"Don't worry," Haze said," we manag—"

Fuzzy's jaws closed around his unprotected hand.

In the split second before Haze grabbed Fuzzy by the ear, his eyes turned pitch black. Then Kenas's gigantic form blocked my view as he charged at the three other shifters surrounding Haze. Judging by Fuzzy's yelp a second later, Haze won that battle.

Kenas shoved Aidan out of the way as he was about to bite Haze's injured hand, grabbed one wolf by the hind leg, and pulled him backward. Big mistake getting into a physical fight with a giant, buddy.

The shifter struggled until my half-giant roomie finally pinned him to the ground by pressing one foot on his shoulder. Growling ferociously, the wolf snapped at nothing but air until some sort of realization seemed to set in that they were not getting out of that.

With dark blood dripping from his hand, Haze hopped over Fuzzy and held him in a headlock. The other brown wolf aimed to sink their teeth into Haze's calf, but with a quick sidestep on my demon roomie's part, the shifter jumped right into Kenas's waiting arms.

With Danox wrestling with Wolf Number Five, Aidan was the only one not currently losing to someone on our team. And he was fuming. Lips pulled back in a snarl, he ran at the only team member who likely wouldn't be able to fight him off with superhuman strength or reflexes.

Me.

Jaydis dropped to the ground next to me. I heard the bowstring being drawn before I saw the tip of a silver arrow aimed right at Aidan.

"Don't even think about it," Jaydis said, for once not playful whatsoever. His stance was relaxed, but the muscles in his arms were steady and taut.

Aidan skidded to a stop, his wide white eyes darting between us. When they settled on me, I knew he was past caring. Well, this time I wasn't about to give him the opportunity to attack first.

I uncapped the Crescetra, and once Aidan came at me again, threw the orange liquid in his path. Most of it landed in a puddle on the ground, but the moment he ran through it, it latched onto his paws and stopped him in his tracks. Literally.

"What's that?" Jaydis asked, eying the orange goo with what had to be scholarly interest.

"A fun little science project," I said smugly.

That entertaining hyena laugh of his broke the tension instantly. "I think you and me need to start a study group for alchemy."

Now that'd be some chaotic fun.

Seeing their team leader incapacitated, the other shifters stopped struggling and surrendered. They didn't look particularly happy about it, but who could blame them?

"Oh, I almost forgot." Jaydis lowered his bow and shrugged a black backpack—my backpack—off of his shoulders. "Figured you might want this back."

"I... Thank you."

Losing the potions would have been unfortunate but otherwise unimportant, but my nightlight and binoculars...not so much.

With the biggest smile on his face, Jaydis stuffed our glowing bundle of flags into his quiver. Kenas dusted himself off and, wearing a subtle grin, started further down the mountain. Danox appeared next to me, ears swiveling in the direction of the shifters.

It took a surprising amount of self-control not to brush the leaves off and pat his fluffy head. I quickly lowered my hand and followed Kenas.

Hearing Aidan continue to struggle, I hesitated. Without turning around, I nodded in the general direction of the stream and said, "It dissolves on contact with water."

"Damn," Jaydis said, "I would have loved to see him suffer a little longer."

Honestly, same, but maybe a little goodwill would help me figure out why the hell he had it out for me.

Curiosity got the better of me and I turned back to see if he'd gotten the message. Ears flopping, he continued struggling against the binds. Safe to say he'd heard me with the way his eyes narrowed.

Fine then.

I was about to return the glare when Haze stalked past me. He stopped in front of Aidan, the tip of his combat boot touching the orange goo. After staring at him for a solid five seconds, he bent down and said something.

Aidan froze, eyes downcast.

Haze continued speaking and I'd never wanted shifter hearing as badly as I did right then. A glance at Danox confirmed that whatever was being said was definitely worth hearing. Maybe I should ask him later...

"Let's get outta here," Haze said, suddenly moving past me.

Good idea.

"What was that about?" Jaydis asked, falling into stride with Haze.

"Just making sure he learned his lesson," he replied, flexing his hand.

Dark blood ran down his pale fingers, dripping onto the forest floor. Fuzzy had really gotten him good, even if he didn't seem to be in a lot of pain. Or maybe he was just that good at masking it.

"Let me see your hand," I said, practically running after them.

"No."

"No?"

"No." He didn't even slow down.

"Yes," I grumbled, catching up to him. "You're bleeding."

"It'll stop."

Why was it that whenever he had the option to be easy or difficult, he always chose difficult?

"It's deep," I snarled.

"It's not."

Was he speeding up?

"Let her fix your damn hand already," Jaydis cut in. "We got places to be and flags to snatch."

Haze muttered something under his breath but finally stopped.

"Gimme," I said. "You a demon of pride or what?"

He obliged. The cut was deep, deeper than I'd thought. As far as I knew demons had no accelerated healing, at least none that surpassed that of shifters. That blood loss would weaken him no matter how much he denied it.

"See? Not that bad," he said.

A particularly large drop of blood landed between us.

"Shut up." I set my pack down and started rummaging through the small compartment. "You seriously think I'm gonna let you run away from me bleeding twice?"

"I wasn't running."

"Twice?" Jaydis asked, looking between us.

"No," Haze grumbled at the same time as I said, "Yes."

I straightened up, holding a small vial filled to the brim with a pale green liquid. "Drink."

Haze arched a brow but made no move to oblige. "What do you have in that bag?" he asked instead.

"Would you like a list?" I shook the vial. "Drink the damn healing potion!"

He finally took the vial and downed it. "Happy?"

"Almost." I opened a small glass bottle and, trying to ignore the heat traveling from his hand up my entire arm, dropped three dark red droplets onto the open wound.

To his credit, he didn't wince, but judging by the way his eyes twitched, he'd definitely felt that. "You got an entire pharmacy in there or what?"

"You think I carry all this around for fun?"

"Can't be too sure with you."

Jerk.

With steady hands, I uncapped the water rua ointment and applied a generous sky blue layer on the bite. Most likely he was familiar with the coloring effects, but just in case he didn't know, I'd let him find that out for himself.

I could feel his wary gaze on me the entire time and if it wasn't for Jaydis watching my every move with what had to be curiosity, I would have probably lost my focus. Needless to say, I was glad to put some distance between us after the bandage was secured around his palm and wrist.

He flexed his hand. "Not bad."

"You're welcome," I said, stuffing my supplies back into my pack.

Seeing Danox and Kenas waiting by a fallen tree covered in a strange yellow moss, I followed Jaydis to catch up with them. We'd fared much better than expected, but knowing Jaydis, he wouldn't be satisfied until we added a few more flags to our collection.

A soft breeze caressed the back of my neck and then Haze's low whisper sounded from right behind me. "Thanks, Cupcake."

So much for not blushing.

"Now that the crew is back together," Jaydis said, rubbing his hands together, "you guys ready to win this thing?"

He didn't have to ask twice. With less than eight hours until the tournament was officially over, we had to get our heads in the game. Hiking through Ardua alone wasn't exactly a cakewalk.

After our admittedly rough start, things started to go much more smoothly. With a total of five flags in our possession now, we went after two more teams that would be decidedly easy to find—dryads and naiads.

As expected, one of the dryad teams had made camp around a particularly gnarly bunch of trees. Their brown leather clothing and the branches sprouting from their shoulder bones made it nearly impossible to spot them, but thanks to Grumpy Kitty's nose, we found them fairly quickly. Well, that and, upon closer inspection, one dryad's fiery red hair didn't quite match the surrounding grass.

Getting their flag only required two of my confusion potions, a strategically placed arrow on Jaydis's part, and a little digging—good to know that almost every team broke the rules in some way. The entire fight, if you could call it that, lasted maybe two minutes.

"I see what you meant with being sneaky," I told Jaydis as he rolled up our newly acquired flag.

"Mutual understanding." He shrugged, grinning. "Same reason you don't need to worry about the, uh, potion explosion or whatever the hell happened there. Just like we're not gonna mention anything about any incendiary arrows."

"What about the tree?"

His face darkened. "They'll see it, but as soon as the rain washes away the rest of your science project, there won't be any evidence. Lucky for Calla, it was no ardu. That would have brought real heat."

Right, the red-barked giants were amongst Ardua's oldest living beings and of immense value. Their leaves alone were incredibly potent.

"Yeah." I bit my lip. "Sure don't need to stir the pot any more."

He stared at me for a moment and then nodded. "Definitely not."

"Found some tracks!" Kenas called. "Most likely heading into the valley."

"Nice!" That same contagious excitement appeared on Jaydis's face once more. "Let's go."

As it turned out, the naiads were a little harder to find. Thanks to their ability to breathe underwater and with the water masking their scent practically entirely, it took Danox and Haze, who likely thanks to Susie was surprisingly good at tracking, to spot naiad footprints. When that only brought us to an icy river filled with orange aquatic plants, it was up to me and my binoculars to spot subtle heat signatures beneath the surface.

Lucky for us, unlike the dryads, the naiads seemed to play by the rules and kept their flag well above ground. The pale turquoise glow barely penetrated the thick petals of the water-lily-like plant covering it. Funnily enough, none of them moved when Jaydis scooped it up. They all sat at the bottom of the river, cross-legged and with their eyes closed.

"Are they aware they're losing their flag?" I asked.

Kenas shrugged.

"They couldn't care less," Jaydis explained, waving the glowing fabric. "They find the nicest looking body of water and relax. This whole tournament is just like a mini vacation for them."

Too bad our next couple of hours were anything but. After narrowly escaping a herd of what I could only describe as prehistoric hippos and fighting off Calla's team a second time, I could feel the strain from hours of running, climbing, and fighting with every fiber of my being. Our breaks had been relatively short and my legs and back ached.

By the time the sun reached its peak position, we'd left the mountain behind and made our way across the valley, following the widening stream. The trees gradually thinned and before long, we stood at the edge of a vast lake.

Not far to the left, right between a makeshift tent that looked identical to the one we'd been in just before the tournament started and a large overgrown boulder, was a portal. The finish line. We'd made it. We'd actually made it.

There was just one more thing.

I tapped Kenas on the elbow. "Do you have a minute?"

His eyebrows shot up, but he nodded. Turning to the others, he said, "We'll catch up."

Once the guys were out of supernatural earshot, I retrieved the little rocky keepsake I'd stashed in the front pocket of my hoodie. It didn't glow nearly as brightly in daylight, but the distinct teal color was clearly visible.

"I remember the way you looked at my nightlight," I said. "It's not violet, but..."

He blinked down at me.

"That cave Haze and I fell into was full of lux crystals." I held it out to him. "Just figured you might want one."

He hesitated briefly before accepting it. Tracing the sharp edges with his thumb, he replied, "Thank you."