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Ridge finally rises to his feet, lethargic and unsteady, balancing his weight on the fallen steel beams that served as the infrastructure to the jumbotron. He raises his hand in my direction as if ready to manipulate the earth, but quickly diverts towards the stands, and summons a wall.

  Tristen... He’s alive.

  The side of my face begins to grow hot from under the rips in my cowl, and I see a blazing fire emitting from the crater where Tristen is. With his flames propelling him forward, he launches himself towards the partition of earth, yelling at the top of his lungs. “PHOENIX...FLARE!” He shoots his enflamed fist forward, and it connects with the wedge of stone. There’s a tremendous flash of heat, and Ridge’s wall explodes, launching Tristen against the bordering ledge of the arena while Ridge slams his back against the jumbotron.

  “Now’s our chance!” I hear Clarissa announce.

  Tristen’s limp body hovers slightly off the ground, and a set of emerald wires wrap around Tristen and glide him through the air behind me while a trio of icicles stream over my head towards Ridge. He quickly forms a shield and blocks two of them, but the last one tears through the side of his arm. He then retreats behind the assortment of rubble, grabbing his new injury. Good...job, Summer.

  “Aiden!” I struggle to turn my head to see four copies of Summer running towards me, her colors gray and poorly shaded. Everything’s blurry and my vision’s slowly getting darker. “Aiden, hold on! You promised! You promised!” She rolls me over on my back and places her hand on my torso, chilling my wound. “You promised me that you wouldn’t die!” She grabs my hands one at a time and does the same to slow my bleeding.

  “Tristen’s—”

  “Yeah, I know, I know.” She nods rapidly and scooches closer. “He’s alive. Save your strength, okay?”

  “Summer... It looks like I won’t...be able to keep my...promise.”

  “Shhh. Don’t say that, Aiden. You’re going to be fine. “Mr. Hoover! Mr. Hoover, we need you! Aiden and Tristen are down! Mr. Hoover!”

  “Summer, I lo—" She nestles my head towards her chest and squeezes me tight, warming me with her embrace as she rocks back and forth.

  “Aiden, don’t speak. I-I feel the same, that’s why you can’t die. I wouldn’t know what to do... Mr. Hoover! Somebody!” Clarissa emerges beside Summer and forms a makeshift wrap to further slow my blood loss. She lets me down, and wraps my hands as well. “Rissa, stay with Aiden.” Summer stands to her feet and manifests a blade made of ice. “I...I can still fight, so I’m going. Don’t try to stop me.”

  Her hand is shaking, and the blade she made isn’t sturdy at all.

  “But you’re—”

  “I’ll be fine, Clarissa. I just need to give Mr. Hoover an opening... So, please...just keep Aiden safe. I can’t sit back and watch him die.”

  “Okay, I’ll protect him. Just be safe.”

  I watch Summer as she runs towards Mr. Ferris and Mr. Hoover, desperate to carry on the fight for our survival. I struggle to stay awake for as long as I can, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t stop myself from fading in and out of consciousness.

  Fragments of the ongoing battle bleed through the darkness, and I begin to lose track of time.

  And then—I hear Summer scream in pain. A surge of desperation pierces through my clouded mind, but just as quickly as it comes, it goes. I’m still helpless, and slowly getting weaker. I can’t even find the strength to open my eyes.

  “Summer?!” I feel Clarissa lower my body and hear her feet pound against the ground. “Oh, no. Summer? Summer!”

  “They’re retreating! Heal her while there’s still time then get to the other students!” Mr. Ferris yells. “I’m going after them. We need to figure out who sent them!”

  I want to stand up, to fight, to do anything I can to help out, but I’m unable to move no matter how hard I try. All I can do is wait and hope that we all somehow make it out of this alive.

  Chapter 19

  “Aiden? Aiden?” My eyes flutter, and I awaken to the sight of Mr. Ferris, sitting on the foot of my bed. The monitor attached to me begins to rapidly beep as my heart thumps in my chest “Hey, hey, easy. You’re safe. Everything’s fine. We were attacked after all of the matches happened, and you sustained critical injuries. You’ve been here ever since.”

  Ever...since? “What about the others? Summer? Tristen? Clarissa and Kaci?!”

  “They’re fine. They’re all fine.” He says that, but that’s when I notice the worn expression on his face. We’d all fought. Hard. I wasn’t able to make it until the end, but Mr. Ferris had taken on a person who could divide himself into multiple copies. I don’t know what else. “Summer’s fine...or it’s better to say that she will be. She’s the reason why you and Tristen are still alive. She fought against one of the trespassers—Viral—and served as the final push before they decided to retreat. Unfortunately, in the process of fighting her, she was wounded. Viral has the ability to spread a poison unique to herself that can be spread from being bitten or scratched from claws. Summer was able to wound her, but was cut badly in the process. The poison took not long after.”

  “But she’s fine, right?”

  “Yeah, she’s recovering. She knew what Viral could do and injured herself to make an opening. Viral escaped, but unless she made it to a healer, she’s most likely dead. Summer forged a katana and stabbed straight through her shoulder. It wasn’t a kill shot, but I threw one of my daggers into her back during her retreat,” He says, pain swirling in his eyes. “Anyway, Mr. Hoover healed her the best he could—he was cut too, multiple times during the fight, but he didn’t let on until after he healed you all and he was sure that the trespassers were gone. He’s a tough one, that guy. He was using his ability to keep the poison within his body at bay, but it was a lot, ya know?” Mr. Ferris runs his hand down his face. “He’s a top tier healer, and it was still giving him problems. It was breaking him down from the inside.”

  “So, Mr. Hoover is—?”

  “He’s...fine. Recovering is what they’re telling me. Healers are working around the clock to get him right. The poison’s been dealt with. Now, it’s about bringing his body up to speed. Once he’s able to, I’m sure he’ll finish up the rest by himself and see how everyone else is doing.”

  “How is everyone else doing?”

  “Well, to put it frankly, you kids have been through hell. All things considered; they’re doing just fine. Clarissa and Kaci are out of intensive care. They’re just fatigued. Tristen was banged up more than you were, but he’s already moving around. The Doctors are considering sedating him so that he can properly rest. You just woke up, and Summer’s been in and out. As soon as she’s able to, she’ll want to see you. One of the last things she requested was that she wanted her room to be near yours when we brought you guys in. Thankfully, they made it happen...you were in bad shape, Aiden. You used your flux form.”

  “I’m sorry...I just thought tha—”

  “No, I’m not mad at you. It was the right thing to do. Doing what we do...sometimes we have to make the tough calls. It comes with the territory.”

  “Yeah.”

  “But I am proud of you. If you wouldn’t have used your flux form, things would have been way worse than they are now.”

  “I guess, but I still haven’t mastered it.”

  “In time... Your body tends to remember things like this; defining moments. That’s how you get stronger. You were already pretty fatigued from your match, and even more from fighting with Ridge. Going flux and using it like you did was more than enough to denote your progress. You’ve grown, Aiden. Ha. I remember when you first came to me. Now, look at you.”

  “Half dead, and in a hospital bed?”

  “No, I don’t see it that way, not at all. I see it as a prodigy recovering after fighting for what he’d give his life to protect. You were amazing out there. All of you were. Every last one of you has what it takes to be considered elite. Mr. Hoover and I will have to have a talk once he recove
rs.” Mr. Ferris stands from his chair and makes his way towards the door. “He’s going on day three,” he answers, barely masking his emotions.

  “...Hey, wait.”

  Mr. Ferris stops at the exit, spinning on his heel. “Yeah?”

  “Who were those guys?”

  “I don’t know, but trust me, I’m going to do everything in my power to find out. I was so close. There was a fourth person. He had the ability to teleport... He seemed weak, but I couldn’t risk leaving you all alone. If we had more teachers around... Gah.” Mr. Ferris slams his fist into the side of my door frame. “At least we know what we’re up against.” He sighs.

  “Do you know what they wanted?”

  “No, not for sure, but here’s the thing. Mr. Hoover had a hunch, and according to him, what they wanted, was you.”

  The End

  The Story Continues: Aiden Cross Academy Outcast 3: The Elite

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  About the Author

  Alex Villavasso was born and raised in Louisiana where he first found his love for fiction while reading through the summer months. When he is not working on getting his thoughts out of his head, Alex can be found doing the things everyone tends to do, like sleeping, catching up with friends, and spending copious amounts of time on Netflix.

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  A Note to the Reader

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