Page 133 of Malcroix Bones Academy

Draken rolled his eyes.

He opened his mouth, about to speak, when a crash over us jerked our eyes upward.

I gaped up with the rest of them, shocked when two pairs of wings, one deep black, the other coppery-brown, half-entwined as they slammed into one of the banners over our box. The crash got louder when their armor collided as they began fighting with fists, too close to use bows and arrows.

I flinched and crouched down when they careened back over the box, hit into another flagpole and nearly dropped into the box itself, before they both tumbled off the edge, still fighting hand to hand.

Everyone in our box stood up.

That’s when I fully realized what I’d seen.

“Aren’t they both… ours?” I asked. I turned to stare at Miranda.

Miranda blinked, then looked up at the screen over our box.

“Gods,” she muttered. “She’s right. What in the underworld?”

“It’s that maniac, Bones,” Draken said, his voice suddenly furious. “That’s his number, isn’t it? 13? Only that psychopath would decide to attack the best bloody player on his own gods-damned team…”

I felt myself pale as Draken’s words sank in.

“You meanStrangemore?”I asked in disbelief. “Bones attacked Graham?”

Draken gave me an annoyed look, right before his eyes returned to the screen. I looked at Miranda instead, and the currently pink-haired witch with pale pink irises nodded, her lips pursed as she went back to staring at the screen alongside Draken.

“Strangemore’s number 8,” Luc confirmed, when I glanced at him.

I followed their stares back to the screen.

I hadn’t talked to Bones in days.

I’d deliberately kept him out of my head since Wraith showed up with that hand-written card. I hadn’t wanted to hear him jeer at me in person, or gloat over the fact that I was having sex dreams about him, which he clearly knew, and obviously found to be positively hilarious. I didn’t particularly want to see the disgust in his eyes while he contemplated me fantasizing about him, either, or whatever he’d decided was happening.

I’d ignored the one note he’d sent me at Frumpy’s to meet him in his Experimental Magic shed compartment, and theother note he dropped on my desk in Theurgy, telling me he needed to talk to me.

I didn’t intend to terminate our deal entirely?I couldn’t, really, given how invested I was now, and how much access he’d proven he had?but I definitely needed a break from it, and I didn’t much care if Bones had a problem with that or not.

If nothing else, I needed to feel a little less utterly mortified by all of it.

Both players crashed into the river as I watched the end of the dive.

They popped up on the screen, and I saw Bones’ actual face. His mask had come off, and his jaw was bloody again. He wound up and punched what must have been Strangemore over the mask, and the audience on both sides let out a collective, shocked cry.

Behind me, I heard a distincttskof contemptuous disapproval.

I didn’t have to look back to know where it came from.

What must have been a referee or some other official darted down to that part of the river, blowing a whistle and waving them off. But two members of the Malcroix Bones team had ahold of Bones by then and were dragging him out of the water, waterlogged wings and all, while two other players pulled Strangemore in the opposite direction.

Strangemore shoved up his own mask then, and his mouth was moving, his hand gesturing angrily as he shouted something at Bones. His face looked bruised and was already swelling. He looked positively livid, far more angry than anything else.

“It looks like we’re losing a player early today, Skyhunt fans,” the voice boomed over the loudspeaker. “Number 13 on the Malcroix Bones Skulls, Caelum Bones, has just been officially fouled out. The ref issued him a card for unsportsmanlike behavior. He’s out for the remainder of today’s tournament?”

Draken, still on his feet, clapped and whistled.

He wasn’t the only one, although I heard a number of boos from the stands below, as well.

I glanced at the three trolls sitting at the front of the box, and wondered how close they’d come to being knocked out of their seats and down onto the pitch by the dueling mages. If they resented that fact, it didn’t show. Far from booing with the others in the crowd, they were laughing. Norrick grinned at me and winked before returning his eyes to the screen over their box, and chuckling again.