“Your Grace, my name is Tani. I’m one of the tournament priestesses. We need your assistance for this final challenge. I cannot tell you why, but I need you to channel your storm magic into this bracelet.” She took his hand and placed a cold metal cuff on his palm.
That was unexpected. Teddy’s magical advantage over half the competition would be depleted. However, being granted magic and understanding how to wield it were entirely different things.
That settled the churning in his gut.
He called up his storm magic and, instead of using it to generate a storm in the sky, he sent it directly into the enchanted metal.
The priestess took the cuff he’d filled and replaced it with an empty one. It wasn’t difficult work. Teddy had been channeling storms since he was ten years old. It was like calling a soft melody that played on the wind and feeding it into the enchanted bracelet.
He repeated the same steps twice more, blindly trading the filled magical bands for empty ones each time.
“Are all the other witches having to create so many?” he asked.
The priestess shifted, and Teddy heard the cuffs click together. “We need to get each of you witches to make the same amount so that each non-magic-wielding competitor will have the element of surprise. This way they could end up with any of the cuffs and you won’t know by process of elimination which they have.”
Dixon’s primary affinity was fire magic. Stella’s was also fire, but they could ask her for memory. According to what Stella had told him at the beginning of the tournament, Katerina Shank was a water witch. The only affinity Teddy wouldn’t need to worry about was earth magic.
Tani placed one last cuff in his hand, but it was already pulsing with magic.
“I don’t need this. I have my own magic.”
The priestess closed his hand around the cuff. “You do. Your magic will be limited to what fits in this cuff, just like all the other competitors. You may encounter obstacles that play to any affinity.”
Teddy didn’t like the sound of that. Not only would he have to be mindful of his fellow combatants, but he needed to use his magic wisely, and at any moment he could be hit with power he was unable to deflect.
“Endros thanks you for your contribution to his historic tournament.” The priestess’s tone was full of reverence. “A bell will ring, preceding an announcement in a few moments, and once you hear your task, a second bell will ring, signaling the start of the challenge. Only then may you remove your blindfold.”
Teddy frowned and listened to her footsteps retreat.
He peeked out the bottom of his blindfold. Dim torchlight illuminated the bottom of an ivy-covered wall to his right. Teddy walked over to it and pressed his hand against it. There was hard stone behind the ivy. He could tell by the way his footsteps echoed that the space wasn’t entirely open. There was another wall or door somewhere a few feet in front of him.
Teddy strained to hear anything. He could barely make out the crowd noise from the other side of the wall, or perhaps above it. It was hard to tell.
A loud bell clanged and shattered the night air. Applause rose from all sides, somewhere up above Teddy’s head. He could tell by the way the noise ricocheted that the surrounding structure was more intricate than a wide-open arena. The week-long second challenge had offered the time they needed to construct a new nightmare.
“Greetings, competitors, and congratulations on making it to the final challenge.” Endros’s voice sent a chill through Teddy’s blood. It seemed to be coming from everywhere at once. “This magical challenge will push you to your limits and test your ability to use a limited amount of magic wisely. Bear in mind that strategy is required to win.”
Teddy shifted from foot to foot, trying to shake the nervousness from his limbs.
“Your final task is simple,” Endros said. “When the next bell sounds, you may remove your blindfolds. You all stand in a maze, equidistant from the center. Whoever gets to the center of the maze first will be declared the winner. You will encounter magical obstacles of any of the elements, but you will only have access to the limited amount of magic in the cuff you’ve been provided. If you burn through it all and need it later, you’ll be out of luck. And as a reminder, you may fight each other during an active competition. Best of luck and may the most worthy competitor win.”
A hush fell over the crowd and Teddy’s heart pounded, sweat rising on his lower back.
The bell sounded and Teddy sprang into motion. He slid the blindfold off as he started to jog. A few feet in front of him, the maze wall turned, and Teddy followed it. He wanted to sprint, but he needed to be on the lookout for magical traps.
The crowd roared from their perch along the outer walls of the maze. Teddy tried to ignore the audience and keep moving forward.
The corridor ahead of him split into multiple routes. He pausedand started down the right pathway. It curved farther to the right, then the left. He made the next turn left and ran into a dead end.
Teddy cursed and retraced his steps, taking the left pathway instead. He made a mental map of where he’d gone so far to keep track of his progress.
The first sounds of steel on steel rang out from somewhere deeper in the maze, but his bond with Stella was steady, just a humming baseline of anxious urgency.
He rounded a corner, and a stone beneath his foot pressed down with a loud click. Calling on his magic was a reflex. He pulled it up just in time to catch a bolt of lightning that shot out of the side wall and deflect it into the wall a few feet behind him. The stone shattered and shards sprayed in all directions.
His arms stopped most of the shrapnel, but when he touched his stinging temple, his hand came away bloody.
Lucky break that it was a storm trap. He stood there for a moment, panting and staring at the scorched, crumbling stone the bolt had left behind.
