by Eva Ashwood
Her magically amplified voice seemed to spread out in all directions, repeating the exact same thing she had said the semester before.
“Welcome to a new Gods’ Challenge. You are the ones who have surpassed all expectations. You dug deep in the initial challenge and combined your skill with your intellect to win the game. But beware, from here on out, it will take a lot more than what you’ve been taught in class. Your goal is to collect an object, a bright and sparkling gem. There is only one gem in the course. This semester’s course is set in the desert of the gods. Each of you is going for the same gem and whoever gets to it first will be the winner. You are not only competing against the trials, tests, and dangers of the gods’ desert, but against each other as well.”
Glancing down the row of people around me, my attention was snagged quickly by the unwavering and angry stare Wesley was directing my way.
The dean continued, bidding us farewell and good luck, and ending her speech with the magical community saying, mageía mésa, ísos se óli, “Magic Within, Might Throughout.”
Just like last year, I knew there would be a threat right away, and I braced myself, ready to face whatever it was.
But the threat came from a completely different place than I expected.
I assumed there would be some sort of flying beast, something huge attempting to trample over us, or a wave of magic that morphed itself into just about any horrible thing I could imagine.
But this threat? It came more in the form of flesh and blood.
As the other contestants began to move, Wesley ran out in front of me and my men. He stopped, gripping his fists tightly at his sides. His eyes narrowed as he slowly uncurled his fingers, revealing a small glass vial hidden in one of his hands. His lips curled into a cruel smile as he threw it down on the ground. The vial smashed, and a swirling purple fog shot out, sending shards of what looked like magical glass straight at us.
“Get down!” I screamed, throwing myself to the ground.
All four of us hit the sandy ground, wincing as the shards flew just inches away from us.
“He cheated,” I choked out, covering my face with my sleeve. “He’s fucking cheating.”
Trace growled, glaring up at him. “He smuggled in charms. He’s using them to try to beat us because he’s not strong enough to beat us himself.”
Lachlan cracked his knuckles as he drew himself up to his feet. The glass shards had settled by now, and I wanted to mock Wesley for sneaking in such a lame charm, but I was too fucking pissed to even come up with a good insult.
“He’s not gonna know what beatin’ is until I’m done with him,” Lach grunted. “He won’t even make it two steps into the desert. Do you hear that, Wesley? Ye’re a fuckin’ coward, and ye’ve no skill in magic at all. Ye have to cheat in order to try to beat us. But I can promise ye that by the end of this competition, I will break ye in half with my own hands.”
I jumped to my feet too, glancing around quickly. Several of the other contestants had already scattered, and the last few were bolting off in other directions. But not Wesley. That fuckwad barely even seemed to care about the men who stood with me. His gaze pierced through me as if his only intent was to take me down—and probably hoping to take the guys down too if he was lucky enough.
Does he even care about winning the Gods’ Challenge? Or is he here for another reason?
Maybe he had been sent here by someone inside the school to kill us before we even had a chance to compete.
Well, good fucking luck with that, asshole.
My men and I all began sending out magic toward him, slashing him and pushing him backward. His face trembled with fear, and he grunted, each stroke of energy whipping him hard and fast. I stepped forward, letting my anger begin to take over. I grabbed him with a strand of my energy and began to shake him back and forth as hard as I could.
But as I took another step, the ground beneath my feet roared and cracked.
I had been so obsessed with stopping Wesley in his tracks that I had completely forgotten there was a real threat at hand. The gods hadn’t forgotten that we were in their territory.
All around us, the ground opened up, breaking into what looked like small fissures. Through each one, a giant fist smashed up and grabbed the ground, large stone fingers latching onto the edges of the cracks.
A second later, large stone monsters began pulling themselves up through the crust. Some of the monsters had several heads, while others were enormous giants carrying large heavy mallets. They left caverns in their wake, and heat billowed out from beneath the sand. Merrick, Trace, Lachlan, and I clustered together, not even caring about Wesley in that moment.
He was trying to get his footing, his arms flailing. The look on his face was one of complete terror as he watched the beasts rise up around him.
Merrick’s eyebrows rose, and he glanced over at me. “Fuck. This is already more intense than last time.”
I nodded, magic bursting between my fingertips as I surveyed the oncoming threat. “Yeah. You can say that again.”
This is bad.
Chapter Thirteen
Looking up, I could see the sky begin to change color, morphing from purple to blue to orange.
Large bolts of lightning cracked across the fluttering, translucent clouds, seemingly just above the giant stone monsters’ heads. I turned to my right, watching as one of the fleeing competitors tripped. Before he could regain his feet, a hand smashed up through the ground and grabbed him.
He screamed out as the giant yanked its arm back down, taking him to whatever depths it had come from. My stomach lurched in horror, and I turned away. I couldn’t save him now. But I could make sure a similar fate didn’t befall any of my men.
We’d barely been here five minutes, and the gods already seemed to be making a concerted effort to kill us.
Once the monsters pulled themselves fully out of the fissures around us, they began to move toward us, shaking the ground with each step.
Dammit. This sucks balls.
We were in a fucking standoff with Wesley, but we were going to have to fight the monsters off at the same time. We all gathered into a tight cluster, putting our backs together.
“Lachlan,” I muttered, “you start attacking Wesley with everything you have. I’ve got your back. Merrick and Trace, you guys keep the monsters away from us the best you can.”
Merrick’s face set in grim determination as he flexed his fingers, spinning magic from his hands. “I’ve got this. These big ass motherfuckers are going down.”
Lachlan sneered, glaring at Wesley. “This little weaselly fucker is goin’ to get what he deserves.”
Trace didn’t say a word. He just began sending out large swaths of magic. The first one twisted and contorted into a large net, spinning toward the three-headed stone beast. The net wrapped around the massive monster and took it down to the ground, pinning it to the sand.
I turned toward Wesley, my eyes narrowing as my anger boiled over.
He had created a shield around him, a strong enough one that it kept the monsters at bay. Every time one got too near, the shield emitted a sharp burst of electricity, sending the creature stumbling back.
I had to admit, Wesley was a sneaky little fuck-weasel, but he was no slouch at magic. That was a pretty good spell.
Not good enough to beat me though.
I focused my energy on him as Lachlan began beating down on the shield around him. I sent daggers of magic toward him, hitting the spots in his shield where the rock monsters had already cracked it. It took a couple tries, but I finally hit the widest crack in a direct hit. The shield splintered even more, hairline cracks extending over the entire surface.
Wesley’s eyes went wide, and he reached into his pocket—probably to grab another charm.
Just as he did, I threw a large spear of energy straight for him. When it reached the shield, the spear splintered, creating hundreds of smaller weapons that pierced through the magical shield and shattered it
like glass.
I followed up with another burst, sending it straight for the fucker’s crotch. If he was storing weapons in his pockets, I needed to get rid of them. And if he lost his dick and balls in the process? Well, that was his own fault for putting valuable shit so close to his junk.
He twisted to the side just before my blast hit him, probably saving his micro-dick from evisceration, but not managing to save his charms. My blast hit him in the hip, and the charms exploded outward from him as if he were the epicenter of a bomb.
Not wasting a second, I ran forward, jumping off a jagged piece of land sticking up from one of the gullies. I leapt through the air, using my magic to boost me. Wesley looked up in panic as I fell toward him. He put up his arms too late, and I tackled him to the ground, throwing him fifteen feet in the opposite direction. I heard his body hit the sand with a thud, and I was on my feet in a half-second, chasing after him again.
“You think you can get away with this shit? You think you can attack your own people?” I screamed at him. “I’ve got something to teach you, Wesley, and it’s called fucking manners.”
I grabbed the little weasel by the neck and tossed him to the ground, ramming my knee into his chest. He coughed and sputtered, grabbing me by the leg and throwing me to the other side. I felt something in my back crack as I hit the ground and skidded to a stop.
Ow. That fucking hurt.
Rage was still burning through me though, making my injuries feel like nothing more than minor distractions. Nothing was broken, and that was all that mattered.
Grimacing, I stood up and turned to face Wesley. He laughed loudly, shaking his head. His voice rose in pitch as he spoke until it was practically a screech.
“You stupid bitch. You think you can beat me? You think you can get one over on me? I’m better than you! I’m better than all of you. You think I’m cheating? I saw what you did in the last challenge. Teaming up together, letting those men protect you so you could fucking win. My charms are just magic. Magical tools.”
With that, he raised one arm and opened his palm, revealing one last vial of black churning magic.
Fuck!
I leapt forward, but before I could stop him, he slammed the vial down on the ground. Coming to a skidding stop, I put my arms up, watching in horror as a massive flying creature swirled out of smoke and erupted from the ground. Its wings hit me hard, throwing me back, but I put my arms down and shot out magic to keep me on my feet. The flying magical creature swung around, and I ducked low, watching as it took flight. It headed straight for the guys, who were all still fighting the stone monsters.
Oh, no, you don’t!
I threw my hand out, sending a stream of magic straight for Wesley’s creature. But my magic wasn’t strong enough. The creature’s wing slapped it away before the blast could hit its body.
“Watch out!” I screamed.
The men all stopped and turned as the flying beast raced toward them. Lachlan put his arms up to defend himself, but even as magic sparked on his fingertips, the flying creature hit him hard in the head with its large talons. Then the creepy winged beast snatched him up in its talons and carried him off into the distance.
My mouth dropped open, my heart thudding so hard in my chest that it felt like it would punch through my ribs. Choking back a pained cry, I raced toward the guys, sending a blast of energy toward Wesley. The fucking coward was already running off in the other direction, following after the last of the competitors as they all fled. They had taken down several of the stone monsters, and the ones that remained showed signs of the fight—their stone bodies were cracked and charred from the blasts they’d taken.
To the east, a cloud of billowing smoke rose up, a pulsating light emanating from it. Everyone was running in that direction, but I couldn’t chase after them. I couldn’t even move. I stood between Trace and Merrick, joining them in holding off the stone monsters as I watched the flying creature disappear off into the distance.
“Lach… Lachlan.” My throat was so tight that it hurt to speak. “We have to go after him.”
Merrick sent out a rope of magic to wrap around a stone creature’s legs. “Of course, we have to. We’ll make Wesley pay for this shit, but that can wait. We need to go after Lach while we can still track him.”
Trace grimaced, wiping sweat off his brow. His shirt was torn, and I could see blood through the rip in the fabric, but it didn’t look like the wound was too bad.
Godsdammit, they’re already getting hurt. I shouldn’t have let them come with me.
“Don’t worry about Lachlan,” Trace said, his voice hard. “He’s a fighter, and by the time we get to him he’ll probably be roasting that bird.”
Normally, I would’ve laughed, but I could tell from the tone of his voice that even he wasn’t quite as confident as he tried to sound. Lachlan had been unconscious or close to it when that bird thing had snatched him up.
I had gotten the guys into this. I had convinced them we needed the answers we would find here, despite the danger we’d put ourselves in just by coming back. I had made them feel like they were part of something bigger. But it was also quite possible that what I had actually done was given them a path straight to their deaths.
Turning back toward Wesley as he disappeared into the distance, I clenched my hands into fists. The walking bag of dicks stopped suddenly and stared directly at me. There was a smirk on his face, and he put two fingers to his forehead, tipping them toward me before running off again. I could feel the blood boiling in my veins, and all I wanted to do was chase after him and rip his head right off his shoulders.
For whatever reason, he had it out for me, and he’d had a plan to take me out from the beginning.
But Merrick was right. Revenge on Wesley would have to wait.
I joined two men beside me in fighting a path through the stone monsters. Our combined magic took out the final beast that stood in our way. As the ground reverberated from the shock of its heavy body, the three of us looked at each other and nodded before taking off through the sand as fast as we could.
It was hotter than hell, hotter than the jungle had been last semester, but nothing was going to keep me from saving Lachlan. Not even that piece of shit Wesley, who had thought for sure he had it in the bag from the beginning.
I hope like hell that when he tries to sleep tonight, he’s plagued by nightmares. I hope he knows I’ll be coming for him.
The only hope Wesley had at this point was to pray that Lachlan was still alive by the time I found him.
If he wasn’t, I swore to the gods and to everyone else who was watching us from the earthly plane, I would make Wesley’s death slow and painful.
Chapter Fourteen
“Look,” Merrick said, pointing up at the sky in the distance. “There it is. I can still see the streaks of smoke following behind that bird thing.”
We had stopped for just a moment to collect our breaths. We’d been running across the shifting sands for what felt like hours as the creature ahead of us went in and out of view.
I nodded and sucked a bunch of air into my lungs, knowing I could keep pushing. I had run longer and harder before, especially when Vin had wanted to teach me a lesson for staying out too late the night before and being late to practice. The only difference here was the fact that I was running through sand, and it was hotter than hell.
“Up ahead,” Trace replied, nodding toward the horizon. “It looks like a forest. Hopefully it’ll be a little bit cooler there.”
I grimaced, wiping sweat off my brow. “It might be hot out here, but at least we can see in all directions. In there, we’re going to have to look out for a whole other level of things trying to eat us.” Then I shook my head determinedly. “Doesn’t matter, Lachlan needs us. Come on.”
The three of us picked up the pace again, running toward the slowly creeping foliage that led into the forest. The leaves were larger than anything I’d seen on our last trip here, and the vines that wrapped around the tr
ee trunks were thick and covered in spines. We all called upon our magic, creating weapons that could push through the thick undergrowth as quickly as possible.
I’d been right. There were multiple threats hiding in the thick foliage. Nothing like the stone monsters we’d encountered on our arrival—the new threats came in the form of man eating plants and insects that darted back and forth, attempting to take a bite out of each of us.
But there was no time to stop.
We swung our magical weapons, fighting them off as they appeared, trying to keep our feet moving as fast as possible. It was harder to keep an eye on the bird up above with the thick leaves and swaying limbs of the trees over our heads, but we managed to follow the bird-like creature up a large embankment and into a clearing.
Both Merrick and Trace put their arms out, slowing me to a stop. I looked over at them, slightly confused. “What?” I gasped. “What are we stopping for?”
Merrick pointed straight up into the sky. I squinted upward, trying to find the bird within the bright streaking light of the sun. It was directly above us, and I could just barely make out Lachlan’s form clutched in its talons.
“There’s something wrong with the bird,” Trace said, hope mingling with fear in his voice. “It looks like it’s struggling.”
We all put our hands up, shielding the light and watching as the bird weaved back and forth, calling out loudly. Suddenly, there was a shimmer of a bright blade and one of the bird’s massive talons came plummeting down toward the ground. We jumped out of the way as it landed, indenting the soil next to us.
Quickly looking back up, we watched as Lachlan, looking as small as an ant from this distance, was released from the bird creature’s hold and came plummeting toward the ground.
My entire body jolted with shock. Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck.