To Jackson’s dismay, Briggs disappeared into the crowd. After searching around for almost half an hour, neither he nor Kay could spot the elusive man. Jackson wanted to keep looking, but Kay reminded him they had to go. With the train coming in less than thirty minutes, they headed out of the gravel pit toward the closest stop — almost a fifteen-minute walk away.

“Hey, kid.”

Jackson’s heart skipped a beat when he heard the familiar hoarse voice. He turned around to see Cassius Briggs leaning against a beat-up, rusted pickup truck. In spite of the butterflies in his stomach, Jackson did his best to play it cool.

“What’s up?” he asked. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kay shoot him a sideways look, clearly wondering why he’d turned into such a tool.

Briggs grinned, revealing a mouthful of straight, bright teeth. The older man shook his head. “Ha! You think you just won the Gold League Championship or something? It was better than your last fight, I’ll give you that.”

Jackson’s first instinct was to reply with some smart-ass comment but Kay’s throat clearing brought him back to his senses. He decided to try another tactic.

“Maybe if I had a coach I could be even better.”

The older man nodded. “Maybe.”

They stared at one another for a long time. Finally, Kay, who only wanted to get back to the rail stop before they missed the last train, cut the silence.

“Oh for crying out loud, you two! Jackson, you know you want him to train you — stop being such a hard-ass!”

Jackson glared at Kay. His face reddened and he looked back at Briggs.

“Are you still looking for a trainer?” the former champion asked.

“I —” Jackson started speaking, but halted almost involuntarily. The deadline for the bank foreclosure loomed in his mind and he nodded. “More than anything.”

Rather than replying, Briggs held up a single finger. Jackson waited, but no explanation followed.

“What’s that?” he asked when he realized no answer from the older man was forthcoming. “I’m assuming that’s a one. That’s a one, right?”

“One condition,” Briggs said. “You do what I say when I say it. No exceptions. I tell you to jump—”

“I ask, ‘how high?’”

“No, stupid kid. I tell you to jump, and you jump. Act first, ask questions later. I don’t need you thinking for yourself unless I tell you. Do we have a deal?”

“Deal!” Jackson said without pause.

Briggs flashed him a smile, one that reminded Jackson of Laila’s Cheshire grin. He wondered what he’d just gotten himself into.

“And that includes betting on matches, got it? You wanna waste time on side bets, then make that your career, not taming.”

Jackson’s stomach dropped slightly, not even realizing that betting was a possibility until that moment.

“Wait, I can do side bets on the matches?”

“Not anymore, you can’t.”

“Right,” Jackson nodded his head in agreement.

“Good.” Briggs held up his watch, tapped a couple of buttons and Jackson’s own watch beeped, indicating he’d received a GPS location. “Meet me there tomorrow morning at noon sharp and we’ll get started.”

“Noon? Why so late?”

“I have to get my beauty rest,” Briggs said without skipping a beat.

Jackson glanced at the map and was surprised that it showed a building in Tyle.

“But —” His mind raced with a dozen different questions.

“I just told you to jump, kid. Just jump and don’t ask questions. Got it?”

“Right. I’ll meet you there tomorrow at noon, then.”

Briggs opened the truck door and the metal squealed in protest. He slammed it shut with a metallic bang.

Jackson opened his mouth to ask another question, but he stopped himself. The pickup roared to life with a rumbling belch and Briggs’s taillights faded in the distance down the dirt road.

“So you’re seriously going to show up at some random location to meet with a complete stranger about training you to be a Djinn Tamer?” Kay asked when the exhaust and haze of the ancient truck cleared away.

“He’s not some random guy!” Jackson said. “How many times do I have to tell you? That’s —”

“Cassius Briggs, I know,” Kay said imitating the awestruck tone Jackson used every time he spoke of the former champion.

“Plus, you’re coming with me,” Jackson said.

Kay sighed and looked and Sunshine. “What would he do without us?”

Before Jackson could reply to the snarky remark, the crowd broke out into a thunderous roar — the loudest of the night.

Jackson and Kay ran over to the edge and peered over into the pit. The bettors and spectators all gathered around a central ring — the night’s main event. Jackson squinted and saw a flash of turquoise and emerald. He knew at once it was a Megala and he knew as well who it belonged to.

“Tessa Green,” Jackson muttered under his breath.

The Megala made short work of its opponent, a Twisper — a wind-type Djinn that resembled a leaf. Twispers were known to be very hard to pin down in combat. Jackson looked at the board and saw that Tessa’s Megala hadn’t lost a single hit point — very impressive. Like she had earlier that night, Green returned her Djinn to its ring and cut through the crowd without skipping a beat, stopping only to collect her winnings. She shouldered away from dozens of pats on the back and other attempts to socialize.

“Jackson, the train comes in twenty minutes and it’s going to take us fifteen just to get there!” Kay said. “I swear, if I get stranded out here and have to call a Ryde-Along, you’ll have to pay me back the eighty suns it’ll take us to get home!”

“Hold on a second,” Jackson said, circling the pit to try and cut the Megala’s tamer off.

“What are you doing?” Kay said, trying to keep up with him.

“How many people do you know with a Megala?” Jackson said. “That has to be Fiona.”

“Fiona? No way! Her parents are too strict. There’s no way she can — Jackson!” Kay yelled out as Jackson went into a sprint.

He’d been trying to keep track of her in the crowd, but somewhere along the way, she’d disappeared. Without even thinking, he made his way back down towards the crowd, into the gravel pit.

“Are you seriously going back? We don’t have the time for this!”

“We don’t want to lose her!” He said, but he then felt a rough tug on his arm. He turned to see Kay’s frowning face.

“Jackson, don’t be an idiot,” she said. “She apparently comes here almost every night. We come here almost every night too. It’s late, I’m tired, and I don’t want to be out eighty suns just because you have some stupid theory you need to prove tonight.”

“I can pay you back.”

“I thought you were trying to save up that money. Plus, don’t you have somewhere important to be tomorrow?”

Jackson opened his mouth to argue back, but no words came. He took a deep, annoyed breath. Kay wasn’t wrong and he’d lost the mysterious tamer in the crowd. He wouldn’t be confirming his hunch for tonight, and there was no way he would risk being late to training with Briggs tomorrow; not on his first day.

“Okay,” he said. “Let’s go.”