Page 49 of By the Orchid and the Owl
“Ready?” Coen said, shifting himself into a predatory stance.
I can’t wait to see what kind of magic baby Coen could do once upon a time,I crooned, knowing he was in my head and wanting to catch him off guard.
He didn’t even blink.I can’t wait to show you.
“Set,” he said aloud, and everyone crouched, poised. “Go!”
I lunged into my first running step.
Coen didn’t target me first, but went straight for Emelle, who hadn’t yet moved. I flew past him, pounding the grass with a lengthening stride, eyes set on the disc at the other end of the field…
The ground bucked beneath my feet.
I pitched forward, falling on my knees.
“Sorry!” came Terrin’s gruff, gleeful voice from behind me—which meant he’d decided to steal my ball before making a run for our disc.
Good.
I sent a quick, three-note whistle to the grass before I rolled and scrambled into a run again. Mrs. Wildenberg hadn’t yet taught us how to communicate with plants, only what their songs meant, but I had to try, didn’t I? And I remembered how she’d said three short whistles in a row encouraged them to growveryquickly.
A curse and a thump behind me, and I knew it had worked. The grass had shot up around Terrin and wrapped around his ankles.
His ball went flying to my left, and after half a second’s thought, I veered toward it, scooping it up with my free arm.
Only to feel a tug, like an anchor rooting itself deep into my core. Ten paces away, Sasha flashed me a wicked grin and held out her hands expectantly.
I felt it, then, the pull that neither Fabian nor Don had ever deigned to use on me: Summoning magic wrapping its tendrils around every part of my body and urging me to follow its wafting path, right into Sasha’s extended hands.
But just then, Lander barreled past on four furry legs, still clutching his ball with an unchanged human hand—to abide by the rules, I was willing to bet, so that he could roll his ball into the disc with a non-magically altered body part.
“Lander!” I chucked one of my balls at him, unable to resist Sasha’s pull.
Lander caught it with his free hand mid-leap, made it to the enemy disc, and flung both his and mine through.
By the time I stumbled to Sasha against my will, she only had one ball to steal.
And so the dance continued.
Rodhi was circling Sylvie. Gileon, still hugging his original toad green ball to his chest, was swinging his heavy arms at Garvis, who frowned at him as he tried to snatch the ball away. Emelle was circling the middle of the field, unsure of where to go, and Coen… Coen was at our disc, flinging his third ball through.
“SHIT ALL OVER THEM!” came Rodhi’s sudden roar.
The kingfishers twirling over the match obliged with laughs that sounded a lot liketee, hee, hee!
Fat white clumps rained down, hitting each of our opponents on the top of their heads.
I took my chance. Catching up to Sasha, I reclaimed my ball while she was busy wiping filth from her eyes, and swiveled around—
To come face to face with Coen, who must have looped around to block me.
“Not so fast.” He clicked his tongue, but I couldn’t take him seriously with the crown of shit splattered over his head and oozing down his shoulders. I laughed, and he turned toward the nearest twin. “Hey, Sasha, can you transfer all this bird poop onto Rayna’s head instead?”
“No!” I cried.
In a flash, Sasha’s magic had siphoned all the filth from his hair and body—but mercifully, she’d flung it all to the ground rather than on to me like Coen had asked.
I back-pedaled.
