And Flyn and Ness.
Lee tracked the latter as she claimed a new island at the edge of the jumble. Right on target. Mirroring Zane a quarter way around the arena, who he’d shadowed, unseen and just out of range for most of the match, Lee closed in on Ness.
As Zane scooped up a fresh disk, Lee sent the first of his careening into her from the side. Her lighted vest went dark.
This time he lingered long enough for Zane’s stormy gaze to land on him. It was a shifty strategy, and he knew it. But it had been the only way to make it feel earned, to make it feel real. Teaming up would have been too obvious to everyone watching.
One of them needed to win today. He. Kat. Whistler. Zane. It could have been any one of them, it didn’t matter who it was. They just needed the win. He needed to prove to himself—to prove forthem, that they knew what they were doing and who they were.
Lee pushed past the guilt settling in as Ness jumped down into the steamtrap below.
And as the softhissmet their ears, Lee hurled his second disk at Zane.
Spinning on his heel, Lee hurtled off of the edge of his island, knees quaking and turf spraying as he landed on a neighboring island, taking cover among the handful of cadets still battling at the heart.
He dove as a disk whizzed near his head. The sticky black fibers grazed his cheek. He’d been anticipating Zane’s retaliation.
But they weren’t quite done, yet. He had one more big encore performance on deck.
Scrambling back to his feet, Lee tallied the remaining players on the field. They were quickly bleeding through numbers, now. He hadn’t even seen Whistler go out.
He had singled out Flyn and was closing in as he caught the glow of Zane’s blizzard blue vest from the corner of his eye. Taking the running leap, Lee flipped up to an island a level above, detouring to another opponent, leaving Zane to take on an agitated Flyn. Payback for Ness, and the rest of Zane’s presumed glory throughout the match. Lee had been sowing that tension and animosity since the Rounds began.
“Damnit, Waters,” Zane bellowed.
Already knowing he’d be answering to thevoidfor that one, Lee snatched the holodisk from his island to go clear out the rest of the arena. He was too far away to backup Kat as a couple of cadets honed in on her. But he made quick retribution when he at last emerged from the shadows.
It was but the work of minutes to pick off the rest of the cadets. And then they were three.
Lee spun the lightning yellow disk between his fingers as he stole a glance out at the dark stands beyond the arena.
“I hope you’re watching,” Lee murmured. Ignoring the stitch in his side and the fire burning in his limbs, Lee started sprinting to make one final go of it.
CHAPTER 5: KAT
“HOW IN thevoiddid you manage to piss off both Zane and Flyn in a single sweep?” Kat shook her head for, like, the tenth time since leaping down into the steamtrap.
Rather than fight the crowd mangling for the showers, following Lee’s wily demise with the Laser Rounds, she and Lee had instead escaped further down the Heptagon, making for the training floors on the other side of the skywalk. These lower levels would be deserted for a good hour, at least. Which was probably for the best. They’d have to tread carefully lest someone come after them for blood after that match.
“I mean, it was a pretty grand sweeping.” Lee glanced at her sidelong, a little smile curving his lips. He’d likely been expecting her questions. And when she continued to stare pointedly after him, Lee relented, letting his smile drop. “Flyn was easy. He’s been after that win for months.”
“And Zane?” she pressed, refusing to get sidetracked, even if it had been satisfying to see Zane hone that irritation into something useful. If Flyn had actually won today, they wouldn’t have stopped hearing about it for months.
“A necessary by-product.” Lee loosed a sigh, skimming a hand along the railing as they crossed into the training levels.
“I don’t think Flyn realizes he wouldn’t get nearly that far without Ness’s help.” Kat mulled it over, not fully satisfied with Lee’s explanations.
“I still can’t believe you pulled that off.” She shook her head, turning her smirk on him. “I was so distracted wondering what mayhem you were spinning, I lost track of the match. You play dirty, Waters.”
“You have to admit it was effective,” Lee said, glancing over again as they took the first set of stairs, heading down a level. “Sorry about that, by the way. I saw the cadets gang up on you there at the end.”
“It’s okay, you gave me the heads up. I got knocked out fair and square.” A fact she would be rectifying as soon as she got the chance. However, right now, she was still waiting on the punchline. One minute they were fulfilling a quota, the next, they were on the revenge track.
“I still don’t understand, though, why get Zane involved?” Kat asked. “Did you guys have some spat or something I don’t know about? I thought you guys were on good terms now.”
“It wasn’t to get back at him,” Lee said quickly.
“So what then?”
