The Big Game Read online

Beth turned to her sister. “Naomi…”

  Naomi shook her head and closed her eyes as her lower lip trembled. Cole pulled his wife into his arms and held tight, murmuring to her.

  Beth sighed wearily, but didn’t push it further. Thane knew that she, more than anyone, understood what Naomi had experience in their house in Chicago. If having Eli there would be too painful, Thane knew that now was not the time to push the issue.

  CHAPTER 1

  UNCONSCIOUS DREAMS

  January, Year: BTE223

  “Again,” Eli told Ivy as he motioned to her to advance across the mats of the workout room in his house. It was Elijah’s favorite room, mainly because it was the place where he could hit punching bags, lift weights, practice karate, or meditate if he needed to. He needed to often. He studied Ivy’s expression, her round face, and her intense green eyes the same color as the leaf on an oak in spring. She had her long, wildly tangled hair up in a messy bun as she stalked towards him. She’d been trying, for a good twenty minutes, to get in close enough to flip Eli on his back. That was the goal of the day.

  Ivy knew exactly what she was doing and how to get Eli, but the problem was moving fast enough. Even if Eli didn’t put on any magical speed to stop her, Ivy’s reactions were still too slow. That was why they were practicing.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” Ivy said through gritted teeth as she feinted right, then tried to catch him on the left.

  Eli grabbed her wrist and stopped it mid-swing. She stared at him, their faces only inches apart. “You’re being predictable,” he told her.

  “You’re being annoying,” she grumbled as she pushed against his hand.

  He blinked, a little surprised at her rancor. “Are you okay?”

  Ivy swung her leg out, faster than she’d ever done before and swept his feet out from under him, until he hit the mat with his back.

  Unfortunately, his momentum was enough that his head hit the edge of a weight and a blindingly intense flash of pain shot through his head before everything around him went black.

  The room around Eli was filled with angry words flying over his head while vases and books crashed all around him. He was too small to fight. He was too young to stand up for anyone.

  He was curled into a ball on the luxurious woven rug, with his father’s impressive library surrounding him, but all he knew was that his hands pressed hard to his ears as his parents screamed at each other in fury and rage around him.

  His father’s monstrous bellow, louder than a bear, cascaded over Eli. “You’ve raised this worthless simpleton for what? He will never do! I needed a son!”

  “I gave you a son,” Eli’s mother fired back in outrage. “It is not my fault that they were twins and thus runty! You can’t—”

  She screamed as his father’s fist flew, but Eli jumped to his feet and took the blow in the gut which knocked him backwards into a bookcase. His back flamed in pain as a couple of books fell over him, one catching him with its corner. His temple stung fiercely as he blinked back the agony and tried not to cry.

  His parents stared at him for a moment, before continuing their argument while Eli crawled to the door, desperate to vomit anywhere but in that stupid library.

  His older sister, Naomi, pushed the door open a crack and beckoned to him. The moment he was out of the room, she pulled him up and rushed him away from the library.

  “I have it,” Eli said around a wave of nausea that was building inside him.

  “I can help,” the thirteen-year-old said.

  He was going to puke. There was nothing for it. Eli pushed her away, harder than he meant to, and staggered to the bathroom where he threw up for ten minutes until there was blood.

  Eli hadn’t heard Naomi follow him in, but he did see the welt on her cheek that hadn’t been there before he’d pushed her. “You need a doctor,” she said flatly as she pointed to the toilet.

  He turned back to see the blood. Eli tried to tell her he was sorry. He hoped she knew, but when she turned away from him to find help, it felt like she was turning her back on him.

  But Naomi was the one who stayed with him until the doctor was called. She held his hand while he was examined. She didn’t move when their father blazed in, annoyed at the interruption of his day.

  She’d been his first, and best, protector.

  Eli stared at his beaten sister and part of him knew that this wasn’t her anymore. This Naomi he was seeing was young, younger than she should have been, but he couldn’t seem to hold on to why that was so.

  He glanced down at himself and saw that before him was the body he remembered having, one that was finally starting to grow away from a scrawny child. His hands, which hadn’t been impressive before, now appeared strong and sure. Cords were forming along his forearms, and he held them out to examine. He knew it was all to do with the hours he put into weightlifting and nothing to do with his innate magical strength.

  Eli heard a noise and turned to see himself in a mirror. His eyes were almost white they were so pale blue. His hair, though, was black as ash and short, closely cropped to his head thanks to his foster mother, Maia, insisting on cutting it. He looked more of a man now than a boy, and it staggered him to see the square jaw that was hardening away from the slight angles he’d had his whole life.

  A woman stepped up behind him, reflected perfectly to his left. She was in a simple white shirt and jeans. Her face was beautiful, small, and heart-shaped with eyes that were only a shade darker than Eli’s. Her hair was the same inky black, but longer, flowing down past her shoulders. Eli spun around but saw no one behind him in the room. He turned back to the mirror and saw her again.

  “Naomi?” he asked hesitantly.

  Her eyes held his gaze as she remained silent. Her face expressed sorrow and regret, but mostly it held fear. Eli saw her attempt to hide it, but it was there in the stubborn tilt of her chin and the defiant unwillingness to turn away from him.

  A sharp sting slapped his cheek, and he focused on the mirror to see Ivy’s panicked face reflected back at him. “Wake up!” she demanded urgently.

  His eyes fluttered open as pain shot hideous arrows through his temple. “Gah!” he ground out with a moan.

  “He’s awake, Mommy!”

  Ava… Eli’s brain focused on the facts about his sister, technically his foster sister. She had just turned six a few days before and had brown hair the same color as Maia’s.

  Not to be outdone, a tiny someone sat on his stomach, which rolled dangerously.

  “Off, Lex,” came Ivy’s voice as the small someone, his three-year-old sister, Alexi, was plucked up. “Are you okay, Eli? I didn’t mean to knock you flat.

  He tried to make a sound but it came out as more of a gurgle.

  “He’s fine,” came his seventeen-year-old foster brother’s voice. Oliver was obnoxious that way. “He always sounds that stupid. Ow!”

  “Shut up, Oliver,” Ivy ordered.

  Eli almost smiled, but it hurt too much. He definitely felt a lot older than sixteen at the moment. Everything in his head was ridiculously painful.

  The only person missing was… something cold, and slightly damp, smacked onto his head. “He has a hard head, Ivy. He’ll be fine,” his other foster brother, Graham, who was fourteen, assured her.

  “You two are the worst brothers I have ever seen,” Ivy informed them with a sigh. “Honestly, it’s a wonder he doesn’t flatten you both.”

  Oliver laughed heartily. “You don’t have a brother. You have no idea.”

  There was a short, oppressive silence where Eli would have cheerfully flattened Oliver if he’d been able to move.

  Ivy did have a brother. In fact, Ivy’s father had three other children; a boy, and two other girls. Unfortunately, Ivy hadn’t ever met her father, or any of her siblings.

  “I…” Oliver’s voice held his remorse. “Sorry about that. I wasn’t thinking.”

  “You never think,” Graham said. “Come on, Lex, let’s go see where Mom went
to.”

  He heard footsteps, and loud protestations from the toddler, but nothing else.

  “I think we’ll have to take him to the hospital,” Maia said as she moved back into the room. “If he’s not opening his eyes, we need to go.”

  “No,” Eli argued. Amazingly, his voice actually worked this time.

  Maia’s soft hand ran along his brow, repositioning what Eli realized was an icepack. “Are you okay, sweetie? You hit your head hard.”

  “M’kay,” he forced the sounds out. “Hurts.”

  “I’m sure it does hurt. You hit that rack,” Maia told him soothingly as she gently brushed his cheek. “I heard it all the way across the house.”

  “I’m so sorry, Eli,” Ivy said from his other side. “I didn’t realize we were that close.”

  “S’okay.”

  That was it. That was all he could manage.

  “He could have a concussion,” Maia said, clearly speaking to Ivy.

  “We should take him,” Ivy agreed miserably. “I feel terrible about this.”

  “Don’t feel bad,” Maia replied simply. “You took Eli down, Ivy. That’s impressive. Once his head stops hurting, he’ll agree with me.”

  Eli did agree, at least with the part of Ivy beating him. He didn’t agree with going to the hospital.

  Slowly, painfully, he pushed himself to roll over. He had to stop once to hold his head, which was threatening to explode. “Pain medicine.”

  “I don’t know, Eli,” Maia hedged as she took his arm to help him stand. “You don’t look well.”

  “I’m fine,” he managed as he squinted his eyes open enough to see where he was walking. Ivy slung his other arm around her shoulder, and the two propped him up enough to walk towards his bedroom.

  The moment he was on his bed, he flopped his hand out. “Headache…”

  “This is a bad idea,” Ivy said bluntly. “You need a doctor.”

  “Don’t want to ‘splain,” he said, hoping it sounded enough like words

  “If you die, we’ll have to explain that, too,” Ivy retorted furiously. “I’d have to live with that!”

  “An hour,” Eli begged. “Medicine and an hour.”

  Maia sighed. “Thirty minutes.”

  “Okay,” he agreed eagerly as she stuck some pills into his mouth and held a glass up for him. He hadn’t even realized that Oliver had appeared with them.

  Forty-five minutes later, Eli was up and eating.

  “You are amazing,” Ivy said with a shake of her head. “I thought for sure we were going to be dragging you out to the jeep.”

  Eli took another bite of the apple. If the crunch was just a little louder than his head would have preferred, he didn’t say anything.

  The front door opened and Pablo came in, still in his police uniform. He took one look at Eli and paused. “You look terrible.”

  Eli grinned despite himself. “Love you, too, Dad.”

  “Daddy!” Alexi screamed, causing Eli to wince visibly as she came running into the kitchen. Her brown hair streamed behind her.

  Pablo swung her up into his arms and noisily kissed her cheek. “I think you just made Eli’s head explode, Lex.”

  She scrunched up her button nose and eyed Eli with her cherubic smile. Her blue eyes sparkled as she leaned down to Eli for him to hold her.

  Pablo kept his arms around his daughter. “Let’s let Eli eat, huh?”

  “No!” Alexi protested loudly.

  Eli took one last bite and wiped his hands on his jeans. “It’s fine,” he said as he took her from his foster father. Alexi wound her tiny arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder for all of twenty seconds before she wiggled down to run off.

  “It’s always short lived with her,” Ivy noted in amusement.

  “She has the attention span of a three-year-old,” Maia laughed as she set green beans in front of Eli. “Let’s prep these for dinner tonight.”

  Pablo moved over to kiss his wife. “So what did I miss?”

  “Ivy took Eli down,” Maia told him with a significant glance towards Ivy.

  Ivy shook her head, staring down at the table.

  “Yeah?” Pablo patted Ivy’s shoulder. “That’s great, Ivy.”

  “I thought he was dead for a moment,” Ivy murmured dejectedly.

  “He’s got a hard head,” Pablo chuckled deeply. “It would take a lot to bust it.”

  “Thanks,” Eli said as he picked up the knife to start cutting tips off the beans. This was his job because he could get through it faster than anyone else in the house.

  Sometimes his magic worked against him.

  “Are you staying for dinner?” Eli asked Ivy.

  She shook her head. “I really need to get home. Alba hasn’t slept in two days,” she explained. Alba was Ivy’s foster mother, also a member of the Guard like Maia and Pablo. She and her husband, Geir Carwyn, had two younger girls. The girls were refugees from an Overseer’s family, but they weren’t like other magical children.

  Both of the girls, Valerie and Elisha, had two powers each. They had speed, which Eli also had, but they also were both geniuses. Unfortunately, the powers were mismatched in them.

  This was where Ivy’s power as a diviner came in really handy, because she could tell their power levels. It seemed like when powers were uneven; the children were more unstable than normal.

  Because of this, Ivy’s foster mother was working double time just trying to keep the girls stable. She’d been forced to pull them from school to homeschool them. Alba had been afraid that the girls would give away their magic if they stayed. If that happened, the girls’ parents might find out about it. It would not go unnoticed that magical children were in the school.

  Ava should have already started school, but Maia had held her back for another year, just to make sure that she understood completely why she had to hide her own magic.

  They lived normal lives, in some ways, but it was moments like this that made Eli appreciate fully just how atypical their lives actually were. They lived in a good house, in a decent township in the Portland Zone, but all of that was because of the Guard and Pablo’s job with the local police. Things could have been very different.

  Ivy’s father was the Overseer of Portland. If her father had been paying closer attention to the townships away from the city, he might have discovered Eli and his family.

  “Before you go,” Pablo told her as he took a seat at the table and indicated that Maia should do the same, “we have a little bit of business to talk about.”

  “That doesn’t sound good,” Maia said slowly as she took her seat. “Did something happen?”

  Pablo considered his wife for a long moment, then glanced out the back window. “I heard some rumors today while I was at work. It concerns some of the, uh, less visible residents of our zone.”

  “Bears?” Ivy quipped with a small smile.

  “Close,” Pablo said as he turned his brown eyes back to hers. “Bigfoot.”

  CHAPTER 2

  THE NEXT MISSION

  “Oh,” Ivy said faintly as she sat back in her seat. “Why us?”

  “You two are training to be full members of the Guard,” Maia reminded her solemnly. “Any of the kids can do that, but you’ll notice that neither Oliver nor Graham, or even Naim signed up to do that.”

  Eli thought about his other foster brother, Naim, who was now in college in the San Francisco Zone. He’d never once been interested in doing what Eli and Ivy were currently doing. “So there’s a difference?”

  “If you want to be a foster parent with the Guard, or actively support the Guard, that’s entirely different from being placed in a family, growing up, and moving on,” Pablo told them. “You two have decided on an active role. Once you’ve truly proven yourselves, then you’ll be members and open to more of the secrets.”

  It made sense. It also made sense that they were on a sort of probation. “Alright, so what about Bigfoot?”

  “I heard a rumor about
a Sasquatch being spotted closer to town,” Pablo explained as he took a bean from Eli’s pile and popped it into his mouth. Pablo was a huge man, at least four inches over six feet. He had the same brown hair as his daughters. His face was weathered and, as far as Eli could tell, there wasn’t a spare ounce of fat on him. “They do not usually come close to town, as you know. We’ve never seen one. I’ve never smelled one.”

  Eli nodded. That was Pablo’s power, the magical ability to smell better than everything else on the planet. It wasn’t a power that Pablo’s father, also an Overseer, had valued which was why Pablo had run away from his home and straight to the Guard. If the Overseer thought a person was useless, it was best not to stick around. His size was his real advantage. Many of the Overseers were larger than average, although not all of them. Eli was the heir apparent for Chicago, but he was a runt at only five-foot-eight. His father was a big man, and his mother was tall. He was an anomaly that Campbell Hunt, Eli’s father, thought was not worth it.