The faeries dove under the water, disappearing from view. “Where did they go?” I asked.
“To get a boat,” Pan answered, putting away his pipe.
Beneath the water seemed an especially odd place to store a boat, but again, I kept my lips pressed together. This was no time for smartass comments. And good thing I hadn’t made one, because a moment later the surface bubbled and one of the silken sailboats rose up out of the water. Its tangerine-colored sheets caught and magnified the pastels of the rising sun.
“Climb aboard,” Pan said with a sweeping bow.
I dubiously stepped over the side, but while the material flexed beneath me like a net, I didn’t sink below the water. Eli clambered in after me, and Pan last. Pan stepped forward to the front of the boat and stood on the bow, staring off towards the city. The water faeries began to push the boat forward, and we floated over the lake. Elanid grew bigger and bigger as we approached, and as we got closer I could see the entire city was made of clear crystal or glass which reflected all the colors around it. It didn’t seem the type of city that harbored kidnappers.
“That which is most beautiful is often that which is most dangerous,” Pan said. Now I was sure he could read my mind. Freaking fantastic.
The water faeries delivered us at a shining silver dock. The dock led to stairs, and the stairs led to the city gates, which sparkled like diamonds. Oddly enough, no one guarded the gates, so we passed through unnoticed. “Where to now? Where does Taryn stay?”
“His palace is not far from here. But that’s not where we’ll find him.” Pan strolled along, making his walking stick disappear and then reappear.
“So, where will we find him?”
“At the gladiatorial arena.”
I couldn’t have heard him right. “Did you say gladiatorial arena? You’re joking.”
Pan’s eyes gleamed. “I’m afraid not. That’s how we get our entertainment here in Elanid.”
“A barbaric human pastime?” Eli asked, anger tinting his voice.
“Actually, we’re the ones who gave the idea to the Romans. Only humans seemed to grow tired of it after a while, whereas we did not. We simply found new ways to make it more entertaining.”
I felt sick. “And Quinn and Riley? They’re making them fight?”
“Most likely,” Pan responded nonchalantly.
Eli and I followed him in gloomy silence down the glittering street. It wasn’t long before I heard it. The cheering. A low hum at first, rising to a deafening roar as we got closer. What chance could my friends and the HR stand against faerie warriors? Quinn knew magic, so probably had an advantage there, but still. Were we too late? Did we come all this way to discover they were already dead? I’d known it was a possibility, but now it seemed more a probability.
The stadium came into view, and it indeed looked very similar to the Colosseum, except made of the same silvery glass as the rest of the city. We followed Pan up some stairs and out onto a balcony overseeing the arena. A battle was just concluding. My stomach flipped up into my mouth for a moment, but the figure lying on the floor of the stadium was neither Riley, Quinn or the HR.
The victor was a female with long blonde hair tipped vivid pink to match her wings. Like Gladiator Barbie or something. “Jintara! Our undefeated warrior in magical combat!” The crowd went wild. No one seemed to notice when two faeries came out and dragged the mangled body of one of their own out of the stadium.
Pan turned to me, his green eyes intense. “And this is where I call on my favor from you, Zyan.” He paused, his eyes flicking down into the arena. “I want you to battle the champion.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
“No way,” Eli answered, stepping in front of me. “I’ll do it instead.”
I would have been flattered by his attempted sacrifice, except I’m just not that big into sexist chivalry garbage. “Just hold on—”
Pan beat me to the punch, though. “Sorry, but I don’t want you. I’ll call on your favor at a later time.”
“You’ve been planning this all along!” Eli argued. “What kind of sick faerie game is this?”
“Temper, temper,” Pan said soothingly. “Yes, I have been planning it all along.” He turned to me. “Since I felt all that wild power within you. It’s just waiting for an outlet.”
“But you said yourself I had neglected it. I can’t control it at all.” I liked a good fight as well as anybody else, but not one I had zero hope of winning.
“Mind over matter, Zyan.” Pan smiled encouragingly. “You have the potential. Nothing like a little pressure to put the shine on the gemstone.”
“You’re an asshole,” I said to Pan. God of fucking nature or not, he’d just pushed me over the edge with his smug superiority.
Pan responded with a grin and a twirl of his walking stick. “Let’s get started then, shall we?”
He disappeared.
And promptly reappeared in the middle of the arena. “I call a challenge against our champion!” His voice rang up through the stands. “My Anam Gatai from Earth against the undefeated Jintara!”
As the crowd erupted in cheers, I felt like a freakshow spectacle. In the realm of Faerie, non-faerie gladiators must be a hot commodity. Which was exactly why Pan had brought me here.
“You don’t have to do this,” Eli said. He put his hands on my shoulders and hooked me in a pleading gaze.
“I do if I want to get Riley and Quinn and the HR back. We’re not getting out of here alive unless I fight her.” I tried to smile, but I could tell it wasn’t very convincing.
“Zyan Star—please join us!” Pan shouted, pointing up at me.
Eli’s hands dropped slowly to his sides. I avoided his eyes as I turned to face the cheering crowd. The onlookers went wild as I jumped lithely down into the stadium. The least I could do, considering I was about to get my ass handed to me. Pan bowed to each of us and retreated from the center of the ring.
Jintara began to circle me immediately, and I could feel her probing at me with her mind, trying to get a sense of what powers I had. Was I really in Faerie, with the god of nature, in a gladiator ring? My life was really weird sometimes, but this took the cake.
Jintara lashed out her magic in the form of a bright pink wall of energy which shot out from her hands and smashed into me. Her magic flipped me head over heels into the sand. And let me tell you, this tiny little outfit Selfora had created for me wasn’t very good at keeping sand out of places it didn’t need to be.
The crowd roared in approval, though it also held an aura of disappointment. Thus was the sad reality of champions. The audience rooted for them because they had risen through the ranks and proven themselves best. But there was always that twisted curiosity to witness the hero’s downfall. To see who could best the best. Because sooner or later, no matter how long their reign, all heroes fell.
As I rose awkwardly to my feet in my three-inch heels, Jintara circled me like a vulture, her vivid pink lips curled in a taunting smile. Her fist began to glow like a ball of sunset, and then the glow extended, forming a curved blade. Well, if that’s the kind of fight we were going to have, maybe I could hang in a bit longer. I returned her smile as I pulled my sword. I heard the audience murmur in disapproval at my lack of magic.
Jintara whirled in the air, her blade growing in length, and brought all the force of it down on my blade. I have no doubt she figured it would shatter into a million mere metal pieces. But she didn’t know my little secret—that my blade had been forged with the fire of a Japanese sea dragon. It was nearly indestructible. There was a stunned silence, from both her and the crowd, whose discontent ceased instantly. Then Jintara’s dangerous faerie eyes narrowed at me, and the battle truly began.
A human crowd wouldn’t have been able to track our movements at all, but the faeries could. We were a blur of black and pink and silver. I had a slight edge on Jintara in speed, but she had the magical blade that could extend to any length. A couple times she caught me with the tip as I spu
n away, but I got in a couple nicks on her as well. We battled on for nearly fifteen minutes, neither gaining the advantage, neither tiring, and soon the audience began to grow bored. They wanted more magic.
Jintara’s sword dissipated and I felt her forming something with her power that would end me. She held her hands up and between them a swirling vortex began to form. At first I thought something was going to come out of it and attack me, but then I felt the tips of my boots pushing through the sand like canoes approaching a waterfall. She was pulling me into it. I called on my own power and threw a blast at her face, but she just shook her head like I’d gotten a little sand in her eyes. My struggling was to no avail, and I began to inch towards the vortex, which now stretched from her toes to her forehead.
At that moment two things happened simultaneously. First, my demon spiral began to glow. Second, I felt a power rush into me that I’d never felt before. For a terrifying moment, I thought Lucifer had taken control of me. But then I realized the power came from Pan. An image of him flooded my mind, and turning my head slightly, I could see the glow of his eyes from the shadows at the edge of the ring. It was entirely too intimate to have someone else’s power inside me, and I realized Pan might not be a much better alternative from Lucifer. Either way I was a puppet on someone else’s strings.
But I didn’t have time to contemplate this further, or even to get good and angry, because Pan’s power lashed out with a blast of green sparks and demolished the vortex Jintara had created. She fell back onto the sand, eyes wide with shock. The crowd went insane.
And Pan was just getting warmed up. My arms raised into the air, not of their own accord, and showered Jintara with thousands of tiny arrows of light. She threw up her arms, a shield of power covering her, and scrambled away as they bore down. I felt a surge of Pan’s power within me, like a cobra rearing its head back to strike, and then a ball of blue flames rocketed into her, shattering her shield and breaking over her body. Jintara screamed and twisted as the flames sizzled into her skin. I felt another surge building, this time even bigger than the previous one, tsunami sized compared to what had just been rough surf before.
No! I screamed in my head, hoping he heard me. I would not kill for him, for the faerie’s entertainment. The demon tattoo still glowed ruby red on my skin. And abruptly I had had enough. Lucifer had tried to possess me, and now Pan. Who the fuck did they think they were? I was not just a pawn in everybody’s evil agendas. They could do their own goddamn dirty work.
I felt my own reservoir of wild power rise within me. The power I knew I couldn’t control. Once I let it loose, I didn’t know if I’d ever get it shoved back inside me again. But it was my only chance of stopping Pan and saving all of us.
The first thing I did was kick out my squatter. I simply flexed my power and pushed him right out. Secondly, I reached out and grabbed Jintara between two walls of energy, pulling her to her feet and holding her tight. “I don’t want to kill you,” I called. I met her eyes across the five feet that separated us. “I didn’t come here for this, I came to free my friends. Leave now.”
She struggled for a second, but I squeezed my power against her until she gasped for breath, then finally nodded. I released her and she disappeared in a burst of pink sparks. Hey, at least she was color-coordinated.
A moment of uncertain silence settled over the crowd as everyone tried to figure out what the hell had just happened. Pan strode forward and lifted my arm to the sky. “I give you your new champion, Zyan Star!” The stands erupted in a cacophony of applause.
My power blossomed outwards, sensing all the bright, faerie souls that surrounded us. And part of me thought it was only fair that they suffer for this kind of sick entertainment. I felt that uncontrollable wild glee fill me as I stretched out, my power sweeping across the sky.
“You see, I had no intention of letting you die,” Pan whispered to me, grabbing my arm tight. “Though I can see you’re perfectly capable of defending yourself. Now, pull your power back.”
For a second I wanted to blast him, all of them, and I felt that familiar wash of rage at any attempt to put a leash on my freedom. Pan squeezed harder, putting his own push of power behind it, and reluctantly my power died down. “Well next time, you stay the hell out of my body,” I hissed.
Pan smiled and stepped in closer to me. I became very aware of his earthy masculine smell and the sheen of sweat over his muscles. “You may change your mind about that one day.”
“Not likely,” I said into his twinkling eyes. “So, what’s the plan now that you’ve played your little game?”
He smiled. “Even my so-called games are part of the plan.” He turned from me and faced a side of the stadium that held clusters of private balconies, as opposed to the open seating on the other three sides. “Since my champion has defeated the reigning champion,” he called for everyone to hear, “I invoke the right of victor’s challenge.”
A resounding gasp of surprise mixed with delight rang from the crowd. Apparently this was an infrequent treat. After a few moments of heavy silence, a figure walked to the edge of one of the balconies. I recognized him immediately. Taryn Blackflame.
“Our friend Taryn was the master of Jintara, who you have defeated,” Pan said softly to me. “And since I am the—” he paused as I turned to glare at him, “Let’s just say ‘manager’ of you, I am entitled to challenge Taryn to a fight.”
“What are your terms?” Taryn called to Pan.
“I am here for the three that you abducted—the human, the were, and the witch.”
“I have other plans for them,” Taryn said with a smile. He waved his hand, and the recesses of his balcony became illuminated. Standing there, bound with chains, were Quinn, Riley and the HR. “They are to fight in the stadium.” The audience cheered in approval.
“Am I to understand that you are refusing the right of victor’s challenge?” Pan called, pleasantly enough.
“I will battle you Pan, but my new toys are not available as the spoils.”
“Well in that case, I withdraw my victor’s challenge.” I stared at Pan as he gave a little bow to Taryn. His green eyes sparked. “If you won’t offer them as prizes in a fair fight, I suppose I’ll just have to take them.”
As the words fell from his mouth, Taryn’s face twisted in rage, the crowd began to yell in a mixture of excitement and disapproval, and the earth rolled beneath our feet. Sand flew up into the air as something sharp penetrated the floor of the arena. As it rose further up, I could see a point of stone, granite or something similar. It pushed further and further, a small mountain forcing its way out of the ground.
I saw Taryn gesture to several faeries I assumed were his guards. He was going to move his prisoners. I dashed forward and sprang up to the balcony, knocking a surprised Taryn out of my way. A rush of wings at my back told me Eli had joined the fight. I threw a bolt of power at the chains holding Quinn and Riley while Eli snapped the HR’s with his bare hands. At that moment I heard a gasp from the audience and turned to see what was transpiring in the arena.
The mountain now shimmered and moved, elongating in some places and shortening in others. After a moment during which my eyes struggled to see what shape it was taking, I saw what definitely looked like a head. And from that head came a deafening roar. The form rippled, and two huge wings stretched out. The gray stone glowed orange for a moment as if turning to molten metal, and then cooled back down to a glistening gray. A tail whipped around, bashing in one of the columns of the arena.
Holy shit. Pan had created a dragon.
The dragon roared again and beat its new wings, rising into the air. Pan climbed gracefully onto its back as it lifted off. It flew towards our balcony, hovering in the air before us. Taryn screamed at his guards, but they cowered back against the walls. I didn’t waste any more time. I grabbed Quinn’s wrist and dragged her forward as Eli lifted the HR and flew towards the dragon. I wasn’t worried about Riley making the leap with his werewolf agility. As we ap
proached the edge of the balcony, I grabbed Quinn’s waist and we leapt onto the dragon’s back.
Pan waved cheerfully to Taryn as the dragon beat its wings and launched into the sky. It made a dramatic loop over the stadium, lighting up the sky with a spout of flame before rising up into the clouds. The last thing I heard was the awed gasp of the crowd before the wind filled my ears. Okay, so I was in Faerie, with the god of nature, I had fought and beat a faerie in a gladiatorial battle, and now I was riding on a dragon created from a mini mountain. If it weren’t for the fact that we now had Quinn, Riley and the HR, I might think some of the faeries in Gemstone had slipped us some drugs.
Martinis with the Devil, Part Two Page 8
