Page 35 of Gods' Battleground

I glanced down at the clipboard in my hands. “A pack of werewolves called ‘The Brothers of Fang’.”

Tessa snorted. “Seriously?”

“I hope they’re as good at fighting as they are at coming up with names,” Zane quipped.

“Yeah, I could think of at least five better team names just off the top of my head,” Gin said.

“Like ‘The Howlers’,” Tessa chuckled.

“Or ‘The Fangs and Fur Club’,” Bella suggested.

“I’m rather partial to ‘The Moon Clan’ myself.” Gin looked at our foster mother. “What do you think, Calli?”

Calli slid her gun into her holster, then declared, “I think those names are all terrible.”

Gin, Tessa, and Zane laughed. Even Bella smiled.

They were joking to cover their fear. None of them were soldiers, but that didn’t stop the Night Prince from forcing themto fight in flashy tournaments, pitted against the gladiators of other so-called princes, pirates with a ravenous appetite for fortune and fame.

I was not one of the Night Prince’s gladiators. No, he thought I was human—or, in other words, totally and completely boring. The Tournament was all about spectacle, and humans didn’t put on a very good show. They couldn’t set off magical fireworks. They couldn’t shift into beasts. They couldn’t even crush boulders with their bare hands.

I could do all of those things, of course, but I wasn’t about to tell the Night Prince that. Our plan totally hinged on his believing that I was both human and harmless. That’s why when his soldiers had cornered us just outside his castle, I hadn’t pulled out my magic; I’d hidden it instead.

It was a good thing that the faces of gods and demons weren’t known out here in the Veil’s Forgotten Territories because otherwise someone would have surely recognized mine. And then the show would have been over before it had even begun.

“Everything will be all right,” I told my family, my words quiet but confident.

Since I was ‘human’, I was the only one the Night Prince’s guards hadn’t slapped a magic-dampening collar on, collars that only came off in the battle arena. Even Calli had one, and her new magic wasn’t even offensive. The Night Prince must have thought her superior marksmanship was supernatural, but Calli had always been able to shoot the nose hairs off a man, long before she’d become immortal.

“Of course everything will be all right,”Zane replied with a forced smile. “We’re only facing a pack of vicious werewolves.”

We kept our voices low, so no one would overhear us. The Night Prince had spies everywhere. He was always watching, always listening. And he couldn’t know the real reason we’d come to his castle.

“The trick with werewolves is to aim for the nose,” I said. “It’s their weakest spot. Very sensitive.”

“If we’re close enough to hit their noses, we’ve got a very serious problem,” Gin said. “Forty-two problems, to be exact.”

“Forty-two?” Tessa asked.

“That’s how many teeth a werewolf has,” Gin told her.

“I didn’t know that.” Tessa looked at Zane. “Did you know that?”

He shook his head. “No.”

Tessa’s gaze shifted back to Gin. “Are you sure that’s right?”

“Yes, a werewolf has the same number of teeth as a wolf. Stash told me.”

“If you two have time to talk about werewolf teeth, you’re not doing it right, sister.” Tessa winked at her, but her smirk soon faded. “Forty-two teeth.” She shivered. “Are you sure that’s right?” she asked again.

“It’s right,” Bella told her.

“But multiply that number by six,”I added.

“Why?” Tessa asked.

“There are six werewolves in the Brothers of Fang.”

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