The teams are lined up along both lines, and I notice that Rafael is directly in the center of his line, along with a short Black girl named Kali, whom I’ve never met but am pretty sure is a witch. On the other side are two warlocks: Cam—Macy’s ex, and James, his friend with the creepy wandering eyes—another reason I’m not rooting for team one.
“The two in the center for each team are the ones who go for the ball,” Hudson tells me quietly. Now that his father is done talking, he’s leaning forward, elbows braced on his knees, so he can talk to me.
“Do they run for it?” I ask, because this isn’t something we practiced—or even discussed, I realize now.
“Not exactly,” Hudson answers, and he nods toward the field. “Watch and see.”
And so I do, eyes wide as a whistle blows and Nuri throws the ball up as high as her dragon strength will let her. It soars straight up, up, up, almost to the top of the dome, and no one goes for it. No one tries to touch it at all. But the second it begins to fall, it. Is. On.
Rafael uses every ounce of vampire strength he has to jump straight at the ball, while Kali shoots flames out of her fingertips straight at where she assumes James and Cam will be. But they have tricks up their sleeves, too, and they’re already under her blast radius. In the meantime, James sends a powerful cyclone of water straight toward Kali and Rafael, while Cam uses a wind spell to knock the ball several feet back from where it should be falling.
It’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen, the byproduct of power flying this way and that as the four players battle for control of the ball. It’s about a million times more exciting than the tip-off at the beginning of a basketball game, and I can’t even begin to imagine what an NBA stadium would look like if this kind of action went on.
Probably a lot like this one, actually, with its crowds of students yelling and stomping in excitement.
Rafael overshoots because of Cam’s wind spell and misses the ball, which falls straight toward James. He jumps, prepared to catch it, but Kali swoops in with an air spell of her own and yanks it away at the last second. She fires it straight at one of the other girls on her team, who catches it.
And the game is on.
The girl runs for about ten seconds, and then she just disappears.
“Where’d she go?” I demand, leaning forward and searching the field—like every other person in the entire arena.
“Watch and see,” Hudson repeats, which is absolutely no help at all. I turn to Jaxon, but he’s shouting encouragement to his friends.
Seconds later, the girl pops back up—all the way at the opposite end of the field from where she needs to be to win.
“Portals are a real bitch,” Xavier says with a shake of his head. “Especially since her team isn’t anywhere near her—”
He breaks off as Luca fades across the field to her in less than the blink of an eye. She tosses him the comet, and he fades right back to the other end of the field.
Except one of the dragons from Cam’s team is there waiting, and as soon as he gets close, she sends a stream of fire at him that has him jerking to the right to avoid her…and falling straight into another portal.
This time, he pops up several seconds later at center field with the ball glowing bright red. He sends it soaring up and over to Rafael, who jumps to get it—but misses when one of the wolves intercepts it and takes off right back down the field.
“This is unbelievable!” I shout to be heard above the crowd, and everyone on my team grins at me.
“You haven’t seen anything yet,” Hudson says. “This is just the beginning.”
“What does that even mean?” I ask, right before Rafael and a vampire from the other team fade straight at each other.
They collide with a huge thump that can be heard around the stadium, then go down in a tangle of limbs and fangs. Rafael pops up seconds later with the ball and disappears into another portal.
The game goes on like this for the next twenty minutes, until Kali finally crosses the finish line, the ball burning bright red in her hand.
The crowd goes wild, and I slump back in my seat, already worn out just from the adrenaline pumping through me.
“That was the most intense thing I’ve ever seen,” I tell Jaxon, who grins at me.
“Just wait,” he says as he leans forward to drop a kiss on my lips that makes me really, really uncomfortable, considering everyone who is watching.
“For what?” I ask. “I thought the match was over.”
“For our turn,” Eden answers for him. “If you think watching is intense, just wait until you’re on the field.”