Page 52 of The Goddess is Fierce
But there was a point to that, too. That was to assert dominance and psych out the other team. Dexter and Innis both had exes on the other team. I didn’t know who they were, but Icould guess looking at the other team after I’d properly spanked my girlfriend’s ass and punched Oscar for good luck. It was two guys who looked like they were going to be gunning for Michael and Cosmo the whole game.
I pulled George and Oscar into a huddle.
“I’m going to be at the goal all game, but keep an eye out for that incubus and the eagle shifter who look pissed off Dexter and Innis are blissfully happy without them.”
“They’d better not. No one is allowed to assault my idiot brother but me and Cosmo is like the golden retriever himbo in romance books. He’s an amazing dodgeball player and I really like him with Innis.”
Everyone loved Cosmo. He was a lion shifter like West. I hadn’t really met lion shifters until I came to this realm, but they all seemed to be really easygoing, lovable people. I’m sure they had their assholes like every other group, but the ones I hung out with the most were great. I couldn’t do a damned thing to protect Cosmo or anyone else on the field from the goal. I knew no matter what George and Oscar did, someone was going to get hurt.
And I fucking hated it.
I took my place at the home team goal as the rest of the team took their positions. George faced off with the team warlock from the other team who’d tried to recreate her signature move and nearly killed himself because he’s an idiot. I didn’t like how he was smirking at my girlfriend. Especially since she was about to tame the Air Ball when he got flung halfway across the dodgeball field and his mediocre ass was probably going to go straight for the Earth Ball because it was easiest.
The referee released the balls, and they went zipping onto the field. George immediately tried to do her thing with the Air Ball. Instead of doing his damned job and taming a ball for his team,the warlock tried to send the Fire Ball flying at her face. Which wasn’t technically against the rules, but frowned upon.
And my girlfriend was a complete and utter badass who was much stronger than he was, so she just waved her hair and sent it flying back at him. I laughed like a maniac when he dove out of the way so his eyebrows didn’t get burned off and the Earth Ball flew to my side of the field.
He lost alotof time fighting dirty. George and Michael did their thing with the Air Ball and had it tamed while he was still chasing the Earth Ball down. And I totally had him pegged for going for the Earth Ball.
George passed the ball to Innis, who passed it to Cosmo because those two worked really well together. The Fire Ball was a little pissy about getting handled like that so early, so it was trying to take people out on our teamandtheirs. It nearly got Cosmo, so he sent the Air Ball to Dexter. Dexter scored before the other team even had a ball to work with.
It all went downhill from there. It was pretty clear who on our team was hurt. And it was our fault. We put a target on Michael’s back when we were trying to keep George on the team. They knew they couldn’t take out George, but we practically advertised George and Michael were siblings and George had several moves she couldn’t do without him.
Michael was a fucking beast. He was our team captain because he was a good leader with an excellent understanding of dodgeball and teamwork. Michael didn’t just have moves with George. He’d perfected several with Dexter in the air and he worked well with the rest of our team.
We could all tell they’d done something to his wings because he’d put them away and was moving like his shoulder hurt a bit. Michael’s wings werealwaysout unless he was off the Profane grounds where humans might see him. Georgecouldheal him because I could tell she knew. She kept looking to him to makesure he was okay. I could tell it was killing her knowing her brother was hurt and not being able to do anything about it. George would have snuck in a healing where no one could say she did it, but we had the vision. We had to let Michael’s wings stay hurt for the duration of the game or someone might get hurt worse.
Taking our angel’s wings away hadn’t completely crippled us, but it had taken away a lot of our strongest plays. Michael had to pull out different ones to call where he was grounded. We didn’t have a lot of those and he was still in a lot of pain.
We should have beendestroyingthis team. They really weren’t that good, and that school had a dodgeball team longer than we had. It wasn’t just Michael. The rest of my team was tryingreallyhard not to get taken out of the game because of an injury because they were playing dirty and the ref wasn’t even calling them on it. Dodgeball was a dangerous game and injuries were expected, but this was extreme. I could see it from the goal.
It was the last two minutes of the game. We were behind by two points. We’d have to make a goal from behind a certain line on the field for a three-point shot to win the game. It was possible since George tamed the Air Ball, but we’d either need someone with magic or wings to make the shot since it was too far to throw it.
Fuck! Bjorn’s vision was playing out before my eyes. Everyone who knew about it was supposed to stay close to her toward the end of the game, but we weren’t counting on how dirty the other team was going to play. The other team’s warlock who tried to get her kicked off the team was running at her. I could see where he had a knife tucked in his hand.
I couldn’t leave the goal or any point we made wouldn’t count. Oscar and Michael couldn’t make it to her because the other team had blocked them and Michael couldn’t fly right now. Shit! Bjorn said she had to pass the ball, or we’d loseeverything.He said we could still win the game, but there was literally no one she could pass it to.
Fucking Dexter. No one expected the Spanish Inquisition. I was going to buy that boy whatever the fuck he wanted when we won this game. He went zipping across the field in a shower of glitter.
“Bitch, pass it!” he yelled.
Dexter had the magic to make the shot and win the game. George grinned and passed the ball and then turned to the warlock running at her with the knife. Shit. The look she gave him was scary as fuck. He stopped dead in his tracks and didn’t do a damned thing. Hecouldhave kept going and blamed the momentum, but she was looking at him like she knew about the knife and was going to fuck his shit up if he continued. Their school didn’t have gods teaching, so he wouldn’tknowthey weren’t precognizant and knew everything before we did it. She knew about the knife because her uncle saw the future, but he didn’t know that.
Dexter threw the ball. The only thing stopping us from winning at this point was their goalie, but Dexter was a pixie. He had chaos magicandcontrol over the elements. He sent the Air Ball at the goalie with a gust of wind and just enough fuckery attached to it that he tripped over his feet when he tried to catch it and the ball sailed into the net.
The stadium was packed with people rooting for usandthe other team. Ishould notbe able to hear West shriek from the field when we won, but here we were. George ran at Dexter and tackled him. I was finally able to leave my goal and joined the puppy pile on top of the pixie who won the game for us.
Zion Skinner was losing his shit. He was usually kind of reserved and grumpy. He was a showboat on the dodgeball field, but he never gloated. Oh, he was gloating now. I watched this man rip his shirt in half and let out a huge bear roar.
“Fuck you, Conrad!” he yelled at the other team’s coach, who flipped him off.
Someone was going to have to tell us that story one day. Zion was about to give us this big speech and send us to the locker room.
“Nope,” George said. “They played dirty and I know a lot of you are hurt. I know a lot of you didn’t ask me to do anything about it because you were worried the other team was going to complain about us having an advantage and try to kick me off the team again. But the game is over now, so I’m healing all of you. Especially you, asshole. How are you supposed to get your stupid feathers everywhere if they mangled them?”
George healed Michael, but wow. More of our team was hurt than I realized. It took George a while to heal everyone. They’d, apparently, broken Michael’s wing and a few people had some strains and sprains.
This was it. George passed the ball, we won the game, and that warlock hadn’t come at her with the knife. Catching the god that murdered my parents was within my reach. We did what the Fates asked of us.
