Page 50

This time, however, he stayed silent. It was Gabe who answered, looking excited and fiddling with one of Biff’s wings as he wrapped an arm around the gargoyle’s wide back.

“Yep. Holt put these up this morning. They’re in the arena too.”

I moved to the side so Kit’s wings weren’t blocking me and peered over Susan’s head. Several unfamiliar faces stared back at me from the posters, each one in a different pose.

“Introducing…” they all said above the styled shots of the new wrestlers. Written underneath was, “See the big debut of our newest Goliaths. BOOK YOUR TICKETS NOW!”

The first showed a slender woman with a tattered veil draped elegantly over her long white hair, which flowed as if she was underwater. She was deathly pale—in fact, she almost looked slightly translucent—with big, solid black eyes and dainty, gaunt features. She was wearing the artfully ripped remnants of what appeared to be a wedding dress, slashed into a tight-fitting crop top with a single lace sleeve, and a mini skirt with a long train flowing behind her.

La Dame Blanche was printed over her photo on the poster, and she was gazing at the camera with a haunted expression, one hand stretching out, her fingers long and thin and tipped with white claws.

“God, she’s hot,” Mads muttered, tilting her head as she gazed at the poster through her sunglasses.

“A phantom, I think.” Susan clapped her hands. “Ooh, I’m so excited to meet her!”

The second poster was of a huge, hulking masculine figure wearing a leather harness over his bare chest. His arms were crossed, veins popping in his huge biceps, and his skin was a dark, mottled green. Not orc skin—not a delicate sage like Corey’s—but darker and swampier looking.

His face, however, was hidden by a mask. Not one like Susan’s, which only covered her mouth and nose, but one that concealed him entirely. It was black and green, moulded with a heavy brow to make him look menacing, and through the eyeholes his eyes looked pitch black.

Printed across his hulking figure was his name. The Beast of Burden.

“Maybe an orc?” Kit asked uncertainly, and I parted my lips to disagree, then snapped my mouth shut again as my gaze flicked to Vince.

“He has the build for it,” Kenneth said, cocking his head. “But no, I don’t think so.”

“Beast of Burden,” Gabe said thoughtfully. “Maybe some kind of hybrid? Ooh, maybe he’s a Minotaur.”

“Minotaurs don’t have green skin,” Carl pointed out.

“Corey must know who the new folks are, right?” Vince said, and my gut tightened at the sound of his husky voice.

“Probably, but you know Corey,” Val said dryly. “He enjoys the theatrics. I doubt he’ll tell us.”

I shifted my gaze to the third poster, having to squint a little to make out the figures against the dark backdrop.

Shadowpeople, I realised. Two of them. They were standing side by side, obscured completely by long, flowing black cloaks, their faces hidden by shadows with only their glowing yellow eyes visible as they stared at the camera. They looked tall and thin, identical in height and build.

“Looks like Holt found his double act to replace Frank and Beans.” Heidi chuckled.

“The Ghastly Boys.” Biff read out their duo name and crossed his arms with a grunt. “Guess we’ll see just how ghastly they are, won’t we?”

“They sound hot.” Gabe smirked at him.

Finally, I took in the last poster, and my lip curled a little, because I already didn’t like the look of this one. He looked cocky. Like Vince.

He was smirking at the camera with his hands on his hips, which gave a clear view of the bright, yellowish-green luminescence glowing under his pale skin. He was leanly muscled—closer to Vince’s build than, say, Dan’s—and wearing a pair of skintight neon green leggings. His hair looked silvery-white, like a birch tree, and it was shaved close at the sides with a styled coif on top.

“John-o’-the-Wisp,” Kit said, reading out his name. They sounded a touch confused. “Isn’t it Will-o’-the-Wisp?”

“Maybe they’re related,” Dan said in amusement as Vince snickered and nudged his arm.

“So their launch is in a few weeks?” Susan asked, peering at the date on the bottom of the posters. “Do you think Holt will pair them up together or with us for their debuts?”

“Surely with us, right?” Vince asked sceptically. “He wouldn’t put two newbies together for their first match.”

“If they debut in less than a month, they must be starting really soon,” Mads added. “They’ll need longer to rehearse.”

Everyone glanced over when the doors opened. Corey swept in, carrying Cora under his arm, and stopped when he saw us.