“You okay?” Jaxon asks as Aiden gets a new comet out of the center box.
“As ready as I’m ever going to be,” I answer, suddenly uncomfortably aware of just how wet my palms are.
I surreptitiously rub them on my pants—hard to catch a ball with sweaty palms—and hope no one notices. But Xavier grins down at me and says, “Don’t worry, gargoyle. Jaxon and I’ve got your back.” He looks all proud wolf as he says it, head up, chest out, body loose and ready for the fight.
And though I know I should be grateful for the support, I can’t help firing back, “Don’t worry, wolf. I’ve got your back.” And then I smack him right in the center of his shoulder blades, just because I can.
He looks startled but not mad, and then he tosses back his head and lets out a loud, excited howl that gets the entire stadium on their feet. I don’t speak wolf, but I don’t have to, to know that howl was a challenge and a statement of intent at the same time.
Especially when one of the wolves across from us howls back—though his isn’t nearly as impressive as Xavier’s.
Aiden just shakes his head, but for the first time I see a gleam of excitement in his eyes. Right before he throws the comet straight up.
For a second, it feels like everything is frozen as we all tilt our heads back and watch the ball go up, up, up. It finally reaches its ultimate height and hangs there before it eventually starts to come down.
And that’s when it feels like the gates of hell open up around me. Flint shoots straight into the air, partially shifting as he goes so that he can use his wings to propel him upward. But the other dragon is doing the exact same thing, while Rafael jumps and grabs on to Flint, using his super-vampire strength to hold Flint back.
Flint roars in disapproval, shooting a stream of fire straight at the other dragon in an effort to slow him down even as he kicks Rafael in the face. Rafael’s strength is dampened ten seconds faster than Flint’s ability to fly, so Flint is eventually able to shake him off and use his powerful wings to propel him away from the other team before he’s grounded for thirty seconds.
“Oh my God,” I tell Jaxon and Xavier. “This is terrifying.”
“No, this is amazing!” Xavier answers as, in the middle of the melee, Gwen quietly casts a spell and nets the ball right out from in front of the other team’s dragon. Then she yanks it down and straight into her arms and starts to run for the nearest portal.
“Come on, Grace!” Jaxon shouts, and then we’re running right along with Gwen. I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing as Gwen dives headfirst into a portal, but I’m beginning to figure out that’s part of the challenge, and the strategy, of the game.
Especially with the portals involved, no one knows exactly what’s going to happen next, and the players who are the best at thinking on their feet are the ones who have the best shot of getting something done.
With that thought in mind, I stop running so fast and instead concentrate on watching as much of the field as I can, waiting for Gwen to pop back out of the portal.
She finally does, about halfway down the field from where the rest of us have managed to run. The ball is starting to glow red-hot, though, and I know she’s going to need to get rid of it soon.
Eden figures it out, too, because she swoops down and grabs the ball in her talons. But her thirty seconds as a dragon are almost up, so she drops it to Flint, who rockets down the field with it.
But one of their witches casts a spell that binds his wings to his body, and he starts freefalling toward the earth. Macy counteracts the spell with a flick of her wand and some words I can’t hear. Then snatches the ball away from him and takes off toward the goal line.
Rafael fades straight for her and I hold my breath, because I know she doesn’t have a chance.
Jaxon must know, too, because he fades to her in what feels like the blink of an eye. She tosses him the ball, and then he takes off fading the short distance to the goal line. He’s so close, I think he’s going to make it. But then Rafael comes out of nowhere and slams into him so hard that they both go flying…and so does the ball, straight into the air.
Flint, Eden, and the two dragons on the other team go racing for the ball, but it looks like they’re on as big of a collision course as the vampires were. Which means I might have a chance to swoop in and steal it.
I shift into my gargoyle form before I even finish the thought and take off flying. On the sidelines, I can hear Hudson shouting for me, but I don’t have time to pay attention to that. Not when the four dragons are closing in on the ball like their lives depend on it. I only have thirty seconds of flight available, and I’m determined to reach the comet with a few seconds to spare.