Mystics 3-Book Collection (91 page)

“So what’s the plan then?” asked Simon.

Tristan didn’t answer.

“Aim at the joints, knees, elbows, and
feet,” said Elizabeth. “I don’t know. Maybe they’ll come apart if
there really is nothing holding them together. If we can’t kill
them, then we need to immobilize them.”

“And then what?” asked Simon.

“We’re about to find out,” Zoey braced
herself. “Get ready, here they come.”

The twelve skeletons charged. There were no
battle cries, no sounds of heavy breathing, just the sounds of
clanking metal and the clicking of old bones. It was the most
frightening thing Zoey had ever faced.

Tristan charged forward and met them head
on. Zoey just glimpsed him tackle three skeletons when the other
nine attacked.

A tall, chalk-white skeleton with a green
and red-jeweled sword lunged at her. Her mother swung her sword at
a second skeleton, and Simon jabbed and kicked a third in the
tibia.

She kicked the one who had attacked her, and
it staggered back. Another came at her from the side, but she
slipped to the side and tried to sweep her own blade along the back
of its leg. The skeleton pivoted away. It lunged, and she parried.
She lunged at his shoulder, but it raised its blade, and her cut
went wide. The skeleton held its left hand high like a classical
fencer.

The skeleton barged forward, using its
shoulder to knock her sideways. Zoey sidestepped and rolled on the
ground. She came up behind it and slashed her blade across the back
of the skeleton’s neck.

The skeleton stood still for a moment, then
its skull rolled off. It crumpled to the ground in a pile of jagged
bones.

For a moment Zoey just stood there, staring
at the jumble of femurs, tibias, and ribs. And then it hit her.

“The heads!” cried Zoey triumphantly. “Cut
off their heads! They go down if you cut off their skulls!”

With her gleaming silver sword, Elizabeth
parried, twisted around, and knocked her opponent to its knees
before she sliced off its head. It crumbled at her feet.

Meanwhile, Simon jabbed and slashed and
derided them, “When I look into your eyes, I see straight through
to the back of your head.”

He thrust his sword above a skeleton’s
clavicle, and its skull popped off with a
snap
.

“Thank you, come again.”

Tristan swung his blades like nunchakus,
slashing at their collarbones. They dropped their swords and
crumbled like a pile of matches.

The entire skeleton army had been reduced to
twelve piles of bones.

Thunderous applause erupted in the stadium
as the thousands of mystics cheered and clapped.

“And the crowd
loves
us,” said
Simon.

He took a bow and then straightened up
proudly and blew them kisses.

“My mother always told me
I was a star.” He beamed and blew more kisses. “We’re awesome. We
should totally go out on tour. Our stage name could be,
The Incredible Four
—”

“You’re delusional, and possibly disturbed
because of what you drank,” Tristan nudged him playfully on the
shoulder. “But, yeah, we’re still awesome.”

A few loud
boos
pierced through the
cheers.

“Oh, no you don’t.” Simon’s face fell. He
turned around and mooned them.

“Simon!” Zoey covered her
eyes. “Are you mad? No, I
know
you’re mad, but are you suicidal? Why did you do
that?”

She peeked through her fingers.

Simon shrugged, “I’m an old fart. Everyone
knows old people get away with murder. So I’m just milking it a
little bit.”

“A little bit is an understatement,” Tristan
high-fived Simon.

Zoey felt a hand squeeze hers.

“I’m really proud of you. You’re a great
agent, Zoey,” said Elizabeth. “This is where you belong, with your
friends, and with the Agency.”

Zoey squeezed her mother’s hand gently.
“You’re not so bad yourself, mom.”

Elizabeth dusted off her
shirt. “Well, I used to be a really good agent until . . .” she
paused for a moment. “. . . Until things got
complicated
.”

Zoey frowned. She noticed
a strange look in her mother’s eyes on the word
complicated,
almost as though the
word complicated had meant
her
.

“What do you mean
by
complicated
?”

“I hate to break up this Hallmark moment,”
interjected Simon. He pointed his sword at the platform. “But I
think the Red Bull wants a word.”

Gigor stood at the edge of
the platform with devilish smile on his face. Zoey couldn’t decide
if it was a
real
smile or a
fake
one. His giant and muscular frame made him look more like a
God rather than a mere lord of the Nexus, and his black cape
billowed around him like a cloud.

He looked at Zoey and her friends and raised
his goblet. “Well done! Well done!”

He paused and waited for the crowd’s cheers
to quiet.

“I must admit, I hadn’t
given you more than five minutes in the ring before my
dead
pets killed you
all. I’m surprised that you are still standing. Quite spectacular,
really. You humans never cease to amaze me.”

He looked over and showed
his red teeth to Mrs. Dupont. “You’ve provided me and my guests
with a very
entertaining
match, the best we’ve had in five hundred years!
And I thank you for that.”

The crowd burst into applause again, but
dread began to grow in the pit of Zoey’s stomach. What if the great
Gigor had lied and wouldn’t keep his promise? Maybe a promise meant
something completely different in the Nexus.

As if reading her mind, Tristan spoke up.
“What about our deal? Your rules? We won, so we can leave right, or
was that just a lie?”

Gigor’s tattooed face was
expressionless.

“Tristan, what are you doing!” hissed Zoey.
“If you make him mad, we’re not going anywhere.”

But then Gigor laughed a deep, throaty
laugh. “Come, come, young Mysterian. I am a Lord of my word. You
won the games in a fair fight. You are free to go—”

“WHAT? NO!” Mrs. Dupont
jumped to her feet. “You
can’t
let them go. It wasn’t part of
our
deal. You told me
they were going to die. They must die!”

Zoey narrowed her eyes. “I
really,
really
hate her. Why does she always have to ruin
everything?”

“What did you expect?” answered Simon
dryly.

Gigor lowered his goblet and angled his
great head in Mrs. Dupont’s direction. His black cape billowed
behind him, and his glistening sharp horns and hooved feet caught
in the light and made him look even more dangerous and impressive.
Even Nazar cowered.

But Mrs. Dupont stood defiantly before the
great creature. She was definitely mad.

“No creature or human has
ever survived the Blood Games,” replied Gigor in a commanding and
final tone. “I assumed that they would perish. But it seems these
humans are skilled and worthy combatants. It was a
fair
fight, and I will
not have them harmed—”

“You stupid, useless fool!” spat Mrs.
Dupont. Her face was red and blotchy, and she scolded him like he
was one of her Alpha pets.

“Ouch,” said Simon.

“She’s dead,” beamed Zoey.

“She’s stupid dead,” smiled Tristan.

Gigor’s crushed his goblet in his hand like
it was made of dough.

“You
dare
insult me . . .
human
?” The clank of his
hooves echoed around the stadium as he rose in front of her like a
great brick wall.

Mrs. Dupont trembled in rage.

She pointed a red manicured finger down at
Zoey and the others. “You promised me that they would die. If I had
known that you wouldn’t keep your word, I would never have brought
them to you. I would have killed them myself!”

A group of heavily armed Alphas made their
way towards the platform and stood behind their mistress like a
protective wall, ready to strike at her command.

Gigor sneered at her army like they were
nothing but little red ants about to be squished.

“Be careful where you
tread,
human
. I
can destroy you and your puny army with a flick of my
wrist.”

Two troll-like beasts with daggers,
warhammers, and maces hanging from their leather belts rose from
their seats and flexed their muscles like wrestlers before a match.
Their hands were the size of hubcaps. Then a platoon of Keepers
stepped from the shadows, drew their swords, and stood guard behind
their master.

“This is going to
be
goooood
,” said
Simon gleefully. “I wish I had some popcorn. My money’s on the
Keepers . . . you?”

Mrs. Dupont’s pinched features contorted
into a hideous grimace.

“Is that a threat? Are you threatening me?
Me? The one who gave you a doorway to my world? The one who
promised you thousands of humans?”

She started to laugh. “You’re nothing but a
thoughtless beast!”

The two trolls charged at Mrs. Dupont. She
pulled out a gun and shot the first one in the head, but the second
troll grabbed the gun and twisted it out of her grip. Then it
wrapped its enormous hands around her neck.

Nazar shot pointblank into the beast’s
skull, and it slumped to the ground.

The Keepers moved like a black wave towards
Mrs. Dupont and Nazar, but her Alpha army stepped to her defense.
Shouts and battle cries erupted like a thunderstorm as the two
armies slashed, stabbed, and ripped away at each other. It was
madness.

The crowd cheered as Mrs. Dupont and Nazar
disappeared into the chaos of the battle.

“Hope she dies,” said Tristan. “She deserves
what she gets.”

Zoey didn’t think the vile woman had a
chance. The Keepers were better fighters, and her precious Alphas
wouldn’t last much longer.

Gigor stood back and watched the ongoing
battle lazily, as though he knew his Keepers would finish off the
Alphas soon enough. He had a new goblet in his hand and drank while
he watched the show.

At the other end of the platform, Director
Martin cowered in the shadows. He had been a fool to trust Mrs.
Dupont, and now he was probably going to die.

The UECs were still in his
bag. If she could get to it, they’d still have a chance to blow up
the portals. This was their only chance. She
had
to take it.

“Stay here!”

She ran across the field towards the
stairs.

“Zoey! Where are you going?” shouted
Tristan. “ZOEY!”

But Zoey’s mind was set on one thing only—to
get the bag.

She sneaked up to the first level and
flattened herself against the wall. The Keepers and the Alphas were
preoccupied attacking each other. No one noticed her.

Director Martin cowered against the far
wall. His eyes were on the battle, and his back was to Zoey.

She sneaked up behind Director Martin and
tapped his shoulder. “Excuse me?” she said in her most innocent
voice.

Director Martin whirled around, and Zoey
punched him in the nose.

He stumbled back, blood trickling down his
face. “My nose! You stupid girl! I’m going to kill you for
this!”

He lunged for her, but Zoey jabbed him in
the throat with her fist. He fell back, choking and gasping for
breath.

“Thanks for keeping it safe for me. I’ll
take that now.”

Zoey grabbed the bag and kicked him in the
chin. He fell to his knees.

“How could you do this to your own—”

The rest of her words died in her throat.
She stepped back.

Director Martin’s skin
bubbled and blistered. His
fingers transformed into gleaming
black talons, and the rest of his skin peeled away and fell to the
ground in a pool of black liquid. Blunt spikes jutted out from his
back, and Zoey could smell the stench of sulfur and rotten meat. He
turned and glared at Zoey with four large red eyes.

It was the same creature that had killed her
foster mother.

“You’re a skin demon,” said Zoey.

She pointed the tip of her
blade menacingly at it. “What happened to the
real
Director Martin?”

The demon smiled evilly
and
revealed rows of jagged glass-sharp teeth
.

“I killed him,” it laughed. “I killed him,
and I took his place. Like I’m going to kill—”

Zoey kicked the skin demon in the head, and
it fell over backwards.

“Looks like you were wrong, demon.”

She stole a look inside the bag—two UEC
bombs rested at the bottom. She cradled the bag close to her chest
and turned to leave.

“And
where
do you think you’re going with
that?”

Mrs. Dupont grabbed Zoey and held a knife to
her throat.

“I should have
killed
you when I had
the chance. But I won’t make the same mistake again.

Zoey felt the cool blade press harder
against her jugular.

“
Die
you miserable, weak, little
agent—”

“Let her go.” Elizabeth held the point of
her sword against the back of Mrs. Dupont’s head.

Mrs. Dupont sneered. “Elizabeth? How good of
you to join us. Aren’t you glad I’ve brought your daughter back to
you? It’s like an overdue family reunion.”