by Megan Linski
Liam walked across the stage rigidly, but Jonah and Imogen didn’t let the comments bother them. They smiled and waved, looking excited like they were supposed to.
All I wanted to do was run back the way I came and find a place to hide in the woods or something. The tournament couldn’t be any worse than what it felt like to walk across that stage. I thought I might puke right there in front of everyone.
My eyes scanned the stadium walls, keeping my gaze above everyone’s head so I wouldn’t have to look at the faces of my fellow Hawkei who were basically cheering for my death. My gaze fell upon a pair of huge screens. The first was an image of my team walking across the stage, reflecting this exact moment. I saw the surprise cross my expression when the camera angle switched to a close-up of my face.
Uncomfortable didn’t even begin to cut it.
Beside that screen was another that showed the team colors in rows, with stats alongside them. Underneath the bets column, I saw that only three bets had been placed for our team.
Probably Amelia, Baine, and Imogen’s parents. The Red Team was up to over six thousand bets.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” I whispered to Imogen, but she didn’t hear me over the roar of the crowd.
We stopped next to Alric at centerstage. He guided us to stand on small stickers stuck to the stage floor while the announcer continued his spiel.
“First up, we have Imogen Ahnild, Nivita, with her Familiar Sassy, a red fox!” The announcer made it all sound exciting, but the crowd didn’t look pleased in the slightest. Still, Imogen beamed and waved to them despite the booing.
“Next up, Jonah Chanee, Yapluma, with his Familiar Squeaks, a hippogriff!” a second announcer said.
My heart raced, and my mouth went dry. I knew they were coming to me next, and I feared what they might say about me… about Esis.
“Beside Chanee, Sophia Henley, Koigni, with her Familiar… oh dear ancestors, what is that thing?” The first announcer let out a deep belly laugh as the cameras zoomed in on Esis.
I pulled him close to my chest. The entire stadium broke out into laughter, but he didn’t notice. Esis just waved at them as if he was the star of the tournament.
“I think that may be a rabbit of sorts, Louis,” the second announcer cut in.
“You think so, Eli?” the first announcer said.
“Maybe a chinchilla?” Eli guessed.
“That is certainly what it looks like,” Louis said with a laugh. “Either way, I don’t think it’s going to help them in the tournament.”
“I think you’re right, Louis.” Eli chuckled. “Let’s move on to our final contestant on the White Team. Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for Liam Mitoh, Toaqua, with his Familiar—"
Eli cut off mid-sentence, and my blood ran cold. The camera’s focused on Liam’s face. His jaw was tense, and his skin had gone pale. One by one, the audience members began to fall silent until only whispers passed over the stadium. It was agonizing.
Eli cleared his throat into the microphone. “Liam Mitoh, Toaqua. Familiar diseased.”
A gasp spread across the audience, but I had the feeling they weren’t surprised at all about Nashoma’s death. It was more like they were shocked Liam was showing his face and still going through with this.
Liam rolled his eyes straight at the camera and turned to Alric. “Can we get this over with or what?”
Alric’s blank expression turned into a forced grin, and he leaned into his microphone. “Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, the White Team!”
Nobody clapped for us except Imogen, Jonah, and Esis.
“Before we welcome our next team, is there anything your team would like to say?” Worry touched the corners of Alric’s eyes.
Liam stepped forward, but Imogen slipped in front of the microphone before he could reach it.
“I think I speak for my entire team when I say we’re really excited to be here,” Imogen said in an excited voice I could tell was fake. “I won’t let you down, Mom and Dad.” She blew a kiss to the crowd before turning on her heel and gesturing for us to follow her to the other side of the stage where rows of chairs were set up for the contestants.
“What was that for?” Liam growled when we took our seats.
Imogen shrugged as they called the next team on stage. “I didn’t trust you. You’d probably flip off the whole tribe on TV.”
Liam looked momentarily shocked, but it quickly turned into a smirk.
“Translation,” Jonah leaned over and whispered to me, “he was totally planning it.”
Liam frowned. “I was not. Shut up and watch the ceremony.”
It felt like hours before all the teams made it across the stage. Any hope I had of making it through this tournament gradually waned as they presented more and more powerful Familiars.
By the time Haley’s group made it on stage, I was feeling completely hopeless.
“Red Team,” Alric said. “Is there anything you’d like to say?”
Haley was the first at the microphone. Anwara fluffed her feathers, looking proud on camera. “We’re so grateful for everyone’s support,” she said in a sickly sweet tone.
Ugh. Gag. She was so fake.
“We can’t imagine how we’d ever make it through this tournament if you didn’t believe in us.” Haley shot a smirking glance my way.
I didn’t let my emotions show since we were on camera, but inside, I was fuming. She was using her speech to insult us! Bitch, our three people believe in us more than your six thousand put together!
“You can rest assured that the Red Team will make it back to the finish line first,” Haley concluded. “May the ancestors bless you!” Haley waved at the cameras, a big fake smile plastered on her face.
Alric stepped to the microphone as Haley’s team headed for their seats. “As you all know, it is now time to send the contestants on their way. We will be coming to you live as soon as they hit the course. Ladies and gentlemen, one last round of applause for the contestants of this year’s Elemental Cup!”
The crowd went wild. All around us, the contestants stood and cheered. I quickly got to my feet to join them, but I merely clapped for show.
Soon we were ushered backstage and outside, where the covered carriages we rode in were waiting for us. This time, however, they weren’t being pulled by anything.
“Everybody in,” Goatee Guy shouted. “Larger Familiars will follow behind you. All you need to remember is to head for the flag. Good luck!”
Our team climbed into our carriage. Squeaks got in last, squeezing herself between the facing benches so that her feathers brushed our legs. It was a tight fit.
“What do you think our first task will be?” Imogen asked.
“I don’t know,” Liam replied flatly. “That’s kind of the idea, isn’t it? To surprise us. That’s what Baine’s been training us for.”
I sighed and stared out the window. “I hate surprises.”
Jonah smirked. “Sweetheart, you’d better get used to them.”
Just as he said it, the carriage lurched into the air like an elevator. I immediately went tense and gripped the side of my seat.
“It’s just Yapluma,” Jonah said lightheartedly. “Same way they move the cruise ship around.”
I breathed a sigh. “Oh.”
“Okay, so our team motto?” Imogen said as our carriage rose into the sky. “What was your suggestion, Liam? Let’s not fucking die?”
Liam’s expression was a strange cross between amusement and anger. “You betcha.”
Imogen nodded. “Okay. I like it. No matter what, I’ve got your back.”
“Me, too,” I agreed.
“Me, three,” Jonah said.
Liam sighed. “If I have to…”
“Yes,” Imogen insisted, sticking her hand in the middle of the carriage above Squeaks’ back. “Let’s not fucking die on one, two, three?”
I stuck my hand on top of hers, and Jonah followed. Liam didn’t do anything,
until Jonah punched him in the arm. Liam sighed and stuck his hand out.
“One… two… three…” Imogen said.
We cheered the team motto, but it was anything but in unison. Everyone said it at a different time. Imogen and I laughed. Even Liam even cracked a nervous smile. I glanced back out the window to see we were high above the ground now and headed out over the ocean.
“Is everyone feeling all right?” I asked.
“As good as I’ll ever be,” Liam answered.
“Good,” I said, pointing. “Because I think our first task is Water.”
Everyone glanced out the windows to the vast ocean below us. Sassy peeked out the window beside Imogen.
“There’s an island!” Imogen shouted, pointing.
Jonah groaned. “And the flag for the finish line is way over there on the mainland.”
I glanced to where he pointed and saw a huge orange flag flapping above the trees near the horizon. There were miles upon miles between us and the finish line. We had to make it across the ocean, over a mountain and through a large part of the woods before even coming close. I couldn’t even see Kinpago or the castle from here.
“Crossing the ocean shouldn’t be hard,” I said. “I mean, Liam can control the water. Squeaks can take me and Imogen over, and Jonah can fly.”
Jonah’s eyebrows shot up. “You’ve really never watched one of these things before.”
I shook my head. I mean, that much was obvious.
“You’re delusional if you think the only thing we have to do is cross the ocean,” Jonah said. “Princess, there’s going to be a thousand things that will knock you on your ass before you make it back to the mainland.”
I held my breath. How bad could it be?
“We don’t have any more time to strategize,” Imogen said as our carriage descended.
We landed softly on the sandy beach of a small island miles off the coast. The other teams began piling out of their carriages, glancing around and keeping an eye out for the first obstacle— whatever it was. I reached for the carriage door.
“Wait,” Imogen said, placing her hand on mine to stop me. “Whatever happens out there, I want you guys to know I love you.”
Imogen had no idea how comforting that was.
“I love you guys, too,” I said, glancing between each of them. My cheeks went beet-red when my eyes connected with Liam’s. I quickly averted my gaze and climbed over Squeaks to duck out of the carriage just as Jonah was professing his love for us, “but not in that way.”
Once all contestants were on solid ground, the line of carriages rose into the air and headed back toward the mainland. Two dragons and a Pegasus circled above us, each with a person on their back. They didn’t wear the contestant uniforms, so I had to guess they were the camera crew.
I glanced to the other teams, but everyone looked just as clueless as we were. The Pink Team was already working on an earth bridge, while the guy with the dragon was ushering his team onto his Familiar’s back. Haley just stood there with her hands on her hips, staring out into the ocean. She looked positively relaxed, like she knew what was coming and already had a plan of attack.
“Who wants to bet Doya was cheating beyond holding extra practices?” I muttered.
“There’s a reason Doya’s team is always one of the top picks,” Imogen sneered.
“Team motto, guys,” Liam snapped. “We’re not here to beat the other teams. Let’s just focus on getting to the finish line in one piece.”
“Agreed—" I started to say, but a high-pitched scream across the beach cut me off. Several people gasped around us as the sky turned an almost immediate dark gray.
“Incoming!” Jonah yelled.
I followed his gaze, and terror spiked through my body. We didn’t have time to discuss our plan.
A tidal wave was headed straight for us.
Sophia and the rest of the group were looking at the massive wave coming toward us like it was their doom.
I knew better. I could feel the water moving the moment we were put on this island. There wasn’t just one giant tidal wave coming toward us.
There were four.
On all sides. And I could feel the people controlling them. They were Elders. I couldn’t stop them, not even if I tried. I turned on the spot. Sure enough, three other waves equal in size to the first were barreling toward us. Such a thing shouldn’t be possible— most Toaqua would find something like that impossible to pull off, as it went against the rules of nature— but apparently the tribe was pulling out all the stops for this tournament.
Everyone else on my team had realized what I’d known minutes before. They started screaming as the waves rushed toward us at a high speed.
I had to get us off this island. If I didn’t, I’d hopefully survive, but the rest of my team would certainly drown.
The majority of the other teams were already off the island. The Pink Team was running down the earth bridge they’d made while their Toaqua member made a shield around them with water to push back the tidal wave. The wave simply moved around the blockade and kept going. The Silver Team was flying over the ocean on a dragon, safe far above the waves, and the Green Team had created a boat out of water. They sailed over the tidal waves a little less successfully, though no one fell out as far as I could see. The Orange Toaqua member had taken her team underwater and was trying to pull them through the inside of the wave by a bubble she’d created, but that was risky. Even from this distance, I could tell she was at risk of losing control.
Purple had decided to tag-team the challenge, with their Yapluma member flying two people above the ocean and the Toaqua teammate skirting himself and another partner overtop of the waves.
The Blue Team had created a chamber of ice and was skating across the water, though it wasn’t working very well. The water pressed down on the ice tunnel, making it crack under the pressure of the wave, and people were slipping inside trying to get away from the raging water.
Yellow wasn’t doing much better. They’d gotten off the island, but their Toaqua was a First Year. It was all he could do to keep his team’s heads above water as the ocean battered them this way and that. Their Familiars, a unicorn, a chimera, a gargoyle and a manatee, pushed their Elementai onto their backs and tried to paddle through the violent waves, though the approaching tidal wave soon swallowed them all.
Haley, as always, was prepared. She and her team were calmly riding on the back of a liopleurodon, who assassinated the waves. The giant marine reptile handled the waves like they were nothing while Dina, the Toaqua team member I knew, kept the rest of them dry as her Familiar did all the work of getting them to the mainland.
“Liam!” Sophia screamed at me. “What do we do?”
I realized we were still the only team left without a game-plan, and froze. My mind calculated our options. We didn’t have many.
“Put the Familiars on Squeak’s back, and send them away,” I ordered. “They won’t be any use out here. Jonah, send Squeaks to shore to wait for us.”
“Do what he says!” Jonah shouted at Squeaks, waving his hand. She hesitated and stomped her hooves, looking scared at the prospect of leaving Jonah.
Sophia was crying as she put Esis onto Squeaks’ back. Esis grabbed hold of Squeaks’ feathers and tilted his head, like he didn’t understand. Imogen was upset, but she at least seemed somber as she put Sassy onto Squeaks’ haunches.
“Sophia, we’ll see them soon, I promise,” I told her, and she nodded.
The waves were growing closer. I pointedly looked at Jonah, and he smacked Squeaks on the hindquarters, shouting, “Squeaks, go!”
Squeaks took off. She soared into the sky, taking Esis and Sassy away to safety. The three of them looked at me, seeming even more lost now that their Familiars were gone.
“What now?” Imogen asked weakly.
I knew this was my task, but ancestors, did I have to do everything? “Hold on!” I told them. I created a spinning waterspout that reached out and grab
bed the three of them by the waists. They screamed, and I concentrated on making the waterspout larger, growing it above the approaching tidal waves. Soon, they were high above me, appearing like tiny dots in the sky, though I could still hear them screaming their heads off. I trusted Jonah to regulate the air for the girls so they’d be able to breathe as I increased the height of the waterspout.
Any time I had left to get myself off the island was wasted. Sound was drowned out by the roar of the waves. They blocked out all light, darkening the island and creating shadows. Each wave had to be fifteen-hundred feet tall. They’d crush me when they came down.
I barely got my teammates above the approaching tsunami before it crashed down upon me. I managed to create a small shield of water around my form that took most of the blow and made it so the water wouldn’t break my bones, but that singular act of pushing back the waves completely shattered my magic and made me weak. My shield broke, and I was caught up in the undercurrent. I held my breath just before the waves dragged me under.
The average person could hold their breath for up to two minutes underwater. I could go for six. People like Baine could withstand ten, but I wasn’t going to push my luck. I tried figuring out which way was up, but the waves spun me around so much I lost all sense of direction. I was quickly pulled a hundred feet below the surface. I couldn’t swim. I couldn’t do anything but let the ocean do as it wanted with me.
My poor mother was probably watching the TV right now and wailing in grief. It would be really embarrassing for my tribe that the Toaqua chief’s son had been killed by his own element, but with how my year was going, I really shouldn’t have expected anything else. I bet when Haley won, she’d go back home and rewind the moment of my death over and over, laughing harder and harder each time she saw it. A Toaqua drowning. Hilarious.
Even so, in the back of my mind, I made sure that Jonah, Imogen and Sophia were safe and far out of the tsunami’s reach.
The waves spun me around. I was at the mercy of them— until I realized that I was born to be in water, that it was time to act and stop being stupid. If I died, my magic would stop working and my team would end up just like me.