Chapter 20
Cressida—or at least the flash of emerald green I’m pretty sure is Cressida—is just outside the fencing of the show ring, standing behind a clump of onlookers. I catch a glimpse of an elbow, and I realize she’s preparing a spell.
A big one.
I don’t have time to think. All I can do is act and hope that for once I get this right.
“Cressida!” I shout.
Petunia stops short, and I nearly trip over him. I see Wayne throw up his hands in disgust, probably thinking that I’ve just given up any chance of winning. But I can’t see Cressida, and I really need to know what she’s doing with her hands right now.
“Look, everyone! It’s the Cressida Caine.” I sweep my arm toward the last place I saw Cressida.
No one outside the MBI knows or cares who Cressida Caine is, but everyone loves a celebrity sighting, and if you make them think they’re seeing someone famous, they’ll respond that way.
It works. Everyone turns, looking in the direction I pointed, and the movement parts the crowd of onlooks enough that I can see Cressida, her hands swirling in the air as a ball of sickly green energy builds between them.
She’s not even a little concerned that I’ve identified her.
Instead, she smiles at me, those deep red lips curving into a sharp little grin.
“Bravo, Jensen. You figured it out. It’s too late, of course.
But congratulations on the fact that you’ll at least know who’s going to kill you before you die. ”
I take two seconds to look down at Grayson. “Get everybody out of here. I’ll deal with her.”
I fully expect a flash of light or something as he transforms back into a human, but instead he turns tail—literally—and bolts, still in his pig form.
My heart sinks. I’m totally on my own. And I’m facing someone who trained me, who knows everything I’m about to do.
You’re all going to die.
There it is. That mocking, sing-songy voice telling me what I now know Cressida has been thinking ever since she sent me on this cursed assignment.
Well, she’s wrong. Maybe I will die. Maybe I won’t be able to save everyone. But I’m going to get as many people away from her as possible. And with Grayson fleeing the place, she won’t even get her primary target.
I haven’t screwed this up.
Yet.
“Everybody out! Run!” I yell as I simultaneously shoot a containment spell Cressida’s way. Maybe I can—
Nope. As I feared, she knows exactly what was coming and ducks out of the way. At least it has the effect of momentarily disrupting the flow of her spell. The ball of angry energy is still throbbing between her hands, but at least it’s stopped growing.
But I don’t have a chance to try again. People are running everywhere, darting between me and Cressida like bunnies playing Frogger on a highway.
I can’t risk spelling the wrong person, so I take this opportunity to edge closer.
I spare a wistful glance in the direction Grayson bolted.
I don’t think he could have done much, but, man, I wish I wasn’t totally alone right now.
“What can I do?” someone shouts in my ear, and out of my peripheral vision I see Dani standing beside me, her bangs teased into a towering sweep of hair that’s currently making a mockery of gravity.
Beside her is Wayne, his face defiant in the way only a preteen who hasn’t seen what the world is capable of can be.
Well, isn’t that sweet? But they can’t do much either, and I can’t put them in danger.
“I need you to get everybody out of the building,” I shout back. “And definitely away from the woman in green.”
“Got it!” Dani runs off, moving impressively quickly for someone wearing high-heeled boots on a soft surface.
But Wayne doesn’t move. “You need to get out of here,” I yell at him.
“Nobody messes with the North Mountain Pig Show,” he says, his voice steely despite the teeny crack I catch. He grips a show stick with both hands, like he’s going to whip the nation’s most sociopathic witch into shape with a few well-aimed flicks. “I’m staying.”
I sigh. I don’t have time to argue, and the crowd between me and Cressida is thinning.
The ball in her hands has started growing again.
I shoot spell after spell at her, but Cressida has been practicing magic at a high level since before I entered the academy. She literally taught me everything I know.
Not everything she knows, though. That much is obvious. Because she has some nasty tricks up her sleeve.
That lethal-looking ball now bulges with wicked power, sticky green energy leaking from it as it pulses and swells. It can’t be much longer before it’s ready.
I’m going to die.
“Wayne, please! Just run!”
I aim one more desperate containment spell at her, but she flows effortlessly to the side, almost as if we’re involved in some horrific dance where one of us dies if they can’t keep up. It’s too late. I see her arms starting to lift the ball up. She’s going to—
From behind me, I hear a primal scream, and something small goes flying past my head.
Right into the center of that swirling mass of energy.
Cressida shrieks as the ball dissipates, and I finally get a look at what broke up the spell.
It’s Wayne’s belt buckle.
I’m so surprised I laugh a little. “Thanks, buddy,” I call back to him. To Cressida I shout, “That was from the consultant we hired to teach me about pig shows. And I’m sorry to tell you this, Captain, but I’ve been paying a 12-year-old using MBI funds. Thanks for that.”
Her sharp gaze falls on me, and I have about half a second to appreciate the danger I’m in before she roars, emitting a wave of energy so powerful I’m sent flying. I hear Wayne hit the ground a few feet away, groaning softly. I hit a metal support pole on the show ring gate with a crack.
For a moment, I think I’ve broken the pole.
But, nope. It’s not the pole that dangles uselessly. It’s my right arm.
Crap.
I need to heal my arm and get back on my feet, but before I can move, a shadow looms over me.
I’m flat on my back, my head and arm buzzing with pain, and Cressida, with an ugly smile on her cold face, stands over me, one foot planted on either side of my torso.
Okay. Now I’m really in trouble.