I motioned for Daisy and Mordecai to get out of the space as Bria wheeled in her bodies and unstrung her backpack.

“They must participate,” the man with the clipboard said as the opposing team spread out along the sides of the arena, one hunkering in a solitary bush.

“They are teenagers and one doesn’t have a blood bond or any magic. They were not signed up. They will wait outside,” I said.

The man looked at me steadily, almost bored. “They entered the room, and so they will participate.”

“Door is still open. Daisy, Mordecai, get out of here!” I hollered.

The man turned, walked out the door, and shut it behind him before the kids had moved a muscle. The lock clicked over.

I started laughing, near tears. The Demigods looked down with flat faces, not an ounce of emotion between them, Zander’s wife among them. Apparently, her love was just for her husband.

“Do none of you have children?” I demanded, looking up. “This seems legit to you?”

“It’s fine, Lexi, we got this.” Dylan took my arm. “Don’t beseech the Demigods—they’re as far removed from decency as a pack of people can get. We can handle this on our own. No one will touch the kids, I swear it.” He turned me away, and I felt the turmoil within Kieran. Given he wasn’t saying anything, I shoved our connection to the back of my mind. He was no help to me, clearly. “You can drop everyone to their knees, and I can fry them. Nothing to it.”

“Mordecai has the blood offering so keep Daisy in the middle,” Donovan said, jogging to her far side. Jerry stepped to her other side, and the ground beneath us rumbled. “Lexi, in back. You’ll end it too quickly. Let’s have a little sport. These very important people want a show.”

“Do we want animated cadavers, or no?” Bria asked, kneeling beside her open backpack.

Rather than wait for Bria’s magic, slower and clunkier than mine, I reached for the spirits I trusted, pulling Jack to me first, then John, Chad, and Mia. I stuffed them into bodies and started them out of the cart. Then I grabbed some of the other spirits who hung around our house, crazy ones driven mad by Valens’s imprisonment, and gave them body suits. I even grabbed Frank, just because he could throw a wrench in anyone’s plans. I wanted them all running around, causing a ruckus.

As my team fanned out around a very annoyed Daisy, who did not want to be protected, I walked to the side, in full view of the Demigods.

Nervous anticipation bubbled through my middle and set loose butterflies in my stomach, a feeling I always got before everything went haywire. Now was a great time for it. If these people wanted a show, I would damn sure give them one.

“We ready?” I asked my team as our opponents braced themselves, their eyes tracking the newly animated bodies. They’d clearly never seen a Necromancer get to work so quickly.

“Lexi, what’s going on? Where am I?” Jack said, jerking and rocking, trying to get a lock on his new digs.

“Alexis Price, I was having a nice little day there, looking at the ocean. Why am I in a dead man’s skin suit?” Frank hollered.

John and Chad stood mostly still behind Jack, having much more experience. Mia hung back, watching the enemy. She didn’t need her legs; she had her magic to transport her from point A to point B.

“Great googly moogly, who’d you stuff in those?” Bria asked as I marched the crazier spirits off to the side, jerking and screaming and trying to beat on the walls, themselves, or each other. Only I could hear the screaming, since they were spirits and their dead bodies didn’t have working voice boxes, but their movements sold the effect.

“A few who will provide great distraction,” I said. “What do we do now, wait for a whistle?”

“I don’t want any part of this,” Frank grumbled. “How do I get out of this thing?”

“We raise hell,” Thane said, standing in the back with his arms crossed, as calm as could be. He wouldn’t be going full Berserk, I had faith in that. He knew better than to turn when we were trapped with him.

“Okay, then,” I said, raising my voice. “Take ’em down!”

I set the bodies loose, and they sprinted forward, or to the side, or jumped around and waved their arms.

“Where’s Kieran?” Jack asked, not going active yet. He clearly hadn’t looked up.

I shoved him at the enemies behind Chad and John, who’d already started to run forward. “Give ’em hell, Jack!”

One of our opponents stalked to the center, an enormous man with muscles for days, blond hair, and a cleft in his chin. His biceps were so big that I wondered how he scratched his face.

He bent at the waist and flexed, like a bodybuilder. I couldn’t help cocking my head at him in confusion. Was this a battle, or a muscle show?

“Someone from Hercules’s line, I bet,” Bria said, pulling out her knives. “They can pose a problem in hand-to-hand combat, but they’re not good for much else. That fool doesn’t know what he’s gotten himself into. What a gas.”

Mia disappeared, and I heard tables and chairs scraping against the balcony, people leaning forward in surprise.

“I got this.” Red ripped out a knife, but before she could start forward, Mia reappeared beside the big man. She threw her arms around him, barely able to wrap those dead limbs around his big waist. He had little time to startle before they disappeared again.