the challenge, my heart sinks.
It’s an obstacle course.
Under normal circumstances, I could totally handle this. There are plenty of non-magical ways to get around obstacles, even if the obstacles themselves are magic. Just like the escape room.
But with someone sabotaging me… it gives them too many damn opportunities to interfere.
This isn’t going to go well.
The course starts in the quad, but goes beyond that into the larger campus too. Hardwick explains that we’ll all start at the same point and have to race, using our magic, strength, and wiles, to the finish line. I glance over into the stands, my gaze landing on the two mages. They’re not standing together, but I see them share a look that makes my stomach twist.
Hardwick’s booming voice almost makes me jump. “Begin!”
And it’s on.
There’s no doubt in my mind now, as I swing from rope to rope, jump over obstacles, crawl under wire, and avoid mud pits, that I’m being sabotaged. Something large and slimy rears out of the mud pit and grabs me, and I have to use my sonic boom to get away. I don’t see that happen with any of the other contestants.
My spider climb comes in pretty damn handy, but spikes emerge from one wall, the goalposts keep moving, and as I push endlessly forward, I feel like I’m in a fight for my life.
Those mages are really so determined to see me lose they don’t care if I die in the process.
Maybe that would scare someone else—and maybe it should scare me, but it doesn’t. It just pisses me the fuck off.
I push myself even harder, running faster, throwing my sonic boom right and left. I don’t fucking care if I’m devastating the obstacle course or destroying school property, so long as it keeps everything at bay and I get to that damn finish line first. I’m going to win this thing.
Finally, the finish line comes into sight. I grin to myself, even though it makes my jaw hurt—I hurt all over, actually—and put on an extra burst of speed. I can see other contestants around me, and if I don’t give it my all right now, I won’t win. I’ll make it across the finish line, but I won’t win, and I have to come in first. After two losses in a row, I have to. If only I had a little more speed…
Wait.
Who says my sonic boom only has to be thrown to the front?
I concentrate… feel it in my fingertips, my lungs, my heart…
Then I throw my hands out behind me and unleash a sonic boom low to the ground. The force of it propels me forward, and I fly over the finish line right before Ryan, the water elementalist contestant.
I land in a complete heap, hitting the ground hard and rolling, bruising myself all over—as if I weren’t banged up enough already from the damn obstacle course—but oh, it is so worth it to see the looks on the faces of those two mages when I stumble to my feet and Hardwick announces I won.
So fucking worth it.
After Provost Johnson hands out the medals, I limp over to the infirmary and get bandaged up. Once the medical staff have healed the worst of my wounds and bandaged the others, I head for the door, expecting Asher to pick me up like last time—but instead, Dmitri barges into the building.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he growls, dragging me down a side hallway to an empty room. “You could’ve seriously hurt yourself.”
My sonic boom tends to do just as much damage to me as the person I fling it at, seeing as it sends me flying as well unless I manage to do a less powerful version of it or ground myself against the blowback—which I’m still working on. Once I get stronger with my magic, I should be able to send it off and not feel such a strong kickback, but for now, it’s just something I have to deal with.
And yeah, maybe it was a risk after I’d already gotten some chunks taken out of me during the obstacle course. But so what? Faint heart never won unfair competition.
Dmitri’s hand on my wrist is gentle, but I know I won’t get out of that hold unless I’m prepared to flip him over my head like we’re wrestling.
“You have to be more fucking careful!” he whispers harshly.
“I have to win.”
His face hardens. “You can’t win if you’re dead.”
My gaze darts to the