And since he’s in good hands with Macy, I move back to Jaxon—just in time for the bell to go off, warning us to get to the field.
“You’ve got this,” Jaxon tells me, giving me a hug for luck as we move toward the field. “You’re a badass, Grace, so just go for it.”
Once we’re there, it’s to see that Cyrus himself is waiting to escort us onto the field. Of course he is. No way would he let the final match go on without him.
I’ve managed to avoid him since he arrived, so this will be the first time I’ll get the up-close-and-personal introduction. Super excited…not. #ratherhavearootcanal
He smiles when he sees Jaxon, but there’s no warmth in it at all. And the cold blue eyes he runs over me might be the same shade as Hudson’s, but the look in them gives me the creeps in a really big way.
I try to ignore him—and the stakes of this final game—but as I line up on the purple paint between Xavier and Macy, my stomach goes from tight to doing backward somersaults.
Because while this might just be a game to everyone else in the arena, for me this means a whole lot more. I lean forward to look at Jaxon, maybe even try to catch his attention, but he and Flint are in an intense eye fight with the guys on the other team directly facing them. Any other time, I’d be amused at their intensity, but right now, I’m trying not to vomit up funnel cake and humiliate myself in front of my mate.
“You’ve got this,” Hudson tells me. “Just fly your badass heart out and you’ll do great.”
I don’t know about that. I look across at Cole’s team, which is made up of some of the biggest assholes in the school—big surprise. I glance at Jaxon, who’s been holding his own all day but is definitely showing signs of fatigue, although far less than I’d have imagined with Hudson still feeding on the mating bond. I have a feeling I’m about to get my ass handed to me.
“Look at it this way,” he tells me with a wicked grin. “At the end of the day, there are way worse asses that you could have in your hands.”
Wow. Those are your words of wisdom?
“I’m not old enough to be wise, so yeah. Pretty much.” I can sense his smile fade. “Also, this isn’t the only bloodstone in the world. It’s the easiest to get our hands on, but it’s not the only one. So whatever happens in this game, it’s going to be okay. Okay?”
The tightness in my chest eases. Thank you.
“Good. Now go kick that smug werewolf’s ass, will you, please?”
I grit my teeth. I’ll do my best.
I take a deep breath and stare back across the line at Cole’s team. They still look like the biggest assholes in the school, so that hasn’t changed.
But the knot in my stomach is a lot looser, and Hudson’s words keep playing in my head. No matter what happens here, everything is going to be okay. I can work with that.
“Ready?” Flint asks from where he and Jaxon are lined up in the center of our team.
When we all nod, he grins and says, “Okay, then. Let’s kick some alpha werewolf ass.”
Two seconds later, the whistle blows.
Cyrus definitely has the same strength his sons do, because the ball goes up, up, up until it nearly touches the stadium’s ceiling. Still, the second it starts to fall, all hell breaks loose.
Or at least, that’s what it feels like when you’re in the middle of a vampire, a werewolf, a dragon, and a witch all racing for the same ball.
Flint lets out a billow of ice straight at Cole and his teammate, a witch by the name of Jacqueline. The ice hits her, and she freezes for ten seconds, but Cole jumps over the blast as he dives for the ball. Jaxon’s there before him, though, his telekinesis knocking the ball out of Cole’s range. But he blasts it so hard that he sends it spinning straight up at the roof again.
The crowd groans at the mistake, and so do I as I send him a little “you’ve got this” vibe down the mating bond. He sends a laugh back, and that’s when I realize it wasn’t a mistake at all. Because Flint’s partially shifted, and he’s already up there waiting to snatch the ball right out of the air.