He’s arrogant. Reckless. Infuriating. But there’s something in the way he acts when no one’s watching, when it’s just the two of us. Not kindness, exactly—just... something unexpected. Something that makes it harder to keep my guard up.
And I hate that I notice. I hate that my body reacts before my mind can catch up. That I feel the warmth of his magic and, for a second, forget who he is. What he’s done.
It’s not affection. It’s not trust.
But it is a distraction. One I can’t afford.
I force myself to look away, to pretend I didn’t feel anything at all. He’s the enemy. He’s not safe. And I’m not stupid enough to believe this means anything.
Still, the warmth lingers longer than it should.
“I claim her.” Selene eyeballs Cassiopeia. Her blonde hair is pulled back into a slick pony, contrasting intensely with the red Jord ribbon tied around her upper arm. Selene and Cassiopeia have been head to head since the beginning of the year as two of the best first year Moon’chers.
“That leaves me with Sabra.” Pandering to the crowd, Sabra stretches her lithe body. I take the warmth of Atlys’s magic and stoke it into a fire, letting the anger sharpen me until my focus burns past fear and locks onto the challenge ahead.
There she is, Atlys purrs in my head.Let them see you burn.
“Akemi, your eyes!” Selene says, but Commander Hogsmith begins to stride in front of our line, boots crunching a dotted line in the snow before I can ask what she means by that.
“Champions, I welcome you to your second task of the Summit!”
The crowd cheers loudly, blowing horns and clanking mugs of ale.
“As you may have guessed, you will be working as a unit in this task. Watch, against Jord, against Terraguard, against River, against Forest. What team will prove to be victorious, and what team will be eliminated from the Summit all together?”
“A full team elimination? Oh shit!” Gryphon murmurs.
Cadets scream names at the top of their lungs, cheering for their favored teams and openly cursing other ones. Professor Gregorio has to put a muffling spell on them to eventually stop their bickering.
“Each team will race through a series of physical challenges, first climbing up a ramp where you can only use each other as support, then you may use only three planks on parallel ropes to cross over a ravine. After that, you’ll dive to the bottom of a pool to retrieve a key needed to open the final logical test at the end. Your only hint is that it’s a riddle. No magic channelingis allowed.” He claps his hands above his head to remove themyragehiding the gargantuan course.
Despite the cold air around me, my palms begin to sweat. The wooden course is slick with snow and ice. The ramp is nearly three times my height, leading to a section suspended in the air where ropes sway in the wind. As if the course wasn’t high enough, the ground under that section is dug up, leaving a sixty foot gap between the ropes and the earth beneath. I can’t see over the edge of the landing where the ropes end, but I can only imagine it leads to the pools. The logic test somewhere beyond.
It’s daunting. I wipe palms on my leathers.
“You will have two minutes to converse with your teams to strategize on your approach, then the race will begin. BEGIN!”
I turn to Selene and Gryphon. “I’m not much of a swimmer—”
“I’ll dive,” Selene offers easily. Both Selene and Gryphon are Moon’chers, making them natural in the water.
“For the wall at the beginning, I’ll make a base. Selene, you climb on my shoulders. Akemi, you can climb up both of us because you are the smallest.”
Thanks for the reminder. “Okay, good idea. And for the planks?”
“I’ll go first, then you, then Gryph,” Selene says. “We’ll have to pass the last plank up to me, so you’ll both have to share.”
“I’ll take the riddle at the end,” I offer. Finally, something I am good at.
“Sweet! I’m sure your Teller gifts with words will come in handy.” Gryphon pats me on the back a little too hard.
For luck, I tap my hip where the piece of my Teller cloak is safely stored.This is another part of my story, Marrow. Hopefully, I am making you proud.
Before we can talk through any more strategy, the commander bellows. “GO!”
The line of champions charge forward at full speed. My boots slip on the ground, costing me precious seconds as we race toward the tall ramp wall. Many other champions are slipping as well, not prepared for these icy surfaces.
Castor, Vega, and Pictor reach the wall first with ease. Then the thought hits me. When they charged into the cafeteria the other day,they were coming from outdoors.How much of this course did they already know about? Or even practice on?
