It felt like stepping into another world. Even after following it all the way here, the sound of the crowd with no walls to mute was like nothing I’d ever experienced. It was so loud. I felt it more than I heard it, a deep, throbbing vibration that rattled my stomach and clenched my muscles. If I hadn’t been in such a rush, it would have stopped me cold, but I had momentum on my side. Momentum and fear, because the sandy arena floor was right in front of me.
Sitting up in the nosebleed section, I’d had to rely on cameras to show me what was going on in the actual ring. Down here on the bottom tier, though, I could see everything. Even crammed against a security door with the maddened crowd thrashing around me like a storm-tossed sea, I had a clear view of Nik’s cage, which was opening with the same slow click click click of a roller coaster going up to its first drop. Across from him, my father was standing ready, his bare hands fisted for what he knew was coming. What I had to stop at all costs.
Still gasping against the sound, I turned on my heel and dove back into the hallway. Slamming the door on the crowd meant I couldn’t see what was going on, but I’d already seen enough to know I couldn’t stop them on my own. If I was going to do this, I needed help, so I’d gone back to the place where I could hear, frantically opening my bag to dig my earpiece out of whatever random pocket Kauffman had stuffed it in.
“Thank goodness!” Sibyl said the second we reconnected. “I thought you were—”
“Not dead,” I told her, digging my phone out next. “But someone will be soon if we don’t act fast. I need you to strip all the security off my contact list.”
“Your contact list?” my AI repeated, her digital voice confused. “But we spent weeks setting up all those fake accounts and double-backs so that—”
“Don’t care. Clear the whole damn list, and turn off my call blockers too. Total open protocols. I need her to know it’s me when my number shows up.”
“Her who?”
I gripped my phone as the wall of digital security I’d built around myself over these last three years came crashing down.
“It’s time to call Mom.”
***
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d voluntarily called my mother. The only reason I knew her current number was because I’d worked so hard to keep it blocked. I dialed it now with shaking fingers, praying she’d pick up, which was silly in hindsight. She had just as many programs looking for me as I had to keep her out. I didn’t even hear a single ring before the call connected, and my mother’s terrified voice sounded in my ear.
“Opal!”
“Mom,” I said, my body slumping in relief before the shrieks of the crowd through the door behind me jerked me tight again.
“Are you all right?” my mother asked frantically. “What’s wrong? Where are you?”
“I’m fine,” I said quickly. “But I need your help.”
“If it’s about your father, I’m already on my way,” she said, her lovely voice steely with determination over the thump thump of the helicopter rotors I’d just now recognized in the background. “I moved our entire security team to the emergency base in Canada the day after you two vanished. We’ve been set to scramble ever since the advertising for White Snake’s fight began, but when your father walked out instead, that was the last straw. I hope the Great Yong will forgive me for acting without orders, but I just couldn’t wait any longer.”
If things hadn’t been so deadly, that would have made me laugh. Only my mom could worry about Dad being angry she’d come to save his life without permission. I also wasn’t surprised she was already on her way. Mom paid more attention to Yong than anyone else on the planet. I was more shocked that she wasn’t beating on the Gameskeeper’s door already, which reminded me…
“Do you know where you’re going?”
“Not as well as we’d like,” she said angrily. “Maps are useless in this cursed city! This ‘Rentfree’ place doesn’t even have streets listed. But it’s a giant arena, so it shouldn’t be that hard to find.”
“Seriously?” I yelled at her. “You’re flying in blind?”
“Not on purpose! But my last scout vanished, and I didn’t have time to send another, so we’re winging it. Not my preferred strategy, but what else could I do? My dragon is in danger!”
“Wow,” Sibyl said as I dragged a hand over my face. “I see where you get your recklessness from now.”
“Mom,” I said sharply, ignoring my AI. “There’s no need for that. I’m already in the arena. Sibyl’s sending you my location. Just come to me and you’ll find Dad.”
“We already traced your call, actually,” she said without a hint of shame. “Heading to your location now. How is he doing?”
“Alright at the moment,” I reported, checking my video feed. “But I don’t know for how much longer.”
Even if I hadn’t been watching it live, I would have known Nik’s cage was almost open from the crowd. The shouting above me was so loud, I could feel it like a hammer in my skull, though that could also have been the magic. At this point, I wasn’t sure if the two
