Trials

by Sadie Moss

  Asher tilts his head, and I wonder if his cuff is still deactivated. Is he reading my mind? If so, he can tell I’m serious about this. I’m not talking a big game just to sound brave or whatever. I really want to give this my all.

  “We can’t let you go into this alone,” he finally says. He looks at the other three. “We know who the two mages trying to sabotage her are. Can we distract them or subdue them somehow while she’s in the final competition?”

  “We’d have to be careful.” Roman narrows his eyes thoughtfully. “If we’re seen—it’ll look like we started something, instigated a fight, and that could backfire on us badly. They’ll spin it so we look like the cheaters.”

  Ah, the irony.

  “You guys don’t have to do anything—”

  My words are immediately cut off by all four men, who make it clear, in no uncertain terms, that they will absolutely be helping me, and I’m crazy if I think otherwise.

  A warm, gooey feeling blooms in my chest as I relent with a small nod.

  We’re all a stubborn bunch of idiots, really.

  “Two mages, four of us,” Cam says, flexing his fingers like he’s itching for a good fight, “So we’ll team up, and two of us’ll each take a mage.”

  “That still leaves the third man,” Roman points out, his voice heavy. “Someone Adelson and Merrimer answer to, by the sound of it. We may not know who it is yet, but it sounds like he’s the one orchestrating all of this.”

  Fuck, he’s right. We can’t keep an eye on someone if we don’t know who that someone is.

  “I can try to track down who that third player is,” Roman says. “I’m a professor, so it’ll be less obvious if I make… inquiries. And I’ll keep an eye out for any suspicious looking spectators during the last challenge.”

  “Yeah, but then who can help us with the mages we do know about?” Cam grimaces.

  Oh, great. I hate that I’m about to say this, but… what goddamn choice do we have?

  “Kendal.”

  The guys all turn to me. Dmitri scoffs, but Asher looks intrigued.

  “She’s already helping me,” I add. “She’s not very confrontational, but I think we could persuade her to get a little feisty for something like this. She’s got a stake in all of this too. If the school fails, she’ll have nothing else.”

  Nobody is thrilled with this plan, but the guys agree we should talk to her. So I take Asher and Roman with me—Dmitri would scare her, and I think Cam would overwhelm her—and we track Kendal down near the dining hall.

  To my surprise, she agrees quickly.

  “I started to suspect something too,” she admits. “I don’t think anyone else does, but I’ve been to a lot of competitions like these, and the odds seem unusually stacked against you. Of course, you’re so powerful, and in the heat of the moment with everyone competing at once, I don’t think anybody can really tell…”

  I have to hold in a snort. Me, powerful. Right. Everyone seems to keep saying that. I think they’re overestimating my sonic boom, honestly. It’s all I’ve got going for me.

  Almost as soon as I have the thought, that weird burble of magic pops up inside me again.

  It hasn’t happened for a while, long enough that I’d almost forgotten about it.

  What the hell is it? And more importantly, if it’s some weird new magic that sparks during the last competition of the Trials, is it likelier to help me or get me killed?

  The strange feeling settles back down almost immediately, and I blink a few times, clearing my head as I tune back into the conversation.

  “…but if you lose or get hurt, then the whole school looks bad,” Kendal is saying. “And my parents have never stood for cheating. They’d be ashamed to learn I knew something was going on and didn’t help you.”

  “You can work with me to keep Elliot safe,” Asher says, smiling at her. He’s got a good way with people, putting them instantly at ease. Hell, he managed to draw me out of my shell without me even realizing it was happening.

  Kendal looks surprised that Ash is being so nice to her, probably because she knows we’re a… well, we’re something, anyway, and Kendal and her friends haven’t exactly been kind to me.

  “And don’t worry, I won’t let you get in trouble for this,” Roman adds. “If any of you are caught, tell them I made you do it. I’m a professor; I’ll take the blame.”

  I don’t think that’s fair to him at all, but I know I’d do the same if I were in his position, so I can’t really say jack about it. And his words seem to reassure Kendal. She’s probably never so much as gotten detention in her life.

  She smiles tentatively, nodding. “Okay. I’m in.”

  A savage grin tilts my lips.

  Adelson and Merrimer, you better watch the fuck out.

  Chapter 22

  Over the next week and a half, my wounds from the previous challenge heal.

  I train my ass off, but I try to take the guys’ advice and go a little easier on myself. There’s a part of me that really hopes Roman was serious about him and Dmitri, er, rewarding me for being less hard on myself, but I can also see the wisdom in their advice. Being strung out and exhausted really isn’t the way to win this thing. I have to think like professional athletes do and take care of my temple or whatnot.

  Cam and Asher help keep me relaxed and distracted—Cam in his new favorite way—and Dmitri is back to being grouchy and overprotective, which I appreciate for now. We still need to finish the conversation we started in the infirmary, but it’s probably better if that happens after the Trials are over.

  I sneak over to Roman’s room one night a few days before the final trial; with all this insanity going on, I haven’t gotten to do that in way too long. The second I walk through the door, he presses me up against it and kisses me like he’s starving, and I kiss him back the same way—because that’s how it feels. Like I’ve been starving for him. I don’t work up the guts to mention Tamlin or the conversation I know they must’ve had, but I try to show him without words how much it means to me.

  That I know he chose me, and even if I can’t quite say it yet, I’m choosing him back.

  The day before the final competition, my professors all excuse me from class so I can rest up and prepare. I want to spend the entire day running drills and training until I can’t stand up straight anymore, but I recognize by now that that’s a bad idea. I’m as prepared as I’m going to get, and now I just need to rest up and be ready.

  Cam, Asher, and Dmitri weren’t excused from classes, but they all ditch anyway, and we spend the day in our dorm room binge-watching old action movies, playing video games, and hanging out.

  It’s one of the best days I’ve had in a long time, actually.

  Unfortunately, Roman never did manage to dig up any information on the third conspirator, and that thought hangs over my head like a dark cloud as I join the rest of the contestants and head toward the quad on the morning of the final trial. It sucks, and it makes me nervous—but we’re doing the best we can.

  As always, I don’t know what to expect from this challenge, although I’ve heard the final is supposedly, somehow, a combination of all the previous events. I’ve miraculously managed to win twice, and Nicholas, the Syren student, has also won twice. So if one of us comes first in the final, we’ll win the whole thing. If someone else takes the final, our overall points from all the events will be tallied up as a tie-breaker, with the highest score winning.

  At the start of this damn thing, all I wanted was to not come in dead last. To get, I don’t know, third. That sounds respectable, and it would reflect pretty well on Griffin Academy, especially since this is our first year competing. But thanks to those damn saboteurs, I don’t know how well I’m doing on points, since I failed two competitions and barely scraped out a win in the others.

  That means if I want any hope of walking away with the grand prize, I have to win the final.

  I wish Maddy were here, but I’m also so glad as hell she’s not. I w
ant her here because she’s my only family, and I love her more than anything.

  But what if I fail? Or worse, if I die? These mages aren’t kidding around. Maddy had to watch Mom die, I don’t want her to have to sit there and watch as I’m consumed by a fireball or something.

  She did try to arrange time off to come, but I told her it would make me too nervous to have her here—which wasn’t a lie. I feel bad for not telling her the whole story about Adelson and Merrimer, but I don’t want to get her all twisted up with worry when she’s stuck at Neptune, unable to do anything to help. I’ll tell her as soon as it’s all over. Hopefully. Assuming I make it out in one piece.

  She called to wish me luck earlier this morning, and that cheered me up. Now I’ve got to focus on just winning this damn thing.

  Next semester better be a fucking cakewalk, that’s all I’m saying, I think to myself as we reach the quad. If there’s some freaky dragon riding competition or whatever, I am out. No way, no how.

  Out in the stands, the guys and Kendal are in position, and Roman is watching out for any suspicious activity in case the third man reveals himself. I can’t see exactly where they all are, but I know they’re there. I need to stay focused on my own fight and trust that they’ll take care of the mages long enough for me to get through.

  A realization strikes me, and I grin to myself. There’s a hell of a difference between now and when I first set foot on this campus, telling myself not to trust anyone I met here farther than I could throw them. Somewhere along the way, I came to honestly trust these men, and to care about them. The thought doesn’t scare me quite as much as it used to.

  “Contestants!” Dean Hardwick intones, his voice amplified. Once he has our attention, he goes over the rules and explains that there will be an award ceremony immediately following the competition, after we take a few minutes for contestants to clean themselves up and for the judges to deliberate.

  Well, at least I won’t have to wait long to find out how badly I did.

  If I lose, I remind myself. I have no intention of doing that.

  Before Hardwick has even finished his speech, walls burst out of the ground around us, cutting me off from the rest of the contestants—cutting us all off from each other, isolating us, entrapping us in a maze.

  My heart slams in my chest, and for a moment, I wonder if this is really part of the competition. Or have Merrimer and Adelson decided to stop beating around the bush and attack the school outright?

  “As this round is a culmination of the previous competitions,” Hardwick continues, his steady voice amplified magically, “you will have to escape from this maze just as you escaped from your rooms, using ingenuity and magic, while confronting or avoiding any illusory opponents, overcoming obstacles, and using your magic to locate the golden coin.”

  An image of the coin appears high above our heads, enlarged so we can see it.

  Great. I lost that challenge spectacularly, and now I have to somehow succeed in it while doing everything else too.

  “Whoever locates the coin first will be the winner.”

  The image of the coin vanishes.

  “On your marks, get set—begin!”

  I have no idea what my fellow contestants are doing, and I don’t care. This time, I’m going to be ready.

  The way I got out of the escape room last time was using my brain. I just have to do the same this time. If the judges are at all logical, then the coin won’t be anywhere random—it’ll be in the center of this maze. And, if I’ve learned anything from playing video games with Cam and Asher, it’s that the more opponents you come across, the closer to the treasure you are. I also remember reading somewhere, I think in a weird history book, that if you want to get somewhere in a maze, just keep selecting the left-hand option.

  So, I have a plan. Keep going left, and if I keep running into illusions of dragons, I’ll know I’m headed in the right direction. Aim for the center of the maze.

  My first problem, though, is to get out of where I’m currently trapped. When the walls came down, they surrounded me on all sides; a puzzle, just like the escape room. Fair enough.

  As I begin to move toward the left-hand wall, the ground opens up beneath me into a gaping pit—and then it vanishes as quickly as it appeared, leaving the ground smooth and even again.

  I stumble back quickly, but grin as I right myself. Kendal and the guys are doing what they promised and keeping those two mages distracted. They must’ve stopped whatever extra spell that was.

  After a little bit of poking around—though much faster than in my first escape room—I solve the clues and find a lever that opens a door in one wall. I slip out quickly and head left, sprinting down the narrow corridor of the maze. I’m not wasting a goddamn second or letting anyone else get to that coin before I do. I run into a few obstacles similar to those in the obstacle course we ran, but I won that challenge for a reason, and it’s easy enough to jump or climb or dodge.

  A few times, I notice something flickering nearby, like a spell trying to come to life, but then it dies. Whatever the others are doing to distract the mages, it’s working.

  I’m going on instinct as I navigate the maze, but I’m almost positive I’m on the right track. And I don’t have time to stop and doubt myself or second-guess everything. Like the guys have been telling me, I have to believe in myself.

  Calling up my sonic boom, I hold it at the ready, and when I run into the illusory opponents—humans at first, but then a chimera of all things, and giant wolves—I unleash it on them, running along the walls with my spider climb to keep out of range.

  The funny thing? About halfway through, I realize… I’m actually having a blast. This is what the competition is supposed to be, right? Underneath it all? It’s supposed to be a chance to meet people from other schools and to have fun.

  Now that the mages who are out to destroy me aren’t able to do their thing, I find that’s what I’m doing. And I have no idea how my opponents are faring, but I’m doing pretty well. Using my magic and my wits like this, pushing myself to the limit—it’s exhilarating. I’m in shape, I’m a good fighter, and I’m smart. And I finally get to show that to the world, to let them see that Elliot Sinclair ain’t too shabby.

  I round the corner, dodging some swinging axes—wow, okay, holy shit—and spy the center of the maze.

  Up on a dais in the middle floats the coin.

  I start to go race toward it, but a sudden thought has my footsteps slowing. Is this really it? If this is the big finale, they wouldn’t be that obvious about it, would they?

  Another contestant runs into the center from a different section of the maze, and my heartbeat kicks up a notch as he sprints toward the coin. Shit. It’s Ryan, the water elementalist who nearly beat me on the obstacle course. He grabs the coin—and the second his fist closes around it, a strange bubble forms around him, lifting him up and out of the maze. I watch him drift away with wide eyes as he runs his hands frantically over the inside of the bubble, searching for an escape. His hand is empty, I notice. The coin has vanished.

  Well, that couldn’t have been the real coin, then. If it were, the competition would’ve ended the moment he grabbed it.

  I approach the dais cautiously, examining it. The thing about the escape room was that it would trick me into thinking I’d found a clue when really, I hadn’t—I had to look closer to find the real clue inside the fake one.

  The floating coin was the decoy, but somewhere around here is a clue that will lead me to the real coin.

  My heart pounds hard in my chest, and I’m painfully aware of the seconds ticking by. Any minute now, another contestant is going to make it through the maze into the center, and the more people who make it through, the worse my chances of being the one to find the coin will get.

  The dais is made of a gray stone, rough and unpolished. The rubber of Ryan’s shoe left a scuff on one side when he jumped up to grab the fake coin.

  Wait.

  Keeping my gaze f
ixed on the spot so I don’t lose track of it, I walk around to that side of the large platform, crouching down to examine the small black mark.

  This didn’t come from a shoe. It looks almost like the side of a panel or… or a button.

  Bracing myself for a bubble to scoop me up if I’m wrong, I press my fingertips to the spot on the dais. There’s a strange hiss, and the top layer of stone seems to evaporate into smoke, revealing a hidden compartment underneath.

  The small gold coin inside glints as sunlight strikes it.

  My mouth goes dry, and I blink down at the thing stupidly for half a second before I jerk back into motion, reaching down to snatch it up.

  The world stops.

  For a moment, it feels like the only things that exist are the coin clutched in my hand and my own harsh breaths.

  Then the walls around me shoot back down into the ground, a loud buzzer goes off, and I can hear the crowd absolutely losing its shit.

  The remaining illusions fall away as the field clears. I look around and see the other contestants around me, some close by, some at a distance. Ryan’s the farthest away, and he stumbles as the bubble around him breaks—it transported him back to where he started, I think. As he regains his feet, he joins the others in gaping at me.

  The crowd is going wild, and for a second, I expect to hear booing… but, no. They’re screaming and cheering. If anyone’s angry I won, I can’t hear it over the roar of approval.

  Everyone’s cheering for me.

  “Holy shit! Sin!”

  Cam whips me up into a hug—he must’ve busted out onto the field—and whirls me around. I laugh, clinging to him, and then other people are piling onto the field too, to congratulate their contestants. I’m tugged away from Cam by Asher, who hugs me tight and kisses the top of my head.

  “You guys okay?” I whisper.

  “I don’t think either Merrimer or Adelson saw us,” Asher reassures me. “But they were definitely trying to bring you down. Your friend Kendal did a great job.”

  I want to point out that Kendal’s not my friend, and that our truce is probably over and she’ll go back to being one of Alyssa’s shadows, but… now’s not the time to talk about that. And hey, maybe I’m wrong. She did put herself at risk to go after the mages and help me.