Zyacus grinned and stepped out. “You got to have all the fun.”
“There’s still a few left.”
Aric blasted one into a statue of ice, then dove when the others attacked. He moved so fast, it became difficult to see him, like hummingbird wings while in flight.
Zyacus ran to the big one; they fought for a few moments before he killed the thing and then it was over.
“That was nine,” I said, wiping my dirty blade on the moss to clean it. Although it had been hard, it wasn’t as frightening as I thought. We three stood in the silence for a moment. Expecting an announcement or a professor to show but neither happened.
Zyacus sheathed his sword. “Maybe there’s more.”
“She said nine,” Aric mumbled. “We killed nine.”
A low grumble drew all our attention to a creature stepping out of the shadows. The huge horns on his head held my eyes for a moment. The face and upper body looked mostly like a man with bulging teeth but warped—unhuman. From the waist down he had the furry legs of an animal and hooved feet. Impossibly muscular and as tall as the trolls I couldn’t stop staring. I’d never seen anything so grotesque.
“Is it a troll?” Zyacus asked.
“I don’t think so,” Aric replied.
In one hand he carried a massive ax and with a roar, fire spewed from his mouth. All three of us threw up our shields. “Definitely not a troll,” I said, grunting against the inferno pelting me.
When it relented we split up to surround it. With one step and a swing the ax soared at Zyacus; he barely ducked under it. A tail I didn’t see until the last second lashed out to hit me in the gut. I launched through the air and crashed into the ground. I desperately tried to suck air into my lungs as I groaned in pain. Aric leaped onto its back and stabbed it several times but the thing wouldn’t go down.
I got to my feet when Zyacus sliced its ax hand off. It grew angrier, spewing fire again that threw him several feet back. Winded, tired and magic running low, I charged. Just as it swung its good arm at me, I dropped to my knees and slid. I drug my sword across its shin and with a push of magic, my blade severed the leg. With a cry, it went down and as it did, its giant cloven hoof kicked me in the head. Before my world went dark, the crowd burst into cheers.
Chapter 10
With a jarring rocking motion waking me, I slowly opened my eyes blinking several times before I realized Zyacus carried me in his arms. “She’s waking up,” he said.
Looking up into the canopy of trees I knew I was still in the arena. “Is it dead?”
“Yes,” he tilted his head toward me. “We’re almost to the exit.”
“Did we pass? What happened?”
My grandmother Madison, who I hadn’t noticed, leaned over. “You passed. Good job.”
“What was that thing?”
“We don’t know.” Her even tone gave away nothing but her scowl did. Was that creature not supposed to be here?
“The beast seemed to have been put here without my or the other professor’s knowledge.”
“Someone had to have put it in here,” I mumbled.
“Yes,” Madison said. “Someone did and I’ll find out who.”
My eyes slid over to Aric, who’d been silently walking. I don’t know why I hadn’t noticed it before but he looked different. His pale skin had not a single flaw, his hair seemed shiner, his face more mature. Indigo eyes fell to mine, flicked up to my ear region, then he looked away and clenched his jaw as if angry.
Was he angry I lost consciousness? It’s not as if I wanted it to happen. I wiggled out of Zyacus’s arms and hopped to the ground. I touched the side of my face and my fingers came away bloody. Oh, that’s why. The thought of him wanting my blood sent a shiver down my back.
“The wound is healed,” Zyacus said, staring at my hand. “We didn’t have anything to wipe away the blood.” His gaze darted to the back of Aric who had kept walking alongside my grandmother.
“Thank you.” Since the last thing I remembered was getting kicked in the head I didn’t know what happened after. “How did you two kill it?”
“After you cut off its leg, it hit the ground and I lopped off its head.”
“Your favorite move.”
“It gets the job done.”
I ran my fingertips over a blossoming pink flower with barbs in its center, growing from one of the hanging vines. It was beautiful and foreign and deadly. It reminded me of the Fae prince I’d seen. He too could be described that way. “Do you think that beast could have been a part of the blood moon thing?”
Zyacus plucked a smaller pink bloom and put the stem over the ear where I had been injured. “I don’t know.”
∞∞∞
Our walk back to the academy consisted of students and adults alike clamoring to congratulate all of us on such a spectacular performance. I also learned that fighting trolls in the arena would now be once a month, where the tradition would return to seventh-years only. I couldn’t help but feel that we fought only for money.
After we’d all cleaned up and I’d changed into a clean uniform, Bindy knocked on my door. When I pulled it open she waited with her hands behind her back. “Well done today,” she said, half her mouth pulling up. “You are requested to wear something formal as well as your crown.”
“Why?” I’d never been asked to do this unless it was a royal event.
“The new Headmaster.”
I grunted but turned around to change. I pulled out black, soft leather pants and a crimson top decorated with black jewels. The back trailed behind me, barely touching the floor, the front hit my hips. I took my
