Part 22 (1/2)

I started to run anyhow.

Many of the students had spread out, more intent on finding the hidden Key of Light than on attacking each other, but as I pa.s.sed certain students, including Citrus Veer, a junior werewolf, and Ollister Immerson, a soph.o.m.ore fallen angel, I saw their looks change. They became speculative and hungry, their faces feral.

If I could be taken out of Tactical, the team that did it would get tons of points. They still had to find the Key, but it would mean they could surely win. I was the only one who was the only one of something, after all; Lough and Trafton at least had each other. There was also a Starter dream giver who couldnt partic.i.p.ate, but who still made the total tally of dream givers three; three was a very different number from one. I had to face the fact that my own role as a target was going to play a big part in how this Tactical evolved.

I could hear the cheers of the crowd as I darted toward the woods, barely thinking about why I was doing it. I just ran, my legs pumping and my lungs gasping for air. Turning a corner, I skidded to a halt.

Standing in front of me were three pixies. I knew two of them - they were on the same Tactical Team - but I had rarely seen the third before. The first two had their bags of pixie dust out, while the third was twirling something that looked a lot like a green wand. It was probably a spellbinder, a nasty piece of paranormal equipment meant to inflict lots of pain in a small amount of time.

Hi, Charlotte, said the one with the spellbinder, smiling. He was a soph.o.m.ore, and he had a reputation for violence and arguments. He had painted more of the Long Building than the rest of the students combined.

He raised the spellbinder, and I was frantically trying to think of a way to neutralize it in a hurry when I felt a tug on my arm. Then Jackle was there, pulling me away.

Come on, he insisted gruffly. You cant be the first one out.

We ran.

I heard footsteps pounding after us and voices yelling in anger, and the tug on my arm became more insistent.

It would make sense if I were the first, I argued. The whole school wants me dead and my teammates left me.

We didnt leave you, said Jackle. This is all meant to a.s.sist in cross-paranormal relations.

Thats going so well, I said, as dryly as I possibly could.

Jackle gave me one quick smile over his shoulder.

Chapter Thirty-One.

The campus had been opened up for this event, and the opportunities for spectating had been spread out as much as possible. Stadium seating had been set up in various places along the big field and the hill. The screens that hadnt been used since Dash during my Starter semester were now up and running, and now I could see that many of the magical devices were showing Jackle and me as we fled from the pixies.

Great, so much for blending in.

See, I said, pointing. Theyre telling the other teams right where I am. We dont have a chance.

Jackle halted, tacitly acknowledging that I was right. Ahead of us there were at least three Tactical teams, just waiting for us to get near enough for an attack. If we kept on the way we were going, we were doomed. What we really needed was to get lost amongst the buildings of Public, but there were too many students scattered around for us to have any chance of accomplis.h.i.+ng that.

Its okay, I said. I can die.

Jackle glared at me. First of all, did you not say that I dont like to lose? Second of all, they dont just want to kill you in the game, they want to kill you dead. Are you really going to let that happen? The great Charlotte Rollins, the only elemental, didnt die fighting demons, she died fighting some stupid soph.o.m.ore pixie with a magical toy?

Well, when you put it like that, I grumbled.

The rest of our team was nowhere to be seen. I glanced behind me and saw that the three pixies who were chasing us were just coming up behind us. Jackle and I were surrounded, and they were closing in fast.

This is just a game, I whispered to myself. This is just a game. My fellow students are not going to kill me. I glanced at each of them and I had a hard time believing my own words.

The fear of war with demons had turned many of the students hard, and they wanted someone to blame. Lisabelle was the likely target, and her friends were next. Besides that, as the only elemental I bore a lot of the responsibility, in their minds, for the demon attacks.

Enough of this, I heard Dacer cry. He was watching on one of the magical screens. I turned my head for a second - long enough to see him sitting with the other professors, including Zervos and Erikson, with Caid nearby - before I snapped back to attention. None of the adults except Dacer cared that my team had left me exposed. Daisy wouldnt get so much as a talking to for deserting me.

And in the moment, even that split second of indecision had been too long.

One of the pixies behind me lunged and sprinkled his dust into the air. It went from the color of green gra.s.s to the deep green of pine needles as it congealed into one point.

I threw my weight toward Jackle, knocking him out of the way just as the pixie arrow zoomed past us.

Ooff. I slammed into the ground with a thud.

Wheres the rest of our team? Jackle panted.

Who cares, I said, standing up.

The day was clear and cool, the sky cloudless. Well, I could fix that. I waited a breath, letting them all come closer, and as I waited I called to my ring.

Ever since I had found out that this wasnt the ring that was meant for me it had felt a little strange on my finger, heavier than it had seemed before, and slower to react to my commands. But it would still do the trick against a bunch of soph.o.m.ores and juniors.

At first I called to the clouds and the water, asking for rain. They didnt gather instantly, but they came, dropping down from high in the sky and rus.h.i.+ng over distances. The sky darkened from blue to gray.

Another pixie arrow came whizzing past me, but I sidestepped it easily. I wasnt so lucky with the third one. But it didnt matter if it hit me, it only mattered if it knocked me out.

The arrow slammed into my shoulder and I staggered, instantly dizzy and disoriented. I heard Jackle yell, joined by other voices.

Just in time I remembered what Sigil had told me about fire. I had the hardest time with it of any of the four elements, because I usually needed it to exist nearby already before I could make use of it. There would be no fire to call on during Tactical, but now it didnt matter, because I now knew that I could pull it from deep in the ground. It would be difficult, and Id be tired afterward, but at least Id be able to make my point.

The rain was now threatening, the wind whipping around me. The stands of watching paranormals had fallen silent. I wondered what Dacer was thinking.

I fell to my knees, the effects of the arrow hampering me more quickly than I had expected. I took a deep breath and fought the spreading numbness, which tingled until my whole arm felt like it was on fire. I was losing feeling on one side, and it was getting progressively harder to breathe. It felt as if I had fallen asleep on my arm and the blood was just returning, only instead of the tingling getting better it was getting worse. I fought ever harder to breathe as my arm swelled and spasmed.

I needed a fallen angel, but my fallen angel teammate wasnt going to take the time to help me.

Refusing to worry about pa.s.sing out from a pixie attack, I pulled in as deep a breath as I could, and I called the fire. Beneath me the ground grew hot; it was working. I pulled more of my strength into the magical power that coursed through my veins. Fear had made me strong. I saw my attackers, not just the three pixies, but the ones in front of us as well, take a step back and stare at their feet. Good. They wouldnt be able to stand there much longer.

Shes heating the ground, cried the pixie who had shot the arrow. Stop her!

That arrow should have knocked her out before this, cried one of his companions. Shes still standing. Kind of.

Hey, stop him! cried the third pixie angrily. I felt a cool hand on my shoulder and looked up into the kind eyes of Darrow. He wasnt on my team, but hed gotten through Jackles and my defenses. At first that surprised me, but it shouldnt have; up to then I had merely been trying to scare them away with hot ground, and a fallen angel would have ways of dealing with something so obvious.

I gasped when I felt an easing of the tingling, which had started to become unbearable.

Hang on, said Darrow. Its actually simple magic.