“You can sign me up for a fight, too,” I said absently. “There’s not a lot of people here tonight. I expected to see more. I’m sure everyone wants to blow off some steam.”

  “Tonight is a very special night,” the ringmaster winked. “Only the very best were invited. Speaking of which, I should get this party started before too many drinks are poured. Why don’t you come right up to the front? I don’t think you’ll want to miss this.”

  “Sure,” I said and followed the shorter man.

  I glanced over at my friends and nodded to each of them as they all started toward the iron cage. The ringmaster motioned to one of the makeshift lounge chairs and then bustled into the fighting ring as cheers erupted from the crowd. I joined in so that the rowdy pixies next to me wouldn’t be suspicious and then sat at the edge of the seat so that I could jump up when necessary.

  “Welcome one, welcome all,” the ringmaster boomed, and the conversations immediately died down. “Tonight is a very special night. As all of you know, the nine realms have been through quite a lot lately. And we all have something to fight for. But first, I’d like to bring your attention to a very special guest. A traitor has been discovered. And I think all of you will appreciate seeing a traitor beheaded.”

  Cheers rang through the cave and reverberated back so loudly that it was deafening. The others had spread out so that we could easily disperse into the crowd and fight our way through if everyone turned out to be an enemy.

  An ogre shoved someone through the door of the cage, but it was impossible to tell who, or what, they were with the bloody sack over their face.

  The ringmaster looked right at me, grinned, and then tugged the bag off of the guy’s head to reveal that it was Jason.

  And he’d been beaten to within an inch of his life.

  Chapter 17

  “Jason,” I whispered.

  I stood and stared through the iron bars of the cage to see the fire mage’s beaten face. His bright blue eyes were clouded over like they had been during the fight with the old headmaster, but I doubted that it was from a spell this time. I counted at least six broken fingers between both of his hands, and his nose was completely lopsided.

  Jason clearly hadn’t gone willingly with the cultists, and guilt tore through me as the ogre forced the fire mage to continue standing. One foot was at an odd angle like it was broken, and the black-haired human snapped to attention as the guard forced him to use the bad leg. He was covered in bruises as if he’d been interrogated, and I wondered just how much he really understood what was happening.

  “I don’t think he’s a traitor,” Sarya whispered as she and Atlesia joined me. “At least, not to the nine realms. He must’ve actually betrayed the cultists when he killed the headmaster.”

  “And we thought he went with them,” my girlfriend said in a broken voice. “We should’ve tried to save him.”

  “There was nothing that we could do,” I said and forced myself to take a deep breath. “The base vanished. And every sign pointed to Jason going with them willingly.”

  “What are we going to do?” Mike asked as he and the minotaurs crossed the cave. “That cage has to have a barrier or something to protect it from people who want to get in and stop the fight.”

  “It does,” Rarus frowned. “If we go in there, then there’s no way to get back out until the ringmaster opens the doors.”

  Storm had drifted closer to the roof of the cave so that she could watch over everything all at once, and a vision of the shadow creatures danced through our bond. The dark monsters were a break in the light and air that the elemental could see, and it looked like they’d already spread out around the edges. The tiny woman sent a questioning feeling through our mental link, but I gave the smallest shake of my head and told her to keep watch so we’d know when it was about to go down.

  The crowd’s cheers were so deafening that I couldn’t hear what the ringmaster said next, but there was no way to miss the gleaming silver knife in his hand. The ruby-encrusted hilt glittered with red mana, but it wasn’t the same color that the fire mages used. It almost reminded me of the blood pools from South America, but those had shimmered with the golden magic of a summoner, too.

  “I don’t think there’s anything we can do,” I admitted.

  The words had barely left my mouth before the ringmaster motioned for the ogre to drop Jason to his knees. The fire mage’s mouth opened like he’d let out a small gasp, but the shouts swallowed it whole, and I reached for the girls’ hands as the blade was brought across our classmate’s neck.

  I refused to look away as the ringmaster cut Jason’s head from his body. It was my fault that the cultists had gotten him in the first place, and if I’d believed that he was on our side, then maybe we could’ve mounted a rescue mission. I didn’t have the right to look away from his death, but it would be avenged, because not one single person would leave the cave alive.

  Rage flooded through my body as the ogre dropped Jason’s corpse like it was useless, and the ringmaster held up the head by the mage’s pure black hair. I glanced around to see the bloodlust that twisted every face in the crowd like it had countless times before, but this was different. My classmate’s body quickly dissolved into nothing but red mana and dust, and the shadow creatures didn’t even try to hide themselves as they moved into the cage to collect the magic.

  “I’m going to burn that bastard to dust,” Sarya said through clenched teeth. “There’s going to be nothing left of him.”

  “Folks,” the ringmaster said as he cleaned the knife. “I’m so glad that all of you could make it. As you know, we’ve been working diligently to bring about a nine realms where the powerful can finally come out of the shadows. And tonight, we’ve made a step toward that. But the festivities aren’t done!”

  The traitorous gnome pointed at our group with the dagger and grinned wide enough to show off all of his pointed teeth. A shiver ran down my spine, but I couldn’t tell if it was fear, or rage, though it was probably a mixture of both. The ringmaster took a few steps toward the cage door as a hush fell over the crowd, and I could almost feel everyone’s eyes as they turned toward us.

  “We still have an obstacle in our way,” he said from just behind the bars. “Some cute little students think that they can stop what’s coming. The one responsible for the great Alec Enzaron’s death has been slain, but now it’s time to bring justice to those who aided in the great mage’s demise.”

  The pixies near us all lifted off of the top of the table and fluttered their gossamer wings. None of the ones from the school had ever been that terrifying, mostly because their primary focus was on gossip, but the ones that now glared at us with pupilless eyes were enough to make my blood run cold. Their glittery skin shimmered as they called different shades of mana to the surface, and I instinctively reached for the diamond in my pocket.

  “I knew this was a trap,” Rarus huffed and rolled his shoulders. “But thankfully, I managed to stop by and get my new favorite weapon.”

  The minotaur reached into one of his pockets and pulled the mace from the practice field out. It was already covered in ice by the time the spiked ball was freed, and I stared in awe at how Rarus had managed to fit it in there in the first place. The bull-man must’ve had a spell to make his pockets hold more, but that was a topic for another time, especially since the crowd had officially turned feral.

  “I bring to you tonight’s final entertainment,” the ringmaster clapped his hands together with a wicked smile. “There will be no cage fights tonight. Just one big battle. Consider this cave the arena. There’s no need to worry about the blood. It can be cleaned later. For now, enjoy tearing apart the mages from Magia Schola as revenge for betraying the headmaster who loved them dearly.”

  A snort burst out of Ramis and I at the same time, and even Atlesia let out a loud laugh. The idea that the headmaster had loved us was completely ridiculous given the fact that he’d tried to murder us the last time that we’d met. If we hadn’t killed him first, then we’d be the ones that the nine realms were mourning, and I doubt that the evil bastard would’ve given us such a lovely wake.

  “If you guys attack us,” I said and summoned Wisp. “Then none of us will go easy on you. You’ve seen what the minotaurs and I can do. Are you really sure that you can take all of us at the same time?”

  “There’sss more of ussss than you,” a snake-like voice said from beside us.

  I turned to see a creature with the body of a snake and the torso of a woman. Acidic green mana danced over the mage’s body, and the hiss of snakes echoed through the cave as everything from black racers to pythons rushed toward us from the edges of the cave.

  “Absolutely not,” Sarya snapped.

  The redheaded mage summoned fire and burned up each of the snakes before they could even reach their master. The snake-woman screeched from the tops of her lungs as Sarya turned the blue flames toward the mage and consumed everything from her black hair to the shiny green scales that covered her tail. My mate’s silver eyes shined with rage as the last of the slithering monsters disappeared, and a few of the dwarves took a step back like they were rethinking their plan.

  Wisp hovered in the air above me with a hunger that matched the rage that flooded through my veins. Jason’s body was gone, but his head had rolled off to the side after the ringmaster tossed it away like nothing more than a basketball. My will-o’-wisp didn’t even need orders to race toward the still open iron cage and start to slash at the traitorous gnome.

  The cheers from earlier were replaced by the sounds of screams as the ringmaster was shredded beyond recognition, and the ogre guard rushed to help the gnome. I sent rage and mana through my mental link with Wisp and watched as the will-o’-wisp created an illusion of small birds pecking at the green-skinned ogre’s face while she finished off the bastard that had killed my classmate.

  “We’re going to rip you limb from limb,” one of the giants in the corner said.

  “And then make my bones into bread?” I snapped the Jack in the Beanstalk quote. “I’ve heard that before.”

  The pixies shot forward like neurotic hummingbirds and started to slash and bite Ramis, but the minotaur had already summoned his own will-o’-wisp, and it didn’t take long for the bull-man to crush the tiny women with his bare fists. Their wings drifted to the floor as everyone else rushed forward like someone had unpaused a video game.

  The shouts were so loud that I couldn’t hear anything from my friends, but Storm kept an eye on everyone for me. Mike had started to call the roots that he’d talked about earlier while the girls stood back to back and switched between vines and carnivorous plants. The minotaurs had charged into a throng of ogres, and Rarus used his water powers to freeze whatever part his mace smashed into.

  I punched one of the dwarves in the face and then stole his double-sided hammer before he could slam it into my side. The bearded man stumbled backwards, spit blood on the stone, and then pulled a small dagger out from a sheath on his side. I didn’t hesitate and swung through the air with the hammer.

  The dwarf’s head exploded into a spray of bone and brain matter that painted the lounge seat beside us. The rest of his body flailed around like a chicken with its head cut off and knocked into one of the dwarves behind him before it collapsed into a heap.

  “That was my brother!” the other dwarf snarled and threw an axe at me.

  I jumped aside and fought back a string of curses as an ogre wrapped its beefy arms around my waist. The green-skinned man started to squeeze me like a juice pouch, and I could feel my ribs start to bend and threaten to crack. I slammed my head backwards and managed to hit the guard right in the jaw.

  The ogre released me and stumbled back to hold onto its bleeding lip while I forced air back into my lungs. Black dots swam in front of my vision, and the image of the fight from above took over. My opponent had recuperated and was on his way back, but Storm showed the hammer that had fallen at my feet.

  It took all of my speed to reach the weapon before the ogre could slam its fists into my head, but I made it in time, and the green-skinned man let out a high-pitched scream as I rammed one side of the hammer into his crotch. I still couldn’t see well because the lights had all been burned out, but there were intermittent flashes of fire from Sarya, and I used those to guide me to the ogre’s kneecaps.

  One swing was all it took, and the ogre’s kneecaps splintered into tiny pieces. The dwarf’s hammer shattered as if it had sustained too much damage, so I used the dull end to stab into my opponent’s right eye. It popped like a zit, and pale liquid oozed down the ogre’s face as it collapsed to the ground.

  “We need to get out of here!” I shouted to the others. “There’s too many of them.”

  “No kidding,” Rarus huffed and swung the mace around in a wide arc.

  The sharp spikes collided with three different ogres, and icicles spread out from every impact. One of them had been struck in the arm, but the creature didn’t even notice before the limb splintered like he’d been dipped into liquid nitrogen, and I forced myself not to gag as blood, bone, and skin icicles crumbled to the cave floor.

  “Get to the exit,” I shouted to the others.

  “What are you planning to do?” Atlesia asked as a carnivorous vine whipped around to strangle another snake-woman.

  “Cave them in,” I said. “Leave them with nothing but the shadow creatures.”

  Pain seared through my side as something stabbed into me, and I looked over to see the nymph bartender had shanked me with an ice pick. I quickly pulled it out and slammed it between the woman’s eyes and then punched her in the sternum so hard that she stumbled backwards into a pair of dwarves.

  The smell of burnt flesh filled the cave as Sarya continued to flame broil anyone dumb enough to get close, and there were plenty of people to try it. One of the giants hovered over the redheaded elf and started to form snow on their hands. My mate was too distracted by one of the banshee singers to notice, so I grabbed her by the waist and yanked her and Atlesia back before the avalanche could fall on them.

  Wisp had already been dissolved back into dust as one of the guard ogres fought through her illusion to smash her between open hands, but my creature had done well with the ringmaster, and I still had Storm to help me. The wind elemental glided down from the roof of the cave and showed me exactly where all of the shadow creatures were hiding. Her ability to see through the intermittent flashes of light was the only thing that helped me drag the girls through the crowd, and I made sure to let Storm know to keep an eye on the evil monsters waiting to suck up all of our mana.

  “I’m running out of mana,” Sarya gasped as she looked at her wrinkly fingers. “There’s just too many of them. It’s like they’re ants coming out of nowhere.”

  “There are probably some in the tunnels,” I panted.

  “There are,” Mike said as he joined us. “I’ve trapped most of them using the roots, but some of them are dwarves, and they have axes.”

  I glanced over my shoulder, and a sudden burst of fire from one of the ogres showed Mike’s handiwork. The thick tree roots had crawled across the sides of the caves to cover the mouths of several small tunnels where the reinforcements were now trapped. I couldn’t believe that the tree-man had managed to call so many despite all of the stone that surrounded us, and the roots had even been thickened so that the dwarves would have to work hard to get through them.

  The mouth of the cave was right in front of us, and the minotaurs had finally slashed through the crowd. My side ached from the ice pick, and I was pretty sure that the ogre had cracked at least a few of my ribs because each breath felt like I was swallowing fire. If we didn’t escape soon, then the cultists really would take us out, and I couldn’t let that happen.

  “Atlesia,” I panted and reached into my pocket for Abby’s stone. “I-I think it’s time for the corpse flowers.”

  “On it,” the flower nymph said.

  Atlesia’s light green skin seemed paler than usual, but that didn’t stop her from tugging the corpse flower seeds out of her leather bracers. The flower nymph’s face twisted with concentration as we reached the front of the cave, and I motioned for everyone to huddle near the waterfall while we worked to close the door. My girlfriend tossed the deadly seeds into the throng while I summoned Abby.

  The tapir-boar took up most of the entryway, and the roaring waterfall behind us quickly soaked through my clothes. I ordered the armored animal to keep the others back while Atlesia did her thing, and to knock loose as many stones as possible. Abby nodded and let out a roar that made my ears ring, but it worked enough to make the nearest dwarves skid to a halt and rethink their plan of action.

  “Rarus,” I said over my shoulder. “Can you use your powers to help Abby? Atlesia will grow the corpse flowers, and you guys collapse the cave so that no one can escape.”

  “On it,” the minotaur said and closed his eyes.

  “The shadow creatures are coming,” Ramis panted and bent over to catch his breath. “Willow is already done for. I don’t have any other light creatures.”

  “It’s fine,” Mike said and tugged a few light bombs from his bag. “These have been upgraded.”

  I concentrated on pouring mana into Abby as the tapir-boar kept everyone back. The cave mouth had almost completely collapsed by the time that Mike tossed the light bombs inside, and I glanced over at Atlesia to make sure that she was still okay.

  Sweat beaded on the flower nymph’s forehead as green mana shot from her fingertips. There was so much of it that I almost stopped her, but then the screams from inside of the cave told me that the corpse flowers had all started to grow. Atlesia collapsed into my waiting arms, and I felt the stab wound tear open just a little more.

  “Fuck,” I grunted and forced myself to stay upright. “Abby, you need to hold those stones in place. Don’t let any of the pollen through. Storm, can you help?”

 

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