Which also makes his interest in playing Ludares right now—in the middle of everything we have going on—make so much more sense. If the only way to get the bloodstone is to win the tournament, then it looks like hell really has frozen over.
I just need to figure out how not to be a total burden—and, oh yeah, how not to be the first death—on the Ludares field in the history of Katmere.
49
Teamwork Makes
the Dream Work…
(or it Gives You
Nightmares)
“Hey, Jaxon, wait up.” Flint jogs up behind Jaxon, Macy, and me as we walk out of the cafeteria.
Jaxon turns, brows raised. “What’s up?”
“I was just wondering…” Flint trails off, and if I didn’t know better, I’d think he was panicking, though I don’t know why. I do know that he’s floundering, though, mouth opening and closing like he’s searching for words but has forgotten how to actually make sounds.
“Are you okay?” I ask, leaning forward to rest a hand on his arm. “You don’t look so good.”
“Oh, yeah. I’m fine.” Flint focuses on me for a beat, seems to catch his breath. Then says, “Sorry. Too many thoughts going through my brain at the same time.” He shoots me his ten-thousand-kilowatt grin.
I smile back—it’s impossible not to when Flint gives you that look—and tell him, “Yeah, that happens to me, too, sometimes. So what do you need?”
“Oh, right. I was just wondering if you wanted to spend some time practicing for Ludares today?” he says to Jaxon, then turns to me again. “We could even get that flying lesson in, New Girl.”
“Flying lesson?” Jaxon repeats, looking like he wants to say something.
“If it doesn’t get me punched this time, I thought I’d take New Girl up, show her some moves,” Flint tells him with a shit-eating grin. “Plus we still have that project for Mr. Damasen to finish.”
“And by moves, you mean how not to die in the air, right?” Jaxon gives him a look that’s half funny and half very definitely not.
“Absolutely. I’m not going to hurt her, Jaxon.” He holds Jaxon’s gaze as he says it, and his usual smile is completely MIA.
“Yeah, I’ve heard that before,” Jaxon shoots back.
“Stop it.” I bump him with my shoulder, even as I roll my eyes at Flint. “Ignore him. I’m really looking forward to learning to fly. But today we were going to do something different.”
“Oh yeah?” Flint looks interested. “Like what?”
“Nothing that requires an entourage,” Jaxon interjects.
“Who are you calling your entourage?” Flint demands with a wide grin. “Maybe you and Grace are Macy’s and my entourage. Right, Mace?”
For a minute, I think my cousin is going to swoon right here in the middle of the hallway. “Yeah, absolutely,” she tells him, and I swear the only thing more obvious than the stars in her eyes is the drool on her chin. “I think Jaxon would make a great entourage.”
Flint guffaws at that, even as Jaxon gives me a “what the fuck” look. I shrug back, because seriously, what is there to say? Except, “We’re going to the library to grab some info on gargoyle powers and the Dragon Boneyard. Then we thought we’d head up to Jaxon’s room and hang out as we research.”
“Oh, come on,” Hudson says, annoyance coloring every British syllable. “We don’t need Dragon Breath to find out what we need to know.”
Right. Because there’s no way an actual dragon might know anything about the Dragon Boneyard.
“The Dragon Boneyard?” Flint looks intrigued. “What do you want to know about it?”
“Everything,” I answer, linking one arm through Jaxon’s and the other through Flint’s. “So why don’t you come, too? You can help us figure out what we need to know.”
“Yeah, sure. What do you need?”
“We’ll tell you all about it when we get to Jaxon’s room,” I promise. Then I glance behind me at my cousin, who looks like she doesn’t know if she should follow us or not. “Come on, Mace. We need all the help we can get.”
“Awesome. Just let me text Gwen and tell her I’m not going to be able to hang out later.”
“Oh, never mind,” I tell her. “I forgot you had somewhere to be. Jaxon, Flint, and I can totally handle it.”
Macy shoots me a “stop talking now” look, then fires off a series of quick texts. “Too late,” she says, and then she’s darting in front of us to lead the way to the library.
It doesn’t take us long to gather what we need, partly because Amka has the books ready for us—at Jaxon’s request—and partly because she’s willing to loan us two of the library laptops so we can access the magic databases from anywhere in the castle and not just the library.
Flint helps by grabbing a few books on dragons that he thinks will help, while Macy runs back down to the cafeteria to gather snacks for our “marathon research sesh,” as she keeps calling it. In the meantime, Hudson just lounges around on whatever open chair he can find, calling out book titles that he thinks might help us.
“Where was all this information last night?” I ask him after my third run to the stacks at the back of the library.
“Last night I was too busy—”
“Trying not to vomit,” I fill in for him. “Yeah, yeah, I know the routine by heart by now.”
“Just because I’ve used it a few times doesn’t make it any less true,” he tells me with a definite tone to his voice.
“True, but it does make it lose its impact. At the moment, I’m pretty convinced you have the weakest stomach of anyone I’ve ever met, which is particularly interesting considering you don’t even have a stomach.”
“Sure I do,” he responds, and to prove it, he lifts up his T-shirt, revealing—not going to lie—one of the best sets of abs I’ve ever seen. Seriously. Which…I’m not quite sure how I feel about that. I mean, it shouldn’t matter. And it doesn’t. But…wow. Just wow. I’d have to be blind not to notice.
Hudson shoots me a smug look but doesn’t say anything as he lets his shirt drop back down. Then again, he doesn’t have to. The argument over whether or not he has a stomach has most definitely been settled…and I most definitely lost.
“You ready?” Jaxon asks as he comes up behind me with a giant armful of books.