Chương 1: I don’t need to dodge

The first and possibly last round of tryouts for the tower, and I was already late. I rushed down an alley in Brooklyn, heading toward Floyd Bennett Field. Sweat glued my clothes to me, my breath heavy. And a black van, together with four sedans, all with dark windows, pulled into the street behind me. Not now, damn it. I still had like a mile to run to reach the field. But all my muscles already burned, and more importantly, I was running out of time. My original plan to get to the trial was to take a cab.

That blew up when the debt collectors ambushed me outside the hotel. Out of all the nights, they had to swoop in tonight. You know what? To hell with them. I pulled on my power. Astarielle! In a burst of crimson flame, Astarielle appeared. Skin red as blood, eyes shining, horns a foot long, raven hair to the waist, as beautiful as a succubus was supposed to be, she appeared dressed in a light, sleek dress with no shoes. She looked around, confused, as I kept running.

"What's going on?"

"Blow up their tires." Astarielle's eyes and hair lit up. She waved her hand, power quaked from her, and all the tires of all the cars in the street blew up. Alarms blared, honking from every car at once. The pursuing cars screeched as they fell on the street, crashing into each other and into other parked cars. In a cute mockery of a run, Astarielle ran after me, not catching up.

"What're you doing, Damian? What happened to the tryouts?" I kept getting ahead.

"I'm about to get to that. Why don't you have shoes?" I shouted without slowing down.

"Because you're summoning me into New York at three in the morning. The tryouts were from midnight, so I thought you were summoning me to help you celebrate passing them in a bathtub. I almost took the nurse outfit. And slow down a bit. I'm not a runner." Yeah, that was the plan. Originally.

"The debt collectors showed up at the Wallace," I got out of myself among the heavy breaths. I also really wasn't all that much of a runner.

"Couldn't get a cab, they blocked the metro stations, so I ended up running."

"In a suit and loafers?" She eyed me a bit.

"These are the expensive ones too. You really should have worn some sneakers." I rolled my eyes and unsummoned her. She vanished in a burst of crimson flame. I wasn't showing up to the most important tryout of my life wearing sneakers. Nothing other than my most expensive suit and shoes would do. At least that was the trail of thought when I dressed up and headed out of the hotel. Now, after running quite a few miles, it didn't feel like such a great plan.

The buildings cleared, the Floyd Bennett Field opening before me. A large arena spread over the park, and a bunch of cars were parked around it. Almost there. I sped up, running toward the entrance. In a few moments, I reached the gate, stopping before the guard. Dirt flew from my shoes as I braked, and I braced myself by the knees, panting.

"I'm here for the tryouts." The guard, a large man in an oversized suit with golden rings and a rich beard, raised an eyebrow at me.

"The tryouts were at midnight, Habibi. They finished half an hour ago. I'm just waiting for the clean-up crew." I glanced past him into the arena. Two shapes lay under blue tarps on the far end of the field, and a kid in a neon vest was dragging a third tarp over something that didn't quite fit underneath it. By the entrance, a guy with a hose was rinsing down a section of concrete. The water came off pink. So that was how the night had gone for some of them.

"What?" I straightened, doing my best to steady my breath.

"No way it wrapped up so fast." The man reached into his pocket and produced a pack of cigarettes.

"Sorry, Habibi, the best I can do is to offer you a smoke." Fuck. I exhaled. This had to work, else I had to declare bankruptcy, move to a part of the world that didn't extradite to the US, and join some paramilitary organization. It was either the tower or my current life was effectively over.

"Can I, like, fight one of the people who qualified and take their spot if I incapacitate them?" He snorted a laugh.

"It's not the thirteenth century anymore. There'll be other trials, probably in like a year or so." He glanced over his shoulder at the arena.

"Maybe two, at most."

"Can I, like, talk to someone? Someone who makes the decisions, ideally?" He lit a cigarette with a golden lighter. He took a long drag. Then he pointed past the arena, toward the road that looped out the other side of the field. A large charter bus pulled away, up toward the main road.

"That's the last batch of qualified candidates. They're heading to the airport." My stomach dropped. I watched the bus pull farther away. Another few seconds and it'd hit the main road and be gone.

"Thanks," I said, spun, and bolted. Not toward the bus, I wasn't catching that. Even with using mana to strengthen myself, I couldn't really run fast. The guard shouted something behind me. It didn't matter. I made it up to the first side street by the main road, where cars were parked. Astarielle. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. She appeared in a crimson flash. I pointed at the closest car, a dark blue Camry.

"Knock out its security and jumpstart it."

"I see the tryouts have been a great success." She raised her hand. Lightning spilled out of her fingertips. It hit the car, which flashed, and then returned to being dead. The door unlocked, though. I popped it open and sat in. She ran to the other door and slipped inside. After she closed the door, she put her hand on the board. Crimson lightning sparked, and I pressed the gas. The engine roared to life. With a smirk, Astarielle slid back on the seat, putting her feet up on the board. I floored the gas.

The Camry bolted forward. It wasn't a racecar, but neither was the bus I chased. I could see its taillights in the distance. Red dots on the Belt Parkway, heading out of the city I pushed the car, speeding up. The speedometer crawled past ninety. The engine screamed like it had never been asked to do this before and resented the request.

"You know," Astarielle said as I swerved around a truck, "this is the most romantic thing you've done with me in years. The life of crime is way more entertaining than school. Plus you can summon me outside."

"It's just for today." Red and blue lights appeared in my mirror.

"I'm sure all the cops will forget about it tomorrow," Astarielle said, practically glowing. Two cop cars, one from a side road, one from an overpass, both undoubtedly called because the city cameras spotted Astarielle, and sounded an alarm of a demon sighting. Sirens wailed behind us. I sighed.

"Blow up their tires." Astarielle twisted in the seat, pressing the window button. The window rolled down slowly. As the air hit her hair, she stretched her hand out of the window. Her nails lit up, and the police car wheels exploded, together with the wheels of twenty other cars that had the misfortune of driving or being parked around. Both cop cars dropped, sparks flying, the cruisers skidding sideways. One spun a full circle before hitting the median. She turned back around, smiling with her fangs showing.

"You have no right to complain about collateral damage tonight."

"I wasn't going to." I kept my eyes on the bus. It had taken an exit ramp. I followed, cutting across a lane, another horn blaring behind me. The exit led onto a smaller road, where it slowed down significantly. We drove among industrial warehouses, surrounded by fences topped with barbed wire. A few cars passed us, mostly black sedans, some of which I recognized from the parking lot by the tryouts arena. Nobody slowed down to check me out, to my luck.

Finally, the bus turned into what looked like a private access road, and I followed at enough of a distance not to look like I was following. A few minutes later, the road opened into a private airstrip. The bus had already parked by a chain-link gate. People filed out in organized lines, escorted by staff with tablets. Beyond the gate, under floodlights, sat a jet. A large one. Gold trim along the fuselage, Arabic calligraphy etched into the tail, and the stairs leading up to the door were carpeted.

The carpet looked like a Persian rug. I pulled the Camry into a spot between two staff vehicles near the perimeter fence, killed the engine, and took a breath. As Astarielle opened her mouth to speak, I unsummoned her. She vanished in a burst of crimson flame, her grin the last thing to go. I straightened my jacket, fixed my hair using the rearview mirror, got out of the car, and walked toward the gate. Yes, my suit had sweat marks all over it, but it was still a three-thousand-dollar suit.

I was going to fit in among the staff and get on the plane, pretending I was a new hire. I passed the gate. Nobody was manning it. The staff was all clustered around the bus, checking names on tablets, directing people. I walked along the side of the hangar, holding my left hand to my ear, staying just far enough from the main group to avoid a headcount, but close enough to look like I'd just stepped out for a phone call. The jet was ahead. The carpeted stairs were right there.

With a tense smile, I walked behind another hangar to get a better approach angle. When I made the last corner, I almost bumped into a man. He had a well-trimmed, full beard, perfectly cut hair, the color resembling gold, a face without a wrinkle, and piercing amber eyes. His suit was charcoal black, fingers decorated with golden rings, a bracelet poking out from underneath his sleeve, as golden as his cufflinks. He smiled.

"Admittedly, we haven't been planning for stowaways." I stopped, mind clear, heart pounding. But I kept my face calm.

"I've been called in late, Sir." I pulled out my phone, looking at it as if I was reading something.

"The report says the coffee machine is broken, so I've come to take a look at it." He laughed.

"Nice try, Boy, but you've got too much mana for that." Oh. Well, no way to hide that any more than I was already doing.

"Look, I need to get on that plane. You either pretend you didn't see me, or I'll have to knock you unconscious." I summoned Astarielle, but straight behind me, so he couldn't see her directly. The smile spread broader over his face.

"I have the authority to make a climber out of you. That's what you're after, isn't it?" Did he? It didn't sound like a lie.

"It is."

"What's your name and story?"

"I'm Damian Gabriel O'Connor. I'm a really strong mage." I tried to keep my voice even to the best of my ability.

"And I'm in a lot of debt, so I'll do anything to become a climber."

"Aside from coming on time," Astarielle said from behind me. I glared at her over my shoulder. She gasped, catching her mouth with both hands. The man didn't stop smiling.

"How did you manage to amass so much debt that you can't just work it off?" I shrugged.

"Honestly? I'm not the most responsible person in the world. The money I borrow is pocket change to the companies I get them from, and even if not, it's not like anyone sheds tears for the financial well-being of illegal gambling institutions. They're doing crime already, so I don't see the problem with using my strength to take a cut."

"A level zero mage thinks he's strong. I want to see that." The man walked past me, toward an open stretch of tarmac beside the hangar. He stopped about a dozen feet out, turned, and rolled his shoulders once.

"Hit me with your best spell, and if I'm impressed, I'll take you in as one of my climbers." I narrowed my eyes. I had no idea what he meant by level zero.

"Are you sure about that? I've got a lot of mana, and she can cast some really nasty spells with it."

"Don't worry about me. Give it your best shot."

"Are you absolutely sure about that? You really might want to dodge."

"If you can make me dodge, I will definitely be impressed." All right. He asked for it. I pushed mana into Astarielle. Normally, I gave her fifty thousand mana while summoning her, which she never spent. Right now, I pushed a million mana into her, the most I could without blowing her up. Her grin turned vicious. Her eyes and hair lit up. A massive pentagram stretched from her feet. She clapped her hands together.

Another pentagram appeared underneath the man, formed out of five smaller pentagrams, one at each of the main one's corners. She lowered her arms, the mana overflowing from her so intensely that she floated up into the air. All the pentagrams lit up. The man better dodge. She clapped her hands. All the power vanished, imploding into itself. She landed.

"Pillar of Hell." The pentagrams underneath the man blew up into an absurd, upward blast. The energy speared up through the clouds, like a tower of red and pink light. The man vanished inside the light. I shielded my eyes, the side shockwave pushing against me despite the main blast being directed upwards. Well, he better not be dead. The explosion lasted for a solid few seconds. If she cast it at a skyscraper, it would be disintegrated into nothing. It probably even shot down a satellite or three.

The light finally vanished, the blast continuing up above the sky, into space where it would dissipate. The man stood exactly in his spot. No visible damage. With a disinterested expression, he dusted off his left shoulder. Then the other one. I froze in place. I didn't even see shields. Footsteps rushed toward us. The guard from the arena, another cigarette smoking between his fingers. The man glanced at him.

"Kareem, you get the recruitment bonus for this one. Put him on the plane." Kareem bowed deeply.

"Yes, Your Majesty."