Page 69

A fter the swamp, we ran a literal gauntlet of things trying to kill us. In no particular order there was:

A cavern of spiders.

Gas that caused hallucinations – Gary totally saved us on that one, seeing the gas before anyone else did.

Potions we had to create in order to open a door to safety while we were being rushed by rabid lions.

Poison arrows. One came straight for me, and I ducked but I knew I wasn’t going to be fast enough.

A rune was cast from behind me, deflecting it. The only person behind me was Typhon.

“Doyen Moreno,” I said. “You breaking rules?”

“No.” But I knew the feel of his magic, and the bond between us thrummed. He surely had deflected the arrow, but he wasn’t going to admit it. Fine. I wasn’t about to tattle on him.

And that was just the highlights. We spent the rest of the day and half the night running, fighting, throwing runes, and using everything we’d learned up to that point, and a few things we learned on the fly.

Finally, sometime in the middle of the night, Phyllis found us another foxhole, the tree etched into the wall, and I had never been so happy to stand still.

This foxhole was open to the sky, and it was raining lightly.

I tipped my face upward and let the rain wash some of the dirt, sweat and blood away.

The color of the sky though ... the northern lights were more red than any other color and that caused more than a little fear to drive through me.

Typhon had stayed far quieter with Nikita around, barely speaking, all his emotions through the bond clamped down, quiet.

Nikita was still blessedly gagged. We’d tried taking it off, but she just screeched like a banshee, trying to bring down the other teams on us.

We had no idea how many of the other teams had been removed, and then put back in. Who had stolen other flags? Had anyone gotten through to the center of the Coliseum?

House Felinita we’d only seen in passing.

They hadn’t even tried to fight it out with us and we couldn’t catch them to take their flag – Doyenne Parunah, and Doyenne Storm who had previously belonged to House Wolven.

I silently cheered for them, knowing that they’d outsmarted House Wolven in order to take their flag.

House Wolven, who we’d beaten, but barely, had come after us a second time – they’d already lost Doyenne Storm at that point. Houses Unicorna and Kelpish still had their own flags when we crossed paths. They’d both run from us.

Then there was Draconell. They’d come after us with a vengeance. Awesome.

So far, we’d kept everyone at bay. Draconell without their little magic boosting item were not as strong as us.

Our two captured “flags” were put over against the wall, as far from the only entrance into the cavern, and as far from our team as possible as we pulled a huddle together. We probably looked like the most ragged football team in the world. But we were still standing. We still had everyone.

Fable was on my left, Phyllis on my right. I looked at the people I’d grown to care for, no matter how hard I’d tried not to. I made eye contact with each of them as I spoke.

“The last fight is coming. They told us the third day was like a massive showdown of abilities. That means we will be fighting one on one. Taking turns, right Phyllis?”

Phyllis nodded. “Correct. It will go down to the last man standing on each team. That’s how we gain the most points.”

Ellie paled. “I hate fighting.”

“I know. You’re going to go last. From behind the lines, you are going to cast your healing runes on our team. Okay? That’s your job. Keep us as strong as you can. If you end up in the ring, or fight, or frucking octagon, whatever they have, you yield. Okay?”

Her back stiffened. “I won’t yield.”

“But –”

“I hate it, but I can do it. This is my family I’m fighting for.” Her hand was wrapped up in Caterina’s. “Right? We’re a family.”

My throat got tight. I nodded and tried to clear the tension in my neck. “Yes. We are. Fable, you have the rod?”

Gary snickered and I rolled my eyes. “Unless you have a better name for it? Tube of death maybe?”

“Does it need a name?” Ellie asked.

“Maybe a Latin name?” Fable offered.

I looked at my friends. “I don’t think –”

“Regardless of what you call it, it can be taken from you if you lose it when holding it.” Typhon said. We all looked at him. “And if you lose it, another team has that advantage.”

I held up my hands. “Fine. We can’t use it, because if one of us loses, it will go to the other team. So, we leave it with Phyllis. Agreed?”

Everyone nodded.

What I didn’t tell them was that I’d been using the gift Typhon had given me to scour through rune books in the short time I’d had it before the games.

And I’d found a rune that, if I could cast it well .

.. I could give them some of my own strength.

If I was next to Phyllis, I might even be able to pull some power through the still unnamed tube of death.

Yeah, that was stupid. But I was too tired to come up with anything better.

I was crossing my fingers on that last one. “We set wards. Get some sleep if you can. Tomorrow will come fast and it’s going to be a beech. No snooping for food. Just stick close.”

Marina winced a little but other than that, everyone settled down. I thought there would be no sleep for me, but again, Typhon turned his back to the others, and cast a rune that settled my mind, and I slept for the few hours we had.

The next morning, I jerked awake, smelling bacon. “You frucking well didn’t!” I yelled as I scrambled to my feet.

Marina held her hands up. “I had some bacon and toast left, I kept it in my pocket and, don’t gross out, but I was able to duplicate it this morning. There’s enough for a BLT, no L and no T for everyone.”

I let out a breath. “Good job. Sorry I freaked.” I took the bacon sandwich and had a bite. It was a bit soggy and tasted faintly of the swamp, but it was food. And we needed fuel to get through this.

Nikita refused the sandwich, but Typhon let me feed him his. We’d put his cuffs back on him, once we had Nikita under wraps. You know, keeping things fair.

The familiar grinding of the walls stilled everyone.

The Coliseum opened up in front of us, the walls peeling back and revealing a literal coliseum – yes, just like the one in Rome.

“Welcome and well done to you all, so far!” Tarquinius’s voice boomed through the air. “Now, to the final fights. One on one, it will be a single winner take all, giving their team an additional one hundred points.”

I turned to face the others. “Caterina, you still good with starting us off?”

She rolled her shoulders, flexed her fingers, cracking each knuckle. She was one of our better hand-to-hand fighters, and she was quick, even if she didn’t have a Quirk yet. “Hell yeah, Let’s show them who they’re messing with.”

I looked back at Phyllis who was pale again. “What’s wrong?”

She shot a look at me. “The skies are dark, Harlow.”

I looked up. There was not a cloud in sight. “The sky is blue ... Are you okay?”

“No,” she whispered.

What was up with her? I didn’t have time to ask. We stepped out of the shadow of the foxhole and into the Coliseum proper. There were few cheers for us. Opie screamed my name louder than anyone, Krishna next to her, bouncing and cheering.

I took note that the Runecoats were still there, spread out around as before. None of them were cheering.

But as a whole, the students of Neverthorn cheered for the other teams.

I scanned the remaining competitors and winced.

There were a lot of them and only seven of us left, eight if we counted Phyllis.

“Fruuuuuck,” Gary breathed. “That is not good math.”

Tarquinius strolled out into the middle of the arena.

“Ah, extra points for the House of Phoenix for capturing not one, but two flags. Well done. Perhaps you will live up to all of our expectations after all. You didn’t lose a single teammate, nor did your team ever need a restart.

A slight adjustment to the next challenge, the final one today.

You will face everyone over seventeen from the other teams, regardless of their losses.

One on one, House Phoenix against the combined might of the other houses.

This is necessary to prove your strength in battle.

To prove you can face Nocta when the time comes. ”

The crowd sucked in a collective breath, and I felt my friends behind me do the same.

“That is unfair!” Liam shouted. “You can’t be serious?”

Tarquinius didn’t take his eyes from us. “We must test them fully, Doyen O’Connor. Would you have them fail when they face Nocta?”

I mean ... how did you say no to that? You didn’t.

“Sir,” Typhon took a step. “I agree with O’Connor, this seems unnecessary.”

Tarquinius ignored him completely and snapped his fingers – both Typhon and Nikita were flown through the air to him, their handcuffs disappearing, and the mud and dirt scrubbed from their bodies.

Mother goddess Hecate ... we were facing all the others. Not just another team. No quarter finals. All of them.

“What do the extra points do for us?” I yelled at him.

He smiled in my direction. “You can have two losses and still continue – one for each flag – and then that fighter can continue later, or another in their place.” Essentially that gave us two extra fighters if we were careful.

And we had Ellie to heal them up, a little piece of information that Tarquinius had no clue about.

I grinned. “Works for us.”

My grin seemed to unnerve him, and his smile faltered. Which only made me grin wider.

I motioned for my team, already strategizing. “Caterina you still go in first, but when you get hurt, I’m pulling you. Then we’ll get you healed up and put you back in later. Okay? We can do it twice, but if we don’t have to lose anyone, we aren’t going to.”

Ellie nodded. “I can heal you easier if you come off the mats.”

“Who’s going to be the other sub?” Ross asked, looking hopeful.