Blazewrath Games Page 11

  And Takeshi’s best friend.

  The last time I saw him, he’d punched Antonio Deluca on live television. They’d been in the press-conference room after Japan’s victory two years ago. Takeshi had been giving his victory speech as team captain, and an envious Antonio clocked him in front of the whole world. So Andrew clocked Antonio right back. Security intervened before they could break any bones, but their fight had happened the day before Hikaru’s murder and Antonio’s disappearance.

  “You’re Andrew Galloway,” I say stupidly.

  “So I’ve been told for the past nineteen years,” he delivers with a smirk. “If you have any name suggestions, I’d love to hear them. Unless they’re nature or gemstone related.”

  Génesis and Gabriela laugh. I don’t. Andrew probably knows about Waxbyrne. He might be hoping to fish for details.

  Then he says, “Lana, do you like chocolate?”

  Random much? “Um, yeah. Chocolate’s great.”

  “Would you mind joining me over at the chocolate fountain?”

  Yeah, I do mind. I have a team manager to corner.

  “Actually, I need to check in with Manny real quick. It won’t take long.”

  “Oh, this will be even quicker,” says Andrew. “I promise.” He’s giving me major puppy-dog eyes. The dude even puts his hands together in prayer form. “Please.”

  Manny is still alone. He’ll probably still be alone by the time I’m done with Andrew.

  I blow out a sigh. “Okay …”

  Andrew and I walk across the edge of the dance floor, where Luis is now grinding with Adriana de León, the Guatemalan Keeper. I ignore the thumbs-up he flashes me after noticing Andrew next to me. The path to the chocolate fountain is cleared, since the newly arrived Scotland is now the center of attention at the other side of the tent. Andrew motions for me to skip ahead of him. The dragon spills liquid chocolate to the stone base below, where a rich pool of dark milk swirls counterclockwise. I grab a white metal skewer and stick it into a slice of honeydew. Then I dip the slice into the pool, rolling it all the way around so it gets extra coated.

  Andrew puts three marshmallows on his skewer. “Time to live dangerously.”

  I jump right to it. “So what do you want?”

  “A full beard, mostly. Mine doesn’t grow all that much.”

  “Right.” I pull the honeydew out of the pool. He smiles as I bite into my slice, relishing the mix of decadent gooeyness and punchy sweetness. “For real. What’s this about?”

  Andrew takes his skewer out, placing the first marshmallow inches from his lips. “This is about saving the world. And I can’t do that alone.” He tugs the marshmallow free with his teeth. After he’s done chewing it, he says, “You’ve seen the Sire’s video, haven’t you?”

  The wind is knocked out of me. “Yeah …”

  “And you’ve met my best friend, too.”

  My eyebrows are a hard-pressed line. “He’s not the boy you remember.”

  “He’s still a good person, trust me.” Andrew lowers his head, lost in his thoughts. His sigh could devastate even Victoria on her chilliest day. It’s the sound of someone who nourishes himself with a steady diet of longing. “This is all for Hikaru. I can feel it.”

  Great. He’s fallen into the same trap I did. “Good people don’t steal crystal hearts and murder bureau agents. I get why you think he might have ulterior motives, but he’s doing terrible things, Andrew.”

  His gaze hardens. “I know him. You don’t.”

  “No, you knew him. That boy is dead. He’s not coming back.”

  I hate myself for tearing up. I hate that I have to argue with Andrew Galloway. I’ve been his fan since I first saw him race past Blockers in the 2013 Cup. I cheered when he punched Hikaru’s suspected murderer. The last thing I want is to make him feel like crap.

  “You’re wrong,” he says sternly. “He’s trying to save the world, and we have to help him.”

  I fight the urge to ask if we’re secretly filming for a prank TV show. The boy I met at Waxbyrne doesn’t want to save anything. “What are you talking about, Andrew?”

  “I saw what you did at Waxbyrne. You saved that Fire Drake without a second thought. Now I’m here to ask you if you’re willing to save more lives.”

  I shouldn’t talk to him. He’s still grieving Takeshi’s loss. He’s not thinking clearly.

  “How do you suggest I do that?”

  “Blazewrath means a lot to me, but I want no part in a tournament that will result in the death of innocents if it carries on.” Andrew checks for eavesdroppers again. “The IBF is being reckless and proud because the wrong people are putting the heat on them. They don’t care about a terrorist who’s releasing Un-Bonded dragons. What they do care about is us.”

  I take a step back, breathing hard. He shouldn’t be this right. Of course I want the Sire gone, too. How does this guy think he can ensure the Cup goes on and lives are saved?

  “What’s your plan?”

  “You and I need to stand in front of a camera during the opening ceremonies and express our desire to have the Cup canceled. We need to show solidarity with the Cup’s protesters and the sanctuaries doing their best to protect themselves.” Andrew’s starting to smile again. “Once the world sees us fighting back, they’ll join us. Others will see their new favorite girl, the most Googled human being this week, and they’ll stand beside her.”

  I’m hearing every word, but there’s only one thing reverberating through me.

  A loud, sharp thing: No.

  “The Cup needs to happen, Andrew. This is my only dream in life.”

  Andrew rolls his eyes. “It’s a lot of people’s only dream in life, but—”

  “You don’t get it. This is about more than winning a Cup.” I stab another honeydew slice with my skewer, but my appetite’s gone. Andrew gets to go home and fit in just fine. He doesn’t have to think about being an outsider, not even on his own team. I could tell him this, but what’s the point? He’s never going to understand. “I won’t ask for the Cup’s cancelation. Pitch me a way to catch the Sire, and I’m all in.”

  Andrew raises an eyebrow as he draws nearer. “We stop him by ending his killing spree.”

  “And how do you know he’ll really stop killing once the Cup is canceled? You cannot be this naive!” My voice rises with each word. Maybe speaking louder will make the message pierce his thick skull. “Besides, if you protest, it could backfire.”

  Andrew looks behind him. Nobody’s coming. “How do you mean?”

  “We’re Runners, Andrew. We could look like traitors for telling our teammates what to do with their dragons. We’ll even be traitors to our countries. You know how beloved this sport is. It’s an institution bigger than the two of us.”

  “Our voices can change that. You’re their golden girl now. You were brought here so you could shift the conversation in the IBF’s favor. They won’t fire you for speaking out. They need you running up that mountain.”

  Wow. He thinks I’m a publicity stunt. I’m here to make people forget about Hikaru’s death, Antonio Deluca’s disappearance, and Takeshi Endo’s new allegiance to a tyrant. I’m the syrupy antidote to the Sire’s threats.

  I’m not a Runner. I’m not a Blazewrath player. I’m a tool.

  “What do you say?” a tense Andrew asks.

  “No.” I push my shoulders back. “I’m choosing to resist in other ways.”

  Andrew’s mood sours at once. “How?”

  “For starters, talking to President Turner. He told me the IBF is cooperating with the bureau. Chances are he knows more than we do.”

  “Won’t do a thing, lass. Guarantee it.” He waves to the couches. “Do you see him here?”

  Crap. President Turner is still nowhere to be found.

  “Besides”—Andrew’s voice is at an all-time low—“Edward Barnes and the president were best mates. Turner has known the Sire for years. I highly doubt his hands are completely clean if the bureau’s up his
arse about his past.”

  Double crap. The Sire’s former rider was President Turner’s best friend, which means he knew the Sire when he was still a dragon. Knowing someone doesn’t make you guilty of their crimes, but what if there’s some truth to what Andrew’s saying? President Turner could’ve even been on the Sire’s side before he unleashed his chaos.

  I gasp. “London …”

  “What?”

  “Nothing.” Whatever Manny saw or heard in London rattled him enough to change his whole personality. Could it have been related to the president’s association with the Sire? Did Manny stumble upon something he wasn’t supposed to know?

  Stop it, Lana. There has to be some logical explanation to this mess.

  “Earth to Lana?”

  I clear my throat. “Please don’t boycott the Cup. It’ll make you a pariah among the teams and their steeds. And please don’t treat me like your bargaining chip.”

  Andrew’s deep frown could break the thickest iceberg. “That’s not what you are at all.”

  “Save it. We’re done here.” I toss the uneaten slices into a trash bin behind me, then place the skewer on an empty dragon claw tray. “Have a lovely evening.”

  Andrew’s a wall in my path. “We’re not superstars, Lana. We’re not heroes. We’re just prisoners in the biggest cellblock in the world. Your silence is going to keep us all locked up.”

  I swerve past him.

  Manny isn’t at the bar anymore. I do a quick sweep of the tent, but he’s gone.

  Thanks, Andrew …

  Zimbabwe arrives as I plop down next to Gabriela on the couch. Onesa jumps offstage and races to hug Wataida Midzi, whose indigo suit complements his dark skin. She hugs the rest of the girls and beckons them to the dance floor.

  “What happened?! Tell me everything,” Gabriela prods the second I sit next to her. “You know he’s single again, right? I read that he and Chelsea Reid broke up a few weeks ago.”

  I take the water bottle Gabriela offers me. Even if I did trust her, I don’t want to talk about Andrew anymore. “He just wanted to thank me for saving the Fire Drake.”

  Victoria’s staring at me like she knows I’m hiding something.

  I down the whole water bottle and head back to the dance floor. Génesis and Gabriela follow me with wide smiles. I lose myself among the future winners and losers of a game that hasn’t even started yet. Tonight, though, we’re neither winners nor losers.

  And yet I feel like I’ve lost a game I never signed up for.

  The Brazilian Pesadelo remains the most feared dragon species of all time. This fear is largely attributed to the fact that no Pesadelo has ever formed a Bond with a human rider. In 1986, the species gained further notoriety due to the tragic burning of a children’s hospital in Sao Paulo, which was the result of three Un-Bonded quarreling over a meal. The venom laced in their fangs is also cause for distress. Once bitten, the victim suffers nightmarish hallucinations that last anywhere from forty-eight to seventy-two hours. But even though this species has a terrible reputation, we mustn’t turn our backs on it. I strongly believe the Pesadelo can be nurtured into a peaceful coexistence with humans. Who knows? Perhaps a new species will come along and frighten us even more.

  —Excerpt from Carlos Torres’s Studying the Bond Between Dragons & Humans

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  “PLEASE TELL ME I SHOULD’VE PUNCHED HIM,” I IMPLORE Samira.

  She’s coughing up a thunderstorm. Even with her oversize Lauryn Hill hoodie and Sailor Moon pajama pants, she’s the poster child of discomfort. I think I made things worse by fessing up to what happened at the welcome party. Manny went back to the house minutes before I left Andrew behind. President Turner never made it to the party. According to Ambassador Haddad, he suffered a medical emergency, but the president insisted we shouldn’t worry.

  It’s the morning after the party. While the team eats breakfast, I’m in my room thinking about President Turner. How am I not supposed to worry when he’s clearly hiding something?

  “Andrew’s not terrible enough for you to punch,” Samira finally says.

  “But he’s still terrible.”

  Samira blows her nose on the fifteenth Kleenex. “He could’ve approached you differently. Asking you to protest the Cup is kinda desperate, but he meant well.” She takes a beat. “I would’ve joined him if he had a better plan.”

  “Samira. Did you forget the part where he asked me to turn my back on my team and my country? Also, and I cannot stress this enough, he thinks Takeshi Endo is a heroic soft boy.”

  “Can you blame him? They were best friends. I think Andrew’s clinging to the memory of someone who once meant a lot to him. That’s normal.”

  “Nope. That’s delusional.”

  “Dang, girl. Give him a minute to grieve.”

  I throw my hands up. “He’s had two years to grieve. You even canceled Takeshi the other day! Why are you defending him now?”

  “I’m not defending Takeshi. He’s still canceled. Andrew needs more time to realize he should cancel him, too.” Samira sneezes. “He’ll come to his senses when he’s ready.”

  Ugh. This is so not how I hoped this video chat would go.

  “You’re obviously going to the doctor today, right?” I change the subject.

  “You know it. I was fine yesterday. Stupid germs.”

  I suck in a drawn-out breath before ripping off the Band-Aid. “So … how’s my mom?”

  Samira frowns. “She’s not good.”

  I should let it go. Whatever’s wrong with her isn’t my business until I get back home. Still, I ask, “What’s going on?”

  Samira says, “It’s Todd. Your mother and aunt have been fighting with him a lot lately.”

  I sit up straight. “Fighting? But Todd’s their favorite human ever.”

  “Your mother told him where you are. He wants to blast you to the press for being a Blazewrath player. For your”—Samira does air quotes—“betrayal. Your mother’s convincing him to forget about you, but he called me yesterday, Lana. He found my number.”

  Thank God I haven’t had breakfast yet. I would’ve puked all over this desk. “Please tell me you didn’t answer that flaming piece of guano.”

  “I did,” Samira says with a groan. “Todd kept on telling me how awesome he thinks I am and how grateful he is that I took him to Waxbyrne, despite what ended up happening. And he wouldn’t stop mentioning that teacher he fanboys over at Aster Prep.”

  “Ugh. That Mister Thompson guy?”

  “Yup. Apparently, Mister Thompson advised him to surround himself with people who could bring him peace of mind during this difficult situation. Todd said I was one of those people. He wants to hang out soon, but I told him I was incredibly ill, which wasn’t a lie.” She shudders. “He didn’t use to creep me out this much. Now he’s kinda pushing it, isn’t he?”

  “Don’t answer his calls. He’s dead to you, do you understand?”

  She takes her sweet time in replying. “Okay. I mean, I do feel bad for him.”

  “You shouldn’t. He’s the worst.” I wish Todd would visit me in Training Room C. Beating him up sounds like the best antidote for a bad day. That little scumbag might be reeled in now, but he’s going to break loose. He’ll have my name in his mouth for weeks. Maybe even years.

  My mother wants him to forget me.

  Samira might think she’s protecting me, but she’s just erasing me from the family tree.

  I’m ruffling my hair in an attempt to not punch a wall. “Listen, I gotta go, but please get to the doctor, okay? And let me know as soon as you get your new wand.”

  Samira coughs one last time. “Pinky swear. Have a good one! Love you!”

  “Love you, too.”

  After signing off, I check Todd’s social media accounts. There’s nothing about me on any yet, so Mom and company have been doing a good job of keeping him under control, but that jerk’s a ticking time bomb. I make a mental note to cyber-stalk him every
single day.

  I should probably look up President Turner, too.

  Thousands of links pop up after I Google him. A 2007 article from The Weekly Scorcher stands out. A reporter named Julissa Mercado wrote a piece about Edward Barnes. It details Barnes’s life as a child and teenager in Leeds, where he met his best friend and schoolmate, President Turner. The article hits all the beats regarding the Bond between the Gold Wand and the Sire, who found him when he was fifteen. A section toward the end jumps out at me:

  The Sire didn’t show signs of disdain for humans, particularly for wizards, until Barnes moved to the U. S. as an adult and joined the Department of Magical Investigations at the Bureau. It’s possible the disdain had always been latent, but it was public knowledge by the time Barnes had celebrated his capture of Grace Wiggins, an American Regular and dragon supremacist. Barnes had caught ‘the Headhunter of Alabama’ hours after her notorious beheading of three witches outside of a church. Barnes’s official report of the case mentions how Wiggins told him she’d killed the three witches in honor of dragons. They were meant to be a ‘sacrifice to the gods of wing and flame.’ The Sire had not been present during her arrest. It marked the first time Barnes went on a mission without his steed.

  Right after Grace Wiggins was sent to Ravensworth Penitentiary, Barnes and the Sire reunited for one last assignment. Details remain classified. However, there were whispers they ambushed another Gold Wand, but they failed to bring him into custody. The next day, the Sire slipped out of Barnes’s estate in New York and burned down his old house in Leeds. His parents, grandmother, and younger sister had been inside the home during the fire. They were pronounced dead at the scene, leaving Barnes with no surviving family members. The Sire carried on with multiple burnings throughout the country. He also flew to France, Belgium, and Germany, specifically to areas where Barnes had either visited or lived with his late family. The death toll reached hundreds in less than a week. Over the course of six months, an unstoppable Sire went on a rampage around the globe, taking lives both Regular and magical.

  It’s common knowledge that only a Gold Wand possesses the magical strength to take a dragon’s life. What remains unknown is the reason why Barnes chose not to kill his former steed, or where he spent the last six months of his life prior to completing his dragon’s curse. Many have speculated Barnes had been collecting the ingredients. The contents have remained in obscurity except for one: Barnes’s blood. On December 19, 1997, Barnes’s body was found outside the grounds of what was once his childhood home. A bloody dagger and an empty cauldron were the only things in his possession. The Sire’s transformation took place as he was scorching a countryside residence in Perth, Australia. Soon after the curse changed him, he fled the scene and hasn’t been spotted since.