Once upon a Midnight | BOOK I

Twenty

By midnight, I was teleported to the arena. It was the same arena as the previous trial, but it had changed. At first glance, I thought the ground was now made of glass but on closer observation, I realised that the ground was covered in ice so thick, it showed the reflection of the cold night sky. Little layers of snow decorated the frozen floor like frostings on a birthday cake and the wisps floated around like fairies. The arena looked like a perfect fairytale setting but it wouldn't be long before it's tainted with blood.

Auntie Hilda appeared at one end of the circle. She was back to her godly perfection and was looking down at the arena with bright green eyes. From the two opposite tunnels below, Mikoto and Patricia stepped out.

"The fox and the phoenix, huh?" a sweet voice cooed beside me. I saw a girl with the whitest skin I'd ever seen, even whiter than Mikoto's, standing beside me. She had a pink bob hair on her head and was wearing a pink dress. Her lips were pink perfection and her eyes were of a bright shade of pink. She reeked of magick.

"Excuse me?" I shivered and clasped my hands around my chest.

"Oh my goodness, Kim," the pink lady gasped. "What happened to your neck?" She traced her soft fingers over the bruise and I winced.

"Don't worry, it's fine," I said, remembering I never attended to the wound. I placed a palm over it and a bright light shone on it, healing me.

"Wow," she mused. "You're as awesome as your boyfriend." She winked.

"Khalil." I frowned. I should've realised that it was Khalil standing beside me. Bloody shapeshifter.

Khalil flashed me a set of white teeth. "Busted! How did you...?" We both instantly turned back to the arena. Mikoto had just cut through several fireballs Patricia hurled at her. I noticed their familiars battling each other at one side. Patricia's familiar which had revealed its true face as a phoenix, dove from the sky at the kitsune. The nine-tailed fox jumped into the air to attack the phoenix. The two familiars clashed and tumbled onto the frozen ground.

While muttering a quick spell in Latin, Mikoto slashed the air with her left hand and a wave of fire moved towards Patricia. She walked through the fire easily. Mikoto didn't waste a breath. She slammed her feet on the ground and caused a load of icicles to shoot out of the ground beneath Patricia. As Patricia propelled herself into the air to avoid the icicle attack, Mikoto pulled out a few yellow talismans with red Japanese figures on them, and shot them at the redhead sorceress. The talismans shot through the air like knives and Mikoto began muttering a spell. Patricia chanted a spell and the talismans caught fire, she only realised her mistake when Mikoto smiled. As the talismans burned, they transformed into demons. I figured that the talismans were demon summoning talismans that would only summon a demon to attack anyone who attacked them. Mikoto had made a tough gamble, but it was worthwhile.

The skinny demons had their fangs bared as they shrieked and chased Patricia. They had blood-colored scales, leathery bat wings and tiny horns on their heads. Mikoto couldn't risk attacking Patricia while she was on the run from the demons, lest she mistakenly attacks a demon and it diverts its attention towards her. She, however, began to cast an inaudible incantation.

The redhead frowned at the demons on her tail. She sent a ball of fire towards them, but it was ineffective. Patricia immediately stopped in her tracks and pulled out a big jar out of thin air. The jar contained a diminutive human inside it. My eyes widened in both dread and amusement as I realised it was a fairy, and my heard skipped a beat, when Patricia set the fairy loose.

Fairies. Whenever you spot a tiny human with butterfly wings, run the other way. That's the simple truth about fairies. They are not the kind of magickal beasts anyone would like to encounter. While some of them choose to be neutral, most of them are malevolent. To an extent, fairies are the way laypeople describe them. They are miniature humans with wings and the most beautiful eyes, but every other thing about fairies being kind is entirely wrong.