She laughed then, “And bakers can’t be formidable?”
“I guess they can.”
“Do you have a favorite thing you like to bake?” I asked after a minute.
“Wedding cakes. Some people come in with the most outlandish and creative ideas. Things that would seem impossible, and it’s my job to make their wishes come true.”
“Like a genie.”
“Yeah.” Her mouth quirked up in a half smile. “I guess so.”
“What are you two talking about back there?” Dex asked, turning his head partly to look back at us.
“Your annoying tight ass,” Nat quipped back making a smile tug at my lips.
“Oh, is that right?”
“Yep. We agree. It’s annoying as hell,” I said.
He hung back, waiting for us to catch up.
“We were talking about wedding cakes,” Nat said.
Dex gave me a look that was conflicted, and I realized he maybe thought I was talking about mine.
“Nat’s a baker. She likes designing wedding cakes,” I said. “We were talking about what we were doing. You know before this,” I felt like I was talking nervously, rambling. “What about you? What were you doing, before the summons?”
Dex’s jaw flexed and he raised the torch a little higher as he stared off ahead. The shadows from the flame licked at his face, dancing across the gold-plated mask he wore.
“I was?—”
“Wait. Do you hear that?” Nat asked in a hushed tone.
I strained my ears to hear whatever it was that had spooked Nat. At first, I didn’t hear anything but our own footsteps. But then a soft crackling came from up ahead and a dim pulsating light began to grow brighter.
Flames.
Dex grabbed me by my wrist and pulled me back towards the way we had come. The other team was fast approaching, and it seemed The Pyro was still alive, and headed right in our direction.
The tunnel quickly became hot with the flames as we ran right into three contestants that were ready and waiting for us. Trapping us between them and a wall of fire.
Chapter 23
Odessa
The Healer, The Timepiece, and The Floral all stood in front of us like a formidable wall, ready to attack.
The girl with the floral powers had thick vines with thorns crawling along the ground and arching up the walls and sprouting what looked like deadly glowborn. A white tipped flower with glowing pink insides, hence the name, that was known to shoot a fatal dart of poison if you got too close. We’d walked right into a trap and there was nowhere to go. We had no choice but to fight our way out.
I pulled on my power, feeling the wisps of its tendrils grow at my command. They still felt weak, but it was all I had. Dex’s hand was still wrapped around my wrist. The warmth of his skin grounded me. My power collected at the tips of my fingers, waiting.
“Can we help you?” Dex asked, his voice sounding deadly calm.
“You can give us your powers, how about that?” The one wearing The Timepiece said with a flash of his teeth that was anything but friendly. He was of slim build and was of short stature with jet-black hair and hawk-like features and a palpablelevel of arrogance that let me know he thought he was walking out of here with what he wanted— us dead.
I looked at the girl wearing The Healer— Marcela. Her eyes were darting between the three of us, wide and full of fear. Maybe we could use that. People made stupid choices when they were scared.
“I don’t think we’ll be doing that,” Dex replied, holding tight to the torch. His knuckles were blanched white from how hard he was gripping it.
