Hearty cheers filled the air as Deah left the fence behind and strode over to the start of the obstacle course. As the reigning champion, she had the honor of being introduced first. A smile split her face, and she bowed to one side of the stadium, then the other.
Beside me, Felix clapped and clapped his hands before letting out a loud, ear-splitting whistle. I looked at him, and he grinned and shrugged his shoulders. He couldn’t help himself. Not where Deah was concerned. I didn’t know if that was sweet or stupid.
Once the cheers died down, the officials welcomed everyone, then started randomly calling out numbers, since the competitors would be split into four groups for the obstacle course.
Devon’s number was the first one called. He winked at me, waved to the crowd, and went over to stand beside Deah. They nodded at each other.
More numbers were called, including Blake’s, Poppy’s, Katia’s, and Vance’s, until there was only one spot left for the opening round of the obstacle course.
“Number three, Lila Merriweather!”
What was it with me always being picked last? If this kept up, I was going to develop a complex or something. But I fist-bumped Felix, waved to the crowd, and took my place at the starting line next to Devon.
“I would wish you good luck, but you don’t need it,” he said.
I grinned. “You’re right. I don’t. Eat my dust, Sinclair.”
He laughed and nudged me with his shoulder. I nudged him back, staring into his eyes—
“Well, isn’t this sweet?” a snide voice said. “You going to help your girlfriend get through the course too, Devon? I mean, you already got her into the tournament.”
Vance swaggered up next to me, the number nine pinned to his chest. He nudged me with his elbow too, but it wasn’t a friendly gesture. I nudged him back even harder, right in his stomach, making him wince.
“The only one who needs help here is you, Vance,” I snarked. “How are you going to get through the course without messing up your hair?”
Vance reached up to pat his golden locks and make sure they were slicked back into place. When he realized what he was doing, he dropped his hand and scowled at me.
Then, he noticed Katia standing on his other side, and he perked right back up again. “Hello, there,” he purred. “I don’t think we’ve met. Vance Groves, future winner of this tournament.”
“Charmed,” Katia replied in a dry tone, rolling her greenish eyes.
Vance would have kept trying to flirt with her, but the officials called us to the starting line, and we all took our places single file. I looked out over the course, the hurdles, the cold spring in the middle, the towering rope ladder at the far end of the stadium, visualizing how I would get from here to there.
An official stepped forward, drew the sword from the scabbard belted to his waist, and raised the weapon high. The crowd hushed, and we all leaned forward, trying to get every inch of advantage we could.
“For honor . . . for glory . . . for Family!”
The official dropped his sword, and the tournament was on.
The first stretch of the obstacle course was a flat, straight, mad dash, and the folks with speed Talents sprinted to the front of the pack, led by Katia. Felix was right. She was fast—faster than anyone else—and she jumped out to a big lead. Katia had already reached the hurdles before I was even halfway there. But there were plenty of obstacles up ahead to slow her and the other speedsters down.
I hit the hurdles right in the middle of the pack, which was exactly where I wanted to be. Despite Devon, Mo, and Claudia claiming that I could win the tournament, I didn’t necessarily want to. Oh, I enjoyed winning as much as the next person, but doing so would draw the unwanted attention of everyone in town, including Victor Draconi. So my plan was to do just enough to appear completely average.
But everyone else was giving it their all, including Devon, who was several feet ahead of me, along with Blake and Vance. Deah and Poppy were right on Katia’s tail, something that the other girl didn’t like, judging from the dark scowls she kept shooting over her shoulder at them, especially Deah.
All the while, the crowd cheered, yelled, and screamed, urging us to go, go, go, go! I blocked the noise out of my mind and concentrated on getting through the course.
I cleared the hurdles and sprinted over to the next section, where the competitors had to climb one of several knotted ropes twenty feet up to a platform. Katia slowed down considerably here, since she wasn’t nearly as strong as she was fast, but climbing was one of my specialties, and I was able to make up some time on her and everyone else ahead of me.
Katia, Deah, and Poppy all reached the platform at the same time, with Devon, Blake, and Vance right behind them. The girls took hold of the multiple zip lines that had been strung up and leaped off the platform, causing the crowd to cheer even louder. I got to the top of the platform just in time to see the three of them drop into the soft sand at the bottom, scramble to their feet, and start running again.