Pamalee Thornpinch walked over to them. She’d been healed but there was still blood on her face and her top was in tatters. Her coat was gone, and so her muscur arms were visible as was the swell of her breasts. The fury in her violet eyes made it clear that however beautiful she was, she had no interest in romance.

  Gray stood and blocked her from talking with Tomi, who still sniffling, her face in her hands.

  “What do you want?” Gray demanded.

  Pinch raised her chin. “She can’t show weakness like that. You shouldn’t let her. First Field is meant to break recruits, and you can’t even hint that you can be scratched let along broken.”

  “It doesn’t—” Gray started.

  “Hold on, Pinchy. Let me get to my feet.” Tomi cut him off. The cat girl pulled herself up and stood there, a little wobbly. Her core, so easily hidden, barely glowed. She’d used all of her mana to make that one critical py.

  Tomi padded by him and stood there, looking Pinch in the eye. “You don’t know a thing about me.” She pointed at her face. “Do you think some tears are a big deal? How about if I spit a lot? What if I lifted a leg on the side of the field? What kind of body fluid is acceptable here? I know blood’s okay. Your face is covered in it. Does that make you weak?”

  Pinch gnced over at Gray, who only shrugged. “Don’t look at me. I’m bleeding too.”

  The fae’s face hardened. Her eyes became diamonds. “I think you understand that showing weakness—or any kind of vulnerability—hurts your chances of winning.

  Tomi ughed. “Losing hurts our chances of winning. You just keep on being the mysterious squad of overachievers. The way I understand it, in Final Hold, the fae and the dragons are going to have the advantage. You’ll just fly up and hold the ball for as long as possible and win it all.”

  Pinch smiled. “Maybe winning isn’t our goal. Wouldn’t that be ironic? Since we just won Sixblood and won third pce in the Crush Rush.”

  Gray pushed his way between the girls. “Yes, yes, you’re so very mysterious. But it’s not a mystery why we’re being targeted. Our sponsor isn’t very popur. I understand that. I live with her. She’s very unpleasant.”

  “But pretty,” Pinch said. “Captain Sevanya is beautiful. Your entire squad is.”

  Tomi chuckled. “And there’s the fae in you. I knew you’d have some spice. Everyone knows the fae are—”

  Pinch’s eyes narrowed, and her hands became fists. “Don’t you dare finish that sentence. It won’t matter. In the Final Hold, you’ll be culled, and I won’t have to see your pretty, weepy faces ever again!”

  She spun and stomped off.

  “What was that all about?” Gray asked.

  Tomi fell against him. “The fae have a lot of desires, but most are of the more pleasure-seeking kind, if you know what I mean. For a minute there, I didn’t know if she was going to hit me or kiss me. But we don’t talk about such things.”

  By that time, Rynn, Midj, and Ames had walked up to them, just in time for the awards ceremony.

  Pinch’s squad were the gold victors, Blythe’s squad were the silver syers, and the bearkin won the bronze. After their time on the dais, the winning teams were paraded around the field.

  They had a long break until six o’clock. Midj was going to eat, and Tomi was going to sleep, but Gray knew they had to prepare for the st event. Tomi was right. If flying was allowed, that would give the Fae a definite advantage. At that moment, though, he knew that pushing his squad wasn’t the right strategy. Tomi’s and Midj’s cores were nearly depleted, and Gray wasn’t feeling so good himself.

  Settie marched over to them while the squads mingled and talked. She was seething with anger. “Grayson Fade. You and I must talk. Now!”

  “Someone’s in trouble,” Tomi muttered. “Pinch isn’t wrong. She is kind of pretty, especially when she’s angry.”

  “I’ll be right back.” Gray approached the dragon woman alone. “We weren’t culled. The game didn’t go like we pnned. I’m sure you saw why.”

  Settie snapped her fingers. “Come. We need to be alone.”

  “All right, Captain.”

  She led him into an empty corridor on the lower level of the coliseum where the air was cool. The smell of the butterbang carts perfumed the pce. Gray felt his stomach rumble. He wouldn’t hungry much longer. Buffet tables were being set up in the southern part of the field, and Gray knew that’s where Midj would be.

  Settie seemed to read his mind. “You can eat ter. Let’s see about your core.”

  She went to touch his chest, but he grabbed her hand. “Why are you so angry?”

  Her eyes fshed. “Isn’t it obvious?”

  He shook his head.

  The dragon woman sighed. “I’m pissed, and you should be too. For one thing, our squad is being targeted. For another, you only have a limited amount of mana. Yes, your resources are great, but they are not endless. And winning the day, now, is so unlikely. You pced at the very bottom. If Tomi hadn’t risen to the occasion, all would’ve been lost. Years of pnning, Mr. Fade. Years, decades, a lifetime for this…if only. No.”

  Settie stepped back, eyes closed.

  Gray could see her fighting some kind of inner battle with herself. When she opened her eyes, they were serpentine for a moment before returning to normal. “Blythe should’ve been with us. With a dragon on our squad, we would’ve been unstoppable.”

  “We are unstoppable,” Gray countered.

  A sad but somewhat amused smile pyed on the captain’s lips. “Inseparable and unstoppable. Isn’t that what you and our little elf girl say to each other?”

  “We have two elf girls on our squad. But yes, you heard it right.”

  Settie scowled. “Tomi shouldn’t be weeping like a child out where everyone can see her.”

  “She thought about peeing everywhere, but weeping seemed more appropriate.”

  Unexpectedly, the captain grinned. “The beastkin do like their adolescent jokes. But let’s get back to the business at hand. The fae scored a great deal of points in the first few minutes, but then, they left their hoop.

  “I don’t know.” Gray paused. “I’m not sure what Pinch wants. I think some part of Pinch feels bad for what she’s doing. They’re pretty confident that they’ll win the Final Hold, since, you know, they can fly.”

  “Everyone knows that,” the captain snapped. “The fae will have a hard time targeting you when they, themselves, will be targets. At this point, they have a good chance at winning the entire Culling Day…as do Blythe’s squad. You do understand that, correct?”

  Gray folded his arms across his chest. “They haven’t won yet. We can use Tomi’s ability to jump to stop them. Tell me more about how Final Hold is pyed.”

  “It takes pce within a single fifteen minute period. Squads are given points for holding the ball, and like the other competition, a squad must score or they will be culled. Whoever can hold the ball on the dais itself are given double the points. That changes in the st thirty seconds. Points are tripled. Those total points are added to the scores of the entire day.” Settie’s dark brown eyes glowed red as she pinned Gray to the spot with her gaze. “You do understand what that means, don’t you?”

  He nodded. “That however poorly we did at Sixblood, we can redeem ourselves in the st thirty seconds of Final Hold. We just need to bide our time.”

  “Others will have that same strategy. The dais will be a battlefield at the end.”

  A pn formed in Gray’s head. “I think we’ll do very well in this st game, Captain. We have Tomi who can pull the fae and the dragon down to the ground. But no, it will be Rynn and I that will clench the deal.”

  Settie’s eyes narrowed. “We need at least one point. Winning Culling Day was too much to ask for, given we only have five in our squad. Perhaps we should focus on Soulshred Week and the Reckoning.”

  Gray found he couldn’t stop smiling. “What if I could deliver first pce on Culling Day?”

  The Captain scowled. “As long as you don’t die, I would be thrilled.”

  “I’m not going to die,” Gray said. “None of us are. Murder is against the rules, right?”

  Settie nodded.

  Gray approached her. “What would you give me as a gift?”

  The Captain had her own smile. “I think you know.”

  “Another kiss?” Gray asked.

  Settie only ughed. “Never again. And I don’t need to expin myself. Winning this day would…” She paused. “Winning Culling Day, with only five, would make us the talk of the Belly. Families would come to court us. It would be perfect, Gray. It would change things for all of us.”

  “Then we’ll just have to win it all, Captain,” Gray then turned and walked away. He shot her a final smile over his shoulder. “Then we’ll all move into the mansion in Old Town. I’m sure you would certainly want such a remarkable squad together at nights.”

  “You have yourself a deal, young man,” the captain said.

  As Gray made his way to the buffet tables, threading his way through the crowd of recruits, he couldn’t help but think about Settie’s fear. She wasn’t wrong. He had used a great deal of mana in Sixblood, and yet, if he hadn’t, their time at First Field would be over. Would Settie bring them back? Gray was too rare of a find to abandon, but the others? Settie would want to find other recruits, ones that hadn’t failed her.

  Gray found his squad filling their ptes, and they ate together at a table that didn’t have any shade. All of the other recruits had taken the nicer tables under the canopy.

  Gray sat down, and saw that while Ames had done some healing, Midj and Tomi still had bruised faces. Rynn had a gash on her arm that had a bloody bandage on it. He sat down with his pte piled high with some kind of bckened meat and several pieces of doughy bread dusted with flour. He’d also found some deep-fried vegetables that came with dipping sauces.

  He gazed at his squad. “You all don’t look so well.”

  Rynn frowned at him but didn’t say a word.

  Tomi ughed, eating the bckened meat with her fingers. “This isn’t a beauty contest.”

  Midj snorted. “You’re right about that. If it were, we’d have won hands down. Did the captain let you have it, Gray? She was very upset.”

  Gray cut off a bit of the fatty meat with his fork. “She’s worried we’ll be culled, that Pinch will come after us like she did in Sixblood. She’s also disappointed that since we came in st, we won’t pce in the top three overall. I think she’s wrong. I think we can win it all today.”

  Ames had food, but she wasn’t eating. She’d been staring her pte, not speaking, and hardly looking at them. But at that, she let out a sigh. “Death is in the air, and I can smell it. I can’t eat because of it. A dying core, no more hope. Winning, but at what cost? Do we shine? Should we shine?”

  Gray wanted to say something, but instead, he took a bite. The fvor exploded in his mouth. The edges of the meat were bckened, but the inside was so tender—the spice had been cooked into the very heart of the meat. “This is amazing.”

  “Everyone knows that burnt bits are amazing.” Midj stabbed some meat off of Ames’s pte. “Are you gonna eat that?”

  “No,” Ames said. She turned her auburn eyes on Gray. “Maybe winning isn’t worth it. But you think it is. What of the blood, Gray? What of the death?”

  “We’re already bleeding,” he said. “And no one is dying. It’s just a game.”

  Rynn closed her eyes.

  Gray expected her to say something, but she didn’t.

  Tomi nearly fell off the table ughing. “Where have you been, Gray? A game? This isn’t a game. There’s a ball, sure, but no, this is more of a battle.”

  “Then we’ll win this next battle. Listen closely.”

  He then told them his pn.

  A single tear dripped down Ames’s cheek. “We will win. It will be the talk of the Belly. But we’ll also pay such a price. Can you all not really smell the death?”

  Tomi rolled her eyes. “I’m not a fan of the doom and gloom, Ames. No, I don’t smell death. I smell delicious meat that’s going to keep us healthy, like we’re going to keep you healthy, so you can keep us healthy after this next battle. I’m more worried about Rynn. Are you up for more battle ball fun, angelhead?”

  Rynn still wasn’t smiling when she nodded, staring into Gray’s eyes. “Yes.”

  She didn’t say more because it was clear, that once she started talking, she might not stop.

  After the meal, the afternoon wore on. It seemed endless.

  They ended up in the stands, in an empty section, because most of the audience had gone to the marketpce for the afternoon break.

  Gray sat near Rynn.

  Tomi y on her back, snoring loudly. Ames was whispering to herself, chewing on her hair, and then there was Midj, who had bought another bag of butterbang. She munched on them as she stared off into space.

  Tomi let out another snort, and then snored more, and it made Rynn giggle a little.

  “She sure can sleep,” Gray said quietly.

  Rynn nodded. “It’s no mystery why. But we can’t talk about that.” She cleared her throat. “It broke my heart to see her crying.”

  “I didn’t expect it. Pinch said the feelings were a liability. Maybe they are.”

  “It doesn’t matter.” Rynn took his hand in hers and held it.

  Gray felt the trickle of mana into his core, and he had to close his eyes. Being near her made everything okay. It made the impossible seem probable.

  “Inseparable,” he whispered.

  “Unstoppable,” she agreed.

  Ames shot them a gnce then looked away. The dark elf sighed and closed her eyes, as if she were in pain. Gray thought he saw mana swirling around her core. What did that mean?

  “Any fear?” he asked the elf girl.

  “No fear.” Rynn’s raised her chin. “Fear will not help us. Determination. Yes, that is what I feel. Pure determination to win.”

  “Those st thirty seconds are going to be brutal.”

  The elf girl, with her golden hair still so short, turned to him. “I didn’t come here for games, Grayson Fade. I came to win. Those thirty seconds are ours. We will own them. Every single one of them.”

  Gray knew it was tough talk. He just didn’t know what price he’d have to pay to hold onto those seconds in the final phase of Culling Day.