“But how?” I asked desperately. “How are they doing this? And why? What’s it all for?”
I don’t know, the DFZ said, and from the tone of her voice, that really bothered her. There’s way more magic here than I thought. Whatever’s going on, it’s much bigger than it should be and greater than any human mage can control.
That went without saying. If I tried to move this much power this fast, I’d disintegrate. “You’re not human, though,” I pleaded. “Can’t you stop it?”
No, the spirit said, her voice despairing. Despite being in my city, all of my magic has been forced out of the arena. You felt that for yourself earlier.
“So force it back in!”
Don’t you think I would if I could? There’s something in there keeping me out. That’s why I had to sneak in with you.
I scowled, confused. What could keep a god out of her own city?
That’s the question, isn’t it? As I said before, I have my theories. I hope I’m wrong, but in case I’m not, I want you to stay there and watch what happens as things calm down. These surges have been happening every weekend for the past month, but I still know almost nothing about how they actually work. The more we understand about how this magic behaves, the better our chances of breaking it.
I was all about breaking. After what I’d seen tonight and what they’d done to Nik, my blood was boiling to smash this place to bits. I couldn’t do it yet, though. With all that magic pounding down the god inside me, I could barely lift my head to see what was happening in the arena.
Down in the sand, Nik was standing over the pile of bloody chunks and broken cyberwear that had been his opponent. He was red-splattered and panting, clearly exhausted, but his body was still tensed for attack. A few moments later, I saw why as a team of arena guards carrying riot shields stormed out of the gate. Nik charged them the moment they came into view, but the men had obviously done this before. He didn’t make it five feet before I heard the gas-powered pft of canister shots, and then Nik pitched forward as six red-tufted needles landed through the gaps in his armor with laser precision.
Tranq darts, I realized dumbly. They’d tranquilized him like he was an actual mad animal. The crowd loved this as much as they’d loved everything else, laughing and cheering as Nik slammed face-first into the sand, and my hands curled into fists.
The DFZ had said this had been going on for four weeks. This was Nik’s fourth fight. I didn’t think that was coincidence. Nik had been put through this—tortured, enraged, treated like an animal—for four straight Saturdays. Forget magic, forget priesthood, there was no way I was letting any of this happen to him again. Curse or no curse, I was getting him out of here, and I was bringing this whole horrible place down with us.
Glad to see we’re on the same page, the DFZ said, sliding further back into my mind. Keep watch here until the arena closes. The more we can learn, the more we’ll have to work with. If anything happens, run back to the city as fast as you can. I’ll be waiting at the border if you need me. Good luck.
I nodded, shifting with new wariness as I realized that I was without divine backup for the first time in eight weeks. Not that that mattered, of course. I’d lived for twenty-six years without a god to watch my back. I could handle a few hours. It was almost over, anyway. Now that the riot-shield team was dragging Nik’s drugged body off the field, the crowd was starting to pack up and leave. I watched them go with stewing fury, attempting to remind myself that they might well be victims of this just as much as Nik. That said, there hadn’t been any weird anger magic working on them when they’d decided to spend their evening here. Nothing had forced them to buy that ticket except their own willingness to enjoy the suffering of others, and though it probably made me a bad person, I hated them for it.
“You’re mad, aren’t you?” my father said.
I rolled my eyes at this brilliant deduction. “What was your first clue?”
“You don’t normally breathe through your teeth like that,” he replied, completely missing the sarcasm. “I don’t understand what’s made you so upset, though. You knew what this place was before we entered, and horrible things happen every day in this city. You didn’t get this mad when your boyfriend was attacked by thugs in a parking lot.”
“That was different,” I said, too pissed off to wonder how he knew about that. “Every city has criminals, but this is an arena full of supposedly normal people.” I waved my hand at the crowds lining up to exit the giant stadium. “This isn’t like going to a boxing match! You said it yourself: these people didn’t come to see a fight. They came for a slaughter, to see others brought low. Nik, the manticores, those poor homeless people, none of them wanted to fight! They were forced into violence, either by magic or to get the money they needed to live. These people knew that, and they still ate it up! They enjoyed the suffering, and they screamed like spoiled children when Nik wouldn’t give it to them.”
My father shrugged. “Humans can be terrible.”
“Not this terrible,” I grumbled, looking up at where I could still feel
