The Firedragon (10 page)

Without any warning, each fangbeast clone
split down the middle and became two. Their sudden calmness was
even more menacing than their clawing had been. They formed a
perfect circle around the Enchanter, and then, all at once, charged
at the force field, their glowing horns simultaneously hitting the
shield and ripping through it. The Enchanter shouted a spell and
raised his wand. Red blasts burst from the tip, hitting several of
the charging creatures, but they ricocheted off the monsters’ black
fur.

Aurelia, knowing the Enchanter was good as
dead, turned away and pressed her clenched fists, still gripping
her swords, against her ears in an attempt to block out the horror.
Her heart pounded, but she kept her mouth firm. She wouldn’t let
Vilk see her fear.

This changes
nothing
, she told herself. She lowered her
hands and, hearing nothing, figured that Vilk must have put the
mirror away. When she turned, she found that she was right, and
raised her eyebrows at him. “Trying to scare me again? Because it
didn’t work last time, and it won’t work now.”

He tucked the mirror into his belt. “Don’t
pretend that didn’t disturb you. You looked away fast enough.”

Irritated, she took a step toward him. “What
was that meant to show me? That fangbeasts are dangerous? If you
think that’ll get me to quit, you’re dead wrong. It’s a monster,
which means I’m gonna kill it.”

“
You don’t have to.” He
furrowed his brow.
“I take it Williams
told you to forfeit. For God’s sake,
do
it
. After the fangbeast kills a few more
of us, you pout those pretty little lips of yours, look up, and say
you don’t want to die. Save yourself. Get out of here while you
have the chance.”

She glared at him. “Look,
Grandpa, you’ve gotta stop treating me like a pansy. You say this
whole thing is a show? Okay then, it
is
a show –
my
show. It’s where everyone gets to
see a Norm girl beat all those Enchanters, and –”

“
And
what
? Why would the Triumvirate let
that happen? Enchanters run this world, and they want to keep it
that way. Specifically,
Triumvirate
Enchanters. Those three contestants with the
gold, white, and blue cloaks were the only people meant to win
this, but they didn’t make it here, did they? One got killed, one
barely made it out alive, and one had to forfeit, thanks to you. So
now,
nobody
gets
to win.”

Though she knew from everything she’d
witnessed that he was right, she couldn’t help asking, “How do you
know all this?”

“
That’s how the
Triumvirate works!” He let out a dry laugh. “Everything the
government does is to manipulate people and keep their grasp on the
power. The whole thing’s rigged to be impossible. That’s why they
have the no-interference rule, and that’s why they pitted us
against a monster everyone knows can’t be killed by one person.
We’re not champions; we’re martyrs, tragic figures the government
can use to galvanize the people to war against the supernatural.
Especially you, little orphan Aurie with your doll eyes and no
family to compensate. You even helped their propaganda with that
gung-ho attitude of yours.”

She wished she could brush off his little
speech as paranoia, but simply couldn’t. In his words, she heard
Connor’s voice telling her the same thing back in the Scholar’s
Library, and the thread of doubt that had been weaving through her
mind finished its tapestry, now, presenting a clear image she
couldn’t ignore.

The Challenge was a lie.

There was one question
that still bothered her, though:
Why
me?
Why would
she
be chosen to die? For a moment,
she thought it was because of what Connor had said about her words
sounding like treason, but that didn’t make sense either. She’d
spoken them
after
she’d been nominated, and she hadn’t breathed a word of her
secret hopes to anyone before then.

“
This makes no sense,” she
protested. “If I’m supposed to be a ‘martyr,’ why’d they go through
all the fuss of training me? If they wanted this whole thing to be
an excuse to show people how dangerous monsters were, why not throw
some clueless nobody out here instead?”

Vilk rapped her forehead
with his knuckles. “
Think
, girlie! You and I are
supposed to be the best Norm fighters on the planet. If
we
can’t handle the
monsters,
no
one
can. Our deaths will prove that the Sentinels are the only ones who
can protect the people.”

She considered this, her heart sinking even
deeper. It made sense … too much to ignore. Now, she understood
what he’d been saying from the start.

The government she’d trusted, that she’d
fought for and planned to spend the rest of her life defending, had
set her up to die. Not because she’d done anything to deserve it,
but because they wanted to scare people into obeying them without
question, and she, being an orphan, had been a convenient
sacrifice.

Still, there was no backing out now. Crying
for help like Williams and Vilk had told her to went against every
fiber of her being. And it wouldn’t solve anything. It would just
prove that Norms were no match for monsters. It would allow the
Triumvirate to win.

So she stuck her swords back into their
sheaths and put on her bravest face. “Well then, there’s only one
thing to do. I’ve gotta find the fangbeast and gank it. That’ll
ruin their plans, won’t it?”

Vilk shook his head. “It
took more than a dozen Sentinels to slay the last fangbeast.
You
can’t kill one. Not
by yourself.”

“
You know what I can’t
do?
I can’t lose
.
Because if I do, what was it all for?” A sudden wave of rage surged
through her, and she gritted her teeth. “My coaches had me throwing
daggers before I could read! ‘You’ll be a champion one day,’ they
said. I worked
so hard
. I don’t know how to do anything else! If I can’t kill this
monster, then … then what am I? What was the point of my whole
life?”

She blinked rapidly,
furious at herself. Now wasn’t the time to get all emotional. She
was in the middle of a task, one she had no choice but to complete.
Everything she did, everything she
was
, hinged on her combat skills.
She’d sacrificed her childhood to gain them, and because all she’d
cared about was being the best, she was completely alone. No
family, no friends … and now, even Connor was gone. But that was
okay, because if the rest of the world was going to go on with
their lives, people like her had to exist. She’d never lost to a
monster before, and she didn’t plan to start now. If she couldn’t
beat the fangbeast, she’d have failed at the only thing she knew
how to do. Her entire life revolved around her ability to kill
monsters.

If that were taken away, then she had
nothing.

She drew a breath and met Vilk’s gaze. “This
is my chance to take the victory I’ve been working for all my life,
and I’m not letting it get away from me.”

He laughed humorlessly.
“All your life? You’re
fourteen.
”

“
Well, I feel like I’ve
been around forever, always doing the same freaking thing: Learning
to fight the supernatural. It’s what I
am.
So I don’t care what the
Triumvirate wants. I’m gonna win.”

If Vilk was right about the government
wanting everyone to watch the champions die, then it was more
important than ever that she destroy the fangbeast. With that in
mind, she returned to her motorbike, jumped on, and revved up the
engine. There was no point in standing here arguing with the old
jerkface. She had a monster to gank.

As she rode away, she heard the rumbling of
another engine and turned, puzzled. A moment later, Vilk pulled up
beside her on his own motorbike.

“
Why’re you following me?”
she snapped.

“
Like I said, I don’t want
to see a kid get killed,” he grumbled. “With me as backup, you
might stand a chance.”

Hours had passed since
she’d
arrived in Manhattan, and they still
hadn’t found the fangbeast. All four champions who had run into it
were dead. A fifth, the third Norm champion, had been killed in an
encounter with a group of skinwalkers, which had been roaming
around the city … one more thing to watch out for.

What if they got her too? Not so long ago,
Aurelia would have dismissed the thought, but after all the deaths
she’d seen, she couldn’t be sure of anything anymore. Yes, she was
the best. But so were the people the fangbeast had torn to shreds.
And none of them had stood a chance, even though they’d all been
great fighters. They’d probably thought the same thing she had –
that they would be the exceptional one who’d take down the
creature. They’d all been wrong, and now they were dead. What if
she was wrong too?

Her blood turned to ice in her veins. She
didn’t want to even think about that possibility. Thinking about it
would just make it even more real, and she couldn’t afford that
right now.

She needed to finish the
Challenge and take her victory. Once she had it, she would inspire
Norms across the globe with her victory, and they would rise up.
Force their evil governments to stop treating them like dirt. She’d
be propaganda all right, just not the sort of propaganda the
Triumvirate expected. She wouldn’t be an example of what became of
Norms when faced with monsters. No way. She’d be a celebrated
symbol of what humans could do
without
magic. Maybe they’d even
make the anniversary of the Challenge a holiday in her
honor.

Firedragon Day.
The thought brought a slight smile to her lips,
and for a moment, the light of hope chased the doubts and fear
away.
I like the sound of that.

But the moment was short-lived.

A shiver ran down her spine, the kind that
told her danger was coming. Unable to pinpoint what had triggered
that feeling, she jammed the brakes on her motorbike and looked
around.

Then she realized what was wrong: Vilk was
nowhere in sight.

“
Hey, Grandpa!” she
yelled. “Where’d you go?”

She glanced around, but heard no answer.
Funny, he’d been with her a minute earlier. For the past several
hours, he’d been riding beside her, fending off specters with that
pellet gun of his. Why’d he disappear so suddenly?

Maybe he saw something
weird and went to take a look.
She
listened breathlessly for the sound of his motorbike, her heart
thundering away behind her ribs. After what felt like ages of
waiting, she jumped off her bike and cupped her hands to her mouth.
“Hellooooo! Grandpaaaaa!”

“
Shut it, girlie.” Vilk’s
gruff voice came from behind her. “I’m right here.”

She spun around and saw him standing in the
shadow of a crumbled skyscraper, in a spot she hadn’t even looked.
Unwilling to let him know she was actually kind of glad to see him,
she crossed her arms rather than grinning, and scowled. “What
happened to your bike?”

“
Engine blew, so I had to
run to catch up. You didn’t stop when I called.”

At that, she dropped her mouth in a sheepish
expression. “Oh. Sorry.”

Then she paused. What he
said about his motorbike failing made perfect sense, but something
didn’t seem right. He didn’t sound out of breath, and she didn’t
recall hearing him yell.
But why would he
lie?

He held up a hand and motioned for her to
approach. “Let me see your Procul Mirror.”

She pulled the small mirror from her belt
and handed it to him, still suspicious. “What happened to
yours?”

“
Fell when my motorbike
stopped and broke.” He held the mirror to his face, narrowing his
eyes as he watched it.

Aurelia tapped her foot. When a minute or so
passed without an explanation, she asked, “What’re you doing?”

“
Looking for the others. I
think it’s more than obvious by now that the fangbeast can’t be
killed by one person, and even two probably isn’t enough. We should
team up. Might be our only shot at surviving.”

A few hours earlier, she would have said she
didn’t need anyone’s help. But with half the champions dead, she
was beginning to think that having backup might not be bad idea.
Though something about him still made her uneasy, she had no reason
to doubt his logic. So she just shrugged. “Okay. As long as I get
the kill shot.”