Fire Games: A Young Adult Fantasy (Arcturus Academy Book 3)

by A. L. Knorr

  “I’m on hold,” she said over the mouthpiece.

  “Sorry I’m late. I just got off the phone with my parents.” Settling into the chair, I pulled the second office phone toward me and examined it. Surely, it had more buttons than any phone needed.

  “What did James and Annette have to say?” Christy drummed her fingers against the arm of her office chair.

  I glanced up, surprised. Dr. Price hadn’t met my dad when we’d visited the academy, and had definitely never spoken to my mum. “You know my parent’s names?”

  “I’m a parent. Of course I do. I make it my business to—” she cut herself off to lift the receiver to her lips. “Hello? Yes, is Mr. Felix Kennet available?”

  A voice buzzed on the other end.

  “Ah, I’m so sorry,” her brows creased. “I don’t speak Danish. Would you mind leaving a message? Yes, I’ll hold.”

  Felix Kennet was a graduated mage. I’d never spoken to him, but I remembered him because he was so tall. A quiet man (one couldn’t call someone with that kind of five o’clock shadow a boy) with a shaved head and intense, hooded eyes. He stood well over six feet tall and had arms like a basketball player, lean and corded with muscle. His skin was perpetually tanned, even through the long cloudy winter while most of us turned pasty. A jog of memory recounted Cecily singing his praises.

  Without the list of students to call, I couldn’t do more than wait, so I leaned back in the chair and pulled a foot up under myself

  “I see,” Dr. Price was saying. “Well, all I’d like is for Felix to call the academy when he’s back in. Can you do that for m—, pardon?” She paused. “No, nothing is amiss. Wrong. Nothing’s wrong, just—”

  I hid a smile as Christy closed her eyes in a gesture of seeking patience. “I’ll call back. Thank you so much.”

  She hung up with a sigh. “It’s never as easy as one thinks it will be. I’ve made three calls already and have yet to speak to the student I’m trying to reach. But we shall persevere. Thank you for volunteering to help.”

  “Not much else to do around here at the moment. I can’t even use the fire-gym because Davazlar and Guzelköy have marked it as off limits while they plan the festivities.”

  “Please don’t call it that.” Dr. Price sighed again. “I still can’t believe he’s opted for this route. Where’s Gage?”

  “He’s been on the phone most of the morning himself. Why? do you need him?”

  Christy ran her fingers through her disheveled hair. The doctor had a bouncy bob, but right now her do was more bedhead than bedside manner. “We should be enough. It’s only eight students we’re trying to get in touch with. How hard can it be?”

  Basil had delivered his list of preferred contestants to Christy that morning. If any of the students weren’t able to commit, Christy was to go down the list in the sequence he’d listed. I’d been hoping for a glimpse at the list, but Dr. Price had secreted it away somewhere.

  Instead of asking what I really wanted to ask (where’s the list?), I opted for the much more diplomatic, “Who do you want me to call?”

  “Yes, let’s see.” She pulled a folded page out of her pocket.

  I leaned over the arm of my chair, if I stretched my neck enough as she unfolded it—

  She handed me the page.

  Almost falling when the wheels of my chair lifted off the floor, I caught myself and took the paper, heart in my throat. But opening it squelched my excitement. There were only two names, each with a scrawled telephone number complete with country code.

  I read aloud: “Tomio Nakano and Tagan Lyall?”

  Christy nodded. “You have good rapport with those two. You can leave the rest of the list to me.”

  “Tomio is a second-year,” I pointed out.

  “And?”

  “Well—” I hesitated to say. Tomio was an MMA expert, granted, but these games weren’t a martial arts tournament. If Basil had chosen a mage just entering his second-year, maybe that didn’t bode well for quality of the rest of the list, even if Tomio was at the bottom. I decided against voicing my concerns. “No problem. I’ll make it my mission to get a hold of them today.”

  “You’d best get started.” Dr. Price nodded at the clock above her office door as she picked up the phone again. “Tagan is in Wales but Tomio is in Japan. Tokyo is eight hours ahead of us.”

  “Right.” I hesitated, dying for more information. “Am I allowed to ask if Cecily will be invited?” Christy’s daughter was one of the most skilled mages of the graduating class, in my opinion.

  Dr. Price nodded, picking up the receiver. “I’ve brought her up to speed. She’s agreed to take part. She’ll return to the academy from London closer to the starting date.”

  “Great.” I grinned.

  As Christy dialed whichever mysterious potential contender was next on the list, I decided I didn’t want to make these phone-calls right beside her. Getting up, I headed for the door with my super short list.

  “Saxony?”

  I turned to see Christy pluck an apple from her line up. She tossed it at me. I caught it, gave her a smile of thanks. I turned to leave when she said something else.

  “You’ll compete for us, yes? Sorry, I should have asked earlier. I have a to-do list a mile long.”

  I turned to face her, my tongue feeling like a dead thing in my mouth. I gave a kind of wheeze before I formed an articulate response. “Are you sure?”

  Her expression changed, as if to say, that can’t be a serious question.

  I nodded and she gave me a thumbs up as she brought the phone in line with her mouth. “Yes? Hello? That’s no problem.”

  I left her office, heading for the librarian’s desk on wobbly legs.

  It took all of fifteen minutes to get Tomio on the phone, bring him up to date, and convince him to return to Arcturus for the games. He was livid about Babs’ behavior, even though she was within her legal rights. It took even less time to convince Tagan, whose competitive drive was legendary among the graduating class.

  After that I lay flat out on top of the librarian’s desk, eating the apple Dr. Price had given me. I stared at the scrollwork in the ceiling and contemplated how Tomio and Tagan had agreed with so little hesitation. They’d even sounded eager, like it would be fun. If they were looking forward to it, then I could come at this challenge with a good attitude, too. Plus, it was still weeks away. I had time to get used to the idea, and with Cecily coming, I knew for sure I wouldn’t be the only girl in the games.

  I wished I could burn off some energy in the fire-gym, but since the game-makers had appropriated the space to plan for the games, I only had access to the dojos in the CTH. Rolling off the desk, I headed for my room to change. On the way, I texted Dr. Price that Tomio and Tagan had both agreed to compete.

  The CTH was an echo chamber. With all the lights off and no one there but me, my footsteps sounded loud and obnoxious. The line of skylights next to the ventilation system in the ceiling cast columns of mote-filled daylight across the mats.

  I set my water bottle down on the border of the first dojo and kicked off my shoes. Running a few lazy laps to warm up, I stretched, performed some football drills and ran through the katas Tomio had taught me. After the warm up though, I found my eagerness for a workout had sizzled away. It just wasn’t much fun without all the gadgets in the fire-gym, the climbing wall, or a fellow mage to spar with.

  I was standing in the middle of the dojo, contemplating my shadow and listening to my heartbeat whisper past my eardrums, when the double doors opened and Gage walked in. He stopped, seeing me standing there in the dark hall, as still as death and with my arms resting at my sides. Half his face was lost in shadow.

  “I don’t know why it’s so creepy to come in here and find you standing there like that.” He kicked off his shoes and came onto the mat. “For a split-second I thought you were a ghost. You okay?”

  “Yes, I’m fine.”

  As he approached, I studied his face. Shadows cast c
rescents under his eyes, there was a downward tilt at the edges of his mouth that was rarely ever there.

  “Are you okay?”

  Gage took my hand and let out a breath. “I didn’t sleep well last night. Bad dreams.”

  “About?”

  “Ryan, mostly.”

  I should have guessed. Had Ryan ever been the source of good dreams for anyone?

  “You expected him to be back by now?” I suppressed a shiver at the reminder of what Ryan had most likely gone to do. “If he’s just delivering the artifact to Nero, it should only take a day or two at most.”

  Gage nodded. “I texted him this morning, bugging him to let me know when I can expect him back and telling him about the games. Was he on the list as a competitor?”

  “I don’t know. Dr. Price only gave me two names and Ryan wasn’t one of them. But, do you really think that after what Ryan did, the multiple ways he broke their trust, that Basil would want him to compete?”

  “No. I just thought that since he’s Burned now, maybe—”

  I crossed my arms. “Brawn doesn’t count for much if there’s no goodwill or faith behind it. Maybe one day Ryan will learn that.”

  Gage’s expression fell further and I shriveled internally until I felt about an inch tall. It was always so satisfying to disparage Ryan with these little jabs, remind Gage that his brother was a shark and a rat and everyone knew it. But after it was said, I felt worse than ever. Why couldn’t I remember that and keep my mouth shut?

  “Sorry,” I murmured, dropping my arms to thread my fingers through his.

  Gage squeezed my hands but let me go and began to pace. “No, you’re right. It’s not like I can defend him, it’s just that I’ll always love him and I’ll always worry about him. It must be a twin thing.”

  “I think it’s a sibling thing.” I thought of my own beloved brothers, whom I missed more than I ever admitted out loud. I missed them as much as I missed my girlfriends, which was a bit of a shock given how much Jack and RJ could get on my nerves when I spent longer than a week at home. My heart gave an ache. The next time I was home, RJ wouldn’t live there anymore. He was scouting for his own apartment in Saltford.

  Gage nodded, chewing on his bottom lip and looking at the floor as he wandered.

  “Has he texted you back?” I asked.

  Gage’s tone was bitter. “Yes, he said that he never specified what kind of business he was on or how long it was going to take and if I had expectations that I’d see him within a few days then I should adjust those expectations.”

  I almost made a comment about how cold that was, but still felt small about what I’d already said, so I pressed my lips together. I hated seeing Gage like this.

  Gage met my eyes, looking miserable. “He said I should go back to Canada without him, enjoy my summer.” He huffed a humorous laugh. “As if I could enjoy summer while he’s off doing who knows what, possibly with a criminal mage.”

  Chilly fingers caressed the back of my neck as he raised the possibility I had been avoiding to think about in detail. “What do you think they’re up to?”

  Gage’s answer came out sharp and loud enough to echo. “How should I know? Ryan won’t tell me anything. I don’t know what to think.”

  His expression shifted right after he said it. Stepping close, he lifted his hands to touch my face. “I’m sorry. I’m not upset with you, I’m just frustrated.”

  I almost laughed. Gage was quite possibly the sweetest man I’d ever met. “Don’t apologize. I know that.”

  He planted a kiss on my mouth and released my face, beginning to pace again. My lips and face tingled as tracers of fire threaded beneath the surface of my skin. Heat stoked to life low in my belly.

  “What are you going to do?” I asked, shoving my desire into a corner for later.

  He shot me a look, an expression filled with hope and exasperation. “I just spent an hour on the phone with my parents. We’ve come up with a plan, but not a very good one. It involves meeting my mom in Naples. They think that if she and I are in the city, Ryan will agree to meet up with us.”

  Angelica wasn’t a fire mage. I thought she seemed an odd choice to go. “Your mom?”

  Gage nodded. “Ryan and my dad push each other’s buttons. We think he’ll be easier to convince if it’s just us.”

  “Convince to—”

  “Come home. He says he’s finished with Arcturus, that he won’t be coming back to England. If we can sit down with him face-to-face, find out what his plans are and if he’s in some kind of trouble, then we can help get him out of it. Even if he doesn’t want to come home—I wouldn’t blame him for that, he’s nineteen and sick of Saltford—at least we’ll know he’s safe.”

  I nodded, not sure what to contribute. What would I do if it were RJ or Jack who’d gone off to a foreign city on what could only be shady supernatural business? “When do you leave?”

  Gage looked up, his eyes dark and bottomless. “Tomorrow.”

  My lips parted as his words sank in. “Tomorrow?”

  He stopped in front of me. “I’m sorry. We both know I won’t be asked to compete, so at least I don’t have to make a choice. But I hope I can be back in time to watch you show the Firethorne students what a real mage can do. Have they asked you yet?”

  I nodded. “Dr. Price did.”

  Gage nodded. “There you go. I knew they would, otherwise I would ask you to come with me.”

  Shoving my anxiety about the games to one side, I brought my mind back to the twins and Gage’s plan. “I think it’s a good plan.”

  He brightened. “You do?”

  “Yes. If you and your mom are there, having traveled all that way, your mom especially—”

  “And during the high-season. She wants to turn it into a business trip, as long as Ryan seems okay. We could stay for several weeks. All the best estate sales happen in the summertime,” Gage said, seeming to warm to the idea further.

  “Exactly. And once you sit down with him, he’ll find it a lot more difficult to resist you. Yes, it’s a good plan. The best you can do, given the circumstances. I would do the same if he was my brother.” I resisted the near overwhelming urge to add that my brothers would never do anything so spiteful and irresponsible.

  Gage was nodding, even smiling, a little.

  “Did you book your plane ticket already?”

  “Not yet.” He stepped closer, taking my hand. He began to lead me toward the door. “I thought you might hang out in my room with me while I surfed for the best prices.”

  “Sure. Oof—”

  Gage had put his leg in front of mine and tripped me, catching my weight and taking me down to the ground.

  I gave a startled laugh. “Villain!”

  He hovered over me, eyes sparkling with mischief, one foot braced on either side of my hips. “I can’t let you leave the combat hall without a little actual combat, can I?”

  Sliding out from under him, I got to my feet. Fire flared beneath my ribs, awake and ready to go. “En garde!”

  Gage flexed his knees and lifted his hands out in a relaxed grappling posture. He turned his palms up and flicked his fingers back in a come and get me motion.

  With a grin, I snaked out a hand and grabbed one of his wrists. Spinning to put my hips into his front, I flipped him over my back and onto the floor. He landed looking up at me, startled but laughing. His foot flashed, sweeping across mine. I tried to jump but was a little too late. His toe hooked my ankle and I went down.

  Gage loomed, his weight keeping me down on the mat. I bucked, sending him flying over my head and into a summersault. We were on our feet in a flash, taking that same grappling posture. My fire wanted to be tested, see if I could toss Gage across the dojo.

  Hooking him behind the neck, I pulled him down then switched my grip to behind his knee, lifting his leg up to take him off balance. Pulling me down with him, we tumbled over.

  The atmosphere flipped as he loomed over me. His hands were no longer playfu
lly combative but fierce and possessive. Heat flared in my face as his mouth came down on mine and our fire churned. Wrapping my arms around his neck, wanting him closer, I returned his passion. His hands slipped under the back of my tank top, sending spirals of heat around my spine. Moisture beaded along my upper lip as warmth stoked between us.

  Pulling me against him, a hand slipped beneath the waistband of my shorts. Fire flared beneath my skin and my mouth began to tingle. I couldn’t tell my lips from his and my body was full of firecrackers, shooting in all directions and leaving a chaos of sparks and embers.

  When I reached up a hand to put my fingers through Gage’s hair, my fingers slipped along the slick layer of sweat on his scalp. As his hands ran over the skin of my lower back, I broke away briefly to suck in air. My heart was pounding and I felt overheated but I didn’t want to stop. I kissed Gage again, breathing through my nose. It felt like an overactive furnace had risen up between us, baking us from front to back.

  Gage broke the kiss next, panting.

  A look passed between us; desire, but also dismay, bewilderment, worry.

  He released me and rolled onto his back, flexing both hands like he couldn’t feel his fingers. He sucked in air, his chest rising and falling. His lips were kiss-bruised and his cheeks flushed a bright pink, like he’d been slapped several times. There were even spots of red dotted along his neck and across his forehead.

  I lay beside him, gasping. I put a hand over my heart and one to my lips, where I couldn’t feel the touch of my own skin. Sweat coated our foreheads. We looked at one another.

  “Do you ever get the feeling that our fire doesn’t want us to be together?” I asked, my voice hoarse.

  “Not until today.” He wiped a hand along his forehead then frowned at his palm, perplexed at the amount of sweat that had gathered. He tugged the neck of his t-shirt up over his face to mop up the moisture.

  Thinking that was a good idea, I did the same. When I tugged my tank top back into place and looked down, a dark stain of sweat marked a large area between my breasts.