Katia was still in the lead, but Deah was right behind her, with Poppy a few feet farther down and about ten feet off to the side, on the far section of the ladder. Devon was directly below Poppy, with Blake beneath Katia and Deah. The ladder was as wide as it was tall, and since I didn’t want to impact Poppy’s and Devon’s climbs, I took hold of the side where Katia, Deah, and Blake were. I’d just started to pull myself up the first rung, when I felt a shoulder slam into mine, knocking me to the ground.

“See you at the top, loser,” Vance hissed, throwing himself up onto the ladder.

I cursed and got to my feet, determined to beat him to the platform.

But it wasn’t going to happen.

Vance had the perfect combination of speed and strength magic to scale the rope ladder, and he was already halfway up before I even got started. But I moved as quickly as I could, stretching and reaching and climbing, trying to make up as much ground as possible.

I looked up, judging my progress. Several feet above my head, near the top of the platform, something flashed a bright silver before winking out. I blinked. What was that?

A loud cheer rang out all around the stadium, telling me that someone had already reached the top, but I couldn’t tell if it was Katia or Deah. A few seconds later, Vance joined them, leaning over the edge and sneering down at me.

I ground my teeth together, angry that he’d beaten me, but I kept climbing. Poppy and Blake had both made it to the top as well, but Devon was still on the ladder, and he glanced over at me.

“Race you to the top!” he called out, a grin spreading across his face.

“You’re on!” I shouted back.

I was only about ten feet from the platform now, and I reached up for the next rung.

An ominous creak sounded.

My head snapped up. Above me, at the very top of the ladder, long, thick fibers sprouted up like weeds where one of the ropes connected to the wooden platform. It took me a second to realize that the rope was actually unraveling.

And it wasn’t the only one.

More and more of those fibers appeared, running all along the top of the ladder like kudzu unfurling everywhere. A sick feeling filled my stomach. I knew what was going to happen next.

“Watch out!” I yelled, hoping to warn everyone else on the ladder and trying to scramble to my right, away from the unraveling ropes.

But it was already too late.

With a series of loud, crack-crack-cracks, this entire section of rope snapped free from the top of the wooden platform, and the ladder started to fall.

Dragging me down with it.

CHAPTER NINE

Screams and shouts sounded as the crowd realized what was happening, and horrible thoughts shot through my mind one after another as I started to fall.

I was forty feet up in the air, and there was no soft sandpit at the bottom of the ladder. This was going to hurt—a lot. I’d be lucky if I only broke an arm or leg, instead of my neck—

I stopped in midair, my right arm feeling like it was being torn out of my shoulder socket. A hand gripped my wrist, and I looked up.

Devon grimaced, his fingers digging into my arm. “I’ve got you, Lila!”

Somehow, he had realized what was happening and had crawled close enough to reach out and catch me. Gasps rang out from the crowd, but I blocked out the noise and focused on Devon.

He stared at me, his green gaze locking with mine. “Hold on!”

His voice cracked with his compulsion magic, and his power wrapped around my entire body as though I were nothing more than a puppet and he was the one pulling my strings. I had no choice but to do as he asked, so I locked my fingers around his wrist.

But my own transference magic kicked in as well, and Devon’s compulsion quickly melted into pure, cold power surging through me. He wasn’t controlling me anymore, and his magic increased my own, giving me a welcome boost of extra strength and making my grip even tighter than his.

We held on to each other while I kicked my leg out and hooked my foot through a section of rope that was still firmly attached to the platform. Devon helped swing me over so that I could grab on to the ladder with my free hand.

“I’m good!” I called out.

He nodded, the tension draining from his face, and let go of my wrist. We were closer to the top than the bottom, so we kept climbing. Poppy leaned over and helped us both up and onto the wooden platform.

Devon and I sprawled on our backs, both of us sweating and breathing hard. My heart thump-thump-thumped loud enough to drown out the crowd’s cheers, and the metallic taste of my own shock, dread, and fear filled my mouth.

“Are you guys okay?” Poppy asked, her dark eyes wide. “What happened?”

“No idea,” Devon said, sitting up. “One second the rope was fine. The next, it wasn’t. Lila, are you all right?”

I sat up as well. “Yeah, I’m okay. Thanks to you.”

I nudged his shoulder. Devon smiled and nudged me back.

“Just watching out for you. That’s what Sinclairs do, remember?”

I nodded, my throat tight with emotion. It had been a long time since anyone had helped me the way Devon just had. He could have easily fallen off the ladder trying to grab me, or I could have dragged him down off it, but he hadn’t hesitated, and he’d saved me.

Slowly, the cheers died down, but other sounds rose to take their place—hoarse, raspy moans of pain.

Devon and I both got to our feet and peered over the side of the platform. Two guards were sprawled at the bottom of the rope ladder. I didn’t know how far up they’d been, but they’d both landed awkwardly. One of them—a Draconi—was moaning, rocking back and forth, and clutching her arm to her chest as though it was broken. The other competitor was one of ours—Henry, a Sinclair guard. His left leg was twisted underneath his body, and I could see the broken bone pressing against his skin from up here. The pain was so bad that he was crying and choking down screams.

A hush fell over the crowd, and shouts rose up as the medical staff raced over to the bottom of the ladder. Angelo was with them. He took one look at Henry’s wound, then gestured for a stretcher. A few seconds later, Henry was being rolled away toward the white medical tent. The crowd got to its feet, clapping, but the polite noise didn’t come close to drowning out Henry’s screams.

I looked down again. Henry had hit the ground so hard that his body had made an outline in the grass, like a drawing of a murder victim on a crime show. I shivered. That could have been me down there with a busted leg.