Sweat dripped down Luc’s back as she brought the ends of the rope together under the massive light pole, illuminating the field as night crept in. A football field was a lot larger than she’d anticipated, a fact that needled in the back of her mind. This was a lot of space to control, more than Luc was used to, especially on her own. She had Maisey’s help of course, and the plan was to convince Marie to come this way once Luc got herself in trouble, but…

  “I’m really not the damsel in distress type,” Luc complained, loud enough that Maisey could hear. Setting herself up as bait and letting so much out of her hands went against her very nature.

  “Maybe not, but Marie is the knight in shining armor type,” Maisey said. “She’ll come and save you, she won’t be able to resist it. There’s no better way to get her to come out than to set yourself up as bait. And really, what could go wrong?”

  Luc bit her tongue as the ideas danced through her mind. There were a lot of ways this could go wrong, from it straight up not working, to the fact that summoning monsters like this had to be frowned upon, if not illegal. She wasn’t exactly sure what the legality of it was, Maisey hadn’t given her a chance to look it up.

  Crafting mage-creatures that caused damage was illegal, but Luc wasn’t creating anything, her power didn’t have the ability to interact with anything living. She was just attempting to summon existing magic to a specific spot, in the same way she could build a shield to scare them away.

  With a sigh, she reached back into her pocket space and pulled out a small shield generator. Unlike the shield she’d made for the farm, she didn’t have any mage tech to use, and doubted this would count. She wasn’t even entirely certain this shield would work the way she’d intended, having not had a chance to test it yet.

  She’d taken a hot plate from the thrift store, something that looked like it had been used exactly once on a family’s camping trip before abandoned, and cracked the heating element open. With a bit of creative wiring and a lightbulb she’d taken from one of the empty rooms at the mage apartment, Luc had fashioned an energy generator that was likely to burn out as soon as it ate through the lightbulb’s wires. She’d added a fishbowl on top to amplify the shield and extend its life as much as possible.

  Carefully flipping the thing over and laying the glass bowl between her knees as she sat on the ground, Luc cracked open the safety cover around the cord. It didn’t take much to change the charge, reversing the intent of the gadget.

  Pulling the pocket knife from her utility belt, she sliced off the cord and stripped off the plastic to reach the wires remaining. Using the wires, she attached the two ends of the string running the diameter of the football stadium, then glanced up at Maisey, eyebrows raised.

  “Well, what are you waiting for?” Maisey asked, bouncing up and down on her toes. “The cameras are watching.”

  Luc sucked in a breath, swallowed her pride, and nodded as she pushed magic into the reversed shield.

  The shift in atmosphere was immediate, a current in the air that raced over Luc’s skin and rose the hair along it. An electric charge like static began at her feet as she rose, the energy crackling all around her.

  Even Maisey felt it, her eyes wide as she turned, following the wind as it rushed toward the center of the field.

  The ground underfoot shuddered, then cracked, earsplitting thunder following as Luc stumbled.

  Maisey caught herself, grabbing Luc’s arm for support. “Uh… This was a bad idea, wasn’t it?”

  “You think?”

  As they watched, the ground continued to crack open, the carefully kept grass splitting to reveal dense clay crumbling and falling into some abyss.

  It stopped crumbling. Luc stared at the rift, tense as a bowstring, terrified of what might come next.

  She finally let out a breath, slumping in relief as she stared at the still earth. Her reversed shield must not have worked the way she intended.

  Though, she could still feel the ambient magic in the air, something normally too subtle for her to notice.

  “Okay, that wasn’t so bad,” Maisey said, letting Luc’s arm go. “Kinda anticlimactic, honestly.”

  Luc barely had time to get the frustrated groan out before the center of the football field began to bubble, dirt spilling out as something approached from beneath the surface. Brown, gummy flesh wiggled out of the earth, the worm flopping onto the field and beginning to scoop up clumps of dirt and grass with its grotesque, slurping mouth.

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  The harsh football field lighting made it all too easy to see what emerged.

  Four foot long blades plunged upward through the turf, followed by another four and a pink tentacled nose. The mole climbed out of the dirt, claws gouging through the dense clay like butter.

  “Never tempt fate,” Luc bit out, the words harsh.

  Maisey opened her mouth to respond, but Luc didn’t wait around to hear what she had to say. This was a terrible idea, and Luc had to try to rectify it before this mistake got them in real trouble.

  ******

  Tobias let out a sigh as he stepped out into the crisp early-spring air, sweat cooling rapidly against his skin.

  Fabric slapped against him as Mason threw a hoodie in his direction. “Coach is going to kill you if you catch a cold before the state tournament.”

  “I’m just cooling down,” Tobias said. He dropped his backpack to the ground before grabbing the hoodie off his shoulder and tugging it on over his damp uniform. Picking his backpack back up, he fished out his phone. Maisey and Luc had to be done with their plan by now.

  Before he had a chance to text either of them and find out how it had gone, the ground shook, and thunder followed.

  “That’s them, isn’t it?” he asked, lowering the phone to his side.

  “It’s gotta be,” Mason said with a shrug.

  A scream pierced the night, and Tobias went tense.

  “Here,” he said, swinging his backpack at Mason. “Get out of here.”

  He took off running, forgetting the fatigue from practice as adrenaline pumped through his veins. He should have paid more attention to Maisey’s plan before it got out of hand.

  The ground shook again, but Tobias managed to keep his footing as he ran. What he was going to do when he reached them, he had no idea, but he would be there to help. He couldn’t stand by and do nothing with his girlfriend and Luc in danger.

  Rounding the side of the school, he closed in on the football field, lights shining down in a circle around it. Something circled overhead, just out of range of the lights, a dark shadow as Tobias’s gaze flicked upward.

  That couldn’t be good.

  What had Maisey gotten them into?

  The air grew thick as Tobias pushed harder, as though he was trying to run through water, moving against the current.

  Ignoring it, he reached the football field and skidded to a halt. The field had been torn apart, a huge crevice down the middle of it with worms large enough to be ridden wriggling across it. Moles larger than dogs went after them, snuffling blindly against the ground.

  Luc fired off a shot with the gun in her hand. The mole squealed and reared up, slashing out with its huge paw.

  The paw struck Luc across the middle, raking her back with its claws as she cried out, thrown back hard onto the ground. Maisey backed up onto the bleachers as one of the worms closed in, frantically folding pieces of paper that had to be useless against something this big.

  Tobias lifted a foot, and the ground beneath him rumbled. He took a step back, the air growing thicker, pressing against him, as if it wanted him to stay.

  He let out a breath as the tension left his body, shoulders slumping. If that’s what it wanted, it was what he would do to help. Besides, Maisey would be really excited about this.

  On his next breath, he fully dropped his guard, welcoming the magic pressing against his skin. It didn’t hesitate to jump on his invitation.

  Bubbling energy washed over his skin as magic filled him, setting his veins on fire before dulling to a comforting warmth. It urged him forward as the ground at his feet broke and another mole emerged, snuffling in his direction.

  “None of that,” he said, lifting a hand and feeling the magic respond. The instinct wasn’t new, the familiarity of it settling in as he directed his attention at the animal and kept talking. “Why don’t we go this way?”

  He felt the guiding hand of magic reach out toward the animal, and felt as his words took hold in the animal’s mind. A smile spread across his face as the mole began to walk in front of him at his urging.

  This would be a good power.

  ******

  When the livestream notification had popped up, Marie had clicked onto it without thinking. Maisey hadn’t streamed anything since they’d all stopped working together. Marie needed to see what was so interesting tonight that Maisey would start livestreaming again.

  She’d set the phone up on her desk, intending to do homework as she watched.

  Marie hadn’t touched a single page, her pencil cracking in her hand under her tight grip as the mess unfolded on screen.

  A giant rift in the ground. Massive moles and worms. Luc fighting them alone, getting hit, thrown back. Was that blood on her shirt?

  They don’t need me, Marie thought, even as she wavered. Luc was the true magical girl, able to deal with every threat, never wavering in the face of fear. Marie had just been a pity project, someone who wouldn’t have amounted to anything without her father paying Luc to make her look better.

  But Luc didn’t look like she was doing well. Where was Maisey?

  Marie leaned forward toward the screen as Luc climbed to her feet, one hand clutching to her side. She raised the gun in her hand, aiming at one of the huge moles, before her eyes went wide and she took off running.

  There wasn’t a chance to consider what she was running from before a pair of huge talons hooked around Luc’s arms and snatched her into the air and off camera.

  Marie leapt to her feet, leaving her phone behind. No matter what had happened between herself and Luc, she couldn’t let her die.

  She raced down the stairs, activating her power as she ran, bursting through the front door as her transformation finished. Luc couldn’t fight a bird like that, not without plunging to her death, but Marie had wings.

  They unfurled from her back as she leapt off the porch step, flying into the night sky in search of Luc.