by Tracy Wolff
Rafael makes a lunge for him, but Jaxon avoids him and fades his way straight to the goal line.
The whole match is over in less than two minutes, and no one is more surprised than I am that I actually played an important part in helping us win.
Once I’m down on the ground, Macy throws her arms around my shoulders and shouts, “One down, three to go.”
“Three to go,” I echo, grinning from ear to ear. Maybe this won’t be so bad after all…
76
From Jock to
Cock-a-Doodle-Doo
The rest of the day passes in a blur of excitement and anxiety, exhaustion and adrenaline rushes.
Our second match takes more than twenty-five minutes and nearly destroys us, while our third match is even worse. We pull it out, though, then watch in disgust as team twelve beats team three in a game that stretches forty-five minutes long and leaves the team led by the alpha wolf, Cole, as the only other one standing.
“Oh shit,” Xavier snarls, and there’s a wealth of rage in those two words. He drops back down onto the bleachers as Cole runs the ball across the goal line, much to the excitement of half the stadium.
The other half groans in dismay, and I groan right along with them. Considering our history with Cole, that wolf is going to be out for blood.
Normally, it would be strange for Xavier to have the same feelings I do, since Cole is technically his alpha. But Xavier is a relatively new transfer to Katmere, too—he’s only been here about a year—and as I’ve learned over the last couple of days, not a big fan of the school’s alpha.
Not that I blame him. Cole is a total jerk, and that’s putting it mildly. Then again, stealing a guy’s canine will likely piss off even the best person, and Cole is definitely not that.
“He’s a total arse,” Hudson says. “Personally, I think someone should have challenged him a long time ago.”
“Give Xavier time,” I respond. “I’m pretty sure that’s coming before the end of the year.”
He grins. “I knew there was a reason I liked that wolf.”
“Look at it this way,” I tell Xavier as I reach over and grab his hand in solidarity. “After today, he’s going to be so humiliated that everything else that happened before isn’t even going to register.”
“You mean like when Jaxon drained him in front of the whole school?” Xavier says, with a wicked gleam in his eye. “Or like when someone else drained him in the middle of the night? Or—”
“Yes,” I tell him. “Yes, that’s exactly what I mean.”
“Oh, goodie.” He grins. “Please, universe. Please let me be the one to plow my elbow straight down his throat in the middle of a pileup.”
“I was thinking your foot,” I tease him. “But if you want to go small…”
His smile turns into a full-on belly laugh as he holds a hand up for a high five. “Girl, I like your style.”
“Good,” I tell him as I slap my hand against his. “Because you’re pretty much the only one in this whole school who does.”
“That’s totally not true,” Eden says, dropping back to wrap a hand around my shoulder. “Any girl who can keep Jaxon and Hudson Vega in line at the same time is a girl I can get behind.”
I just shake my head. “You’ve got a very broad definition of ‘in line.’”
“Hey!” Jaxon yelps. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
I roll my eyes at him teasingly. “It means that I’m not sure who’s more trouble. You or your brother.”
“My brother,” he and Hudson say at the exact same time.
“I rest my case.”
“You know,” Flint tells Xavier quietly as the mandatory fifteen-minute rest period kicks in for the other team, “if you need to kind of chill out this game, so you don’t piss off your alpha, we get it.”
“Umm, no, we don’t,” Macy grumps. “Cole’s got a solid team. We’re going to need every single one of us.”
“I don’t understand, either,” Xavier answers, looking completely affronted. “What kind of asshole do you think I am?”
“The kind who has to live under this alpha for at least another year,” Flint tells him. “We can still kick their asses, even if you need to hang back a little.”
“I’m not hanging back!” Xavier looks seriously pissed as he goes into full peacock mode. Chest out, feathers up, and eyes wild with a vicious annoyance. “Give me half a chance, and I’ll be the first one to kick that guy’s ass, alpha or not.”
“Okay, okay.” Flint holds up a conciliatory hand. “I just thought I’d offer.”
“Yeah, well, don’t do me any favors,” Xavier tells him, and it’s obvious he’s still pissed.
I wait a few minutes before I move over to sit next to him. “You know Flint didn’t mean any harm, right?” I say quietly.
“I’m not a punk,” he fires back. “I didn’t come this far with you guys just to sell you out to make things easier for myself. That’s not who I am.”
“I know,” I tell him as Macy moves to sit on his other side.
“I think you’re super brave going against Cole,” she tells him, and I swear he puffs up a little more right in front of us. And since he’s in good hands with Macy, I move back to Jaxon—just in time for the bell to go off, warning us to get to the field.
“You’ve got this,” Jaxon tells me, giving me a hug for luck as we move toward the field. “You’re a badass, Grace, so just go for it.”
Once we’re there, it’s to see that Cyrus himself is waiting to escort us onto the field. Of course he is. No way would he let the final match go on without him.
I’ve managed to avoid him since he arrived, so this will be the first time I’ll get the up-close-and-personal introduction. Super excited…not. #ratherhavearootcanal
He smiles when he sees Jaxon, but there’s no warmth in it at all. And the cold blue eyes he runs over me might be the same shade as Hudson’s, but the look in them gives me the creeps in a really big way.
I try to ignore him—and the stakes of this final game—but as I line up on the purple paint between Xavier and Macy, my stomach goes from tight to doing backward somersaults.
Because while this might just be a game to everyone else in the arena, for me this means a whole lot more. I lean forward to look at Jaxon, maybe even try to catch his attention, but he and Flint are in an intense eye fight with the guys on the other team directly facing them. Any other time, I’d be amused at their intensity, but right now, I’m trying not to vomit up funnel cake and humiliate myself in front of my mate.
“You’ve got this,” Hudson tells me. “Just fly your badass heart out and you’ll do great.”
I don’t know about that. I look across at Cole’s team, which is made up of some of the biggest assholes in the school—big surprise. I glance at Jaxon, who’s been holding his own all day but is definitely showing signs of fatigue, although far less than I’d have imagined with Hudson still feeding on the mating bond. I have a feeling I’m about to get my ass handed to me.
“Look at it this way,” he tells me with a wicked grin. “At the end of the day, there are way worse asses that you could have in your hands.”
Wow. Those are your words of wisdom?
“I’m not old enough to be wise, so yeah. Pretty much.” I can sense his smile fade. “Also, this isn’t the only bloodstone in the world. It’s the easiest to get our hands on, but it’s not the only one. So whatever happens in this game, it’s going to be okay. Okay?”
The tightness in my chest eases. Thank you.
“Good. Now go kick that smug werewolf’s ass, will you, please?”
I grit my teeth. I’ll do my best.
I take a deep breath and stare back across the line at Cole’s team. They still look like the biggest assholes in the school, so that hasn’t changed.
But the knot in
my stomach is a lot looser, and Hudson’s words keep playing in my head. No matter what happens here, everything is going to be okay. I can work with that.
“Ready?” Flint asks from where he and Jaxon are lined up in the center of our team.
When we all nod, he grins and says, “Okay, then. Let’s kick some alpha werewolf ass.”
Two seconds later, the whistle blows.
Cyrus definitely has the same strength his sons do, because the ball goes up, up, up until it nearly touches the stadium’s ceiling. Still, the second it starts to fall, all hell breaks loose.
Or at least, that’s what it feels like when you’re in the middle of a vampire, a werewolf, a dragon, and a witch all racing for the same ball.
Flint lets out a billow of ice straight at Cole and his teammate, a witch by the name of Jacqueline. The ice hits her, and she freezes for ten seconds, but Cole jumps over the blast as he dives for the ball. Jaxon’s there before him, though, his telekinesis knocking the ball out of Cole’s range. But he blasts it so hard that he sends it spinning straight up at the roof again.
The crowd groans at the mistake, and so do I as I send him a little “you’ve got this” vibe down the mating bond. He sends a laugh back, and that’s when I realize it wasn’t a mistake at all. Because Flint’s partially shifted, and he’s already up there waiting to snatch the ball right out of the air.
Cole bellows in rage as Flint snags the ball and fully shifts in midair, now flying straight toward the goal line as fast as he can go. He’s been air-bound about ten seconds, and he likely can make it to the goal in the twenty seconds of flight he has left, but the ball has started burning red in his hands. And by the time he’s halfway to the goal, he can’t disguise the ripples of pain echoing through him. He has to toss the ball to Eden, who’s launched herself into the air after him.
She reaches for the ball, a huge smile on her face as she realizes just how close to the goal line they are. Even I hold my breath, wondering if this match is really going to be over this easily.
But out of nowhere, one of the vamps on Cole’s team jumps and intercepts the ball.
It’s Flint’s turn to shout as the vamp hits the ground with a solid thud and starts fading toward the opposite goal line. He’s almost there, and now I’ve gone from excited to totally freaking out, thinking there’s no way we’re going to catch him. But then Mekhi pops out of a portal a few feet from the goal line and charges straight into him.
Yay!
I’m so excited that I start clapping, even as the ensuing crash makes a deep crater in the field. The crowd gasps, thinking one of them might be hurt, but Mekhi just rolls through it, picking the ball up from under the other vampire as he does. And disappears straight into another portal.
This one lets him out at center field, but the ball is already starting to glow red-hot. Mekhi’s grimacing as he looks around—for Jaxon or Flint, I assume—but they’ve both fallen through portals in their race to get to the other vampire.
Xavier races up behind him, though—Cole hot on his ass—and grabs the ball before somersaulting through the air and literally diving into the closest portal, one hand holding the ball tucked up close to his side.
“Where is he; where is he?” Macy shouts as she looks wildly around the field, but none of us has an answer for her because he’s not out yet. The seconds tick by, and I start to panic, because if someone isn’t close to him when he finally makes it out of the portal, we are totally and completely screwed.
I glance at the clock on the side of the field. It reads twenty-seven seconds when Xavier finally emerges from the portal, which means he has three seconds to give the ball away before it starts to burn him. And I’m standing exactly three feet away from him.
Shit.
He throws the ball at me and I fumble it, nearly drop it as nerves race through me. The crowd goes nuts, but I’m beyond listening as I struggle to hold on to the edge of the ball as Cole comes barreling straight at me.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
After several hours of playing, I’m not ashamed to admit I’m feeling the strain. I need to get the ball and shift fast, but I hesitate, worried it’ll take the last of my strength and Cole will finally get his revenge. But I clench my jaw and narrow my eyes on the ball. I’ve got this.
I manage to get a grip on it at the exact same time Cole launches himself at me, and I shift on the run, shoot straight into the air the second I’ve got my wings. Cole manages to grab on to my foot, though, and he’s so strong that I can’t shake him off.
Which means I’m basically flying through the stadium with Cole hanging off me. Which, okay, except the ball is really starting to vibrate, and I’m going to have to land soon, something I won’t be able to do with a werewolf attached to my damn foot.
Thankfully, Eden is racing toward me, her purple dragon wings catching huge air, but the ball is starting to vibrate so hard that I don’t think I can hold on much longer. Plus, I’m a little afraid I’m going to lose a finger. But this is for the bloodstone. This is to get Hudson out of my head. So I do the only thing I can think of, the only thing that will get Cole off me. I lift my other foot up and kick Cole straight in the face as hard as I can.
He screams, but he lets go, falling about fifteen feet to the ground below, and I turn around and throw the ball straight at Eden.
She catches it with a dragon’s roar and a thumbs-up, and then she’s racing toward the finish line. She’s almost there and the crowd is on their feet, chanting for her—and so are we—when one of the witches from Cole’s team hits her with a spell that has her spinning wildly toward the ground.
Shit!
Fear grips me by the throat as I worry about her getting hurt—dragon or not, that’s a really long fall, and if it’s a nearly fatal one, she’ll be disqualified and magically removed from the game—but Jaxon blasts out with his telekinesis and keeps her from slamming into the ground. Before one of us can get the ball from her, though, the other werewolf on Cole’s team swoops in and grabs it.
Macy and I race toward him, but he dives into a portal right before one of us gets there. To my surprise, Macy dives in after him. Twenty-five seconds later, they finally emerge, but he’s lying stunned on the ground and she’s got the ball. It’s burning red-hot, though, so she throws it to Xavier, who catches it on the fly.
The only problem? They’re all the way at the other end of the field again, and Cole’s entire team is between them and the goal line. Then again, so are we.
Xavier runs for twenty seconds, dodging hexes and dragon fire and even a vampire bite to the shoulder as Mekhi and Jaxon try to fight off a witch and a dragon so one of them can fade to him.
Gwen and I race forward, happy that everyone else is occupied, but before either of us can get to Xavier, Cole brings him down with a body slam about halfway up the field. Xavier’s not going out with a fight, however, and he rolls away, clutching the ball to his chest as it burns hotter and vibrates so hard, I can hear it halfway across the field.
Just then, Cole slices a massive claw straight toward Xavier’s arm. I wince in anticipation of how much it’s going to hurt, even if Xavier’s magically protected from the claw piercing skin. But at the last second, Cole flicks his wrist and the claw misses Xavier’s arm entirely.
But it turns out Cole wasn’t aiming for the arm at all. Everyone in the stadium gasps as, instead, he slices the magical bracelet on Xavier’s wrist clean off. We watch it fall to the ground as if in slow motion. Xavier’s eyes widen when he finally realizes what the rest of us have already caught on to. Cole’s next blow, his clawed hand already arcing above Xavier, is headed straight for Xavier’s unprotected throat.
My heart stutters in my chest. Gwen is pretty close, but not close enough to help Xavier. And neither am I. No one is.
The whole stadium is on their feet as Cole’s razor-sharp claws close the distance with Xavier’s
neck in the blink of an eye. There is a collective gasp. It’s a death blow. There’s no way—
There’s a huge roar from the crowd because… I blink… Blink again… Wow. Not a death blow after all, because Cole is now…a fluffy white chicken. His soft feathers gently caress Xavier’s neck as his small chicken body falls the three feet to the ground to squawk angrily.
My gaze darts around the arena until I connect with Macy, who obviously popped up through another portal about thirty feet from Xavier in the middle of all the drama. She looks as white as a sheet. Also hella pissed. And deeply satisfied at humiliating Cole for such a cowardly, and almost deadly, move.
But we don’t have time to savor the image of Cole clucking, because the spell won’t last much longer and Xavier is on his feet in a split second, the comet still burning bright in his hands. The stadium erupts in cheering and foot stomping.
Quickly looking around, he spies Eden and tosses her the comet as she swoops in from behind. She’s climbing now, her powerful wings taking her fifty feet in the air in seconds. But Cole’s team isn’t out, and one of the witches slams Eden with a lightning bolt and Eden is tumbling from the sky, the comet no longer in her hands and falling as well.
I launch myself into the air after it. The only problem is that one of their dragons has done the same thing, so we race each other to the ball. My heart is pounding faster and faster the closer we get, and I’m determined to win the race as another burst of energy from Jaxon via the mating bond sizzles along my skin.
I fly faster than I’ve ever flown, but he still gets there first.
Well, what’s the point of being a gargoyle if you can’t turn someone into stone every once in a while? Praying this works, I grab on to his wing with one hand and pull on the platinum string deep inside me with the other. He changes instantly…and without the wing design to carry a large dragon made of heavy stone, well, he starts to drop like a stone.
I flip the ball right out of his stone hands and then let go of the platinum string when we’re about twenty feet off the ground.