Page 56 of Royal Hunt
“BACK!” Viana screamed, and the six of them fell back with their balls. That meant the fae had six, but so did we. Those were the best odds we’d had so far.
“DODGE THE BALLS!” Pari called out as we slowly backed up. If they wanted to hit us, they’d have to throw hard.
My eyes were on a swivel as I waited carefully, my peripheral vision peeled as I waited to sense any movement. The fae waited at the half-way point with their balls, grinning and drawing out the tension.
My heart sank. As soon as one started throwing, the rest would go, and it would be impossible to avoid being hit.
Again, it was one of the princesses of the Western Realm to the rescue. A grin stretched Lyla’s face. “PULL!” she called out to her brother and sister.
Viana’s eyes flashed, then she grinned as well. Gregory looked just as lost as I felt, though Pari nodded.
“Down the line!” Viana called out. Sudden understanding dawned in Gregory’s eyes and he took a place next to Pari.
We all waited, tense.
The first fae threw on the far right, a throw so hard it was practically a straight line heading for Lily. Viana’s face scrunched in concentration, then faster than my eye could follow she threwherball–straight at the fae’s.
Both balls exploded in an impressive BOOM that echoed off the makeshift stands the spectators stood in.
Before I could appreciate the genius of destroying as many balls as possible, four more came flying at us. Nessian and Lyra took care of the first two, and Lily barely nicked the third, but that was all it took. All three were instantly destroyed where they’d impacted in the middle of the field. The last ball, however, had nothing to stop it. Pari threw hers too early, falling for a faked throw by the fae across from her on the other side. Her ball sailed harmlessly toward a gap in the fae and exploded, setting a small patch of grass on fire.
“MOVE—” Gregory barely had time to get the word out before it was over. The fan’s last ball crashed into the back of our side of the field, right in between Trenton and three guards. The smoke cleared and two charred bodies lay side by side. One was still moving, but the other wasn’t. Trenton was screaming and rolling on the ground, holding his arm.
I grabbed onto Gregory to stop him from running to his father. “You have to think about yourself first or there will be no one to save him,” I reminded him.
He tore free of my grasp and scowled, but his eyes were obediently back on the fae, who still had two balls.
“Why so shy? Why don’t you get a littlecloser?”
The back of the field flashed gold and then moved inward.The grass behind it caught on fire and burned, turning into a charred mess in seconds. A noble woman pushed Anna out of the way in her desperation to escape. Anna tripped and fell, her arm falling outside the boundary.
I was too far away to reach her, and could only watch helplessly as the arm caught fire. Anna screamed and rolled inward, beating her arm against the ground. She kept rolling even when the fire was out, afraid the line was behind her. It moved up twenty feet, about half the distance to the center, and stopped.
Grinning nastily, the fae threw their final ball while we were distracted by the boundaries drawing inwards.
“No!”
Gregory dove in front of Lily, catching the ball and holding it against his chest
“GREGORY!” I screamed as he dropped and rolled, the ball tucked securely in his arms.
It didn’t explode.
For a moment we all froze, fae, half-fae, and humans alike. Then the fae who’d throw it sniffed the air, nose wrinkling in disgust. “Do you smell—” he didn’t get the rest of the sentence out as he exploded in front of us. Blood and guts rained down, and both sides yelled in dismay and scattered.
Now we had one ball, and they had none.
“POINT OF ORDER!” Pari screamed.
“Point of order has been called. A time-out is in progress. All contestants are required to pause.”
Nessian took advantage of the pause to whisper frantically into Gregory’s ear. He had the only ball left.
“The-the rule is, if you get hit by a ball you explode. But if you catch the ball … the person who threw it explodes?” Pari panted, hands on her knees.
We all waited with bated breaths.
“Correct. Resume play.”
