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Of course, Maxine was not slow. She power strutted from the moment we hit the pavement outdoors. A few steps in and she said, “You’re stubborn.”
“Um.”
“But also keep your business to yourself. I like that part. Everyone is always trying to get into my business, but in the past two weeks you have been content to ignore me. Completely. Oblivious to anything I have tried to bait you with.” She kept walking.
“Wha—”
“And that is why I am going to trust you, Ellie.” She looked over at me and smiled. Ellie? My family was quite formal so everyone called me Eleanor and my parents sometimes called me Darling.
“Okay.” I really wasn’t sure what to say, but my father was right, Maxine was an exceptional witch at her age and I needed help in more than just defensive arts.
“There is a merman on this campus.” She said it as though the professor and the guy with the blue tint that I had seen at the pub last night didn’t stand out like a neon sign was flashing over their heads with the word merman.
“Yes. Two.” I nodded.
“Thurston Cambridge is the older brother of my former… well. We weren’t lovers, but he was my first love.” She seemed to speed up along with her thoughts. “And Dolin Cambridge was not, I repeat not invited to attend this year.”
“Oh.” I wasn’t sure what this was about.
She stopped suddenly and I stopped too because she turned to look at me and said, “I must stay away from him.”
“Okay.” I could feel my eyebrow raise.
“You will help me?” she asked.
“Sure.” I wasn’t sure what the problem was.
At least, not until I saw the pack of beautiful creatures running toward us in some sort of formation. The tall, blonde haired, blue eyed merman was shirtless, wearing only shorts and running shoes. He was such a sight to see. Only, he wasn’t what held my focus and attention. It was Braz, running next to him, his chest began to flush with each step they made closer to us.
Someone yelled, “One more lap and then the field.”
Lap, field. Those were real words but as the horned monster looking at me as they ran past us smiled, I could barely understand my name much less those directions.
“Come on. They are going to the field.” I snapped to my senses when a very cold hand landed on my arm and tugged.
About halfway to the field I asked the obvious question, “How is this… staying away from him?”
“I’m not speaking to him. I’m just… curious about their fighting tactics. It’s smart for us to know what they do. Observe them so we can defend ourselves against other monsters like them should we encounter them in our lives beyond the school.” She practically dragged me along since I could not keep up with her.
“But why would they attack us?” I asked, totally oblivious to the politics of this realm if her expression said anything about it.
“Because outside of this realm, in other realms, species have established domains, territories, and if you travel to those places, you could become prey. They could try to drain you of your magic.” She explained as we found a spot in what amounted to bleachers.
“Oh.” I had only traveled between two realms, but that made sense. Even in the human world there were people looking to take from someone else because they were a tourist. People were kidnapped, murdered, or stolen from all the time when they vacationed in other towns much less countries. It only made sense that would be similar in the magic world if the human realm had so much in common with this one. “But in this realm—”
“Shhh.” She pointed. “Some of them can hear exceptionally well.”
At that, one of the monsters on the field turned his head toward us. Everyone then turned to look at us. I gulped. We both remained silent until their attention shifted back to their circle of guys and a moment later they were split into groups of seven and one, the coach based on the shirt, called out some words and then a glittery magical dome appeared over all of us.
“We’re in it now.” Maxine nodded.
“Great.” I had no idea what to say. I was less prepared for what was about to happen.
The teams split up and the landscape began to change. We were still in the bleachers, but somehow above them and the screens in front of us appeared from the floor and hovered at elbow height. We could see the entire field on those screens and the numbers lit up designating the players of both teams.
This was the first game I had seen. I only knew I was rooting for whatever team Braz was on, and I had no idea which one that was until the screen lit up and much like Sunday night football back in New York, the players were being displayed, only instead of stats for touchdowns or passes or whatever, they covered their skill sets, monster features, and then kills. Kills?
“Are they—”
