Chapter Twenty-Six – Talk and Terror

  Gray sighed. He didn’t want to deal with Pinch. He had to get back to see how the Royals played with only six people on their team. The crowd was shocked by the death, but it wasn’t like they were going to stop the game. He did hear someone behind him say it was the first death of the season. They went on to say that while it was regrettable, the player hadn’t been that good, so it wasn’t that big of a loss.

  But Pinch was blocking his way. Her normal green First Field uniform had been altered to have gold piping, and she wore a black vest under the jacket. He didn’t want to cause a scene, and in the end, he wasn’t sure he could get past her. She was powerful, merciless, and unyielding.

  He made sure she knew he was annoyed. “I don’t need to talk to you. We’re enemies, or have you forgotten?”

  “You’re not Fae. No one on in your little squad is Fae. You’re invading our sport. I want to know why.”

  He smiled. “And I told you that I don’t need to talk to you.”

  “Do you think Chaotica is going to be a part of Soulshred Week?” she asked.

  His smile turned into a laugh. “Let’s say I knew for sure that it would be. Why would I tell you a thing? You would just try and use it against us. And for the record, we don’t know what Soulshred Week is going to be.”

  “We think it’s going to be Chaotica,” she said simply. “And I think you do too, which is why you’re here. So, let’s just assume those are the facts.”

  He laughed more. “So I don’t need to talk to you. You have it all figured out. I have to get back to my seat.”

  Her brow furrowed creating deep lines. “Wait.”

  “For what?” he asked.

  “Is it true? Are you bonded with the strange angelhead who shaved her head?” Her voice wavered a bit. She seemed so unsure of herself.

  He liked seeing her in distress. “No, I’m bonded with the Quelling girl. I was drawn to her darkness. I’m thinking of bonding with my entire squad. I think I have the right core. I’m going to try and be the next Akazel the Bound.”

  “Don’t tease me!” she yelled, looking hurt. “I know you and the angelhead are bound together. And no one can have multiple bonds. Those are just stories. And no one is happily bonded. That is another lie parents tell their children so they can have grandchildren. We’re going to win…my squad, the Winners.”

  “Are you serious?” Gray sipped his beer. “You’re calling yourselves the Winners?”

  The fae girl raised her chin. “Yes. It’s just a name.”

  “Kind of a dumb name,” he said.

  “Says you. What are you calling your squad? What are your colors? What is your logo?”

  “We’re Squad 23. Our colors are First Field green, and our logo is ‘fuck you.’”

  “No, fuck you. We have a logo, at least. A stylized W wrapped in flowering strangle vines. Our colors are going to be gold, green and black. Tillwick has been working hard on—”

  Well, that explained the black and gold highlights to her uniform.

  “I don’t care.” He went to move past her, but she caught his arm. “Wait.” He felt the electricity of her touch, and something shifted inside of him. Her core ignited with a fiery red light.

  He looked down at her hand on him, showing her his disgust. “What now?”

  She slowly released him. Her face was red, and she was sweating a little. “I don’t think you killed Sindara. I think the same people who paid me paid for her to be killed. First Field is a terrible, terrible place.”

  That got Gray’s interest. “Paid you in the past tense or paying you in the present tense?”

  “It doesn’t matter. You saw that I didn’t care about the bullying. It was for money. But now, things have changed for me. I want to win the Testing.” She caught herself. “No, we will win the Testing. We are far more powerful than you and your squad. You don’t even have a logo.” She tried to sneer but failed. She ended up looking far more vulnerable than she probably wanted.

  “Who killed Sindara and the dwarf? Do you think it was the same person?”

  She glared at him. “I can’t tell you a thing. I won’t tell you. But if you must know, I have my theories, but that’s all they are…theories. I don’t know anything for sure. I think Duskdrop knows. I didn’t care about anything other than fighting you, beating you, day after day after day. You and that angelhead. You didn’t care about winning, you only cared about training, getting better, getting stronger. And then? You won. You and your squad won Culling Day. But you won’t win Soulshred Week.”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “You’re starting to repeat yourself. I’m leaving.”

  She took a step toward him. “No. Wait.”

  “What is it this time?” he asked, feeling a mixture of amusement and annoyance.

  “Are you returning to Pit City?” she asked, as if trying to prolong the conversation. “Or are you staying on to see the rest of the games this week? There’s one every night.”

  “Actually, no. We’re going to take a trip into Old Town. I need demon mana. I don’t suppose you know a way through the Hellbinder Barrier, so I could do a little poaching.”

  “You’re not serious, are you?” she asked.

  He passed it off as a joke. “No. Again, why would I tell you anything if you won’t tell me what you know about Sindara’s murder? We’re not friends. We’re going to be enemies, you and the Winners are going to lose the Testing, and then I’ll find the best kill squad in the Belly, and you’ll be a distant memory. In a year, I won’t even remember your name.”

  He walked away from her, but this time, she didn’t reach out for him and she didn’t follow him. He might’ve hurt her feelings…if she had any feelings. He doubted that she did. She was just playing some kind of twisted game with him.

  Rynn came out into the corridor, and he walked quickly up to her.

  He grabbed her hand and held it.

  Rynn, though, had seen Pinch, who was still standing there, looking at them.

  Rynn lifted a hand. Pinch did as well.

  His bonded frowned. “What does she want?”

  “She wants to know why we’re here and if we are bonded.”

  Rynn pushed her body against his, grabbed him, and lowered his head down for a kiss. She then giggled. “Well, it’s none of her business. But yes, yes you are. I came down to make sure you don’t miss out on the fourth quarter. The Royals are still behind five points to two. Come on.”

  In short order, Gray was back at his seat.

  He thought of Pinch and wondered about the strange encounter. He knew it hadn’t been accident. She had sought him out. But why? What did she think would happen? She wasn’t stupid, but still, it had been a stupid move.

  Or maybe she was trying to confuse him, so he’d let something slip about his squad and their plans. That wasn’t going to happen.

  * * *

  At the ten-minute mark, the Demon Door located at the Royals’s end zone opened up and more wrath cats flooded the field. They were dark a dark scarlet, with feline faces though the rest of their body was scaled. Their tales ended in a shard of white razor-sharp bone. But these things didn’t just have knife tail, claws, and fangs—they also snorted flames.

  When the Royals player had been killed, he’d also been cooked, and the scent of his burned flesh had wafted up to them.

  The wrath cats didn’t just come out of the far door to the left, but the midfield door also opened. They were giant, gat spiders, hairy, with nightmare faces that included a collection of horns around their eyes. They scurried across the field, but they were so fat, they couldn’t run far.

  “Gluttony spiders,” Settie said. “This certainly should make the last ten minutes interesting. Watch. The demons don’t care about each other, or which team is winning or losing. They are coming for the mana in their players. Opening the middle door is not a part of Pubis Port rules, but the Master of Chaos, for whatever reason, decided that the Royals might need some help.

  The Upstarts had the ball at midfield, and the runner let his guard tackle the gluttony spiders, who were tumbling over themselves.

  The bloodless blades turned from non-lethal to lethal, and instead of golden light, they were now glowed red, and they didn’t buzz. That was how people could tell their edges were sharp now.

  The runner’s blade, still buzzed, and it sparkled as the rain picked up. The droplets sizzled off the flaming numbers as well as the wrath cats, who started to smoke in the rain.

  The Royals had four of their teammates busy fighting the wrath cats which allowed the Upstart runner to dash toward the kill strip, where a thick-armed fae player stood, sword sparkling with golden mana. It was non-lethal, which was problem, because a scaly wrath cat attacked him. He struck away the knife-like tail and smashed the non-lethal blade down on the monster can’t head, stunning it.

  A second later, the sword in the Royals’s hand glowed red, and he drove the blade into the cat’s back and into its heart.

  By then, the Upstart runner had dashed into the end zone and dropped the ball. He then sprinted back toward where his comrades were fighting the gluttony spiders. He killed one and then the reorganized—three of the Upstarts stayed behind while the other four went after that ball that the Royas were carrying down the field.

  More fighting ensued, an Upstart runner ended up with the ball and ran to the kill strip, but the defender didn’t fight him. He let another wrath cat fight him, and when the Upstart runner was engaged, the Royal grabbed the ball from him and started back down the field.

  The Royals did end up scoring again, but it didn’t matter. The Upstart’s lead was too much for them to overcome.

  There was a moment of silence for the fallen fae player, and it was moving, with the thirteen surviving players standing at the midfield line while the rain fell.

  Gray watched the players while he himself was being watched. Pinch had turned around in her seat and was staring at them.

  When Rynn noticed, she waved, and Pinch turned back around.

  Midj chuckled. “She knows which way the wind is blowing. She knows we’re going to win, and she can’t stop us.”

  Ames shook her head sadly. “Maybe she doesn’t want to be cold anymore. Maybe she thinks the ice in her heart will melt. But it can’t. It won’t. She’ll die alone, unloved, without any friends. Ice is ice and can never be fire.”

  Tomi let out a snort, eyes still closed. “Inseparable. Insufferable. Isn’t that our motto? No way. Incontinent. Unstoppable. Did I get that right?”

  Rynn chuckled. “Inseparable. Unstoppable. That’s what we say. And it’s true.”

  Gray glanced at Settie, who was sitting there without saying a word.

  Finally, she burst out with a scowl. “You see the problem, don’t you? We are down two players. If fucking Pamalee Thornpinch wanted to join us, I would accept the help. But no, she and her patrons don’t want us to win. It could be, Sindara was killed in an attempt to frame Gray. Of course, it would never work.”

  “Pinch talked a little about that,” Gray said. “She thinks Duskdrop knows who the murderer is.”

  “It doesn’t matter.” The captain shook her head. “We need to scrimmage other teams and come up with strategies to overcome our lack of squad members.”

  “Should we try and get Pinch to join us?” Midj asked. “It’s a long shot, but come on, the way she was staring at Gray, I think it’s love at first sight.”

  Rynn didn’t say a thing. Gray knew why. If she started talking right then, she’d ramble and not stop.

  He didn’t think Pinch would join them, but he was surprised at how fate kept throwing them together.

  Squad 1—the Winners—were staying at the same inn that Squad 23 were staying.

  It seemed fate had sense of humor, or, as Blind John would put it, “The gods like to laugh at their own jokes.”