“Other than the archmage or the Avakki, I don’t know. They don’t even teach spell creation anymore. No one born in the past century even knows how to create a new spell.”
Laughter caught our attention. It hadn’t come from inside. We both lowered ourselves to the roof. I clenched my teeth—Team Assassin was coming down the road. They weren’t trying to hide themselves or sneak up on us. The laughter and chatter was much too loud for that. It was as if they knew where we were.
My eyes widened. One girl in the center of the group had a red scarf, our team color, around her neck and was held by a broad male. Her bronze hair shined in the moonlight, and she didn’t have her mask on. I looked at Celine. “Is that... Foxglove?”
Chapter 13
“Ithink it is.” Celine slammed her fist on the roof. “That traitorous bitch. And that’s Morrow, er, Beast holding onto her arm. I could spot him from a mile away with that arrogant swagger.” Vander’s warning to stay away from Beast echoed through my mind. But I couldn’t just run to the woods and hide. Had the others surrendered? I crawled across the roof and poked my head back through the opening. “They’re coming and they have Foxglove.”
“What do you mean they have her?” someone asked.
I glanced back at Team Assassin, already boasting about winning and having a day off. “We shouldn’t have split up,” I said through my teeth.
“Did she join them?” another asked. “That’s not part of the game.”
“No, I think they’re holding her hostage.” My stomach started to sour. “They must have defeated the other half of our team.”
“But if they surrendered, aren’t they supposed to be out of the game?” Taewyn asked.
I thought so, but it didn’t matter, she was with them, and she’d led them to us. I couldn’t imagine what Vander would do if I’d surrendered and given up my team. Her trainer was probably losing their mind. “The trainers must have allowed Team Assassin to take her hostage.” I looked among the grove of trees again for signs of Vander, Falcon, or any of the trainers and didn’t find any.
Celine stamped her foot. “She broke pretty damn easily if they’re already here. It hasn’t been that long.”
“We don’t know for sure what happened,” I said as I moved into a crouch.
“Oh, yes we do,” Celine snapped. “She’s a coward. I’d let them beat me unconscious before I’d lead them to my group.”
“How many of them are there?” a male voice called from inside. I leaned back over the opening. An apprentice with the name FANG on his collar stepped away from the door and toward me.
“It’s their whole team.”
“Then we’re outnumbered two to one. How are we supposed to fight them off?” Fang started pacing.
“Um, push them out of the window?” Taewyn said it like he was questioning himself.
“They can only come in a few at a time,” I said, gesturing toward the two windows and then the door. “We’ll have to fend them off, then get them to surrender a few at a time before we’re overrun.”
“They can also come in through that hole,” Fang said, pointing at where I was peeking in. “That’s what I would do.”
Celine stood and put her hands on her hips. “That’s exactly what they’ll do.Shit.”
I stood next to her. There was no point in hiding now. My stomach was in knots, and every muscle was taut and charged.
“Oh, look who it is, the loth and my old flame.” Beast stood at the base of the granary and shoved Foxglove to her knees. I knew he’d ripped off her hood and mask just to be an ass. “There’s no need for anyone to get hurt. Surrender and hand over the hostages.”
“You’ll have to take them,” Celine shouted. “Because we’re not surrendering, unlike that coward.” She pointed at Foxglove. Her head was hung low in shame and tears glistened on her cheeks. One of her eyes was swollen shut. I didn’t know exactly what happened, but I doubted she gave up the information easily. Calling her a coward was harsh.
“Fine then, sweetheart. We’ll do that.” Beast nodded and Team Assassin moved forward. The granary was held up ten feet off the ground by four stone pillars. Climbing this would be as easy as anything in the city. They immediately went for the windows and the door that had a small wooden balcony in front of it.
The first Team Assassin apprentice made it to the window and was promptly shoved back by one of ours and fell. He hit the ground with a thud and rolled onto his side, groaning in pain.
“Forget the windows.” Beast waved off his team. “We take the roof.”
I shouted in through the hole. “We’re going to need some backup.” My breaths came faster. This was stupid. We should have hidden in the trees and scattered ourselves and the hostages. In the cover of the woods, I would at least have had room to evade Beast. Here, I was stuck in a small space.
Taewyn stepped onto the roof with us. “Bonecarver and I can defend the right side. Fang and Celine, you take the left.”
I stomped on the fingers of the first to make it to the roof. With a grunt, he fell but landed on his feet. Taewyn shoved down someone else and stamped on the hand of another. I shuffled over to the next person with their fingers curled over the edge ofthe roof. My boot crunched on his fingers, but he latched onto my ankle with his other hand and jerked. With a squeak, I fell onto my ass. He dragged me toward the edge. I flipped over and clawed at the aging roof, trying to get hold, but was pulled over the lip and hung off beside him. He narrowed his eyes at me then kicked my hip. It knocked me sideways and I almost lost my grasp. He kicked at me again and I swung back. Forget this. Rather than play footsy, I pulled myself up. Just as I got myself over the edge, a pair of thick boots stepped into view.
