Chapter 18 #2
I looked to where she was staring—at Gideon. He was looking at us, a smirk on his lips. Did he find this all entertaining? Maybe he did. We were all supposed to be fighting over him—competing for him. He was just sitting there and watching it happen. My stomach turned.
I looked back to where I’d last seen Brooke.
Her brown bun wasn’t visible, but there was a group of witches climbing over each other where she’d created the weak spot in the wall.
They were digging, pushing. Some were already halfway through, just the bottom of their plaid skirts and black boots sticking out parallel to the floor.
Flames shot up from Robinson’s fingers, the sound silencing the crowd and stilling the earth element witches that hadn’t made it through the wall. “We have a winner!”
The double doors opened again, and everyone turned to find a witch covered in mud being led in by an earth element instructor.
She walked with her head held high and a smile on her face.
She couldn’t have been human-born. The confidence she walked with and how quickly she’d completed the task told me she had magical parents—she’d been trained from an early age.
Did any of the human-born witches even stand a chance?
As she walked, I could only see the whites of her eyes and teeth, the rest of her features concealed beneath the dirt. The instructor brought her onstage, her uniform now plastered to her body, trailing mud across the floor.
“The earth element’s most powerful witch is Flora Hargrove!” Robinson attempted to grab her wrist to raise it above her head but pulled back just before he made contact, primly brushing his fingers against his clean pants.
I sat in the sea of standing witches, my eyes on my feet. This wasn’t about who was the most powerful. This was about who could trick another, who could cheat their way to the top. Brooke had had the idea, created the soft dirt with her magic, and another witch had taken advantage to win.
Brooke.
Standing again, I stood on my toes, trying to find her brown bun in the wave of earth element witches walking away from the wall.
I spotted her, close to the ground. Was she okay? I pushed past the witches on the bleachers below me, jumping from row to row until I reached the ground. My uniform became covered in mud as I brushed against the witches walking in the opposite direction.
“Brooke!” I called out.
“I’m here!” she called back. She sat on the ground, her hands wrapped around one of her legs.
I crouched down next to her, my hands on the trampled dirt around her.
“One of them grew vines, and they wrapped around my ankle.” She pulled her hands away, revealing brown cords twisted tightly around the top of her boot.
“Those harpies…” I grabbed on to the vines and pulled, trying to rip them apart. They were too strong and wouldn’t budge. “Can you lift your foot any higher?”
“Maybe.” Brooke tried to lift her foot but immediately winced. “Dafni, I think I twisted it.” There was a fear in her eyes that I couldn’t help but mirror back. If she was seriously injured, the Academy wouldn’t help her.
I pulled again on the vines, leaning back using my entire body weight. A heavy hand settled on my shoulder. I flinched, looking up and behind me.
“Dafni, let me try,” Gideon said.
I froze at the way he said my name, at the way the f snapped between his teeth and bottom lip. He must’ve heard Brooke say it.
I let go of the vines, using my thumb and index fingers to pick up Gideon’s hand by the cuff of his jacket and remove it from my shoulder.
“I don’t want help.” Gripping the vines again, I dug in my heels and pulled.
Brooke cried out, covering her mouth with a muddy hand.
I immediately let go, apologizing to her.
“Stubborn witchling.” Warmth flooded my back as two arms reached around my body and grabbed the vine alongside my hands.
His fingers flexed around the vine, the veins on the top of his hands popping from his skin.
I could smell him—he had a certain mossy scent that I instantly remembered from the closet.
Stupid scents and their stupid abilities to bring unwanted memories back into my brain.
In a swift movement, Gideon snapped the vine with his hands, the effort causing his chest to slam forcefully into my back. I fell forward, my hands extending to catch myself before I landed on top of Brooke.
My hands never met the floor or Brooke, because something grabbed my chest, stopping the fall. Everyone froze, Brooke’s eyes traveling from the hand on my chest to my face and back down.
“Sorry!” Gideon pulled back his hand, grazing against my nipple that’d become hard in the last few seconds. Stupid thin shirt and equally thin Academy bra.
Without his support, I fell forward, landing in a heap on top of Brooke.
“Oww…” she moaned.
I quickly pulled myself off her, turning to face Gideon with my hands and feet still in the dirt.
“I said I didn’t want help!” He didn’t get to come in all knight in shining armor and save the day after he’d just sat back and let this happen to Brooke.
“I don’t want help from someone who sits on the side, knows what’s going on, but does nothing. ”
Gideon’s mouth fell open.
“You’re supposed to be so powerful—yet you just sat there, and you smiled.” My teeth instinctively flashed at him, nonexistent poison dripping from them. “I don’t trust someone who does nothing when they have the ability to do something. I don’t trust you.”
I left Gideon slack-jawed. Good.
Standing I turned around to help Brooke. Reaching my arms beneath hers, I tried to lift her up to standing. She dug her heels into the dirt but couldn’t get her feet beneath her body with her injured ankle.
I sat her down, my hands on my thighs as I caught my breath.
“Try again,” Brooke pleaded. “I’m going to put all my weight on my good foot.”
I crouched down, sliding my arms beneath her armpits, using my legs to lift her. She was halfway to standing.
“Come on, Brooke,” I said, pulling, my thighs burning.
“I’m trying. I can’t put weight on this foot without—”
She fell back into me. I stepped back, trying to catch my balance. I ended up letting go of her, my arms waving at both my sides as I tried not to fall. Brooke landed in a heap in the dirt by my boots.
“I’m so sorry, Dafni! I can’t stand.” She looked up at me, her eyes wide. “Maybe I could crawl?”
I looked around the cavern. The witches had cleared out and retreated to their rooms. It was almost empty.
“No.” I looked at the muddy floor. “Don’t crawl.”
There was only one other person in the cavern.
One I didn’t want to look at, much less ask a favor of.
I looked down at Brooke and then back to the set of wooden doors that was the exit—it was far away.
Even if I got her to the doors, we’d still have to get back to our room on the third floor.
There were two sets of spiral stairs. I wouldn’t be able to get her back by myself.
I turned to face Gideon, keeping my eyes closed. I didn’t want to see his face. I breathed in through my nose and then out of my mouth. Unfortunately, this was the only way.
“It’d be really great if you could help me get her back to our room,” I said.
There was silence.
I cracked open one of my eyes just to see Gideon’s smirk. I quickly shut it.
“I’d be happy to save the day,” he said. “Like a certain knight in—”
“Quit it,” I snapped, popping both of my eyes open. I gave him the nastiest glare I could muster. He could help me, but he wasn’t going to enjoy it.
Gideon grabbed ahold of Brooke’s arm on the injured side, and I took the other. We easily lifted her into a standing position.
“I still don’t trust you,” I said as we led my friend out of the cavern.
He peered around the front of Brooke, catching my eyes. “Then I’ll earn your trust.”