“Lex,” Basil said.
I squeezed Evan’s hand and kept moving. My head hadn’t exploded on the way to our seats. Now that was something. As suspected, we were in the front row of the Bloodline column. There were eight in all. The four in the middle were given over to the Academies and the very important supernaturals. The two on either side of those were for paying spectators. I forced myself to sit down and stare straight ahead.
Nora and Mani gave me nods and reassuring smiles. I was sure the MirrorNet would be reeling with speculation about what it had meant the first time Kai and I had seen each other in over a month.
It was nothing. A piece of cake. I suddenly really despised cake.
“You know it would look a lot less conspicuous if you actually spoke to people,” Andrei said from behind me.
I didn’t have the wherewithal for this today. “What is it that you want, Andrei?”
He poked his head between my seat and Matilda’s. I imagined for a second how satisfying it would feel to head butt him. Three weeks in a boxed room fighting demons from dusk till dawn and I had turned into some kind of violent fiend.
Andrei grinned at me as though could read my thoughts. He too was wearing sweats in the Nightblood regulation grey and red. Much like Evan, he looked like the undead. Unlike Evan, he didn’t really have an excuse except for being crazy.
“How is Ravenhall treating you?”
I didn’t want to answer, but the interested stares I was getting told me I hadn’t fooled anyone. The trick was to pretend like nothing had happened. Not that something had happened and I was dealing with it the best way I knew how.
For the first week after Kai and I broke up, I would literally hear the replay coming out of the windows of my neighbours’ cottages. It was a nightmare hearing his voice and mine as we argued. I was still a thousand percent convinced I had done the right thing. So then why did it feel like I had been kicked in the chest repeatedly?
“It’s not as bad as people say it is,” I said.
He grinned. “Then you’re not doing it right.” He cast around. “Next time I’m down that way, remind me to take you to the black market.”
I snorted. “No thanks, I think I’ve had my fill of things that can get me in a tonne of trouble for a lifetime.”
He eyed me speculatively. “Don’t tell me the indomitable Alessia Hastings has finally been tamed.” There was that urge to punch him again.
He was lucky the mirror speakers squealed right then. Andrei bounded ahead up to the stage. Other contestants streamed from the crowd to also take their places where we could all see them. Max gave me a hard stare that I couldn’t decipher. I hadn’t spoken to him since the incident. Sophie told me his protective instinct was going haywire. Now that she was alone again, he spent a lot of nights just sitting in front of her door like some demented feline guard.
Jacqueline stepped up to the stage with the other academy heads. Like Kai, she was in a pants suit in Bloodline’s navy blue. Her blouse was burgundy with gold trim to match her bangles. I clung to her every movement. For almost two years, she had been a maternal figure in my life. I glanced to either side of me. Giselle and Eugenia were not suitable substitutes. One was a certifiable nutjob and the other was a perpetual teenager.
Jacqueline cleared her throat. The whole stadium hushed. I tried to scan the front of the Bloodline column for signs of Professor Mortimer. I didn’t see him. Peter and Thalia were there. So was Rachel. I saw Sophie, Diana, and the boys waving at me. For the first time, I grinned outright and waved back.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Jacqueline said. “Welcome to the Unity Games. Now more than ever, the importance of these games cannot be downplayed. We all arrived in this dimension as strangers. As enemies, even. But we come together in comradeship to cheer on these young men and women who I have no doubt will one day lead us.”
The crowd applauded. I kept my focus glued to Jacqueline because if I dropped it, I knew my attention would fall on Kai.
“Many of you will have witnessed previous games,” Jacqueline said. “But these are different and unprecedented times. We’re not the same community we were the last time we met. Nor should our customs remain the same.”
A murmur of excitement rippled through the crowd. Different customs meant only one thing. The rules were changing. Jacqueline’s eyes came to rest on Declan. “As you all know, we have members of the Human League here with us today. While our relationship with humans may have been fraught for centuries, we hope this new understanding will be the beginning of a prosperous relationship.
“As you all know, the Unity Games have typically been played out by the best and brightest students in our Academies. We have prided ourselves on both our academic and physical prowess. But it has been pointed out to us that there are times when our abilities may hinder us in the coming struggles. This is why we have decided that for the first time ever, the first two days of the games will be played without powers.”
The roar from the crowd was deafening. The first two days of the games were the trial days. Who knows what kind of monsters they would be up against? I smirked. Being powerless against a creature that outclassed you would be horrendous. I knew it. Now they would too.
The people who knew the contestants were protesting the unfairness of the decision.
