Chapter 16

Sixteen

"I think she's coming to!" someone shouts, and the sound ricochets in my head like a spiked ball. Even though my eyes are already closed, I squeeze them tighter.

"Lock, hey, how are you feeling?" That voice belongs to Becks, and when I crack my eyelids his face is hovering over mine.

I glance to the side and realize I'm laid out on the ground in the locker room with Becks crouched next to me and several other faces hovering behind him, Shayla and her boyfriend, Owen, and another couple of his dragon shifter friends.

"Lock," he prompts, and my gaze drifts back to him. There's a deep groove between his brows and his eyes look tired.

"Yeah," I croak, my voice rough. I try to sit up and the world spins. "Whoa," I say, and almost tip over, but Becks puts an arm around me and helps me back to a seated position.

"Take it slow," he urges, and I wince. The lights are too bright and the muffled voices coming from behind the door make my ears ring.

"What happened?" I ask while rubbing my eyes.

Becks doesn't respond so I drop my hands and glance over at him. A muscle in his jaw jumps and I swear I can hear his teeth grinding. His eyes go slitted, he shudders, and then a shock of scales flash down his arm before disappearing again.

Whoa . Becks never has issues holding back his shift. He must be furious.

I rack my brain, trying to remember what happened. I was fighting with Talon in the cage, we traded blows, but nothing serious. I may have a few bruises from it tomorrow, but I've been injured worse during sparring at the gym. The time was about to end and then . . . nothing.

"I've got it from here," Becks says to the strangers in the room, and with nods and a few polite words to me about being glad that I'm okay they filter out. "Talon knocked you out," Becks finally grits out once we are alone.

"What? He did?" My mind is a little muddled and I'm light and sound sensitive, but it reminds me more of when I accidentally took too much of my mom's herbal meds for sleeping and woke up the next day with something akin to a hangover. I probe my head with my fingers, but don't come across any sore areas.

"Are you sure?" I ask, and Becks gives me a look like I'm stupid that makes me bristle.

I'm not an idiot. I've been knocked unconscious before. It doesn't happen often, but occasionally things go a little too far in sparring and someone gets hurt. This doesn't feel like that.

"I watched you go unconscious in his arms after he punched you in the temple," Becks says bluntly. The scent of smoke and ash starts to taint the air.

"Huh." I can't think of any other explanation, so I guess he did knock me out. Weird that I don't remember and can't find a sore spot.

With Becks' assistance, I get to my feet. When I sway a little, Becks wraps an arm around my back to steady me. Clamping his hand on my opposite hip, he anchors me against his side. I can't say I mind the contact at all, at least until I remember how sweaty and gross I am.

"So who won?" I ask as I squirm away from his hold.

Becks' nostrils flare, telling me who won before the name even leaves his mouth. "Talon."

"At least I lost to the winner," I say with a shrug as I look for my clothes, which I find neatly folded on a nearby chair.

"Are you kidding?" Becks asks, disgust heavy in his voice. "That's all you're going to say about it?"

"It's not like he jumped me in an alley or anything." I sit down to pull my socks and shoes back on, and then stand with the small bundle of clothes tucked under my arm. "It was a match. He won."

Honestly, I didn't feel too bad, and now that the second trial is over, euphoria that I'd made it through to the next round of Chaos is starting to bubble up inside.

"I don't care if it was the bloody World Cup he was competing for, he still shouldn't have hurt you."

Am I happy Talon knocked me out in our match? No. But I don't hold it against him. Clearly Becks does.

"Let's go," I say, not having the energy to argue with my friend. It's been a long night. All I want right now is to soak in a warm Epsom salt bath. The fuzziness in my head has mostly dissipated, but my muscle and joint soreness hasn't.

Becks clamps his mouth shut and nods.

I'm not two steps out of the room when I hear, "Hey, are you all right?"

When I look over, Talon, who's changed back into his clothes, pushes himself off the wall next to the room and starts toward me. He was obviously waiting for me. I don't get to answer him though. Becks is up in his face before I get a chance to.

"What are you doing here?" he growls.

Talon tries to move around Becks, but Becks isn't having it and blocks him.

A flash of frustration passes over Talon's features. "Look, I'm just checking on Locklyn," he explains. The use of my name rather than Freckles sounds weird to me.

"You don't get to do that after you're the one who hurt her," Becks says, and Talon visibly flinches.

I grab Becks' bicep and try to tug him away from Talon, but Becks is a brick wall and doesn't budge.

"Becks, it's fine," I say, still tugging on his arm.

His head snaps in my direction. "The hell it is."

His slitted pupils are back, and I have a bad feeling that if I don't deescalate the situation soon, a fight is going to break out. And there have already been too many of those for one night.

I sigh, weariness seeping into my bones. "I'm leaving."

Turning, I walk in the other direction, hoping Becks will follow. My body is tense until I hear the slap of Becks' shoes against the concrete floor a few seconds later as he jogs to catch up with me. Without a word he drops an arm over my shoulder, something he does on occasion, and it always makes butterflies flap in my stomach when he does. But tonight I don't fool myself into thinking it's anything more than what it is: a message to Talon to stay away from me.

The next morning my chin is a lovely shade of green and a purple smudge is starting to grow high on my cheek. Interestingly, I don't have any bruising on my temple where Talon knocked me out. It's surprisingly easy to explain away my injuries the next day to my parents. Their eyes bulge when they see me, but I tell them I sparred at the gym, they nod, and that's the end of it.

Part of me hates how easy it's been to lie to them over Chaos and the trials, but another part of me is glad about it. I mollify myself by remembering that even if I want to tell the truth, I can't. The magical gag from the first night is still in place. I know because I tested it out a time or two and the moment I start to say anything about Chaos, my throat freezes and the words won't come.

It's not until I get to school the next day that I realize the world has flipped upside-down. I don't even make it to the main entrance before classmates start to swarm me.

"Hey, Locklyn, great show last night."

"Locklyn, where did you learn to fight like that?"

"Do you think maybe sometime you can show me that two-punch move you used to put Jules down?"

My eyes bug out as students I didn't even think knew I existed come up to me, calling my name and acting like we're old friends. It's weird.

After giving my Peet's Gym information to a lower classman who said she wants to start learning some self-defense, I look up and catch Talon staring at me from the parking lot in front of the main academy building. Wearing faded jeans and a dark tee, he stands with his arms crossed over his chest as he leans up against a black sports car. He's wearing a knit cap like the first time I saw him, and strands of his dark hair curl around the front edge. The hem of his t-shirt has ridden up, exposing a sliver of skin that only gives a peek at what I now know is a washboard stomach.

I won't lie and say he doesn't look good. I try not to think too much of the way my stomach dips when our eyes connect. Even though he was the ultimate winner on yesterday, he surprisingly doesn't have a swarm of well-wishers mobbing him like I do.

He nods once, and then waves me over. My feet are moving before I realize I've made the decision to go to him. I only get a half dozen steps before I'm tackled by a blur of blonde and pink streaked hair.

"I can't believe I wasn't there last night," Ensley says, looping her arm in mine and dragging me away from Talon and back toward school.

Ensley called me late last night and wouldn't let me go to bed until I'd given her a detailed blow-by-blow of the trial. She was super disappointed to miss it and made me recount my match with Jules twice.

"It's all anyone can talk about," Ensley goes on, oblivious to how she blocked me from going to Talon, but that's just as well. "Well, it's all that the kids that can talk about it are doing at least. Since the gag magic prevents so many of us from openly talking about Chaos at home, I think everyone is extra excited to spill at school. But seriously, you're like, semi-famous now. How does it feel?" she asks with a grin after someone high fives me the moment we step into the building.

"Umm, weird," I answer honestly, then look up to see Becks cutting his way through the throng of students toward us. My heart skips a beat at the intensity of his gaze.

Ensley is still chatting away next to me, but I'm not listening. The world has fallen away and my focus narrows in on Becks as he nears.

When he's finally standing in front of me, I'm a little breathless. His gaze dances over my face, checking every inch of it. I did my best to cover my bruises, but from the frown on Becks' face it's clear the makeup isn't doing its job. I should have asked Ensley to glamour them away until they have a chance to fade.

"How are you doing?" he asks, his voice a little huskier than usual.

"I'm fine," I answer truthfully. A couple of bruises are nothing to worry about, nor are they new for me.

Lifting a hand, Becks runs a thumb over the discoloration on my cheekbone. His touch is gentle, reverent, and I have a sudden urge to close my eyes and lean into his palm. My lids lazily drop to half-mast as something flares in the depths of Becks' eyes.

I hold my breath, here in the middle of the academy halls with classmates passing and watching, but not caring if we have an audience or not because this moment between the two of us is too potent, too heady, too strong to be bothered by something so insignificant.

"Freckles," Talon says quietly in greeting as he walks by me, and the spell is broken.

Becks' gaze instantly shifts to Talon and darkens, his whole face souring. When Talon passes, Becks twists to glare at his retreating form the whole way down the hall until he turns the corner and disappears from view.

"I don't like that guy," Becks says unnecessarily. He was pretty clear about his dislike for Talon the night before, and even if he hadn't been, it's written so plainly on his face that I'd have to be blind not to see it.

I frown when Becks' gaze swings back to me, still darkened from thoughts of Talon. Becks never took to Talon when he started classes at Nightlark Academy a couple weeks ago, but the slight annoyance he had for him seemed to have twisted into a deep-seated hate overnight. It's clear what happened in the fighting cages tipped the scales, but unlike Becks I still don't blame Talon for what he had to do. At least not in the same way Becks does. Sure, I was annoyed he didn't just finish out the match in a draw so we'd both be ineligible for the advantage, but for whatever reason he really wants Shadow Striker and probably felt he needed the leg up on the next trial. I'm the one who really needed the advantage, but if anything I'm annoyed at myself for not giving my match with Talon my all. And that's not his fault. It's mine.

The warning bell rings, signaling we'd better get to class soon.

"See you at lunch?" Ensley asks, and I start. Between Becks and Talon I'd actually forgotten she was still standing there.

"Yeah," Becks says distractedly, twisting to look down the hallway in the direction Talon went.

"I'm off," I say with a wave to Ensley, and turn to head toward my first class.

"Wait up," Becks says and catches up with me quickly. "I'll walk you to class."

"Oh, okay." That's different.

All eyes are on Becks and me as he walks me to class. It makes me uncomfortable to suddenly have so much attention. He drops me off, and then after class lets out he's waiting for me again with his shoulder leaned up against a locker on the other side of the hall. I have no idea how he got out of class early to meet me, but Becks is a natural charmer so it's not too surprising. The rest of the day goes similarly, with Becks taking me to and picking me up from each and every class, and lunch as well. When I ask him what he's doing, he just shrugs and says he feels like it.

But Becks' sudden overly attentive behavior isn't the only weird thing about the day. The phenomenon in the parking lot with my classmates continues with creatures coming up to me at my locker, asking to sit near me in classes, and staring at me with smiles and curious eyes rather than hate-filled scowls.

Well, that's how most of the students act. I catch Jules glaring at me in the hallway between fourth and fifth period. Since I'm with Becks she doesn't say anything or make a move against me, but her stare is like a burning brand on my back as I shuffle through the crowded hallways, reminding me that I might have bested her once, but she wasn't going to let it happen again. I know Jules well enough to know she's not going to let a slight like this go unpunished. And outside the cages she still has a giant advantage over me. Magic.

By the time my last class lets out, my head is throbbing with the start of what I fear will turn into a monster headache. I'm not used to having to interact with anyone other than Ensley and Becks throughout the school day, so I'm on overload. That's at least my excuse for the temporary insanity that prompts me to slip into the underground tunnels when Becks isn't waiting for me after class. I just need a few moments to myself.

I haven't set foot in the tunnels since my run-in with Jules several weeks before, and for good reason. They're just as dangerous to me now as they were then, but desperation overrides my logic, and I can't bring myself to be sorry for it. The silence is a balm to my soul, and my headache starts to subside as the tension leaks from my muscles. Hopefully Becks will understand that I needed a few minutes to myself and won't be mad at me for not waiting for him.

I'm about halfway to my destination when an overarching sense of foreboding drips down my spine, like wax sliding down a lit candle. Turning, I strain my eyes in the low light, trying to see if anyone else is here, and then drop into a defensive pose when the crunch of rocks beneath someone's feet echoes off the walls.

With my arms up in front of me, ready to strike out, or run if need be, I wait for the attacker to show themselves, silently cursing myself for my stupidity. A shadow moves farther down the tunnel, and I swallow a scream.

"Whoa there, I come in peace," Talon says as he emerges from the darkness with his hands raised in mock surrender.

My body sags in relief, my muscles untensing as I drop my guard. "Don't you know it's rude to creep up on someone?" I ask tartly, embarrassed that I'd reacted so fearfully in the first place.

"Sorry about that." He swipes his knit hat off and runs a hand through his hair before placing it back on his head. Is Talon . . . nervous? "I saw you slip into the tunnels after class. I was hoping to talk to you without your guard dog."

"My guard dog?"

One side of Talon's mouth quirks up in a lopsided grin. "Oh, yeah. Why do you think your pal Becks has been trailing you all day if not to keep me away? If I even look in your direction he growls at me."

I roll my eyes. He's exaggerating. "Becks isn't my guard dog."

Talon chuckles, the sound vibrating off the stone enclosure and resonating in my chest. I shift, slightly uncomfortable with the shiver that trails down my spine and the goose bumps that pop out on my arms.

"You might want to tell him that," Talon says, oblivious to my internal conflict. "Whenever I see him near you, he looks about two seconds away from pissing a circle around you to claim his territory."

I scrunch my nose at the unwanted image of Becks peeing. Ew . I could have lived a lifetime without that imagery.

"Did you really have to go there?" I ask, and Talon's grin grows.

"You're picturing it, aren't you?"

Rather than answer, I brush past him and another round of deep laughter bursts from Talon. I tense up rather than allow another involuntary shudder to take me over again.

So I think the sound of his chuckles are a little sexy. So what? Lots of guys have attractive qualities. It doesn't mean anything.

Silent footsteps bring Talon shoulder to shoulder with me. "Seriously though," he says, his voice far more reverent than it was a moment before. "I wanted to make sure you were okay. You know, after the trials last night. I feel really bad about what went down. I hope you know I never wanted to hurt you."

I glance at him out of the corner of my eye. Most of his face is hidden in shadows, but I can make out the frown on his downcast face. He's either an extremely good actor or truly sorry. Out of nowhere I start to wonder what creature he is. I still haven't figured it out, but I suppose it doesn't really matter.

I wave a hand in the air. "You were just playing the game. It is a competition after all." I don't hold anything against Talon, so there's no need for his apologies.

He nods, looking relieved that I get it.

"Besides," I continue, "the way I figure it, now we're even."

Talon quirks a brow. "How do you figure?"

"I was holding back last night. I basically let you win."

I expect him to scoff, but he doesn't. "I could tell," he says without boasting that he was holding back as well, because I know he was. "You're a wicked fighter. Thanks for doing me a solid," he says with a straight face.

It warms me a little that Talon recognizes my skills.

"Well, just don't expect me to bail you out a second time," I say jokingly. "It was a one-off. Shadow Striker is my meal ticket, and I don't plan on just handing it over to you."

"Freckles, with you I'm learning to expect the unexpected." His gaze connects with mine and an electric charge seems to pass between us. It's confusing.

We reach the exit to the hallway closest to the parking lot and Talon reaches in front of me to open the door for me, and then steps back to let me pass. It's a narrow space and my shoulder brushes up against his chest as I slide in front of him. I hear him take a quick breath, but when I look back he doesn't look affected in the least.

"What are you doing?" a voice bellows, and I spin to find Becks standing there, his hands clenched and the scent of smoke and ash lingering in the air.

"Becks, I was just—" I sense Talon come up behind me. Becks' eyes flare and go slitted. Reaching out, he clamps his hands on my arms and hauls me toward him.

"Take another step forward and I'll show you what it's like to fight a dragon shifter. I promise I won't go easy on you like she did last night."

"Becks!" I shove out of his embrace, glaring at him, but Becks doesn't even notice because his gaze is fastened on Talon.

When I look over at Talon I expect to see mischief in his eyes. He seems to love revving Becks up, but all I read on him is wary resignation.

"Look—" he starts, but Becks doesn't let him get any further than that before dropping a shoulder and rushing him.

"Becks, no!" I scream as my friend plows into Talon, slamming him back against the closed door we just emerged from. The wood behind Talon groans and a crack appears.

Before I can reach them, Becks buries a fist in Talon's gut that doubles him over before releasing him to step back.

"You think you can talk to her after what you did?" Becks says, his voice filled with barely contained rage.

What's happening right now? This isn't Becks. He doesn't lose it like this. Becks is the most controlled creature I know.

Talon coughs once and then rights himself, his gaze flicking to me before returning to my best friend. "I get what she means to you, so I'll let you have that one. But you need to back off. I don't want to fight you, but if you come at me again you won't like how this ends."

There aren't many students left in the halls, but the ones who are around come running to check out the commotion. I don't take my eyes off Becks or Talon to figure out who's watching.

Becks takes an aggressive step toward Talon, but Talon doesn't even flinch.

"I mean it," Talon says, and his voice has gone deadly calm.

Becks points a finger in Talon's face, inches from touching him. "You don't talk to her, you don't look at her, you don't breathe in her direction."

I gasp. What does he think he's doing?

Stomping forward, I stop next to the two of them as they face off against each other.

"Becks, stop!" I order, but he doesn't even acknowledge me, and that makes me furious. "You don't get to decide that for me," I say through clenched teeth, quiet enough so that my voice doesn't carry, but strong enough that I know they both hear me. "Talon was just playing the game. He wasn't trying to hurt me on purpose."

Becks' nostrils flare and he looks down at me. "All that matters is that he did hurt you, and for that he has to pay."

I rear back. What is going on right now? I've been hurt both physically and emotionally by plenty of creatures over the years. Becks was always upset about it, even furious at times, but he never reacted like this. This reaction is extreme, and bringing out a side of him I didn't even know existed.

Whatever is going on with him, I'm not going to just roll over because he's flexing his muscles. I've told Becks time and time again I need to start fighting my own battles, and if that includes standing up to him, so be it.

"Talon's my friend," I say, stretching the truth. I wouldn't actually consider him a friend, more of a reluctant acquaintance, but that doesn't roll off the tongue quite as well. "I won't have you going all macho dragon heir on him. We're in a competition. Creatures are going to get hurt. You need to deal with the fact that you can't protect me from the world."

Becks flinches like I hit him, and my heart pricks, but I force myself to stay hard.

"I won't allow this guy around you."

"It's not your choice," I snap back.

"Locklyn," he says, reaching for me, but I jerk away, and since I'm looking him straight in the eyes I can see exactly how much that hurts him.

"You're making a mistake," he says, his face hardening once again.

"Maybe, but it's my mistake to make."

Becks regards me silently, his gaze skipping over my face, and I'm not sure what he reads there.

"Fine," he finally bites out, and with a final glare at Talon he spins and stalks in the other direction, taking the scent of fire and ash with him.

"Well, Freckles, I thought saving me was a one-off?" Talon jokes from behind me, but I don't turn to look at him. Instead I watch my best friend stomp down the hall, feeling like a little part of my heart is being torn from my chest with every step he takes away from me.

I know that needed to happen, but it still hurts.

"I'll try not to make it a habit," I say absentmindedly, only barely noticing the small crowd that had gathered starting to disperse.

Talon sighs. "I know that wasn't easy for you, but he'll come around. He can't stay mad at you. He just needs some time to cool off."

The words feel hollow. Like something you tell someone to make them feel better in a situation like this, but I nod anyway, hoping he's right.