Zola got into position across the other boys, both Justin and Laertes with their fists up and ready to start the three-way bout. It was clear that a Mage Solo fight like this was something none of the combatants had considered, the two boys fidgety as they waited for one of the professors to announce the start of the fight, Zola’s eyes darting back and forth between them, unsure of who to strike first.

Ghost: All she has to do is let them beat the shit out of each other. That’s all she has to do. Remind her.

Alistair: She knows.

Ghost: Remind her anyway.

Rather than follow the assassin’s instructions, Alistair watched the fight get underway from his location in the stands. He expected both Justin and Laertes to turn to each other. The boys already seemed to be sizing each other up at the start, even if they did seem a bit confused as to how this would go.

Instead, both boys turned to Zola.

“Hold up.” Juno placed a hand on Alistair’s arm as if it would somehow hold him back. “Hold the hell up. These fucking goons are in cahoots, aren’t they?”

A grin spread on Laertes’ face as he approached Zola. Justin didn’t have the same grin, but he did have a look of determination in his eyes, one that Alistair instantly hated Justin for as he stared Zola down..

Ghost: Little Laer-Laer.

“What?” Alistair whispered.

Ghost: It’s what his mom called him back when we raided his home for the cards. Shout it as loud as you can. Wait until he seems like he’s about to strike—now! Do it, Alistair, or I will.

Alistair cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted. “Little Laer-Laer!”

Upon hearing this, Juno did the same, the other boy instantly picking up on what Alistair was going for. “Yo, Little Laer-Laer!”

Finnian started up too. “Little Laer-Laer! Little Laer-Laer!”

“Enough, all of you,” Professor Humboldt said as he turned back to them.

Yet the damage was done. The phrase threw Laertes off, just as he was moving forward to engage Zola. This gave Zola the split second she needed to dodge his incoming punch and trip him up. Laertes hit the ground and Justin came for Zola.

“Fucker,” Juno said as the other boy tackled her. “Little Laer-Laer!” he shouted in a girl’s voice, an attempt to conceal himself.

“One more word out of you, Stonewind, and—”

Justin shoved Zola backwards.

Wham!

It was clear by how hard the back of her head hit the ground that Zola was completely knocked out. Or worse. Splayed out, her chest heaving up and down, Zola’s eyes simply twitched as she stared up at the clouds above.

“I’m going in.” Juno was prevented from leaving his seat by Alistair and Finnian, who both had to hold him back as Zola’s defeat was called by Professor Yuber.

“Reset,” the professor told Justin and Laertes. “Seraph’s Rest. See to Ms. Landvik.”

Zola was helped off the field by the medical staff, allowing the two boys to go at it. Laertes won against Justin in the end, which only infuriated Alistair even more. He knew he could beat Laertes; Alistair also knew that he had meddled in some way by working with Justin and it pissed him off to no end.

“We’ll get to the bottom of this before we go out tonight,” he told Juno, who was seething by this point, the boy angrier than Alistair could remember seeing him. “Let’s pay Justin a visit after the tournament.”

****

Juno and Alistair waited outside Seraph’s Rest, Juno walking back and forth and occasionally kicking at stones. “This shit sucks. Zola’s in there. They’re making her stay back just to keep an eye on her. It’s messy. I don’t like it. Those guys teamed up on her. I’m—”

“She’ll be okay.”

“I know. That’s what Finnian kept saying. But… it just pisses me off when people do corrupt things, like, I don’t know, team up on a girl? What the fuck?”

“She’s a girl, but she’s also Zola. She’s a fighter,” Alistair said. “If it had been one-on-one, even with the weight difference, she probably would have won. That’s why Laertes teamed up. Has to be. But we need to ask Justin what actually happened.”

“Looks like we have our chance.”

The doors flung open and Justin stepped out, the boy looking fresh as ever after being healed up. Alistair had never spoken to him before, which was both his own fault and a fault of the academy in not doing any coterie team-building sorts of exercises.

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Justin’s eyes immediately widened upon seeing Alistair and Juno. “Ummm…” He took off running, the boy much faster than Alistair or Juno would have expected.

“Let’s get him!” Juno shouted.

Justin barely had a head start, but soon, he was a good fifty feet in front of them as he bolted toward the Academy’s exit, Alistair and Juno in pursuit.

Justin shouldered into a pair of students carrying book bags. He lept over a bench and continued off through the grounds, changing his direction. He zipped around a row of hedges that spawned some of Professor Halor’s text in Alistair’s head.

“There is is!” Juno pointed at Justin as he ran under an arched entryway and out the side entrance of one of a new building funded by academy alumni. “He’s getting away!”

Ghost: I have it from here.

“Let me handle things,” Alistair said under his breath as he focused his breath and put even more into his sprint.

“I don’t… know… how much… more… I can chase—” Juno called to Alistair a few minutes later. They passed through the entrance the Lumina Battledeck Academy, Justin now on the open road that led through the woods toward the city.

Ghost: Do you want me to do this?

Alistair: I’m running as fast as I can.

Ghost: Right. And we don’t have any throwing knives. In that case, your wand. Use that new spell you got.

“But—”

Ghost: I know it’s breaking the academy rules, Alistair. But believe me when I say we can deal with him in other ways if he tries to rat us out. Do it. You know what? Fine, I’ll say it. Do it for Zola.

Alistair drew his wand. He stopped running, aimed, and hit Justin with Overture.

Bah-da-da-dum!

The trumpet-like sound that emitted from the tip of his wand was loud enough to blow past the trees like it was fueled by an incredible wind. It struck Justin in the back, whipped the boy off his feet, and slammed him down onto the pavement.

“Holy what!?” Juno asked as he finally caught up with Alistiar. “What the hell did you hit him with?”

“A new spell,” Alistair told him as he approached Justin.

“When did…” Juno sucked in a deep breath. “When did you get that?”

“In Solaria.”

Justin was just pushing himself up to his feet when he was greeted by Alistair and Juno, who quickly surrounded him.

“You’re fucked now,” Juno huffed. “And sheesh, you’re fast. Whew. If battledeck mage doesn’t work out for you, long distance sprinter is—”

“You’re not supposed to use spells against other students,” Justin blurted out. “I could… my father could have you expelled.”

Ghost: Do you want me to do it, or do you want to give it a shot?

Alistair: I got this.

“We know you colluded with Laertes against our friend,” Alistair said, his voice taking on a sinister edge.

“Y-y-you can’t prove anything.”

“We could make it our goal to prove what you did.”

“What do you mean?” Justin asked Alistair.

“You don’t want to know. Tell us what happened and we let this slide. Don’t, and we make this painful.”

Juno: Yo, are you serious, bro? I didn’t think we were going to actually fuck him up. I just thought we’d threaten him and find out what Laertes did.

Alistair: I am threatening him.

Juno laughed nervously in his next message.

Juno: Right, it’s just your demeanor. Sorry. You do you. I’ll shut the hell up. Use the voice if you have to. You know which voice. Fatal funnel. Where’s that guy?

Alistair: Hopefully, he doesn’t need to come out.

Justin bit his lip as his eyes jumped from Alistair to Juno. “Just let me g—”

“You’re not going anywhere, yet,” Alistair said. “Zola is our friend, and I know that you and Laertes were up to something. The way you both turned to her. The look on your face. It’s clear.”

“Chill out, man. I turned to her because she’s the weaker of the two of us. I just wanted to get her out of the way. The whole Mage Solo thing is messed up anyway. Just telling us to fight one another?”

“Experimental learning,” Juno said. “Or is it experiential learning? Either way, we’re all in this shit soup together.”

His reasoning made sense, but Alistair pressed Justin anyway. “By turning to her, you left yourself vulnerable to Laertes. No one in their right mind would have done that.”

Justin’s eyes twitched. “Fine. You know? It doesn’t matter now anyway. I lost, Zola lost, Laertes won.” When this didn’t work Justin finally gave in. “And he offered me something. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

“What did Little Laer-Laer offer you?” Juno asked.

Justin glared at Juno. “You’re not your dad, you know. You might be a Stonewind, but you aren’t some big shot investigator. And you should careful who you—”

“Bro, that’s not what this is about. You knocked the shit out of our friend. You’ve admitted that Laertes and you worked together because he offered you something. That’s all we’re here to learn more about.”

“And then what?”

Alistair answered this one. “I’ll deal with Laertes when the time comes. You know what?” He turned to Juno. “I think we’re done here. I think we have all we need to know. And I think we’re even.”

Justin scowled at Alistair. “Even, how?”

“You don’t tell anyone what happened here, and we won’t tell the professors what you did. Surely, you don’t want Professor Vale, your Coterie Aira, knowing this.”

“It’s not that big of a deal. People team up all the time.”

“Sure. Maybe if it had been Juno and me in the final round, we would have teamed up against you. That makes sense. We’re friends. But Laertes is giving you something to do his dirty work, you said it yourself, and that makes you no better than a deadbeat assassin.”

Ghost: Hey, we’re not that bad. Also, I like this side of you. It’s useful.

Alistair: I’m just trying to keep myself from getting in trouble for using Overture. I know my reasoning here is off. I know I might have stepped out of line.

Ghost: You’re definitely out of line. But sometimes, a misstep puts you on the right path.

Justin stared at the ground for a moment as he chewed his lip. “Fine. Whatever. Just leave me alone. I won’t say shit if you don’t. Deal?”

“Cool,” Juno told the other boy. “See you in the next round and hey, try not to be a bitch and sell yourself short next time. Just saying. You probably could have beat Laertes. At the very least, you could have run circles around him until he gave up.”