Page 27 of Fatality on the Field

“Satis est! Magia cedet aut mortui resurgent!”⁠*

Wincing, I frown at where Iggy is pushing more power than I’ve seen him use before into cracking the damn thing. My fox friend wrinkles his nose and looks extremely unhappy before he finally speaks.

“He’s not really going to do it, is he? That’s such a fucking mess that no one down here is supposed to be doing this either. Jasper will have several episodes and a full-on tantrum if we have to clean it up, I promise.”

“I don’t think so?” I give Zav a sheepish look. “He’s kind of emotional this morning, and I think he’s really pissed that something this stupid is hidden behind so many layers. It’s not like it’s…” I think for a moment, trying to find the right sporty, non-musical metaphor to use for a regular person. “Not like it’s their entire playbook for the revolution or whatever, right?”

He chuckles and shakes his head. “I don’t think even the people we’ve had described to us would leave something that important within reach of Lucian. The demon is the slimiest, credit-stealing shit heel you can imagine; no way he'd ever leave it alone if they did.”

“Why load it up with so many magics and shit then? That feels counterin⁠—”

My words die in my throat as I remember something Azul did once when I was young. She and Axel wanted to annex another MC in Bay City, and they had just watched a movie about the war with Troy. It’s an old, well-used plan, but those idiots at the meeting didn’t seem very smart by the way they were described. Panicking, I struggle to my feet and stumble over to the circle where Iggy and X are still wailing on the book.

“Stop, stop, stop… horse. It’s… a horse,” I pant as I try to warn them despite being zapped like a mosquito before.

Xerxes stares at me with slitted eyes, but Iggy knows me too well to discard an interruption like this. Even in his scary-ass, dark magic mode, I see a flicker of understanding in his expression. The Latin stops, and I watch as he very slowly withdraws the power he’s wielding. The snake demon frowns, his perfect brow line furrowing as he does the same.

“Hoc dolus est; dicit id nobis nocere destinatum esse.⁠*”

“Oh, that kind of horse,” Damon says from the pile of tails and wings he and his twin are in across the room. “Holy shit, dude, how did you know?”

Oriel makes an annoyed sound that surely means something in crow, but I’m not sure how to take it. He shakes himself out once he rises from his spot in a corner and walks over to the circle to peer at the now floating book that should drop to the floor soon. “I dunno, but I’m really fucking glad he did. This place shields from magical crap, but it would have allowed us all to be completely obliterated if that thing went off. I assume it was set to do so once we finally opened it.”

My shoulders finally slump when the residual magic wears off, and the book drops to the ground. Turning to Iggy, I walk closer and put my hands on his arms, pushing magic into the bloody slices on his forearms. I don’t have a lot to give right this moment, but he has to stop bleeding for this to go away. I don’t know why, nor have I ever attempted to figure it out. I just know what to do to bring him back so I don’t have a dark-eyed, Latin-speaking robot hanging around.

It was kind of an odd surprise to walk in on as a freshman one night after practicing late.

“Xerxes, do you need assistance?”

As I continue healing Iggy, I see the huge aquatic shifter make his way to the golden demon. Because of my family, I’ve had an uncontrollable dislike for sharks, but this one? I think he’s the exception to a very common rule about sea predator shifters. I’d trust him to help if I were falling over—which I might, if my roomie doesn’t heal up soon.

“No, I’m good, Slash. It took the piss out of me, but at least the professor and I didn’t get flung like rag dolls. That shit had to hurt, right?”

Angelo shrugs. “No more than when Rogue makes us let her practice on us. She’s got elbows like goddamn iron bars.”

“All the better to beat you with,” the pink-haired girl says as he helps her up and then his twin. “But seriously, how the hell did you know it was a trap?”

The last part is addressed to me, and I wrinkle my nose. “Oddly, I had this stray thought about something my shitty parents did after Zavida said the headmaster is a slime ball. He talked about how nothing this obvious and important would be safe in his realm, and it made me remember when the MC took over a rival one when I was a kid. They sent strippers to a big birthday party for the Prez that were descended from hydras, sirens, and maids. Obviously, it worked.”

“Singing hottie Trojan seahorses, huh?” Oriel says with a grin. “May not be super complex, but bikers aren’t that bright, even down here.”

“Man, don’t tell me humans stole Hell’s Angels from here?” I groan as Iggy’s wounds heal and make a face at how bad that sort-of pun is. “I don’t know if I can keep down breakfast if it’s true.”

“Nah,” Zavida says as he finally stands. “The ones down here are sort of… weird in comparison. I don’t exactly know how to explain it, but I’m sure the twins will see them in the Capital. Maybe they can send pictures?”

Iggy snaps out of his trance right then, his eyes wide as he looks at me. “Did I do it? Did it help?”

The room goes silent as he leans on me, and I’m surprised when Rogue is the one to come over to hold up his other side. She sighs and admits, “No, Prof, we didn’t. But that’s not because you’re hiding a big ass secret; it’s because your boy here figured out we were about to break open some kind of Trojan magic bomb. Say thank you, cuz you and the pretty reptile would have been roadkill.”

My friend looks over at me, and then down at his arms, and back up at my eyes. “Slade would never let me get killed. He’d be homeless.”

I roll my eyes as I mutter, “We moved into Morgana’s, you idiot.”

The Fae woman rolls her eyes and mutters something derogatory about men before she asks, “Wanna tell us how you’re able to do that shit, anyway? The big dude says we shouldn’t ask, but I’m just not very polite when I’ve almost been liquified. Spill it, smart guy. How do you do it?”

The answer is that Ignatius Briarton is not just a bastard in theory; he’s one in reality, and it made him a necromancer.

* Shadows follow and swallow me... In the dark of dead witch wood, A guardian shadow will be me.