Page 52 of Darkening Truth
“What’s the plan, Reaper and Ryu?” Zev asks. “I assume that you have one since you’re both here.”
Reaper grins, his eyes those of his Dragon and nods.
Of course, it’s Reaper, so he doesn’t give us any more information than that. Holding out one of his huge hands, my mouth drops open in shock. One by one, the fires that Revel set lift into the air and move toward Reaper’s hand, as he seems to just absorb the magic.
“Whoa,” Loki mutters, “I had no idea that you could do that.”
Reaper frowns slightly as he absorbs the last fire, “I think that there are probably a lot of things that I don’t know that I can do because I’ve had Ryu locked down for so long. I haven’t actually had access to a portion of my magic.”
“That makes a lot of sense,” Rival nods. “Ryu is a big part of your magic, and you’ve only been using small amounts of it while you’ve had him on lockdown.”
“It's also extremely impressive because you were fucking strong before and now you’ve got access to even more power,” Mayhem adds, making a good point.
“Hades said that you were an Alpha. We know fuck all when it comes to Dragons, so we have no idea what that could entail,” Kill points out.
Reaper nods, “Yes, that’s true.”
“Let’s head back to the room. We’re gathering quite a crowd,” I say as my eyes scan the people pretending that they aren’t watching, and Revel moves uneasily underneath me, sensing how uncomfortable I am.
“Good idea,” Mayhem agrees, his eyes narrowing slightly as he looks at the people watching us closely.
I quickly put Revel back in his stall, promising that I will come back soon and making him promise that he’s not going to maim anyone in my absence.
After another apology to the stablemaster, we all head out.
Somehow, there are more people out here now than there were a moment ago, and I really miss the emptiness of the hallways before, that had to have been a coincidence because there doesn’t appear to be a shortage of people now.
We’re nearly back to the castle when someone who I vaguely recognise from talking to the guys before runs up to us.
“Storm, we thought you guys were goners for sure,” the guy says, as he and Storm do this weird handshake thing.
“Tishrel, it was definitely touch and go for a bit,” Storm replies with an easy smile.
The guy's expression clouds, “Not many teams have come back.”
We all stiffen.
“How many have been lost?” Kill asks, his voice sombre.
Tishrel looks at him slightly nervously, and I have to remind myself of the reputation that he has.
That they all have actually.
“Including you, only three teams have made it back,” he replies.
“What?” Loki barks. “That would mean that over one hundred teams were lost?”
Tishrel nods sadly, “Yes.”
“That would explain why the hallways were so quiet, there are barely any students left,” I mutter, horrified. “Are any new teams getting called?”
He looks at me and hesitates slightly, seeming surprised by something, although I can’t put my finger on what it is.
“No,” he replies shortly.
“I know that the team that wins gets gifts and all that, but I thought that so long as the teams passed the levels, then they didn’t die and got privileges and called upon if the realm needed them?” I ask.
“That’s what we all thought. The Games aren’t behaving like they usually do, and no one can tell us why,” Tishrel replies.
