Eli paused for a second, and the crowd burst into cheers. I had to admit, the guy definitely had charisma. He knew how to control a crowd.
“Will it be our first competitor? From the coven of Deimos, the land of earth, living in the magical town of Big Rock, please welcome The Terrorizer.”
The crowd burst into cheers—although I did hear some boos from fans of other paranormals—as Sean made his entrance into the stadium. He looked completely different from the nice guy at the bar the other night. Now, instead of being dressed down, he wore a leather tunic and pants, and his face was painted in reds and browns. He looked like he wouldn’t have been out of place on a Viking raiding ship in the tenth century. In his right hand was a broom that he hoisted above his head, urging the crowd to cheer even more.
Sean walked around the stadium a couple of times with the spotlight following him, but after a few minutes another light lit up at the far end of the stadium. It was red and obviously designed for Sean. He made his way toward it and stood in place as Eli went back to the center of the stadium, ready to introduce the second participant.
“Do you hear that? It’s the sound of roaring thunder. The coven of Jupiter has a long and storied history, and now look primed to add to their domination of paranormal competition. From the small town of Western Woods that punches far above its weight in broom riding skill level, please give a warm welcome to Broomarella!”
Ellie and I were immediately on our feet, stamping and whooping as we clapped as loudly as we could for Sara’s entrance. She was wearing the same catsuit with thunderbolts that ran up and down the side, and I had to admit, she looked like she had come ready to fight. The green tinge on her face was gone, instead replaced with a huge grin as she jogged around the stage, throwing her broom up a couple of times and catching it before making her way to the green light that had appeared next to Sean’s red one at the far end of the stadium.
“She looks ready,” I whispered to Ellie, who nodded.
“She might not know it, but she was born ready for this,” Ellie replied.
A moment later Eli lifted his arms, calling for silence, and the stadium fell still once again.
“Now, our third competitor of the night, hailing from the coven of Neptune and living in the city of Barbadua, please give a warm welcome to the one and only Piranha!”
Andrea, one of the women who had been at the bar the night before, came out at the sound of her stage name. Her long black hair was loose, reaching almost all the way down to her hips, and she had a bra made of seashells while wearing skintight pants with shiny scales that gave her a real mermaid look. She definitely pulled off the water coven look perfectly, and the bright colors of her outfit looked even more incredible against her dark skin.
She walked in a circle around the stadium, before making her way toward a newly appeared blue light next to Sara. The closer we got to the actual competition, the more nervous I was feeling. I couldn’t imagine how the actual competitors felt right now.
“And now, our final competitor of the night. You’re in for a treat, ladies and gentlemen, as this fierce competitor has yet to be introduced to you. From the earth coven of Rhea, living in the town of St. Potion, say hello to The Enchanter.”
As far as cool competition names went, I didn’t really think The Enchanter was up there, but then again, he had probably been given less than forty-eight hours to come up with a name under which to compete. As Jason came out into the stadium to cheers and applause from the rest of the crowd, I couldn’t help but grumble at the fact that he seemed to have fans. If only they knew how arrogant and awful he truly was.
“I hope he gets his butt kicked,” Ellie whispered to me, and I laughed in agreement.
Jason made his way toward the brown light at the end of the group of four, and as soon as he reached it, the entire stadium lit up, eliciting a loud gasp from the crowd. After all, this was their first look at the scene of the competition.
I recognized the hoops that all of the competitors had to fly through. However, there were a lot more than in Sara’s audition. This time, there had to be at least thirty rings for the competitors to fly through, including at least two underwater, underneath a lake that took up about three quarters of the ground of the stadium.
Next to me, Ellie was nodding. “Sara should be able to handle this, no problem.”
“I hope you’re right,” I replied.
“Competitors, please pick up your brooms,” Eli announced. This was it. This was truly happening. “When I blow my whistle, the competition begins. You may use your wands to cast any spells you require to help yourselves or prevent others from completing the circuit before you. The first person to fly through all thirty hoops in order will be declared the winner. Understood?”
The four athletes all nodded. I looked at all thirty hoops apprehensively. I knew Sara was good, but this looked a lot harder than I had expected it to be.
“Alright,” Eli said, stepping back and pulling out a whistle made of pure gold from his pocket. It glinted in the sun, and a moment later he blew on it. The sound resonated through the entire stadium, and then you would just had to be magically enhanced to make that much noise.
Still, I didn’t focus on that at all. After all, Sara was now in the midst of her first broom flying competition.
“Come on, Sara,” Ellie shouted. I watched with bated breath as Sara leapt onto her broom with the same elegance and grace that I had seen from her a thousand times. She pushed off and immediately flew toward the first hoop, reaching it before any of the other competitors. As soon as Sara flew through it, green fireworks exploded all around it. A screen at the top of the stadium had pictures of each of the four competitors, and a zero under Sara’s name turned to a one. Evidently, the first person to reach thirty was going to be declared the winner.
Unfortunately for Sara, Sean was right behind her, and catching up fast. He passed through the first hoop just after she did, and as soon as he did, red fireworks exploded from it as well. The two of them were neck and neck as they passed through the second and third hoops before reaching the underwater section. The large screen at the top of the stadium had video footage from under the water. It was certainly going to be difficult for the athletes to make it through all of the hoops without losing too much speed.
Sean dove straight into the water, but to my surprise, Sara pulled up and began to fly upwards. What was going on? Was she too scared? I had never seen Sara be afraid of anything when she was on a broom; surely she wasn’t afraid of flying her broom through a little bit of water.
As Sean passed through the first and then the second underwater hoop, he quickly began to slow down. The force of the water was obviously keeping him from flying as quickly as he wanted to, and from the way he was aggressively pressing on the front of his broom, I could tell he was trying to make it move as quickly as possible. But he was failing.
Sara stopped about one hundred feet above the lake, and then suddenly began to dive down as fast as she could. She was pressed completely against the handle of her broom in a perfect aerodynamic position as she went into the lake at warp speed.
“Oh, I get it,” I said suddenly. “She’s taking the extra time to build up her speed before going into the lake so she doesn’t get stuck like Sean is.”
Ellie nodded. “Yeah, it’s super smart of her.”
Right behind Sara, Andrea entered the water as well. However, unlike Sara, Andrea waved her wand around and began motoring through the water faster than Sean was. Obviously, being from a water coven, Andrea had absolutely no problems guiding her broom through the lake.
Sean, on the other hand, was now in trouble. He’d obviously run out of air, and he had to resurface. When he tried to go back into the lake with virtually no speed, he wasn’t able to make it deep enough to reach the next hoop. It was now between Sara and Andrea.
The two of them popped out on the other side of the lake at exactly the same time. The fireworks that exploded from the last h
oop were both green and blue, showing that the two of them were definitely competing with one another.
In the back, Jason was lagging behind, but he was still definitely in the competition. Sean had figured out how to get back into the water and through the hoops and was obviously working hard to get back into it as well.
In the meantime, Sara and Andrea spun around at a frantic pace, passing through hoop after hoop after hoop. They avoided all of the traps set by Eli, including darting around a magical dragon which had begun hunting them down as soon as they passed through the twentieth hoop. There was one dragon for each competitor, with the one chasing after Sara being green and the one going after Andrea being blue. I stopped watching Andrea completely and focused on Sara as the magical dragon, which looked to be made of fireworks as well—not unlike the one in the beginning of The Lord of the Rings movie—began flying after her, breathing fire.
Sara darted around the dragon, moving up and down and trying to confuse it. It breathed fire at her once more, and while Sara narrowly avoided the flames, the back bristles of her broom caught on fire.
Luckily, Sara managed to think quickly, and she immediately dove into the lake, extinguishing the flames. The dragon flew in circles above the lake, waiting for Sara to pop back up to the surface. She did so quickly, so quickly that the dragon didn’t even notice her flying through the twenty-seventh hoop. Sara was almost home.
As soon as he noticed her, he let out a roar, then flew back to where she was, accidentally knocking Jason off his broom. I would have giggled if I wasn’t so nervous for Sara. Here she was, fighting an actual fire dragon. She was absolutely insane, and I was super impressed.
I dared a quick glance at Andrea, who was currently floating in the water and casting a spell. I had a feeling she was about to take care of her dragon thanks to her water skills, and my heart sunk as I realized that if Sara didn’t do something quickly, she was probably going to lose.
Sara, however, seemed to have a plan. She was flying in tight circles around the dragon’s head, making it spin around as it followed her, not wanting to move its eyes off its prey. I could practically feel it getting dizzy, and a moment later Sara dove back toward the ground, and the disoriented dragon followed.
Sara plummeted into the lake once more, and this time, the dizzy dragon followed after her. As soon as he hit the water a hiss rose up as the dragon turned to steam, and the crowd cheered with appreciation. Sara had just defeated the dragon.
At almost the exact same time, a jet of water shot from Andrea’s wand, so powerful that it evaporated her dragon just as quickly, and she flew toward the twenty-seventh hoop just as Sara passed the twenty-eighth.
“Come on, Sara!” I shouted, jumping to my feet and grabbing the railing in front of me. She was so close; Sara was going to win this. She was going to win her first broom competition, I could just feel it. She only had two more hoops to go, and Andrea was one hoop behind.
Just as Sara was about to cross through the twenty-ninth hoop, however, Andrea took out her wand, pointed it at Sara, and muttered something. I didn’t know what spell she used, but a jolt of water shot from her wand and hit Sara right in the shoulder.
She let out a squeal as she slipped off the side of the broom and was left dangling, holding the broom with just one hand.
It took a few seconds, but Sara eventually managed to climb back on her broom and kept going, but the few seconds were enough. Andrea zipped past her and crossed through the thirtieth hoop only seconds in front of Sara.
It was over. Sara had come in second, with Andrea overtaking her at the eleventh hour.
I slumped back in my chair, disappointed for my friend. While second was an excellent result, I knew she was going for first.
Chapter 17
The stadium erupted with cheers as the competition ended. The sky filled with blue fireworks from Andrea’s coven of Neptune, and a couple of seconds later Sean passed through the thirtieth hoop as well. Jason, the alternate, ended up crossing it fourth, about thirty seconds later.
“That’s so unfair. Sara would have won that if it wasn’t for the spell at the end,” I pouted in my seat. I knew it wasn’t unfair at all, and that the witches and wizards in the competition were perfectly within their rights to use spells against the other competitors, but I had really hoped that Sara would win. And she was the best flyer of the group—the spell was the only reason she had lost.
“Second, though!” Ellie beamed. “That’s seriously awesome. I’m so proud of Sara.”
“Me too,” I grinned. Ellie’s positivity was infectious, and I decided to focus on how awesome it was that Sara had come in second and almost won, rather than on the fact that she had lost at the last minute. “What she did to make the dragon dizzy and trick him into going into the lake was inspired.”
“I know, right? And the way she thought ahead before just blindly flying into the lake like Sean did shows that she really kept a level head about her this whole time.”
I looked over to where Savanna was sitting a few rows in front of us. She looked more relieved than anything, and when she looked up at me, I smiled at her.
“Sean did well!” I shouted toward her over the din of the crowd.
“I thought he was marvelous,” she replied. “He won’t be happy, though; Sean was always so competitive. He’ll have wanted to win, and he’ll be disappointed that he didn’t.”
“Well, at least it was only the first day,” I said. “After all, there are going to be a lot more competitions and a lot more points to be awarded before an overall winner is declared.”
“That’s true,” Savanna said. “Well, I’m just glad he made it through that alright. I thought he was going to drown for a while there, and I didn’t know what to do. But Sean made it through; he always does.”
I beamed at the older woman as Eli announced the winner, making his way over to Andrea and holding her arm high above her head. Second place for Sara was a good placement, really. The winner of each competition got a hundred points, second place got eighty, third place got sixty, and fourth got forty-five. At the end of the competition season, the person with the most points would be declared the overall winner.
Eli thanked the crowd for coming, and slowly the attendees began to trickle out, with Ellie and I making our way back to the dressing rooms. We knocked on Sara’s door, and as soon as she opened it Ellie pushed her way in with a squeal and took Sara into her arms, spinning her around the room while I laughed.
“I’m so proud of you!” Ellie said, and Sara began to giggle.
“Thanks! It was so exciting.”
“You were absolutely amazing,” I said. “Seriously. The skills you have on the broom are like nothing else.”
“What happened at the end? Did Andrea hit me with a spell?”
“Yeah,” Ellie nodded. “It knocked you just enough to let her take the lead.”
“I was so close to winning,” Sara said, shaking her head. “I thought I had it.”
“Yeah, you were really this close,” Ellie said. “The way you tricked that dragon was so clever.”
“You know what? I need to get better at casting spells,” Sara said. “I know I’ve never been good at it, but I think that’s going to be the difference between me winning this competition and losing.”
“Are you sure?” Ellie asked. “I mean, I’m going to be honest here, I thought you had given up on ever being good at spells.”
“I had,” Sara nodded. “I knew I was never going to be good at it like everyone else, but now it might actually affect how well I do in this competition. And if there’s one thing I learned tonight, it’s that I want to win this. I actually think I might be able to win this, but I need to get better at spells. I need to have at least three or four basic ones nailed down that I can use when I need to, and that do what I need them to instead of something else.”
I smiled to myself. I had never seen Sara like this. She was fired up, she was ready to go, and she was actually confi
dent.
“You can absolutely do that,” Ellie said. Going by the huge smile on her face, Ellie was just as enthusiastic about this change in Sara as I was.
“I’m still learning with Amy,” I piped up. “Why don’t you join in on my lessons? We can focus on spells that can help you with your next competition.”
“Thanks, Tina,” Sara said with an appreciative smile. “I’d like that very much.”
“You’re going to be such a force to be reckoned with in this competition,” Ellie grinned.
“I already am!” Sara replied. “I can’t believe I came in second. But you were right, both of you. I totally belong here. I was so nervous, but as soon as I got onto the broom, it was like everything clicked. You know when something feels so natural you can do it without thinking? That was what happened. I could focus on the tactics—figuring out how to get through the lake, and that sort of thing—and let my body fly the broom without thinking about it.”
“Awesome,” I said.
“Now, let me get changed quickly, then I want to go home. I’m sure Amy wants to join in on the celebration, too!”
Our celebration wasn’t insanely wild—after all, Ellie and Amy had to work the next day, and Sara eventually came back down to earth and hit the wall after the stress of the day—and all four of us ended up going to bed fairly early, pleased with the day. I was so proud of Sara I had almost forgotten about the murder investigation and the questions I had about my potential birth coven.
The next morning, however, when I came down to the kitchen for breakfast, I was instantly reminded of it. Amy had an envelope open and a sad look on her face.
“We got a reply from Kilokilo. They’ve denied our applications to go there as visitors.”
“What?” I said, crestfallen. “But why? Didn’t you tell them that I might have been one of them?”
“I did,” Amy nodded. “But I guess they must not have believed it. Who knows? Either way, they said no.”
Five Charm Fire Page 9
