Chapter Twenty-Two.

"Greyson?" Lucas looked at his son, who was looking out the car window at the school, Kayla having already been dropped off at the high school. "Are you ready for this?"

"No," came the curt response.

Lucas did his best not to laugh at his son's sulking mood. Greyson didn't want to return to school, but it was for the best. Enter him into the routine immediately, rather than delaying it, to give him a sense of normalcy before creating a false one.

He could tell his son would take time to heal. In the months that they'd been together, the young mage and the werewolf had drawn close and reliant on each other.

"Greyson," Lucas said. "Go on in, and if you're worried about being behind your classmates, your teachers are more than willing to help you catch up."

"I know," Greyson grabbed his backpack and left the car.

His parents had already gotten him to work on getting caught-up with his classmates. The 'excuse' for why he wasn't in school was medical, though he didn't plan on talking with anyone. He'd changed his personality after leaving home, and had no intention of returning to the happy front he put on at school previously.

Well it wasn't so much as changing his personality as stopping the acting he did around his parents and teachers, but he knew he'd changed from his time on the streets.

Pulling his backpack on, Greyson made his way into the school, though he'd barely set four steps inside when someone ran up to him and flung their arms around him. It took every ounce of his will to not strike out and throw them into the ground.

Then, he looked at the assailant and sighed.

"Jess, seriously?" He asked.

Jessica, or Jess, as most called her, just grinned at him, stepping back. Bright pink shirt, black pants, and pink sneakers, Jess was, by most definitions Greyson knew, a girly girl. Her brown hair and bright green eyes agreed with her fair complexion, with the former tied into a pair of pigtails with pink ribbons. She was, he had to admit, a beautiful girl, and had become even more so in the months he'd been gone. Seven months? Eight months?

He couldn't really remember, and he didn't really care.

"Hey, Greyson," she gave him a quick peck on the cheek, and he rolled his eyes. "I heard you were recuperating from some nasty sickness, needing to get fresh air. How's it here?"

He could definitely use fresh air.

"Smelly," he wrinkled his nose. "What salesman told you that you needed that much perfume?"

"Oh, come off it," she slugged his arm, then looped one of hers under it. "Come on, the rest of the gang are waiting."

Greyson sighed, wondering where his friends heard he was returning from. He himself only found out that morning, having thought his parents had decided to home school him due to being out for so long.

He let himself be pulled to his homeroom, where his group of friends were gathered in the back corner of the room. There was Sam, who was half-Japanese and looked it, with his olive skin, black hair, and dark brown eyes, there was Jeff, with his curly orange hair and hazel eyes, and there was Barry, with his blond hair and blue eyes.

Barry was the reason Greyson had been looking that stuff up, the night his parents caught him and he ran away. His friend had admitted to having a crush on Sam, and Greyson had simply been curious about being gay because of it.

He didn't feel anything like that either way, even though he knew most of his classmates probably had crushes on people. The only people he'd ever felt anything real for would have been Blake and Cameron.

They were people he trusted and cared for. And now, one was dead, and he didn't know what the other was doing. Though he did know that Mondays were the nights that Cameron took on his role as Cam and fought in the arena against anyone who'd challenge him.

Clearing his mind from that, Greyson focused on school, deflecting the questions about where he'd been and how he was feeling. After school ended, he went home and did his homework, then ate dinner before grabbing his hoodie and leaving.

He hadn't gone far when his new phone began ringing, and he rolled his eyes, pulling it out of his pocket. It was his dad.

"Can you tell your agent to stop tailing me?" Greyson asked.

"Where are you going?" His father asked.

"Where do you think?" Greyson asked. "I'm heading to the warehouse."

"There haven't really been many fights," Lucas told him. "Most people have stayed away since the tragedy on Friday."

"Yeah, well, I doubt Cam's going to skip out," Greyson told him. "I'm going, and don't you dare tell your agent to stop me, or I'll kick his ass."

His father let out a huge sigh into the phone, and Greyson rolled his eyes.

"He'll give you a ride," his father said. "And make sure you get home safely as well."

Greyson grunted and hung up the phone, then turned and walked down to the black car that had been slowly rolling down the street. The driver rolled down his window.

"My father said you'll take me."

"I will," the agent told him. "Hop in."

Greyson grunted again, then climbed into the backseat and let the driver take him to the warehouse. There weren't many people there, though the bouncer at the door was there, as usual. He gave the password and entered, his new bodyguard following him in.

There were maybe only around fifty people there, and most were magicians he recognized from past visits. Judging by the wounds in the crowd, the brawling matches were probably already nearly over.

Greyson made his way over to where Cameron was standing, already wearing his hoodie and mask, his gloved hands in his hoodie's pocket. Even though the younger boy's expression couldn't be seen, Greyson got the sense of unease with him.

The brawling match ended, and no one gave much cheer, and no one else challenged the winner, so the mage matches began, two females entering the arena first. After a few matches, Greyson felt a familiar tell letting him know that thoughts were about to be projected into his mind.

"How's your wing?"

"Huh?"

"I heard it break when you fell."

"Oh, that," Greyson responded. "My primary root's passive healing magic, and even though I've yet to figure out how to mend bones myself, it works for those, too. My wings had healed by the time Dad took me home."

He hadn't let his dad know his wings had broken, because he didn't want his dad to freak out or something. The break hadn't been that bad, and was almost healed by the time he woke up. A little application of self-healing magic, twenty minutes, and they were done.

"Are you doing okay there?" Greyson could sense the worry his friend had for him.

"Yeah," he told Cameron. "It's… taking some adjusting. Dad says I'm in grief. Everything's just weird. I really miss Blake. Where've you been?"

"I've been staying with Eden," Cam said. "He's left to go poop, he'll probably be back in a minute. Might be letting his dog out, too."

Greyson snorted, then frowned.

"You're staying with Eden?"

"Yeah. He's okay. He sometimes gets hunted by fairies and kills them. It's cool. I like playing with his dog. He's back."

Greyson turned, finding himself staring at the masked face of Eden, who dipped his head to the younger teen before looking to the matches. The tell disappeared, and he knew that Cameron had probably started talking with Eden about something.

It only took a few more rounds before no one else was challenging the current winner, a man around forty. When the ref started the final call, Cameron stepped into the arena and faced the magician, a wind mage who specialized in air slashes.

As soon as the ref called for them to go, the wind mage sent out a slash, succeeding in just the one before Cameron's assault began, the mind mage successfully dodging the attack, having anticipated it.

Mostly because the wind mage had subtly began casting it before the betting had ended to ensure he got it off before the assault began.

Rather than hammering away at the other opponent, giving them a few seconds to forfeit or not, Cameron hit him hard and fast, knocking him out in just a few seconds. He didn't care much for cheaters, and when Adam asked him why he knocked the guy out, he'd answer with the truth.

Adam didn't like cheaters, either.

Cameron fought two more opponents before one stepped into the arena with a confidence that was different from others. Their confidence wasn't laced with what the mind mage had come to know was arrogance, which made him hesitate a little bit.

The man was around thirty, with short black hair and dark brown eyes, his pale skin without flaws, save for a splash of freckles across his nose and cheeks, and Cameron could clearly sense his foe's mind.

At least, up until the ref called for the fight to begin. Immediately, the man's mind disappeared, though when Cameron pushed back with his empathy, he felt it, a mental wall up. He began striking at the barrier as he probed it for weaknesses, momentarily forgetting to keep track of his fighting.

The fireball soaring towards him reminded him, and Cameron ducked, dropping to the ground and rolling over to dodge another one before scrambling back to his feet and back, dodging a third fireball.

It took him nearly a minute to be able to focus on penetrating the mental barrier again, his foe calmly throwing fireballs at him, part of his success only through the familiar situation and two years of reacting immediately to the voices in his head, which warned him when he needed to dodge as he focused on attempting to find a weak spot in the mental barrier.

At least, until the fire mage began throwing two fireballs at once. Then, Cameron's focus broke again, and he stopped attempting to break through the fire mage's mental barrier and returned to dodging. He was being forced to stay on the far side of the arena from the fire mage, who moved enough to keep the distance between them as far as he could.

"Visualize the space directly behind him," one of the voices he heard often say. "Rather than attempt to probe his mind. See the space with both your eyes and your mind, and take yourself there without running or walking, but by simply being there instead of here."

Cameron froze as he realized that the voice was guiding him in teleportation magic. He'd been thinking about if only he could do it just a moment before the voice had said that.

"To the right!" Another voice exclaimed, and instinct took over, Cameron running to the right in time to dodge the fireballs.

Thinking back to what the voice had said, he looked at where the fire mage was and visualized the spot while seeing it with his eyes as he continued to dodge the fireballs. After a few minutes, the fire mage realized something was up, Cameron could tell that by his face. He realized that Cameron hadn't been attempting to breach his mental defenses.

He threw a series of fireballs followed by a wall of fire at the boy, the balls slamming into the barrier, the boy himself gone from sight when the fire wall slammed into the barrier, yet the flames shouldn't have burned him away, only set him aflame.

The fire mage felt a moment of confusion for a moment, up until a fist slammed into his back.

The moment Cameron punched the fire mage, he sensed the mental barrier weaken and struck immediately, breaking through the mental barrier in moments and striking hard and fast, knocking out the fire mage.

Breathing heavily, Cameron leaned forward, resting his hands on his knees, feeling his breath warming up the area behind his mask.

The referee walked over and checked on the fire mage, then addressed the crowd.

"CAM WINS!" He announced as Cameron began to realize that the crowd was shocked, and more than just from his sudden teleport. Something else stunned them. "WHO'S NEXT?"

He called out three times, then made the final call, and no one challenged Cameron, who began to realize that during the betting, everyone had bet. He looked at Greyson and Eden, then walked over to them.

"Why does everyone seem so shocked?" Cameron asked Eden. "And don't say it's because of my teleport. I'm young, not stupid."

"The fire mage is pretty damn famous," Eden responded. "You probably only won due to his surprise at your teleportation. Damn, short-range teleport. I wish I could do that."

Cameron almost asked what he meant, before remembering the explanation Eden had given for his teleport spell on Saturday. Eden's specialized in returning long-range teleport, which meant that he couldn't visually see the location he was teleporting to and had to have been there before. It also couldn't be within a few feet of himself.

Teleporting in his apartment was covered by returning long-range teleport, as he was teleporting into different rooms, and never somewhere he could see if he turned his head around. He wasn't sure why it was different, but it was.

Short-range teleport and visual long-range teleport required visualizing the location the mage wanted to teleport into, as well as being able to visually see the area they wanted to teleport into.

Starting off with the former, the range was incredibly small, usually within a few feet, hence why it was called short-range. Despite that, it was possible to teleport several miles for an experienced mage using short-range teleportation, if they could see the location they wanted to teleport to unobstructed, such as standing on a hill or mountain. Eden could use this kind, though it was a lot more exhausting for him, which was why he hadn't used it in his matches until Cameron.

The latter, on the other hand, couldn't be used for something short-range, nor something that could be seen with the mage's eyes at the time, though they didn't have to be there in the past to go there. A picture would do.

As Cameron remembered that, he went to ask Eden something else, only to pass out. Having learned not just another school of magic, but one not linked into his own, had been a lot more exhausting than learning another spell within his own school. Having already run around and exerted himself mentally, using a new spell in an unlinked school of magic was too much for the boy.

Eden caught him, then lifted him up. Adam would make sure they received Cameron's winnings the next day, so Eden simply teleported home to put Cameron in the younger boy's bed for some sleep.