by G. Bailey
“Now, it’s time to go over the rules,” Leonidas resumes, walking to the edge of the dais. “Under no circumstances are you allowed to use magic or violence against teammates or the opposition. Your object of this round is to obtain a sceptre that was stolen from King Ulric.” He waves and a scroll appears in everyone’s hands. “This is your only clue.”
I hurriedly unroll mine and read the words.
What the...
“What the fuck does that mean?” Jonah grumbles, taking the words straight out of my mouth.
“Work as a team to find out,” Leonidas explains, steeping his fingers. “The winning team and runner up will be put through to the grand final next year. You have until dusk. Good luck and do not die.”
I place the scroll in my bag and turn to the guys. “Okay, let’s do this!”
Jonah scrunches his face at me. “Do you even know where to start?”
“Not a clue.”
I walk past him and pat Zander on the shoulder, but he seems distracted, his gaze focused on the Draconians.
“Do you know them?” I whisper, following his gaze. They each have reptilian eyes of different colours and the tallest Draconian is staring right at Zander while his teammates whisper around him. Clearly, none of them are a fan of Zander.
“Nah, I don’t know them,” Zander answers, peeling his gaze from the Draconian. “But I know of that one. His name is Drusus. He’s the oldest of the Draconian princes and he’s bad news. Watch out for him, okay?”
“Okay.” I take Zander’s hand and lead him away from the crowd. Pitch and Jonah stay a few feet behind, discussing the task at hand. “I don’t suppose you know what the first clue means?”
He shrugs. “It sounds like some yin and yang bullshit.”
“You mean balance?” I chew the inside of my mouth. “So where in Helios do dark, light, and power exist together?”
“Shadowborn Academy?” Jonah proposes, scrunching his clue up and stuffing it in his pocket.
Zander laughs and shakes his head. “That’s in Zorya, genius.”
“I don’t see you coming up with ideas.”
“Enough bickering,” Pitch growls, his gold eyes flashing gold again. But then a smug grin dances over his lips and I know he’s already figured it out. I watch him walk over to the nearest tree and stab his knife into the trunk. A little sap trickles down the blade. “What’s the one thing in the Enchanted Forest that runs through every kingdom?” When nobody answers, he points to the sap. “Water! And where there’s water, there’s power, both light, and dark.”
“Oh my gosh, that’s it!” I run over and briefly hug him, then I turn to face the other guys. “The sceptre must be at the faerie pools. It’s the only place in Helios where dark magic can be found.”
Zander folds his arms. “That’s a helluva trek, my lady.”
“Then let’s get walking.”
I head into the trees, hearing Zander muttering to Pitch.
“I like this new Corvina. She’s dominant and it’s sexy.”
“Watch it,” Pitch warns, bringing a smile to my lips as Jonah lets out a laugh.
We stand at the top of the gorge, gazing at what will be a painful death should either of us try to climb down. The faerie pools are located just on the other side, so close and yet so far. I don’t remember the last time I was here with my guys, but I know there wasn’t a gorge involved. Probably because we approached the Pools from the other side. Figures.
“Well, we tried,” Zander says, slinging his leather coat over his shoulder and turning on his heel.
Pitch blocks his path and turns him back around. “Think you can do it, Vina?”
I roll my neck and grin at him. “Thought you’d never ask.”
Lifting my hands, I summon dark magic into my palms. Five interlocked circles swell into the air, one to represent each element, and I combine them all until they turn into an emerald disk that I flatten over the soil. The roots claw out from the earth and weave together to form a bridge over the gorge. If only I knew this spell when the trees attacked Sage and I at the start of our first term. In fact, I specifically learned to manipulate the elements from Izora because of that experience. I guess Pitch and I could fly over but I have more of a chance of flying into a rock and we still can’t carry Zander and Jonah over.
Zander gives a long, drawn-out whistle. “That was pretty awesome.”
“I’m not just a pretty face,” I tell him, stepping onto the bridge, relieved when it doesn’t collapse under me.
We cross over and reach the faerie pools only a minute or so later. Unfortunately, there’s already another team there. Draconians. And one of them has shifted into a water dragon.
Though the water dragon is pretty amazing to see, the dragons look like many human drawings or paintings I’ve seen with large wings, scales covering their bodies and long necks. They are more elegant than I thought they would be, and their scales look like jewels rather than skin.
“What’s he fighting?”
I shake my head at Jonah. “I...have no idea.”
“It’s a grindylow,” Pitch explains, crossing his arms. “They’re not just ordinary grindylows either. For every one you beat, two more appear.”
“What’s their deal then?” Jonah scowls at Pitch. Water surges up from the Pools and waterfall-claws latch around a Draconian, dragging him down into the depths. “We Hydra these fuckers and grab the sceptre?”
“First we need to find the sceptre.” I search the grindylows. They all look to be the same size, completely made of water and at least ten feet tall. They’re dancing around the Draconians like they’re simply playing a game. You’d think water dragons would have this task in the bag. Poor lizards are getting their butts whooped. It works in our favour though since it keeps the monsters busy. “Look up there, by the waterfall.”
Sticking out from the waterfall is the sceptre, its ruby jewels gleaming in the sunlight.
“I can shadowlocate Vina and Jonah to the top.” Zander turns to Pitch. “We’ll cover them from here.
“Use the other competitors as a distraction,” Jonah says. “That’s what we did with the giants. Worked a charm.”
Pitch nods, gathering a ball of ice into his palm while shadows wrap around me. They lift me and Jonah to the top of the waterfall where we get a great vantage point of the chaos below. The Draconians have all shifted into enormous dragons. They take down the grindylows with impressive combat skills, but just like Pitch said, two reappear every time one dies. The water demons seem to be enjoying their resurrection. They dance around the stepping stones where a trio of Light Fae try but fail miserably to reach the other side.
Jonah’s right. Using the competitors as a distraction is the best, although the sneakiest, way to win here. While the grindylows die and resurface in pairs, Pitch and Zander join in on the fight. I watch them throw enormous ice balls and one of the demons is frozen in mid-air, its face contorted in terror. I giggle into my hand. Okay, time to get serious and grab the sceptre.
I slip my bracelet off and tuck it into my pocket. I’m not entirely confident about my flying skills as a fae, but surely it can’t be so different from flying in my raven form? Jonah watches me stand and jump off the waterfall. I feel his magic whoosh past my ear and explode one of the grindylows that spotted me.
Grinning, I concentrate on my target and fly towards the sceptre. I reach ou but it falls into the pool when I touch it. At that exact moment, a fireball just misses my head, knocking me off balance from the surprise. I fall down and plunge into the water, watching as more fire penetrates the surface.
The fire shoots past me like bullets, the heat from them is incinerating. I swim up to the top, avoiding the fire as much as possible. Breathing in lungfuls of the cool air, I can’t believe what chaos I’m seeing around me. Jonah is holding the sceptre but he doesn’t look at all that triumphant. Instead, he’s gazing skyward, where a water dragon and fire dragon are tearing through the clouds, attacking each other
.
The water dragon is a deep cerulean blue, like the other Draconians, but the one breathing fire is pure gold. The grindylows have vanished and everyone’s gathered to watch the fight. I swim over to Jonah and crawl out from the pool. Pitch arrives just seconds later, looking only slightly out of breath.
“Where’s… where’s Zander?” I ask between pants, searching for him.
And then it hits me.
The gold dragon is Zander.
I glare at Jonah and Pitch. “What. Happened?”
“We won,” Jonah answers, shrugging. “When you fell, the grindylows were distracted so I grabbed the sceptre, then Zander and the Draconian prince started laying into each other.”
“Drusus started the fight,” Pitch adds in, glaring at the other Draconians watching close by. They look just as confused as I feel. “He questioned your intelligence.”
So my Draconian prince thinks I’m a complete idiot? Great.
The roars coming from the dragons shake the trees around us. Zander isn’t as big as Drusus but he’s putting up one hell of a fight. I always knew he was part dragon. I wonder if he knew that, too, or if this is his first time shifting.
“We’ve got to stop them,” Pitch says, shielding his gaze from the sun with his hand. “Zander’s losing control of his fire. He’s no match for Drusus but his fire will cause great destruction to the forest. It’s why they are so rare. The Draconians wiped most of them out to protect their land.”
My pulse thrashes in my ears as I watch the dragons fight. He’s right that Zander is clearly on the losing end of this battle. It makes me think this is indeed his first time shifting. His fireballs are shooting out in all manner of directions, setting fire to the vegetation, and just missing us. I notice that none of the other fae are still hanging around. Wise decision. Now, what the hell am I supposed to do to calm Zander down?
My wings are lifting me off the ground before I know it. Pitch flies to my side.
“Vina, you can’t get between two dragons fighting!”
“Watch me.”
I know I should listen to him but I can’t just stand by and watch Drusus tear into Zander. Only a little clumsily, I fly up to meet the battling dragons. Water and fire crash together in violent waves. The impact of their collision makes flying a million times harder.
I shout Zander’s name from the top of my lungs. Drusus flies into the clouds as Zander rears his head at me. He’s so beautiful in his dragon form. His eyes are still green but the rest of him is gold. Fire builds in his chest.
“It’s me, Zander—it’s Corvina!”
Pitch appears beside me, his hand on my arm, ready to shadowlocate us to safety.
“Just calm down for me, okay?” I try, but the fire in Zander’s chest darkens into molten lava. Pitch pulls me to the side just as the fireball soars over my head. Shock hits me like a crushing weight. Zander just tried to kill me.
A dragon roaring causes me to look back just as the fireball hits Drusus’ left wing.
The relief is instantaneous as I realise Zander wasn’t aiming for me. He was aiming for Drusus. And he hit him! That means he’s gaining control.
I lift my hands, summing the roots from the trees down below.
“Stand back from my mate,” I warn Drusus.
The Dragon Prince just roars at me, his wounded wing healing instantly. He’s clearly not going to back down unless I make him.
“Drusus, back off,” I warn one last time, the roots wrapping around my hands. I hold on to them like a whip. Drusus watches them with his serpentine eyes. When he lurches forward, I wrap the roots around him like a net and drag him down. My magic radiates off me in powerful waves. A blue light shines in the corner of my eye. Pitch shoots Drusus down from the clouds like he just shot a bird from the sky. Drusus lands on the earth, injured but alive, and I have a feeling this won’t go down well with rulers of Draconia.
Zander starts to change back and I catch him as he falls. With Pitch helping me fly back down, we join Jonah and the sceptre, all three of us trying to catch our breaths.
“Do me a favour, Zander?”
He’s weak in my arms, his clothes shredded. “Anything, my lady.”
“Don’t do that ever again.”
He grins, nodding. “Forgive me.”
I press a kiss to his forehead, my lips spreading into a smile. “Forgiven.”
Jonah holds up the sceptre. “Okay, but is anyone going to acknowledge that we won this round, or…?”
Pitch takes the sceptre from him and passes it to me. “I think Vina earned this one.”
I take the prize, hoping to Selena that the next challenge won’t involve any dragons fighting each other. When I touch it, a vision flashes before my eyes, knocking me off my feet:
Water trickles around my feet as I stand on a rock, watching Sage, Ronan, and Eva but they aren’t alone. I don’t recognise where we are. Everything’s so blurry but the ten men that step out of a burning light terrify me. Their eyes stay locked on mine and I can’t look away as they stare into my soul.
“You will die as the world burns, Corvina Charles. You cannot stop the destruction we are promised.”
The vision morphs into another one, this time of a room with waterfall walls. A throne made of pure sapphire glass sits in the middle and the man wearing a jagged crown smirks at me.
Professor Greyhorn.
No.
He’s dead.
“Hello, Corvina. It seems you cannot kill a god after all.”
The images fade as I gasp for air. The guys are all watching me with worried looks on their faces. I’m lying down on my back, my hand buried in the dirt. The sounds of the waterfall crashing into the pool carries to my ears.
“What happened?” I ask, my voice hoarse. “How long was I passed out for?”
“About nineteen minutes,” Pitch answers, peering down at me with a frown and checking my temperature. “You’re burning up.”
“I had a weird vision,” I tell them, pushing onto my knees. “Sage was on some kind of beach with Eva and Ronan. Men appeared from a magical light and then Greyhorn was sitting on a throne in a room full of waterfalls.”
“Breathe, Vina, breathe.” Zander helps me onto my feet. He’s still a little green around the gills. “What do you think the visions could mean?”
“I don’t know,” I answer shakily, looking down at the sceptre abandoned at my feet. One of the jewels has cracked open. “But something tells me it isn’t good.”
“Three cheers for this year’s finalists!”
Professor David Gale lifts his drink and everyone erupts into cheer. I sip my glass of wine and turn to the guys. All but one is here. My pulse spikes as I search the Devil’s Drop for Pitch but he doesn’t seem to be at the party anymore. Ever since our souls were untethered, I can no longer sense his presence, so I can’t even tell if he’s close by or gone back to the academy. Or worse, the queen.
I turn to the guys, asking them, “Where’s Pitch?”
“He’s not far, don’t worry,” Zander reassures me, placing a hand on the small of my back. He steps over the magical line and steers me towards the gorge. It’s still off bounds for obvious safety reasons, but instead of merely being an endless void of darkness, Pitch is using magic to light the entire pit up with lanterns. They move together to form the shape of a crown and a sceptre interlocking. It’s beautiful. I wave at him when he glances at me and he shoots a grin. Music pulses around us and for the first time since winning, I feel relaxed.
“This is way better than Ivywood’s so-called party,” Jonah says, nodding to the alcohol spread out on two huge tables. “Why the hell did she invite the Draconians?”
“Because we’ll be competing with them next year in the final.” Zander shadowlocates over to the table and pours a round of drinks in a series of blurs. It’s mostly just vodka with a splash of coke. “Ivywood’s party was pathetic. Now, this...this is a party.”
He’s not far off the mark. Ivywood’s �
�party’ involved embarrassing me in front of the entire academy while she made a gushing speech about my father. She also made sure to remind everyone that light fae will always win against the dark fae. Yeah, right. I think she forgets that I’m half dark fae, and it boiled my blood. I couldn’t wait to sneak out the first chance I got. I just never expected my guys to blindfold me and take me to this amazing party.
After drinking far too many shots, I drag my three guys onto the dance floor whether they want to bust some moves or not. I tilt my head back, letting my hair cascade down, and Zander’s hands fall to my waist as he moves us to the beat of the music.
Despite the fact Jonah isn’t much of a dancer, he stays with us, dancing and taking sips of his beer.
Pitch stands behind me and I look up at him, a grin spreading over my red lips. There’s a genuine joy on his face that makes my heart soar. Joy and an intense lust that knocks the air from my lungs. He leans down and presses a kiss to my forehead. I close my eyes, and when I open them again, he’s gone.
No. He’s not getting away from me tonight.
Tonight is the night things change between me and my shadow.
Maybe it’s the alcohol speaking, or making I’m simply tired of him always being there, yet just out of reach. He said he wanted to wait until he was ‘real’ before taking things further between us. Pitch is as real as the moon in the night sky and I’m not letting him run away again.
I take Jonah’s beer and drink the rest while weaving my way through the people. I might not be able to feel Pitch’s presence anymore, but I can still smell his burning leaves scent with my fae senses. I’m about to remove my bracelet and let my wings free when I spot him walking towards the entrance. I sneak up behind him, take his hand, and pull him away into the trees.