Then it was my turn.
I grabbed hold of the metal handles attached to the zip line and pushed off from the platform, the air rushing over my body. The sensation was almost as good as free-falling down a drainpipe, and a happy laugh escaped my lips. Maybe the tournament would be more fun than I’d thought.
I let go, landed in the sandpit, and rolled up onto my feet. Vance grunted as he landed beside me. I glanced at him, and he scooped up a handful of sand and flung it at my face, trying to blind me. I jerked my head to the side, barely avoiding getting the wad of sand in my eyes, although it still hit my neck and sprayed all over my body. Vance laughed, surged to his feet, and rushed over to the cold spring.
So that’s how it was going to be? Well, if Vance wanted to play dirty, I could give as good as I got.
It was so on.
I put on an extra burst of speed and leaped out as far as I could into the spring, tucking my knees up into my chest.
“Cannonball!” I yelled.
Vance’s head snapped up, and I landed right beside him.
Splash!
I went all the way under. The water was shockingly cold, and I came up shivering. But it was worth it to see Vance soaked through and through. He growled and pretended to stumble into me. Down in the water, out of sight, Vance hooked his foot around mine, trying to use his strength magic to trip me and make me plunge under the surface again.
But the instant he touched me, my transference Talent kicked in, and my body absorbed all the energy, all the power, he was using to try to take me down.
I welcomed the cold burn of magic in my veins and used the extra burst of strength to put my shoulder down and plow right through him. Vance slipped and did a face-plant into the water. I kept going, grabbed the far edge of the spring, and pulled myself up and out of the water. Behind me, I could hear Vance sputtering and cursing.
I grinned. Oh, yeah. This was fun.
After the cold spring, there were more sprints and hurdles, along with several balance beams, and then the big finale of the fifty-foot rope ladder. I made it through the other obstacles and ran over to the base of the ladder, glancing up.
Katia was still in the lead, but Deah was right behind her, with Poppy a few feet farther down and about ten feet off to the side, on the far section of the ladder. Devon was directly below Poppy, with Blake beneath Katia and Deah. The ladder was as wide as it was tall, and since I didn’t want to impact Poppy’s and Devon’s climbs, I took hold of the side where Katia, Deah, and Blake were. I’d just started to pull myself up the first rung, when I felt a shoulder slam into mine, knocking me to the ground.
“See you at the top, loser,” Vance hissed, throwing himself up onto the ladder.
I cursed and got to my feet, determined to beat him to the platform.
But it wasn’t going to happen.
Vance had the perfect combination of speed and strength magic to scale the rope ladder, and he was already halfway up before I even got started. But I moved as quickly as I could, stretching and reaching and climbing, trying to make up as much ground as possible.
I looked up, judging my progress. Several feet above my head, near the top of the platform, something flashed a bright silver before winking out. I blinked. What was that?
A loud cheer rang out all around the stadium, telling me that someone had already reached the top, but I couldn’t tell if it was Katia or Deah. A few seconds later, Vance joined them, leaning over the edge and sneering down at me.
I ground my teeth together, angry that he’d beaten me, but I kept climbing. Poppy and Blake had both made it to the top as well, but Devon was still on the ladder, and he glanced over at me.
“Race you to the top!” he called out, a grin spreading across his face.
“You’re on!” I shouted back.
I was only about ten feet from the platform now, and I reached up for the next rung.
An ominous creak sounded.
My head snapped up. Above me, at the very top of the ladder, long, thick fibers sprouted up like weeds where one of the ropes connected to the wooden platform. It took me a second to realize that the rope was actually unraveling.
And it wasn’t the only one.
More and more of those fibers appeared, running all along the top of the ladder like kudzu unfurling everywhere. A sick feeling filled my stomach. I knew what was going to happen next.
“Watch out!” I yelled, hoping to warn everyone else on the ladder and trying to scramble to my right, away from the unraveling ropes.
But it was already too late.
With a series of loud, crack-crack-cracks, this entire section of rope snapped free from the top of the wooden platform, and the ladder started to fall.
Dragging me down with it.
CHAPTER NINE