by Bob Dattolo
“Yup.”
“Dammit. how many?”
Her eyes cleared a little, “I’d be child number five for them.”
“What the fuck? You had four brothers and sisters?!?” Gage nearly knocked his tray from the table as he reacted.
“I did. Three brothers. One sister. The oldest would be something like 100. The youngest was my sister. She’d be…shoot, 45 or so? Something like that.”
“What the fuck happened?” My God, this is so insane.
“Brother number one died in his first year. From what they said, he challenged someone and was torn to pieces. He failed. Was too weak. Brother number two? Died in a challenge third year. He was decently powerful, but they said he was weak when it counted and let himself get trapped in a challenge. Brother number three? He made it to the trial at the end of the third year. Died in like the first 20 minutes. He was powerful but had tried to go it alone after the other two were killed. A group of allies banded together and wiped him out.”
“What about your sister?” She seems hesitant there.
“By everything they said? They had such high hopes for her. She made it through the three years easily. Or so it seemed. Then they did the ascendant trial.” She rubbed her face, “Trying to fit into our world can be a bitch. That last trial…they had some very strong people in to take part against others, and she didn’t do well. My parents expected her to come out at least as strong as they were. If not stronger. She had a shitty showing and came out near the halfway point. I saw the videos of it. They showed them to me. She was so happy to have survived and ran up to them to be congratulated, and they attacked her. It was so hard. So vicious. She still had this look of excitement on her face at the end when she was dead. They hit so hard and fast that she didn’t even really get to respond.”
“Oh my fucking God, they killed her for being weak?” Now Kynal smells like fear.
“They did. That’s what life is like for dragons. You mages think we’re the same, with just us being able to shift as being different, but it’s not really the case. On the surface? Yeah. But when you dig beyond that? No. Things like being naked. Listening to your parents. Obeying. We start to diverge heavily and quickly. That’s what I had to deal with. I was told that unless I make it through and then get slotted near them? I die.”
“Can’t you run away?”
She smiled at Gage’s innocence, “They already told me what’ll happen. They’ll hunt me to the ends of the Earth until they find me. Either I die willingly, or they’ll hunt me and strip my power and hit me with mortmagi. Then I’ll be their slave until I can’t heal any longer and I’ll die anyway.”
“What the fuck! That’s barbaric!”
She patted Gage’s hand, “That’s being a dragon. At least somewhat. Not all parents are like that, but enough.”
“Okay, then what do you want to do with your power?”
Her eyes cleared up entirely, “I’m not really sure. My parents expect me to work with them, so that’ll probably be it unless I can come out so powerful that they can’t mess with me. I’m holding out hope for that. As much as I can understand why they did what they did, I still hate it. I don’t want to kill them; except I know I might have to or else risk them coming for me if I decide to do something else.”
Silence descended on the table. “Fine, that’s me. What about you, Maddie? Same questions. All three years? What do you want to do with your powers?”
My turn for some silence, “That’s so hard to answer. Both parts of it. As for the years? I’m honestly just trying to make it through day-to-day. I had loose plans to lay low when I got here, then promptly got into a challenge my first day. That was so not part of the plan. Lay low. Stay away from everyone that could be a threat. Then try to get out of here when having my eyes torn out again isn’t on the menu.”
“I bet. Having done it once?”
Kynal’s question made me smile, “Exactly. I swore to myself to never allow them to be used on me again. Not for any reason. If my only option is using a chainsaw on myself, that I’d do that instead. So that puts me through at least year one. Year two and 25 percent power? I don’t want to do that, either. Year three and 50 percent is a possibility, except that won’t help me get what I want.”
“And what do you want? You’re a former stricken with more hidden power than I think any of us can appreciate. So what is it that you want, that you need power for?” She gave me an encouraging smile.
“Revenge.”
The two guys twitched, but she didn’t. “Against your parents? Who else?”
“My parents are on the list, but that’ll take some doing. I’ll have to identify them first, and I’m not sure that’ll be possible. As for who else?” I tapped my nose, “I think I told you guys originally, that they can’t tell if I’m a dragon or a mage. Except I have some things about me that are definitely more dragon-like. Parts of my thinking. Some of my senses. Like my sense of smell?”
Her eyes darted to my nose, “You can smell as well as we can?”
“I’m not sure, but I think so. Given that? I remember the scents of every single person that I was forced to be with more than once. Every one of them. If I can make it through school, no matter how long it takes, I plan on hunting them until I find them and kill them. Whoever they are. Wherever they are. They will die.”
“But…you were blind, how can you identify them?”
Angelica scoffed at Gage’s question, “I could do that. Any dragon here could. If we got everyone in here and turned out the lights and blindfolded the dragons, we could identify every person. If she really smells like we do, it may take a while and may even be impossible to find them, but she could do it. What’s more, it’s admissible in court, too.”
“How so?” Kynal fidgeted with his sundae bowl.
“We’re like bloodhounds. Hit us with a truth spell, and we can swear that the scents matched, and it will stand up in court.”
“Right. So, yeah, I’m being driven by revenge in a big way. While I may decide to check out early, I don’t want to. I want to make it through. I want to have enough power to fuck up everyone that touched me. As for the rest? What to do with my power? No idea. I’m not even sure what’s out there. If I can find my parents, maybe kill them, and take everything over? I’d have that right even though I’m not legally their daughter any longer. If I can kill them in challenge, that opens things up again. I guess we’ll see. I have to make it through Alison tomorrow.”
“Speaking of, you run out of things to have delivered to her?” Angelica has a knowing look in her eye.
“Oh yeah. Tonight, was the last one.”
“What’d you do? I thought you did the last yesterday?”
“Singing telegram. Guy was dressed as a big thing of popcorn.”
“Are you fucking with me right now?”
“Nope. Sang her a song about being an unpopped kernel. It wasn’t great, but at least it rhymed. That cost me a pretty penny, but it was worth it. He recorded it and sent me a video of it. She freaked.”
“Oh my God, that’s funny as hell. She’s gonna be even more pissed tomorrow.”
“Good. I’d hate to be killed by someone and have them be only mildly upset.”
Chapter 24
Friday dawned just like the earlier part of the week. Parece is asleep, breathing softly in the dark. I swear, she looks so relaxed. It kinda makes me jealous. Sure, I might sleep the same way, but I can’t see it. I swear I don’t look that comfortable when I’m asleep, though.
Shorts and a ponytail in place, I headed out for the caf. I can feel lines in my face from my pillow, but I can’t seem to care. It won’t be the first time someone has seen that in this place since I got here. Not even just from me, from a ton of other people, too. It’s amazing what you can get used to sometimes.
There are six others in the caf when I arrive, so not too far from normal. Two are sitting alone and notice me coming in. They each give me a long, slow look before going back to
eating. The other four are sitting at two tables of two. The one on the left starts laughing softly at me. I’m not sure they know I can hear them or if they’d even care. The guy on the left is talking about how I’m gonna die begging, a popular thought about me lately. The other one follows up with wanting to get bets in early so they can get the best odds.
Dicks.
The other table has two girls. The shorter one looks like an earth something or other. I can’t see her eyes well enough to tell if she has visible pupils. I can’t pick up her scent, either. Or, maybe I can, I just can’t tell which is her. The other is a fire dragon. She’s in my classes, although I’m not sure what her name is. She’s been mostly quiet and hasn’t really talked to me at all.
Ignoring everyone was pretty easy, so I grabbed food and sat. Will Angelica and the others be in this morning? Or Kaylee?
Ugh, I hope she keeps practicing what I told her. She was super excited the last time I talked to her. It seems she’s getting better in leaps and bounds. She also swore to me to hide it as much as possible and to, again, never tell anyone or let them know how she’s improving once it’s found out.
She smelled honest that time too, so that’s good. The last thing we need is a school full of even more powerful bastards out to kill everyone else.
Other started coming in slowly, as is pretty usual. No allies, so I didn’t expect anyone to come talk to me. That’s why I was more than shocked when the girl from the table of two sat down without saying anything. The fire dragon stares at me from across the table. She smells nervous. Scared. Kinda excited, but it’s muted behind layers of nerves and her fear.
“Umm, hey?”
She didn’t seem to know how to handle my greeting. Why? I have no idea.
“I’m not sure I know your name? I’m Maddie.”
Her hands are rubbing along the edge of the table again and again, and she smells more like nerves at me talking again.
“Is this…is this a staring contest sort of thing? If so, I have to say that I’m not very good at them? Or, no, I don’t think I’ve ever had one, so maybe that’s more accurate.”
Her scent of nervousness gets worse, “Ichallengeyou.” She blurted it out so fast that I had to pause and really think through what I just heard.
“I’m sorry, what?”
Her hand movement gets worse, as does her scent, “I challenge you.” It’s a fight for her to talk slowly enough to be heard.
“Umm, okay? Why would you want to do that and what are you challenging for? I don’t even know your name.” What the hell is going on?
“My name doesn’t matter!” Her hands slow as she takes a deep breath, “I challenge you. You have to accept!”
“Oookay, can we back this crazy train up a couple stops? Because I think you’re way ahead of me.” Her scent gets worse as I eat more. I can’t help it, I’m hungry. Between the hunger and the weird pressure that spikes at odd times, I pretty much feel like I have to eat. Once I had more down, I paused again, “Can you start at the beginning? The part where I was here having breakfast and then you came and challenged me? There’s nothing connecting the dots. What grounds do you have for a challenge?”
Her face fell, “I, uhh, don’t…I don’t know? But I challenge you!” She looked up at the end, as if that explains it.
Everyone looked to me as I called out, “Hey, does anyone know her name?”
A guy a few tables over responds, “Daniela.”
“Thanks.” Time to ignore the listening spells kicking in. “Okay, Daniela? We’ve never talked. I know you’re in my classes. That’s about it. I don’t know who your allies are. Your friends are. Your enemies are. Why would you want to challenge me? And, seriously, you don’t have any grounds to challenge me.”
“I don’t care! I challenge you!”
Fuck. “Daniela? This seriously isn’t how the whole thing works. I have until dinner tonight anyway where I can’t be challenged unless I allow it. Why the hell would you want to challenge me without a reason to do it? Especially with Alison coming?”
Her teeth speared into her lower lip and she worried at it, “I…I don’t care about Alison. I care about you! You’re a dirty stricken!”
I seriously didn’t mean to laugh; I just couldn’t help it. That had me chuckling through the last few bites from my plate. “Daniela? That was halfhearted at best. Seriously so. I’ve heard worse and more heartfelt insults from people that weren’t even talking to me at the time.” That had me nodding to guys at another table across the way that I knew were listening in, “Hell, the metal mage over there said I’m so disgusting his hard-ons disappear at the smallest thought of me and someone ought to cave in my skull to get me the fuck out of here. I don’t know if he really believes that, but it was heartfelt.”
“It was; total limp dick when I think of you!” He’s smiling as he calls that out.
“Umm, thank you? I’m not sure what to say there. Sorry for being a cockblocker?” Laughter from a number of tables. “So you? You don’t really feel that. I don’t get why you’d want to do this. Or even try to do it. Alison will tear you to pieces.”
Her hand stilled, “I don’t care. Either I get more power soon, or I die anyway.”
“Ookay? I get that this place is dangerous as fuck, but why me?”
“Why you? You’re a stricken! We all saw your challenge against Colin. It was a joke. I heard about you and the coach. You’re the easiest I can go after, so I’m going after you. I don’t care about Alison. If I don’t get more power soon, I’m dead from others here. I’ll never make it to the trial, let alone through it. I doubt I’d make it another week.”
“Sooo that means you have to try to murder me?”
“There’s no try about it. I’m a fire dragon. You don’t stand a chance.”
“Look, seriously, find some allies and huddle up. Protect each other. Stop working angles to kill your friends and just fucking hold tight and get through the trials together. There’s no reason to try and challenge me.”
She hit the table and stood, trying to tower over me from a full table away, “Listen to me, you little bitch! I challenge you!”
“Daniela? You can’t. I’m protected through most of the rest of the day. Could I accept? I could, but I’m not going to. You have no grounds to force me into one, so you have to get my buy-in. That’s not happening. Go spend time with your allies or something. Figure out a way to protect each other.”
Her growl is way better than I would have guessed as her skin roils, “You don’t have a fucking clue how things work here. None. I am challenging you. You will be accepting it.”
“Don’t do this, Daniela. There’s no reason to.”
“There’s every reason to! You die at my hands. Get ready.”
“You have no grounds.”
She leaned in more, “You will be accepting.”
Then she turned and walked away.
Samantha’s voice caught me by surprise from the side. She’s not normally in this early. Nor is she usually dressed up to exercise. “I see you’re making more friends?”
“You know what? You’re not a friendly face, but I can ask you…what the fuck was that?”
She looked over at the doors that are swinging closed. “That? That was Daniela getting desperate.”
“What the fuck? Why? Why would she try to challenge me like that?”
“Because she’s weak?”
“Aaand?”
She sat without responding, putting her food down. I was not prepared for that to happen. “It’s like this. She’s weak. Way on the lower end of power for dragons here. Not the lowest, but she’s rubbed too many people the wrong way and comes across as weak. She’s been threatened and has some issues on the outside.”
“Like what?”
“Like if she doesn’t get through each of the trials, her parents will go after her?”
“Oh my fucking God, this is the craziest thing. Why the fuck do we put up with parents that think it’s okay
to kill their kids?”
She spread her hands, “No clue. Yet that’s her life right now. She’s right. I’d be surprised if she lasts another week before she’s challenged. Unless she gets crazy lucky, she’ll be killed. She thinks this is her one shot to gain enough power to stand a chance. If she can get her power up to, say, mid-level, she has a chance of staying out of the challenges for a couple more weeks until the trial.”
“So I’m the obvious target?”
“You are.”
Hmm, she doesn’t smell right for that answer. “This is fucked up. Why would she think I’d accept a challenge from her when Alison is coming?”
“She’s desperate. Something had to happen to push her along that makes this worthwhile. She’d get a week of protection, which probably means someone threatened to do it this week. She’d deal with Alison afterwards. So maybe challenge you and win. Then go after the other person and win. Then maybe she’ll have enough to hold Alison off. I doubt it, though, depending on who she’d be draining.”
“This is so fucked up.”
“Welcome to our world. Word of warning? Be ready for her. I think she’s desperate enough to try to set you up. Or somehow force you into accepting her challenge.”
“I can’t even guess how she’d do that.”
“Threatening Kaylee comes to mind.” She stared into my eyes for long moments before starting to eat.
What the hell; is she gonna do that?
She was all over me in basic magic. Talking about me. Making comments to others. Insults. She also started including Kaylee, which was seriously worrisome. It was bad enough that Mr. Briggs had to call a stop to it, where he didn’t say anything to the others making the same sort of comments to me. Just not so many of them.
That continued in our combined English class. Ms. Wade didn’t say squat to her. I can’t tell if she approves of the comments, but she definitely didn’t end it. Maybe because Daniela’s a dragon too?
Practical application came on, and Mr. Bailey waited for me to be seated before calling out, “In light of our own teacher murderer being brought to heel today by a more powerful classmate, Alison, I believe we should have a class focused solely on Miss Stricken.”
