Ryan dashed down the stairs by twos, heart hammering in his ears. When he finally reached the front row, he leaned as far out as he dared.
Maybe this wasn't the safest, but he didn't care. All he could see was Avia floating above the battle, bow raised and aiming an arrow of crackling Levia. Silent and emotionless, just the way she should be. Except the arrow was glowing orange, not green. Just like the contract mark on her forehead.
The sight hurt way more than Ryan expected, twisting in his chest like a blunt knife. 'No! This is wrong! She belongs to me!'
That was right. His familiar, his weapon. That was how it'd been ever since they'd met four years ago. Ryan and his dad had gone out hunting for a familiar and they'd had the luck of running into a homunculus, of all things. Dad had said, awestruck, that this was his first time ever seeing one.
Which made Ryan determined to contract with her. Dad had told him he was welcome to try, but not to get his hopes up. Even so, Ryan had prepared the subduing spell.
Only for Avia to dive in and grab him, carrying him out of the way of the monster that had suddenly broken into the arena. When she'd set him down, Ryan had cast the subduing spell. She hadn't even attempted to resist.
Dad praised him, told him he might be the strongest Crowley in generations, and Ryan had puffed out his chest in pride. Not everyone could say a homunculus had acknowledged his strength!
Only later – these past couple months – had he begun to rethink that first meeting. Maybe...maybe he hadn't subdued Avia. Maybe she had chosen to become his. She had decided to...trust him.
Everything Dad had ever taught him, everything Ryan knew about wizards and familiars, told him not to think such stupid things. The contract was all about proving the wizard's strength, that they had what it took to turn a powerful Tielan into their servant. Who cared what the familiar thought about the arrangement? They accepted it, because serving wizards was the reason they came to Earth.
But Theo Hua had defeated him. This no-name nobody emo kid who didn't know shit about being a wizard had served Ryan his first loss in years by using the most insane strategy imaginable. What the hell kind of wizard intentionally had his familiar go out of spellcasting range? And just let the familiar take care of the fight on his own? If that didn't count as insanity, Ryan didn't know what did.
Yet it had worked. 'I trust Zenith. But you don't trust Avia. How could you? Trust is a mutual connection two people share. But you don't think Avia is a person. She's just a tool for you. A tool is useless without a master to wield it.'
Though Ryan had tried to tell himself it was a fluke and he'd surely kick Theo's emo ass next time, he couldn't get those words out of his head. They'd march through his mind in the middle of the night, interrupt his thoughts when he was hanging out with his friends.
And then he'd run into Theo and Sir Zenith going home from grocery shopping. It had shocked the pants off of him, seeing the homunculus knight dressed like a dorky teenager and hanging out with his wizard like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Just another sign of how totally nuts Theo was, Ryan had thought. Real wizards – his family – kept their familiars in personal arenas when not using them. That was just how it worked.
But...Theo had beaten him. And – Ryan wouldn't lie – it looked like he and Sir Zenith had been having fun.
Having fun with a familiar? As if. Fun was for friends, familiars were for battles. Still, afterwards Ryan couldn't stop wondering what kind of stuff he could get up to with Avia if she didn't have to stay in her arena all day.
Thanks to his idiotic experiments, Avia had gotten captured. Which really should have put the nail into the coffin, convinced him that he'd been wasting his time and losing track of what really mattered for a wizard.
Yet now, seeing Avia fight for Oliver made a horrible sour taste well up in Ryan's throat. Well, of course he'd be mad; Oliver had stolen her from her rightful wizard! But if he asked himself, he'd have to admit that wasn't the real reason for his anger.
Oliver didn't have a right to Avia because he'd captured her. Duh, since she already belonged to another wizard. But even if she hadn't, he still didn't deserve her. Ever since he'd realized this, Ryan had turned it over and over again inside his mind, trying to figure out why it bothered him so damn much. After all, even if they didn't go as far as the Ensons, most wizards he knew captured and subdued their familiars.
Now, he finally felt like he got it. Because Avia had chosen him. She hadn't chosen Oliver. And he felt that given the choice, she never would. Who'd look at him, heir to the Crowleys, and that whiny brat Oliver and not choose him? No wonder Oliver had to resort to stealing familiars.
Something thudded against the arena wall, making Ryan jump. He saw a tangle of snapping jaws, slashing claws, flying fur. Lodovico and the giant bulldog.
They broke apart, snarling at each other. Ryan's heart jolted when he saw the massive gash on Lodo's side, staining the fur red.
"Give it up, Lodovico," the bulldog growled in what was unmistakably Gratiano's voice. "Why struggle so hard? It's a pity. If only you'd joined me all those years ago, all this could have been avoided."
Lodo bristled, hackles rising. "My answer is the same as back then. I refuse to forsake my honor as a familiar."
"What are you talking about?" Gratiano chortled, smug and self-satisfied. "Fighting for a strong wizard, helping him grow stronger – isn't that the greatest honor for any familiar?"
"You still don't understand." Lodo began circling Gratiano, tail twitching. "What honor is there in mindlessly following your wizard's every whim? A familiar's duty is to guide their wizard on the right path!"
"Self-righteous as ever, aren't you?" Snarling, Gratiano leaped for Lodo.
Scarlet light flared in front of Lodo – a shield diagram. Gratiano hit it heavily and bounced off. He managed to catch himself, landing on all fours, but by the time he straightened Meg had already run up behind Lodo.
"Sorry, Lodo," she panted. "I'm here now."
Lodo held his head up. "Shall we finish this, Lady Meg?"
"With pleasure!" Meg swiped out her arm and a diagram bloomed beneath her feet. Ryan recognized the dense, tangled lines immediately – a Wetherill elemental spell. As the scarlet light bathed Lodo, his claws extended and gleamed with metal.
"Young master!" Gratiano cried, twisting his head toward the top box. Ryan glanced up to see Oliver leaning over the edge, gesturing so frantically orange light streaked after his ring like graffiti.
But he was directing all that power at Sir Zenith, swinging his sword in the middle of the coliseum floor. He didn't even look Gratiano's way.
"Young mas – ack!" Gratiano's voice cut off in a sputter when Lodo slashed across his face. Blood droplets arced through the air.
As Gratiano blindly swiped out, Lodo dodged and closed in on his side. Metal flashed and Gratiano arched his back, howling in pain.
Lodo seized the opening to dive beneath the weredog and rake across his stomach. More blood spilled, shocking crimson.
Gratiano's howls pierced Ryan's head, throbbing inside his skull. But Oliver didn't pay them any heed; he was too busy shouting orders at Zenith, grinning like a kid playing with a new toy.
And here Ryan hadn't thought it was possible to hate him even more.
As his howls did into whimpers, Gratiano collapsed to the floor, sides heaving. Lodo loomed over him, claws outstretched, but after several moments passed and Gratiano didn't get up, he turned toward Meg.
Meg nodded, and the scarlet diagram disappeared from beneath her. Lodo's claws returned to normal. He slinked up to Meg's side and rubbed against her leg, purring loudly. Smiling, Meg scratched between his ears.
Before he could stop himself, a matching smile twitched up Ryan's lips. Only to slip away when he sensed movement from above.
Looking up, his eyes locked with Avia. Aiming her arrow directly at Meg and Lodo.
"Look out!" Without thinking, Ryan cast a shield spell in front of them.
With a crackle of Levia, Avia fired. Ryan clenched his teeth, forcing all his strength into the shield, but it couldn't withstand Avia's arrow. The green light scattered in bursts of sparks, giving way beneath blazing orange.
But his warning had come in time; Meg and Lodo ducked out of the way. The arrow struck the floor, punching a smoking hole into the stone.
Avia slowly turned her head toward Ryan. Ryan stared back, the breaths hissing in his throat.
With a creak of metal, Avia raised her bow. But no arrow appeared within its curve, and that gave Ryan a spurt of hope.
"A...Avia." His voice came out a croak. Clearing his throat, he tried again. "Avia. It's me. Ryan."
Avia gazed back, her face impassive as ever. Something he should be used to seeing, so why did it make his chest feel tight?
Because while she might not have expressions, she did have moods. She'd leaned over his shoulder while he hunted through books for a glamour spell, as if curious herself. When training, she would fire arrow after arrow with fierce determination. And whenever he was in a funk, she would watch him carefully, and somehow her steady presence always made Ryan feel better.
They were all little things Ryan had never paid much attention to, never even consciously noticed. Things he'd taken for granted. But not anymore.
'You just have to show her how much you mean it,' Theo's voice whispered in his mind. Ryan clenched his hands into fists, digging nails into sweaty palms.
"You don't belong here," he said. "You know that, right? You didn't choose Oliver. You – you chose me."
The words felt thick and heavy on his tongue. After all, he'd never said anything like this before. Some part of him felt like a complete idiot – if his friends or even his brother saw, they'd never let him live it down – but right now, that didn't mean shit. Not when Avia was here in front of him.
"I think...I understand that now." Ryan swallowed hard. "So just choose me again, will you? I know you don't wanna listen to that brat's orders!"
His voice rose to a passionate shout, but his heart lodged in his throat when orange light seared and an arrow appeared in Avia's bow. Its harsh glow made his eyes water, but he didn't look away.
If it came down to it, he'd cast a shield spell. Though it wouldn't stop the attack, it might slow it a little. But he hoped he wouldn't have to.
Sweat rolled down the back of his neck, matting his hair. The crackling light from the arrow cast orange highlights on Avia's armor, matching the familiar symbol on her forehead. Orange. It didn't suit her at all. No, cool green complemented her silver armor the best.
Avia raised her bow. Ryan held his breath.
Her arm shifted back, a motion so subtle Ryan almost missed it. But he'd fought with Avia for four years, so he recognized what it meant in an instant.
Ice stabbed down his spine. So this was it.
He'd been fooling himself thinking he had any kind of bond with Avia. Let alone a bond like Theo had with Zenith.
'No! Don't give up, you're Ryan Crowley,' a furious voice inside him seethed, but being Ryan Crowley wasn't going to protect him from this. 'Hurry, cast the shield spell - '
Metal creaked. Then the orange light shifted away from him. Ryan stared in astonishment as Avia slowly turned to the side.
She drew her arm fully back before releasing the bowstring. With a tremendous boom, the arrow went flying.
Not toward Ryan. But at Lyura, whirling upon Darian with her chakram raised.