“Is this why the kids jumped you?” Shea asked, crossing her arms.
The thought hadn’t even occurred to me.
He nodded. “I went to sign up. They said I was too much of a pussy and jumped me. Took my hundred bucks.”
Well shit. Now I felt really bad for him, and also completely enraged that some Tainted Academy assholes jumped my brother.
“Mikey, you can’t go doing this kind of shit! You gotta come to me first. Who were you going to fight with?” I asked, exasperated.
“Was gonna figure that out,” he answered with a shrug. “You aren’t around anymore, so you don’t know how bad it’s gotten on Mom. That asshole cuts her wages every week, says she doesn’t have enough business coming in. But she’s not a demon! She doesn’t have Burdock’s connections.”
Remorse flooded through me. I had no idea Lincoln killing Burdock would have such far-reaching consequences for my mom. Grim cut her wages every week? No wonder she’d rented out my room.
Oh God, now I was worried about my mom. Next paycheck, I was going to send her some money. If I had to, I’d force her to take it.
Shea’s arm wrapped around Mikey’s shoulders as she sat down. “Don’t worry. Bri and I are going to win the money and get your mom out.”
She was always so soft with him, cuddly. I just usually socked him in the shoulder, and told him to shut up.
He looked up at me with a grin. “For real?”
I nodded. “When do registrations close?”
His long finger pointed to the fine print at the bottom of the flyer—the day of the Awakening.
We had time. I was sooo winning this fight.
After interrogating Mikey for every last scrap of info on this Fight Night, I informed him that he was now the new groundskeeper. At least for the summer.
Once he got over the fact that he was going to have to actually do work to earn his keep, we all settled into a nice flow. He did the grounds keeping, and Shea and I trained our asses off. I told Raphael about the Tainted Army thing, but he didn’t seem surprised, only saddened.
Now we only had a few days left of summer, and the Awakening ceremony was tomorrow.
Shea stood in the gym, clutching her disc weapons, sweat dripping down her chest and a badass look in her eye. Lincoln stood before her, blue fiery sword held aloft.
“Cut me!” he roared, and Shea advanced. Her fists held the flat grips of the blades while the sharp semicircles lashed out, seeking to cut my man. Lincoln was a blur, so fast I could barely track him.
He and the boys had been training us hard. As I was distracted watching them, Noah kicked out my feet and suddenly I was falling. Next thing I knew, his blade was at my neck.
Frick.
He looked down at me, sweat glistening against his perfect porcelain skin. “When fighting two on two, you need to keep your eye on your own fight. Getting distracted with what Shea’s doing will only get you killed.”
He was right. When the time came, I needed to just worry about my own fight.
With a rapid spin, I turned out of reach of his sword and used my legs to scissor-kick him. As I connected with his legs, he came tumbling down, and I grappled to gain leverage, moving on top of him. As I was crawling up his body, in an effort to straddle him and try to pin him down, his hand shot out, chopping me in the throat.
Holy shitballs.
Pain exploded in my neck as I fought to breathe. A lump had formed in my throat, and I’d keeled over to the side in a weak defense.
Noah looked sideways at me. “That was a dirty move, and I feel really bad for using it, but the Tainted Academy kids are going to fight dirty like that, so you need to be prepared.”
With tears leaking out of the sides of my eyes, all I could do was nod. He was right. He was so right it hurt.
Lincoln and Shea had paused their fight and were taking a break.
“You’re right,” Lincoln said to Noah. “Which gives me an idea.”
“Oh no. I don’t like that face. You’re doing the face,” I told him.
He just grinned and then looked at Shea. “Okay, when are you calling him?”
Air blew through Shea’s full lips. “I dunno. Now-ish.”
We decided Shea would be the one to call Master Grim and ask his permission for us to enter Demon City to register for the fight contest, since I’d been the one to try and kill him and all.
Lincoln shook his head. “Okay, get three passes. I’m going with you girls.”
A frown pulled at Noah’s lips. “Hey, I’ve never been to Demon City. I want to go too.”