Trials

by Sadie Moss

  I see an opening and take it, slipping around behind him and twisting his arm behind his back. Pressing my hand to the back of his head, I slam him face-first into the dirt, my knee digging into his back. Dmitri struggles to get up, but he’s got no leverage, and he can’t buck me off.

  “Say yield,” I growl, tightening my grip.

  Dmitri gives a vicious grunt in response, like we’re more animal than human at this point. Victory is coursing through my lungs, my blood, and I don’t know whether I want him to say he yields or for him to grab me and pin me down and fuck me right there on the grass like this really is some weird mating ritual.

  Yeah, I’m a bit messed up, but that’s how it gets where Dmitri and I are concerned. Aggression and sexual tension tend to collide.

  “Yield!” I repeat, raising my voice.

  He could get out of this hold, feasibly, I think. Right?

  “Fine,” Dmitri snaps, “I yield, okay? You happy?”

  “Damn right, I am,” I reply, grinning savagely. Hell, yes. I’m never letting him live this down.

  Even if he could get out of the hold? that little voice in my head whispers to me.

  But if he could have, he would have. Dmitri doesn’t like me all that much, and he sure as hell doesn’t like losing. There’s no way he’d let me win.

  As I let go of him, I become aware of something else. That weird quiet sound I wasn’t paying attention to because I was busy kicking ass?

  It’s turned into absolute silence now.

  I look up and around, and my heart skips a beat.

  Holy shit.

  Everyone around me is on the ground, or tangled up in some magic that keeps them from moving, or outside the arena. In short, everyone else is… is incapacitated.

  The crowd stares at me, and I stare back as I realize…

  I’m the last one standing.

  The silence stretches on. I don’t think anyone expected a first-year student to win, especially not me.

  My stomach churns. Are people angry I won? Do they want someone else to represent the school? Should I give up, concede to Dmitri?

  “Yeah, Elliot!” someone yells.

  It’s Cam.

  “Elliot!” he starts yelling. “Elliot! Elliot!”

  Other people start taking up the chant. I’m pretty sure I can hear Asher’s voice among them. “El-li-ot! El-li-ot! El-li-ot! El-li-ot!”

  Holy shit.

  Chapter 8

  Everyone chants for a full minute until Hardwick gets them all to settle down.

  Fuck.

  I might throw up.

  No fucking way. I’m the last one standing? How?

  I didn’t even do this to win, exactly—I just did it to rub it in Alyssa’s face that I might not be the strongest mage in this school, but I can sure as hell kick her ass if I feel like it. And how did I defeat Dmitri, of all people? He’s one of the best fighters at our school, no question, whether it’s with magic or just hand-to-hand.

  That little voice at the back of my head won’t stop theorizing that Dmitri threw the fight, but that’s impossible. Even if he did like me that much, and he doesn’t, why would he do that? Why would he throw away his chance like that?

  It doesn’t make any sense.

  I’m hustled into Hardwick’s office. I’ve only been in here a few times before, and I always have the strangest urge to speak in a whisper as soon as I step through the door. It looks about as fancy and intimidating as you’d imagine, and the whole room smells like the leather of the wingback chairs in front of his desk. I sit down in one gingerly.

  Hardwick settles into his seat across from me. “Miss Sinclair. You know, I wondered if it would be you.”

  “A first-year who can’t control her magic, right,” I reply, my nervousness coming out as sarcasm like it always does. “The best possible candidate to represent the entire school in a cutthroat competition.”

  Hardwick chuckles in a fatherly sort of way. My stomach twists into a knot. I’m not really good with the whole “people who try to be your father figure” thing. No guesses as to why.

  “Your work against Raul was admirable.” He leans forward, resting his elbows on the desk and pressing his fingertips together. “And your strength is unmatched. Raw power is a great gift, Elliot, don’t scoff at it.”

  “I’ll scoff at whatever I want, thanks. So, how do I concede?”

  The dean frowns at me. “Concede?”

  “Dmitri should be the one advancing to the Trials, not me,” I say flatly. “He’s a second-year, and he’s got way more experience, especially at fighting—”

  “But you beat him,” Hardwick cuts in. “And you were the one who defeated Raul, not him. I can’t stop you if you decide not to accept this opportunity of course, Miss Sinclair, but I really wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

  “Why?” I demand. “Because from where I stand, this is just a chance to humiliate myself and the entire school when I fail.”

  “You won’t fail,” he assures me. “We won’t just throw you to the wolves, Miss Sinclair. The full support of Griffin Academy will be behind you. You’ll be taking extra lessons, and we’ll modify your coursework to reflect the different areas of study you’ll need to learn. You’ll get the same class credits, never fear—we’ll just have to shuffle around your coursework a bit, and you might have to skip some classes next year and retake others from this year.”

  This sounds like way more trouble than it’s worth. “Look, I—”

  “Why don’t you think about it?” Hardwick suggests. “We’re not going to force you to compete if you don’t want to, so if you decide not to accept the nomination, we’ll choose someone else to represent the school. But I’m not going to announce anything yet. Take a couple of days and then come back, and we’ll talk some more. You might change your mind.”

  I chew on my lip. I don’t want to seem rude or ungrateful. At the assembly, Hardwick seemed so damn excited by this whole thing, and I don’t want to rain on his parade.

  I can pretend to think about this for a day or two and then come back and respectfully decline. Dmitri will love to be the school champion, getting a chance to fight and compete. He’s almost as competitive as I am, so I know he’d enjoy it. Hell, it might actually put a smile on his face for once.

  “Fine.” I dip my head in a nod. “I’ll think about it.”

  “Excellent.” Hardwick smiles at me, and it’s not some fake, pacifying smile. It looks warm and genuine. “I sincerely hope you choose to compete for us, Elliot.”

  I nod, then get up and leave.

  As I push open the door of the admin building and step outside, my thoughts tumble around in my head like clothes in a dryer.

  Maddy. I need to call Maddy. She’ll know what to do.

  I know she’s my younger sister, and I’m usually the one taking care of her, but she was the one who convinced me to go to this damn school in the first place instead of giving up my magic. She’s the one who convinced me to stay last semester when I thought I’d fucked everything up. Maybe she’ll have some perspective on this.

  Mads is my pride and joy. If she wants me to do this, then I’ll do it. But if she agrees with me that maybe it’s not the best idea, that maybe it’s not even something I deserve—

  Absorbed in my thoughts, I run smack into a very solid chest and stumble back. “Whoa, sorry—”

  “Hey, Sin, I’ve been scouring the campus for you.” It’s Cam. He smiles gently at me, his hands at my shoulders to steady me. “You okay? You don’t exactly look like someone who just won a big competition.”

  “I’m… I’m okay,” I lie.

  Cam chuckles, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and guiding me into walking alongside him. “Sure, you are.”

  “You can’t really think my being champion for this school is a good idea.”

  “Why wouldn’t it be?” Cam asks, leading me down a path toward the woods. The woods are kind of our special place—we go running and hiking in there t
ogether several times a week. Asher is a swim guy with a major fear of spiders, so he never comes with us. And the one time I asked Dmitri if he wanted to join us, he told me he’d rather jump into a piranha-infested tank, so… it’s just something for Cam and me.

  I like that. That I have something special just with Cam, for the two of us. I hope I’ll find something just for Asher and myself.

  God knows what Dmitri and I have. If we have anything.

  Ugh, there I go again with these stupid, gooey, emotional thoughts. Bad, Elliot, bad! Especially with all the shit Alyssa’s been saying about me, I do not need to feed the rumor mill and then break people’s hearts in the process. God knows I’m way too cranky and sarcastic for someone as sunny as Cam, anyway—even though I know about the darker spots he hides from most of the world.

  “You’re seriously asking me why it wouldn’t be a good idea for me to represent the school?” I huff a laugh. “Did you hit your head in the fight back there?”

  We enter into the woods, heading up our usual running path. “Don’t deflect, Sin, come on. You saved the school once already—”

  “—I had help.”

  “Hey. I didn’t take down Raul. None of us did, even if getting down there was a joint effort. You took him out. I think you’re the exact kind of person we need in this competition. You’re already a badass.”

  I kick at a small rock on the trail. “Yeah, sure. A badass who can barely do magic.”

  “You raised your sister all on your own, Elliot.” Cam stops walking and puts his hands on my shoulders to turn me to face him. “Look, my parents dying? That was shitty, and I had to learn how to fend for myself. It was bad enough that I had only myself to worry about; you had yourself and your sister. And you did it. You took care of everything. I think that’s incredibly badass. You came here not knowing much about magic. Most of us have been part of the magical community our whole lives, so we’ve got a leg up on you. And you’re still giving it your all. And you won the fucking battle royale!”

  “Yeah, using just one trick and then no magic. Dmitri would’ve crushed me if he’d used his phasing or duplication powers.”

  He shakes his head. “If you weren’t using magic then Dmitri wouldn’t either. He wanted to beat you fair and square. So since you only used fists, he only used fists. Otherwise it wouldn’t feel like a fair fight to him.”

  Huh. I’ve never thought of it that way. It explains his behavior, which I was wondering about. Since Dmitri going soft on me is about as likely as pigs flying.

  “Okay, but still—”

  “That means you beat him fair and square.”

  “Right, but, Cam.” I reach up and take his hands in mine, squeezing gently. “That doesn’t mean I’ll be able to do the magic I need to so I can win this thing. I don’t even care about winning it, not really, but—I’m not going to be a damn joke. I won’t get up there and represent the school by failing miserably. I just won’t do it.”

  Cam lets go of my hands to brush my hair back from my face. I haven’t even had a chance to change or shower since the battle royale ended, so there’s a good chance I’ve got a bunch of grass mixed in with the strands, but he doesn’t seem to notice.

  “That’s an understandable fear, Sin.” His bright blue eyes shine with openness and honesty. “But I know you won’t fail.”

  “How can you know that if I don’t?”

  He gives me a small, crooked smile, then wraps his arms around my waist. My palms settle against his chest, and it feels like something in my heart clicks into place. I feel safe in his arms, like this is how it’s supposed to be. It feels right.

  “That’s my job.” His body shifts against me as he shrugs. “If you don’t have faith in yourself, then I’ll have it for you.”

  That’s one of my favorite things about Cam. He’s a joker, but he’s also genuinely so kindhearted, just like Asher. He really cares.

  “Will you be disappointed in me if I don’t compete?” I’m surprised by how small my voice is. I really care what Cam thinks, what all the guys will think.

  He shakes his head. “Hell, no. You couldn’t disappoint me with something like that. I promise. It’s your choice and your comfort level. I just don’t want you to say no because you think you can’t do it. You can.”

  “What if I’m not the right person to represent the school?”

  “You are literally the personification of Unpredictable magic,” Cam points out with a crooked grin. “You’re not someone with a lot of training or who grew up in the magical world. This came at you out of the blue, but look at you. You’re doing your best to control it. I can’t think of someone who could better rep the school.”

  His heartbeat is strong and steady beneath my touch, and the feel of it against my hands tames my own thrashing pulse even more than his words do.

  “Besides”—he gives me a gentle squeeze—“it’s about time we have someone who’s a ‘random nobody’ represent a school. All the people from powerful families have a leg up because they get tutors and learn theoretical spell work and history and all of that before they even step foot inside an academy. Sure, their magic might not come in until later in the game, but they already know so much that they’re prepared for it. So they usually end up being picked for things like this. We’ve had enough of that. I mean—no offense to Asher and Dmitri, you know I love them—but it’s time people like you and me got to be the faces of our schools, don’t you think?”

  He has a point. I really do care about Dmitri, sometimes in spite of my better judgment. But if he’s the champion—and he will be if I step down, since he got second place—then it’ll be another man from another powerful legacy family representing Griffin Academy. I don’t know a whole lot about Dmitri’s past or his family, but I know he works his ass off and has since before he got into school, studying magic. His family’s old world, from what I hear, and absolutely steeped in both magic and money.

  If I represent the school, maybe it’ll be easier for Maddy. For Cam. For everyone else who didn’t have a powerful family giving them every advantage growing up. It’ll show that magic belongs to everyone, that anyone can have it and make use of it.

  I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but…

  “Okay.”

  “Okay… what?” Cam looks unbearably hopeful and excited.

  “I mean, okay, take me to the goddamn dean so I can tell him I’ll do it.”

  “Yes!” Cam picks me up and whirls me around, sending me into laughter as I cling to him for support. He kisses my temple, my cheek, then my mouth, soft and enthusiastic, as if we do this all the time.

  My heart skips a beat in my chest, and even though the kiss was quick, I feel it through my entire body, all the way down to my toes. I pull back, startled but trying to hide it.

  “C’mon, we have to be quick, I have a tutoring session to get to.”

  If Cam’s noticed my reaction, he isn’t saying anything. He looks perfectly normal, but my heart is racing like it’s going for the Triple Crown.

  What just happened? What does it mean?

  I don’t quite know where Cam and I stand. We made out once, and it was hot as hell. We do technically live together, and he made it clear he wants to date me, but I’ve never really given him an answer.

  That was a very couple-y thing to do though. In fact, everything that just happened feels the same way. Cam encouraging me and supporting me, bringing me to our special place to talk out an issue, him holding me, whirling me around, kissing me like that without a second thought…

  I’m a little bit elated but also fucking terrified. I didn’t sign up for this. I’ve been trying to avoid it. I’m not—fuck, I’m not good at the whole relationship thing, and it’s the last thing I need to worry about when I’m apparently also representing my entire school in a major competition.

  Oh Jesus, what if I screw this up?

  “Hey, Sin, it’s gonna be fine,” Cam says in a soft voice, apparently misunderstanding the look of
panic on my face. “We’ll tell Hardwick, and it’ll all be fine. You’ll get time to prepare for the tournament. It’s not like it’s tomorrow.”

  “Right. You’re right.”

  I shake my head to clear it, nodding quickly. I do not want to have a talk about our not-relationship right now—so yes, pretending I’m panicked about the competition it is.

  He grins proudly at me then slips his hand into mine, lacing our fingers together.

  “Come on, champ. I’ll take you to the dean.”

  Chapter 9

  Hardwick is absolutely delighted I’ve decided to enter into the competition—and that it only took me a few hours to reach my decision.

  I’m surprised, honestly. I would’ve thought he’d prefer someone like Dmitri. But the whole school would know Dmitri was the second place contestant and that I’d turned down the offer, and that wouldn’t look good for anyone.

  So I guess it makes sense.

  The competition will start in a couple of weeks. That gives me only fourteen days to prepare to get my ass kicked straight to Saturn and try to improve my skills enough so I at least lose by a close margin—or look good doing it, anyway—so I won’t one hundred percent embarrass my entire school.

  My one condition?

  Nobody’s allowed to mention that I’m the student who “saved the school”.

  As far as I know, the magical news outlets kept the names of the students involved out of the press. Hardwick and the rest of the academy administration wanted us to be able to live “normal” lives and not have reporters hounding us. Given the whole top secret nature of the artifact housing deal in the first place, I’m not surprised. But I can see why there would be temptation to out me as the girl who defeated the psycho student if it’ll bolster my image in the competition.

  If you ask me, it just sets me up to let people down even more. I’d rather just be a random, anonymous student, thanks.