by Natalie Grey
Jamie had known it might come to this. His heart was pounding now. “You shouldn’t kill me for the same reason I came to warn you.” He kept his voice low. He caught Thad’s tiny gesture for whoever was sneaking up on him to wait and took courage from that. “We’re not on the same team anymore, but you know there’s more to it than that. I’ll always be grateful to you. I’ll always try to shield you from things like this.” He swallowed. “I hope you’d do the same for me.”
Thad said nothing. He looked around the oasis, and Jamie wondered if he had switched to the main channel. There was a long pause.
Then he nodded. Jamie hadn’t expected him to be able to vocalize this, so he wasn’t surprised. Thad turned and walked away, some of the others trailing him, and Jamie melted into the shadows.
“Guys?” Gracie’s voice was suddenly worried. “They’re leaving the battle. What’s going on?”
“I told them the truth,” Jamie said. At last, he allowed himself to smile. “Well, I told them part of the truth.”
“Jamie.” Gracie’s voice was very pleasant and bland. “What did you say?”
“Well, I was doing some thinking,” Jamie said. Now that the adrenaline rush was over, it was all he could do not to laugh hysterically. He was shaking. “Harry meant this as a way to get his crown back—or challenge whoever had it. He is a very might-makes-right type of person.”
“Maybe we should discuss this after—”
“Which meant he set it up so whoever lost was gone. Forever.” Jamie knew she hadn’t wanted him to say those words, but he wasn’t going to hold back. “And he wanted it to be like real warfare. He wanted to measure a king by who would die for them, so those rules applied to us, too.”
“I would never—” Her voice was urgent.
“I know,” Jamie said. “I know you wouldn’t. I knew you would never allow us to go into that kind of danger. The servers went down tonight. You made them change it, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” Gracie said. “Look, it wasn’t important. You were all going to be okay, so—”
“But you’re still on the line,” Jamie said. He knew what she’d been trying to do, and he wasn’t going to let her. None of them would forgive themselves if they made a stupid mistake and Gracie was gone forever. “There had to be stakes, or we wouldn’t be here. You want to get rid of Harry, so you left in one part: whichever team leader loses, they are gone.”
There was silence.
“Gracie?” Kevin’s voice was hushed.
“He’s wrong,” Lakhesis said. “Isn’t he?”
“He’s right,” Jay asserted.
“Jay—” Gracie sounded desperate.
“He is,” Jay said. “And it’s right for them to know. Didn’t you want to be different from Harry? You’re not sacrificing them, but you’re also not telling them the whole truth.”
Silence.
“He lied to them,” Gracie said finally. “We won’t win honorably.”
“No,” Jamie said. “Because none of them were willing to die for him. That’s why they’re leaving. He lied to them and used them. Yeah, I might not have told them that the rules had changed, but I was honest about what he was planning.”
Gracie groaned and then started to laugh. “How many are left?”
“A few.” Jamie frowned. “Thad. Preacher—he’s a rogue. Harkness, an ice mage. And Grok, actually. He never got on with Thad, so I wonder why— Oh, hell. Thad didn’t tell him. Bastard.”
“Delightful,” Gracie said. Privately, she added, “You could have asked me, you know.”
“You would have said no,” Jamie said simply.
“Well, yes.”
“Yeah. So I didn’t ask.” He smiled lazily, went to lean on the wall, and nearly overbalanced in the real world.
There were occasional problems with immersive games.
“This was why you were so out of it?” Gracie pressed. “You were worried that I might sacrifice you all?”
Jamie felt his gut twist. “Uh, not exactly. Look, let’s just get through this. We’ll talk about that later.”
“Sure.” He could feel her curiosity. “All right, team, Jamie’s given us a better playing field, but we know Harry’s a lying, egotistical son of a bitch. Stay on your toes, and let’s see which way he’s planning to cheat next.”
They were gone. One by one, they were logging out.
“Thad. Thad.” Harry’s voice was tight with fury.
There was no answer.
That meant he had one choice left. In the darkness, the healer’s eyes began to glow red. Teeth lengthened, claws sprouted, and the bright pink Piskie hair went black.
If ever there had been a time and place for a demonic transformation, Saladin’s Keep tonight was it.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“All right,” Gracie told her team. “Stay where you are, keep communicating, and keep your eyes open. When in doubt, try to slow down the pace of the fight. Kite him, snare him, stun him. Well…and any of the others you see.”
“There’s a definite chance he’s getting reamed out by Thad right now,” Jamie chimed in.
The strangled noise that followed that pronouncement sounded like it came from Kevin.
Then, “Gracie.” It was Jamie. “There’s, uh…he’s in the oasis, and he’s a fucking demon.”
“Everyone stay where you are.” Gracie headed for the oasis, her crowd-control team at her heels, then skidded to a halt. You’re gonna cheat, you bastard? Well, you’re not the only one with hidden powers. She switched into her other set of armor and grabbed her new weapon and watched her stats climb in satisfaction.
There was a yell from Jamie, inarticulate, and a few people called out.
“Stay where you are!” Gracie yelled again. “We’re on our way!”
She burst out into the oasis in a storm of both fireballs and ice; Ushanas and Freon made an incredible duo when it came to distractions. From the way Harry’s character stopped and wavered, she knew they’d made a strong opening.
He was, however, freaky as hell. For one thing, he could fly now. For another, he looked like someone had transformed a Piskie into something halfway between a werewolf and a vampire with glowing red eyes.
Gracie swung her shield out, hefted her axe, and stared at him. “So,” she called. “You decided you’d stack the deck in case you couldn’t win in a fair fight, huh?”
“And you decided to take my team!” Harry roared back. “What the hell did you do? You dare accuse me of cheating?”
“She didn’t get rid of them,” Jamie called, sending a low-level DoT spell at Harry’s circling form. “I did. I made a bet you wouldn’t tell them any death was permanent, and it looks like I was right.”
Harry’s head whipped around.
“And Gracie told you?”
“Yes,” Jamie called back, lying with impressive conviction. “And we all signed up anyway.”
Harry leveled a blast of purple-black flames at Jamie and the healer’s form crumpled to the ground.
“If you want to die,” Harry said, “then die.”
Gracie felt a rush of white-hot rage. Jamie wasn’t going to be out of the game forever, but Harry didn’t know that. He’d done something immeasurably cruel just because he could. Out of spite.
“Ushanas. Freon.”
“On it, boss.”
Ice spears appeared, sticking out of Harry’s body as fire exploded across his skin. His health bar took a hit, and he tumbled toward the ground…
Only to crouch over Jamie’s body. His health bar went back up, and Jamie’s character rose jerkily. He ran at Gracie like a zombie and began battering at her shield.
“This is not me!” Jamie called.
“I know, man,” Gracie said. “And, uh, I’m sorry for what I’m about to do. Maybe close your eyes?”
“Can do.”
Gracie swung the shield and whirled to bring the axe down in a heavy chop. Jamie’s zombie body went staggering sideways and then rounded on h
er with a snarl. Roots appeared out of nowhere, snagging him in place while Gracie threw her shield at Harry.
He might be able to feast on corpses and level people with a single blast of flame, but he couldn’t escape direct hits. He went down, stunned, and Gracie piled on with a sudden influx of warriors and rogues.
“I thought I told you guys to stay put.”
“Did you?” Jay asked innocently. “I must have missed that.”
There was a zombie noise, and Jamie’s body crashed into the fray again.
“Jesus Christ,” Jamie said. “Someone put me out of my misery.”
“Not sure we can, chief.” Freon sounded philosophical. “Froze you in place for now.”
“GRACIE!” Jay yelled.
Gracie ducked out of instinct, shield up, as purple fire flowed directly at her. She had triggered all of her blocking abilities, and they were eaten up within a split second.
This fire was insanely powerful.
A backstab and poison left Harry’s character stunned, and their resident rogue, Xin, gave a little laugh. “Don’t try to out-cheat a rogue, idiot.” He melted back into stealth as Harry rounded on him.
Gracie, sensing her opportunity, took her chance and sprinted away through the oasis. Harry’s shriek of rage came a second too late, and she threw herself around the edge of the doorway as more purple flame shot through it.
“Shit.” She was panting. She got her character upright and kept running down the hallway. She didn’t want to say anything lest she let on to Harry that the team was here, so she would have to hope they were paying attention.
“You think you can block every hit?” Harry called furiously.
Fire exploded through the enclosed space.
“No, but we can sure as hell blind you,” Ushanas said, her tone deeply satisfied. “Dathok?”
Dathok had respecced to a sender, and now he enfolded Harry in a dark magic spell. It wouldn’t work, of course, if Harry was now a demon. Demons weren’t vulnerable to dark magic.
But the point wasn’t damage, it was to obscure Harry’s view. As his character twisted and shrieked its rage, Gracie skittered up the toppled column and onto the roof. Harry had focused on the oasis with his team, so she would bet that he hadn’t explored the possibilities this map had to offer.
She was up on the roof in time to see Harry fly down the corridor at high speed, breathing flames at everyone.
“Don’t give him more bodies to work with,” Gracie reminded the team in an undertone.
“Roger that,” Freon said. “We’re all in position, boss.”
“Don’t call me that. It’s weird.”
“Aye aye, Captain.”
“I swear to God, I will kill you ’til you die from it.” Gracie crept forward along the roof. “Give me a countdown when he’s close.”
“Not quite yet,” Jamie said. “He’s wandering around. I’m following like an undead puppy and slashing at things. It’s…disconcerting.”
“Shhh.” Gracie laughed.
“Oh, right. YO, HARRY. ASSFACE. I’M A ZOMBIE, LALALALALALALA—”
“Everyone else mute Jamie?” Gracie asked.
“Yep,” Alan said. “Bless his little zombie heart.”
“He’s coming your way,” Lakhesis reported. “Five…four…three—”
“Mages, go,” Ushanas reported.
“Two…one.”
Gracie leapt from the roof as Harry soared underneath, bringing her axe down in her biggest stunning strike. A gigantic spear of ice sprouted through Harry’s chest, Xin appeared for a flurry of strikes and poisons, and Jay sliced at Harry’s legs to create a bleed effect. His health bar plunged, and Gracie and Lakhesis traded stunning strikes as everyone piled on. Harry threw one last spell, but it was a near miss, only taking Gracie’s health bar down to half.
His character twisted in mid-air as the demonic possession left it and flopped to the ground, and Gracie felt a surge of happiness.
“YES!”
CHALLENGE STARTED flashed across the screen.
“Wait, what?”
She was still looking around when Thad’s ultimate strike took her sideways and sent her skidding across the floor, haptics shuddering. Her health bar was at twenty percent as he advanced on her.
“Oh, you have got to be kidding me,” Gracie exclaimed.
“Gracie.” Alan’s voice was panicked. “I’m trying to heal you and I can’t. Nothing’s happening. Gracie?”
“Solo challenge.” Gracie scrambled back. “It has to be. That must have been one of the options. Son of a bitch.”
And all of her cooldowns had been used up on Harry’s fire. They would be coming back up in about a minute, but that was a long time in a duel.
She faced Thad down and narrowed her eyes. “I knew there was another reason you hadn’t left yet.”
“How does it feel?” Thad’s tone was tight. He feinted left, then followed her when she dodged right, slamming his shield against hers. His character’s face was almost more frightening given its utter blankness. “To know you’re outmatched, to know your opponent has an impossible advantage?”
“Tell me one goddamned time you knew that,” Gracie spat back. Rather than back away, she threw a stun at him and a heavy blow with her axe, then slid into the darkness. Her team scattered behind her. “You went into the last Month First with inside information and your own gear. You have all your expenses paid for you. You train in a high-end facility. Tell me you ever went into a matchup with me where you didn’t have the advantage.” Fury was making her breath come short. “Like right now—waiting until I was almost dead and then striking.”
Something cold resolved in her chest. She was not going to die here. Not like this.
Not to Thad.
Like hell would he take this from her.
Across the hallway, she saw Jamie give her a nod. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to.
Gracie began to dance. She rushed Thad and slid sideways at the last moment. She kited him. She ducked under his swings and stunned him when he tried to follow her. She was always moving, never still, never in range. It was intense, and she was already coated with sweat, but she shoved that to the back of her mind.
Who you are is best defined by what you do when you think you have nothing left.
Thad, driven to react rather than push his offensive, began to lose his temper. He got her once, a strike that took hit points she didn’t have to lose, but he wasn’t as fast as she was, and he wasn’t as used to fighting without a team.
Gracie had done this before. He hadn’t.
“You know how this ends,” Gracie said. “Cancel the challenge, and you get to stay in the game. Keep going, and you’ll be gone forever.”
“Oh, I’m not losing this one.” Thad’s tone was triumphant. “You know time’s up for you, and you’re trying to bargain. There’s nothing you can offer me.”
“I’m not trying to bargain,” Gracie said. She slashed at him, attacked, and—when he waited for her to slide away—kept the attack going with a shield bash. “I’m trying to save something that’s important to you. What quarrel do we really have with one another?”
Other than the fact that he was a douche canoe, of course.
“You made me look like a fool,” Thad hissed. He had recovered from the shield bash, and he threw his shield at her but missed. He was so assured of his win that he didn’t seem to care.
“If you wanted to play a competition-based game without ever losing, you set yourself up for failure,” Gracie informed him. “Everyone loses sometimes.”
“Like you. Right now.” Thad attacked with a feral smile.
But Gracie’s cooldowns were back up. She sank into a crouch, each hit giving her health as her first timer counted down. Then the time was up and she set her other two in motion, increasing her block chance and absorbing damage. She went on the offensive, hitting with her shield, blocking his strikes with her axe, ducking out of the way, and dancing back in for a
strike.
She didn’t have to fight the whole battle right now, after all. She just had to be a little better in this one encounter—a little faster, a little stronger. She just had to come out of this encounter better off, and the next one, and the next one. She had to trust her instincts to keep her away from the traps he was trying to maneuver her into. As long as it took, she would do it. She wouldn’t throw her entire time in this game away for one useless strike.
And the tide began to turn.
How long it took for Thad to realize it, she didn’t know, but he began to get sloppier. He was running, backing away down the hallway. It was sinking in, the truth of what he’d done.
And the possibility of failure.
“Cancel. The challenge.” Gracie followed him, her ultimate flashing to let her know it was ready. “You can still walk away from this. Cancel it.”
“Fuck. You,” Thad spat back. “Fuck you, you self-important bitch.”
Gracie yelled her anger. She didn’t want to be the person who banned him, so she didn’t.
But she couldn’t cancel it, she could only concede, and like hell was she going to do that.
He was the one who’d made it zero-sum, not her.
She unleashed her ultimate and watched as his body thudded to the ground.
Cheers came to her ears, and she turned to look at the rest of them.
“The others?” she asked.
“Not willing to die for Thad,” Jamie said. “They all logged out.”
Several top-tier heals hit her the next second, and Jamie and Alan said in unison, “Just in case.”
Gracie laughed, then the shaking started. She stared down at Thad’s body and felt her chin trembling, then her gaze went to Harry’s body, small and still.
“It’s done,” Alex said from her shoulder. She leaned against him, then realized he must have come up to her in the real world as well. They all had; her entire team crowded around her, and Gracie broke down as they held her up. Some of them had glitched out of their VR areas and their characters were shimmering in midair, but she felt them join the giant group hug.
