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Professor Wist, our Power and Precision teacher, had practically beaten that mantra into our heads over the five weeks we’d been in classes. I repeated it to myself now, willing the words to give me courage.
I had to learn to trust my magic, knowing that my magic came from me and there was no one more protective of my own body than myself.
If given the chance, my magic would protect me.
Letting my eyes drift closed, I let my magic surge out of my arms and down across the ground. I concentrated hard, managing to almost visualize the path it was taking toward the two remaining shades. I even changed the color of the magic, camouflaging it against the tall grasses.
When I could sense the creatures near my magic, I jumped into action. I focused on the streams of energy, hardening them like bands of steel. Then I stepped out from behind the tree I’d taken cover behind and swung both of my arms hard to the left. The apparitions shrieked and narrowed their sightless eyes at me, raising their hands to create large orbs of dark, swirling magic.
Just before they released them in my direction—a blow I was pretty sure would’ve killed me—I swung my arms back to the right, hitting the creatures like a freight train with my giant rock solid magical beams.
Almost instantly, both of the creatures exploded, bursting into a shower of dark sparkles.
I let the energy slowly flow back up toward my body and into my core. Glancing back and forth, I found no other threats in the area. I didn’t even see any other students. There was a bright light growing in the clearing, and when I looked over at the pillar, the golden scroll pulsed, calling to me.
Now I did sprint for it, racing across the clearing from where I’d taken cover at the perimeter. The pillar was about ten feet tall, and I scaled it like a monkey, not even bothering to figure out a way to use magic to help me reach the top.
When I finally hauled myself up onto the smooth circle of polished stone, I reached for the glowing scroll with trembling hands. My fingertips touched the warm golden paper—
And everything went dark.
It was only for a moment, but it was enough to scare the fuck out of me.
When I opened my eyes, I was standing back in the arena and everyone was cheering wildly around us. Dean Frost walked up to me and nodded, an appraising look on her face.
“Very good, Aria Banks. You’re a winner of the competition.”
My mouth dropped open, and I laughed at myself, feeling pride surging inside me.
“Holy shit. I qualified for the Gods’ Challenge?”
“Yes.” The dean gestured with her chin to the space over my shoulder. “You and the others as well.”
Others? Am I the last one out?
Slowly, I turned, the smile dropping from my lips. Down at the end of the row of ten students, Trace, Lachlan, and Merrick were living it up, waving at the crowd and slapping each other on the back.
All my pride and excitement seeped right out of me like air from a punctured balloon.
Ah, fuck.
Chapter Nine
All the winners had to make it through one more week of classes before moving on to the Gods’ Challenge.
The preliminary competition had been difficult, but despite a few serious injuries, no students had died in the maze. Trace, Merrick, Lachlan, and the other students who had qualified for the challenge became minor celebrities around school, although I was still persona non grata.
However, as the week progressed, I noticed that my professors started paying closer attention to me. I could tell that they were trying to prepare me for what was coming. They were pushing me extra hard and would pull me aside in class to teach me more advanced defensive and offensive forms of magic.
“The Gods’ Challenge is not to be taken lightly,” Professor Wist told me after class on Wednesday. “You’ll be competing in the godly realm, and you’ll need to be completely focused when you go in there. It will be difficult, because you’re going to see things that you thought only existed in movies or your imagination. It’s important to remind yourself to pull in that curiosity and know that the things around you are serious dangers. That includes the people you go into the challenge with.”
Her warning made sense to me. It was exactly the same as when I fought in the ring.
The excitement and hoopla that surrounded the fights were always distracting, but when it came down to it, the only thing that mattered was me and my opponent. Once we stepped into the ring, it didn’t matter how many people were watching us and cheering us on. It didn’t matter how much money was on the line or how much backing we had from rich mafia in the area.
It was just me and the other person.
Spectators and bets be damned, my fists were the only thing that would do the talking.
