Bryan took my hand. “Brooks is right-handed, so watch his right side. He’ll plant his foot right before he calls. He’s also got a bad left knee. Take it out if you have to.”
“Trina’s fire call is pretty strong, but not as strong as yours.” Rob took my other hand. “And when she gets flustered, her call is even weaker. Since she’s got a bone to pick with you, get her riled up. She’ll stall out.”
“Professor Layden isn’t going to take it easy on you just because she likes you,” Leo pointed out. Man, how I’d missed my master of the obvious. “Fire is her weakest call, so expect her to use water.”
I nodded as I took it all in. Finally, I turned to Clay. “Well? What advice do you have?”
He grinned. “Kick their asses, Montana.”
Rob, always the group’s ringleader, motioned for the guys to huddle closer. Each one of them placed a hand on me. “We’re all in, Reed. You ready for a little boost?”
I nodded again. It was an extreme surge to my body as all four guys pushed their primaries to me at the same time. My pulse quickened. My senses heightened. My skin hummed. Every last cell in my body was now wide awake, buzzing with energy, and ready to do this.
With a deep breath, I met the gazes of each of my guys. “I guess I’ll see you in a few.”
They continued to cheer me on with shouts of encouragement as I approached the three Council members currently bunched together. Brooks dwarfed the other two, especially the petite professor who clearly took charge based on the way the other two nodded as they listened to her instructions. I didn’t know if having her plan the attack was a good thing or a bad thing. She knew me better than most, had watched me train with both the guys and with Spencer. She knew my strengths, my weaknesses, and the way I thought.
It was definitely a bad thing having her in charge.
Stace broke their huddle and faced me. Unibrow and Brooks stood on either side of her. All three sets of hands went up.
Here we go.
Unibrow fired first, which didn’t surprise me. I’d expected as much and countered the fireball she hurled at me with a shot of water that hit it head-on. Both elements spit and hissed at each other before fizzling out. That wasn’t good enough for her. She threw another fireball, this one twice the size of the first. Again, I countered it with water, killing the flame.
“Come on, Trina. You can do better than that.” I prodded her, doing exactly as Rob instructed and riling her up. “Or maybe you can’t.”
Her cheeks darkened as she furrowed her unibrow. “See if you can counter this.” She rapid-fired ball after ball, each one going wild. The few that came close were easy to dodge. I didn’t even bother countering her calls that time.
The blast of air from Brooks caught me off guard. I hit him with my own air. It didn’t even ruffle his hair. Wow, his call was as solid as he was. I switched my call to earth and did the same thing Bryan had by opening a huge hole right under him. He went down. I then did something Bryan didn’t do and closed the hole so Brooks couldn’t lift his arms. Having him trapped by his opposite element should hold him for a while.
Back to Unibrow.
“I’m still waiting for you to do something to challenge me.”
She growled—like, literally—and charged like she’d done against Leo. I waited until she leaned in to shoulder slam me and teleported out, popping back in behind her just as she went down, faceplanting in the dirt. I covered her in a nice layer of ice, nothing too thick, just enough to slow her down. It was warm enough outside that it wouldn’t last that long anyway.
Air slammed into the back of me, sending me to my knees, I rolled and shot air right back, fully expecting Stace to be standing there. Instead, it was Brooks. How’d he break free of my trap so fast? I switched to earth and created another crater, but he’d expected as much and used his air to levitate him so when the ground gave way beneath him, he remained where he was.
I tried stealing his call, but air never did listen to me all that well, and this time was no different. I switched back to earth and pulled roots from the ground, wrapping them around his ankles. He struggled against the bindings, knocked himself off-balance, and fell onto his side. I used the ground to push him back to the hole.
A growl behind me caught my attention. Unibrow broke free of her ice bath and slowly rose to her feet. When she opened her hand, palm up, to conjure a fireball, the one that appeared wasn’t much bigger than a baseball. She spread her fingers, trying to expand the size, but it remained the same. Frustration twisted her expression.
“Aw, did I wilt your call? That’s too bad. Well, hey. At least you still have your looks.” I snorted. “I mean, you aren’t going to win any beauty contests with that unibrow, but I’m sure you’ve got a great personality.”
She bared her teeth and took off at a dead run, right at me. Not this again. Just as before, I waited until she was almost on top of me before teleporting out and popping in behind her. And, just as before, she fell forward and faceplanted in the grass. I helped her out by calling earth and feeding her a little snack, filling her mouth with dirt, gravel, and loose blades of grass. I then covered her in ice again.
A wave of freezing water rolled over me, knocking the wind out of me. I couldn’t pull in any air
