand. It was the only sign he gave of the injured shoulder. Blood dripped from his armor, but he ran forward as though he wasn’t wounded.
“TI620 lunges, fakes to the right, and catches AR527 with a quick backspin as he tries to pick up the mace. AR527 rolls away from the blow, but it’s obvious his wing has taken a hit! It’s a telling blow. This might be a short fight tonight folks.”
AR527 tried to fly to escape the other Galdoni, but his brown wing hung limp. Blood flowed freely to the sand-covered ground as he dodged to the left to avoid another quick slice. My wings ached with remembered pain and I fought back a grimace.
The commentator’s voice rose in pitch. “TI620 slices through AR527’s other wing, leaving him flightless. AR527 stumbles back, but the other Galdoni follows. TI620 swings again, but he’s too close; AR527 dives at him and they both fall backward. The sword is loose! Both Galdoni scramble for the blade!” His voice rose higher. “TI620 reaches it first, but AR527 knocks it from his hand with a quick kick. They both scramble through the sand. AR527’s got the sword. He raises it. But wait! TI620 has the mace!”
A few students in the crowd behind me cheered.
The announcer continued, “Where did that come from? Before AR527 can regain his footing, TI620 throws the mace; it hits the other Galdoni in the stomach just below his armor! He’s down. TI620 rips the blade away and shoves it into AR527’s throat!”
The Galdoni struggled against the blood-covered sword, but TI620 held him down with one hand. The gray-winged Galdoni picked up the mace and, still holding AR527 down with the blade, swung the mace at his head.
I heard a couple of groans and one cheer at the death blow, but when I looked around the room, the majority of the students stared somberly at the television. Two students near the door exchanged cash; I assumed the one on the receiving end was the guy who had cheered. A girl next to him shook her head and walked away.
“I can’t believe dog fighting's illegal but this is considered legit.” Zach turned off the television with a shake of his head.
“Just wait ‘til they create genetically enhanced dogs,” Jayce replied, his expression tight.
“What do you mean?” Rory asked.
Jayce glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. “That’s how they justify it. Galdoni belong to the government, a product of our taxes and a major defense experiment gone wrong. Because they’re ‘government property’,” he supplied the quotes with his fingers, “the government feels free to use them however they’d like. And the gambling tax creates a return on the investment, the government’s way of erasing the mistake. The people’ve fallen for it. Except for the picketers outside the Academy gates, nobody’s created much of a stir.”
“Not that it would do anything,” Zach replied. He looked directly at me, his expression frank. “What they do to the Galdoni is wrong and there’s got to be a way to stop it.” I met his gaze, surprised.
“The Galdoni are the ones doing it. Nobody says they have to fight.” A black-haired boy I recognized from History argued. Zach gave me a small half-smile before he turned away.
“They’re bred to fight,” one of the guys in the back who had been part of the money exchange said. “It’s what they are, remember? They’re killing machines.”
A girl threw a cup at him. “That’s just how you justify it, Troy. You’re holding blood money.”
“Oh, yeah?” He said something in retort but I didn’t hear it.
Most of the crowd had begun to dissipate, several through the front door and the rest back to their various activities. I followed a group to the back door and leaned against the porch railing as they picked up the volleyball and began to toss it around. A hand touched my arm. I turned to find Brie leaning against the railing next to me.
“I don’t know what to say,” she said in a soft, sad voice.
I shook my head. “You don’t have to say anything. This isn’t your fault, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
“You, either,” she replied. She turned to face me, her brown eyes deep with concern. “I don’t want you to go back there, Kale.”
I gave her a small smile. “That means more than you’ll ever know. But I have to go back. I have to stop it. We both know that.”
“But how? You’ve seen the gates and the guards. There’s too much security to do anything.”
I shrugged. It was the same question that had been circling my mind for weeks.
Her fingers traced softly along the back of my hand. She turned it over and touched the calluses that were fading on my palms. Her touch sent a tingle up my arm and I found it hard to concentrate.
“Those Galdoni had letters and numbers instead of names,” she said casually as if she was thinking out loud.
“Names make us more human,” I said without emotion.
She thought about it for a minute, then asked, “How’d you get your name?”
“I made it up.”
She looked up at me, surprised. “You made it up?”
I nodded. “You put me on the spot. It was the first thing I could think of.”
She gave a little frown. “What’s your real name?”
I straightened and turned so that I leaned back against the railing and faced her, my arms folded in an effort to appear composed. I took a calming breath. “KL426.”
Saying the name aloud forged the two worlds together. Until that moment, the Arena had seemed like a dream, and I could almost pretend it was some other life, a story from a book, something that had happened to someone else. But my heart remembered the name, and a familiar heaviness filled my limbs.
“KL426 . . . KL, Kale.” Brie leaned against my arm and rested her head on my shoulder. “It doesn’t matter. You are who you are, and you’re a great person.”
I let that sink in for a few minutes, enjoying the way it felt even though I knew it wasn’t true. “Do you want to know something ironic?”
Brie looked up at my tone.
“You saw the scars on my chest from being whipped?” She nodded, her eyes tight as though she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear what I was going to say. My brow furrowed. “I got a couple of them when I refused to kill AR527 when we were younger.”
She stared at me for a moment, and her eyes grew bright with tears. My heart dropped and I felt terrible. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have told you that. It’s not something you should have to hear.”
She shook her head. “It’s not that. You deserve to tell someone. I’m not crying for me; it’s that you had to go through all that. What a horrible place.” She leaned against my chest and hid her face in my shirt. “I don’t want you to go back. I love you.”
I froze, my arms halfway up to hold her against me. My heart thundered so loud I thought the volleyball players would hear it, but they continued on oblivious of our little corner of the world, the only corner that actually felt real. “You what?” I asked softly.
Brie sniffed and looked up at me. Tears traced down her cheeks and some of her hair had escaped from her braid. “I love you,” she repeated again. She gave me her special smile and I couldn’t breathe.
“You. . . .” I brushed the escaped hair back behind her ear just for the excuse to touch her. I couldn’t believe what she had said; my mind argued against it. “You. . . you love me?”
She nodded, her smile widening. “Is that so hard to believe?” she asked with a slightly teasing tone despite her tears.
“It is.” Her smile faltered, and I rushed on. “I mean, you’re not supposed to. I-I’m, well, what I am, and you’re you. I mean-”
She put a finger on my lips. “Shhh. You don’t make any sense when you talk like that.” She stood on her tiptoes and kissed me lightly on the lips. “I love you, and I know that might take some time to get used to. But I don’t want you to be hard on yourself. I think I know you better
than anyone.”
I shook my head. She knew a part of me, but she didn’t know the monster I held inside, the one that threatened to break free and tear everything apart. If only she knew how close I had really come to killing Zach and the others. I doubted she would love me then.
“Brie, I’m not-”
She cut me off with a stern shake of her head. “Kale, you can argue all day long, but it’s the heart not the head that falls in love. It might not make any sense to you, and you might not feel the same way, but that’s how I feel.” She paused, then dropped her eyes. A faint blush rose to her cheeks.
I realized then how much courage it had taken for her to tell me. I put a hand under her chin and tipped it up gently so that she looked at me. I found a center of calm amidst the chaos that swirled around us, and realized that the calm was from her. Her brown eyes held me, captivated me until I was no longer my own. I knew then that my heart had been hers from the beginning. “I love you.” I whispered the words I never thought I would say, words a Galdoni would die for, words of weakness and at the same time of a strength so profound it filled me with awe. I could only stare at her.
“Oh, Kale,” she said so quietly I barely heard her. She kissed my lips and then leaned against my chest. I wrapped my arms around her and wished we could stay there forever. I felt exhilarated, yet so afraid of the moment ending that I almost couldn’t enjoy it. I knew it was wrong to fall for her, to allow her to love me, but like she said, though my head argued, my heart held all my will. I rested my chin on the top of her soft brown hair and closed my eyes.
Chapter Eleven
“Sorry to interrupt.”
Brie and I both started at the sound of Jayce’s voice. Brie backed up with a cute, abashed smile on her face. I studied her brother, unsure what his reaction would be.
To my surprise, he just shrugged and grinned like nothing had happened. “Hey Brie, one of the girls inside had a haircut disaster today and I told her if anyone could save it, you could.”
