Accepted

A battle with strangers

I stopped dead in my tracks, swirling around to stare at her in confusion.

"Why?" I asked suspiciously.

"Why not? You're my sister."

"Save me the fake sister act. We both know you hate me."

"I hate losing more than I hate you and everyone knows you're the most powerful one here so it's a guaranteed win," she said casually, shooting me a smile that was terrifyingly geniune.

"Even if we win, you know we have to fight all the winners right?"

"Yeah and if we win, I'll be even more popular than I already am. Even if I lose, I'd be brave for even trying. It's a win win."

"Of course it is," I muttered in disgust.

"What did you say?"

"Forget it. Let's find other people to join our team," I said, changing the subject as I walked through the crowd.

"Let me do the talking," she said, following me.

"Yeah because you're definitely nicer than me," I snorted.

"You're right, let's get the hybrid that everyone is afraid of to ask for people to join her team to fight an impossible fight," she snapped back.

"Fine. Where's Amy?"

"She's sick so she didn't come," she replied.

"What about her?" I asked, motioning to a stunning girl with long wavy hair with eyes like a bird and large claws protruding from her hand instead of fingers.

"An alkonost? Are you TRYING to lose?"

"I don't care. I want her on our team," I said, noticing the defiant glow in her eye.

"Fine, then you recruit her," Bea huffed, with her arms crossed in a 'there's no way I'm going over there' type of way.

I approached the girl slowly, trying to force a smile on my face to look as normal as possible.

"Hey, what's your name?"

She looked up, her large brown eyes piercing into me immediately. Her elongated eye shape combined with her human face was distinct from anything I'd ever seen before. It was an ethereal type of beauty that took me by surprise.

"Larx."

"That's a pretty name, I'm-"

"I know who you are," she said, scoffing.

"Oh, that makes things easier then. Do you want to join our team?"

"I'm an alkonost."

"I know."

"No you don't because if you did, you wouldn't recruit me. We're one of the weakest supernaturals."

I approached her, watching her carefully to make sure I didn't scare her off."

"You see that girl over there?" I said, pointing at Bea who turned away the moment we made eye contact.

"Yeah, the one acting like she doesn't know you."

"She was my sister. I was adopted. I was weak and she took advantage of that and destroyed all my confidence in myself. Turns out I'm not as weak as she thought I was. People are always going to try to put you in a box but that doesn't mean that's where you belong. Out of everyone here, you caught my eye. I can sense that you're powerful, even if you don't know it yet. So why don't you join my team and show everyone how powerful alkonosts really are?"