Cyrus was dead.

  As he fell, light seemed to fade from the world. The warm orange glow we'd known from crib to grave was gone. Now the world seemed grey, The colors were muted, almost black and white.

  "I was right!" Ian cheered, I could barely hear him over the screaming of the crowd. "You were right." He said looking at me from the stage. I felt sick. "The soul of the island wasn't that Plantation." He turned to Andie somewhere else in the crowd. "It wasn't the tower either Andie. The soul was all of you!" He spread his arms out. "Your community! This idyllic little ocean town. You focused all your love on a single event, a single figure and all I had to do was take it away from you." Was this our fault?

  A flash of light broke him from his moment of triumph. There was the sound of drums, and a moment later Cyrus was rising to his feet. It was clear to anyone that could see that there was some kind of energy flowing into Cyrus. There were little orbs of energy floating off of him like bubbles. New designs were being painted on his body by unseen brushes, sacred geometries, tattoos I’d never seen but somehow recognized. A mask appeared on his face, the bottom half of it black and featureless but the top half an image of a setting sun. Indeed the light of our sun seemed to be shining behind him, he was somehow back lit by a orange light.

  Ian looked at his opponent and smirked. “That’s what I’m talking about.” Ian grinned and took on a fighting stance. “Don’t go out without a fight!”

  “What’s happening?” Hayden collided into me from the crowd along with the others.

  “I have no idea. Victoria?” I looked to our little secret keeper, but she was just as clueless as the rest of us.

  “They’re here to destroy the soul of the island.” Victoria said, not as an answer, but as she tried to work through the problem of what she was seeing here. “Now… the soul’s trying to defend itself.”

  “Wild Magic, Two Stars!” Ian summoned his magical tome for a second time. It turned through it’s pages just as it had on his previous attack only this time it shot a ball of fire at Cyrus.

  An explosion of heat and light blinded us all for a moment. We cringed expecting Cyrus to once again be dead, but instead he was standing there bold and alive. His hand was outstretched, and smoldering. Had he…

  Did he just block the fire with his hand?

  “Show off.” Ian wasn’t intimidated at all, he had a big smile on his face. “Come on. I’m eager to see what the world’s spirit can do.”

  Cyrus needed no encouragement. He charged forward faster than I’d ever seen him move. Faster than I’d ever seen anyone move. Whatever magic was working through Cyrus was making him more than a man. It was clearly more than Ian had bargained for. That cocky smile quickly turned into a grimace of concentration. Cyrus swiped at him several times, each time Ian was barely able to deflect the blow. I was impressed he could keep up at all.

  “Wild Magic, Two Stars.”

  “This again.” Hayden growled. His hands were tight fists, but like me he was frozen to the spot. This fight we were witnessing wasn’t natural. The thought that either or both of us could jump up there and help was complete foolishness.

  Ian’s spellbook landed on it’s next enchantment. A gust of wind blew upwards, and sent Cyrus soaring in the air. Up and up he went, above the rooftops. Ian craned his neck to keep his opponent in view.

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  “So if Cyrus is possessed by the spirit of the island.” I began. “What happens if he dies?”

  Victoria gulped and shook her head. “I don’t know.”

  Cyrus quickly came crashing back down onto the stadium, crushing the boards of the stage as he fell. I winced imagining how broken up I’d be after that, but after just a few second Cyrus crawled back onto the stage.

  “You’re tough.” Ian chuckled, his bravado somewhat bruised. “I’m starting to see why no Rook has ever taken one of you down before…”

  Cyrus rushed him without any warning, it was so fast I could barley keep track of him. One moment he was there, and the next he was shoving his palm into Ian’s stomach.

  “Ugh.” The black hair villain grunted as the hit pushed him back a few steps. He looked himself over, then gave a rude chuckle. “All that and you didn’t even do any damage.” He looked down to see a glowing orange hand print radiating out from his stomach. “Oh I get it.” He said. “It’s like your little game, three strikes and I’m out. Too bad I’m not…”

  Cyrus was usually a big fan a banter, but he hadn’t spoken a word this entire fight. He didn’t seem intent on letting his opponent chat either, as he slammed his palm into Ian’s face mid sentence, and sent the man spiraling to the ground.

  “Two!” The crowd cheered.

  “Big mistake.” Ian growled, his cocky attitude replaced with anger. “Wild Magic, Two Stars.” He rolled out of the way as Cyrus went in for a third strike. I can’t quite describe what happened next, all I clearly remembered is getting sprayed with blood. I think Ian summoned some sort of invisible blade that sliced at Cyrus but I can’t say for sure.

  All I know is that Cyrus dropped to the ground after that, to the screaming and horror of the whole audience. None of us truly knew what was going on, but it was clear who the good guy was, and who was bad. Somehow Cyrus had been fighting for all of us, for the island, for the sun, for the world, and…

  He just lost.

  “Fuck you Cyrus!” Hayden screamed beside me. “You’ve never gone down in a fight before! You can’t lose to this punk now!”

  “Hayden…” I said softly.

  “Shut up!” Hayden cried, actually cried. “He ain’t done!”

  “Cyrus!” Someone else called. “You can’t go down!”

  Andie took up the call next. “You humiliated my boyfriend, and now you’re just going to die like a little bitch?”

  Everyone was getting into it now. They called for him, prayed for him, urged him to live, to get up to win.

  A hundred fights and bruises with the big blonde bully flashed through my mind. All the humiliation and triumph of having him as our enemy. As hard as he'd made our lives... he was a hero! “I still have to buy you that drink!” I cried.

  You’re not going to believe me but, it actually worked. It started with a twitch of the finger, but quickly began the indomitable Cyrus rising to his feet once more. The crowd was hysteric. Our champion wouldn’t lose, so long as we believed in him. Ian had been right, the soul of this world was community.

  Ian was now plainly worried. All those fancy effects, looked like they were about at their limit. Without his spells he had nothing on Cyrus’ fighting skills.

  This was made evident only a moment later. Cyrus moved in for the kill, Ian was able to block and deflect a few blows, but never called up his spellbook again. Without that to break up the battle it was just a matter of moments before Cyrus was able to land his third and final strike on Ian.

  “Three!” We all screamed in unison.

  The three handprints on Ian lit up like the setting sun, and exploded into a super nova of paint. We were all splattered by the rainbow spray. Ian himself went limp and fell to the ground, I feared or maybe hoped that meant he was dead. Cyrus simply stood over him, and slowly raised his fist into the air.

  “Yeeeeeeeeah!” Hayden grabbed me. I grabbed Hayden. We grabbed eachother, and jumped around.

  “He did it!”

  “He did it!”

  The crowd was with us, on their feet, in the air.

  Cyrus had saved the world.

  And it was ended all over again, in the blink of an eye.

  Ian lunged upward from his resting spot on the floor, and drove a knife into Cyrus’ Heart. Ian should have been dead, and I would not learn until later how he’d managed to survive. But it didn’t matter. Whether Ian’s living was caused by powerful magic, or bad manners it won him the fight.

  Cyrus collapsed once more, a broken heart is something even a good cheer couldn’t heal.

  It was like a wind has blown out a candle. All the light was gone, the sun had finished setting.