Pulling in my wings again, I backed up as far as possible before sprinting forward and launching myself from the middle platform and toward the third platform. This time, I made it past the halfway point, but I quickly recognized that I was dipping in altitude. My wings shot out on instinct again, catching me from plunging toward the ground.
I landed on platform three somewhat roughly, feeling a small wince contort my face at the way my body sagged against the solid surface. My breathing was rough, and my body was tense from the dips and waves of adrenaline crashing through me.
I didn’t know how they expected an angel to just let themselves fall and likely break more than a few bones. It wasn’t in our nature. I couldn’t be the only candidate to do it.
“If you can’t?—”
I snapped my narrowed eyes toward my father, my fed up expression causing him to look only momentarily shocked. For once, he seemed to clearly see that I was hitting my breaking point of how much shit I was going to take from him.
My voice was rough as I spat out my response, “ClearlyI can’t do it.”
Silence filled the room before he shook his head in disgust. “Then as usual, you fail.”
“Yep,” I bit out, jumping down from the platform and gliding to the ground.
Stalking toward the staircase that led out of the training center, my stomach churned and tears of frustration burned my eyes. It didn’t help that I could hear Imrodel’s announcement following my retreating form.
“Placement for the Angelic Army has proven to not exist—the three major placements have been ruled out. All that’s left for Kieran is the minor placements.”
RONAN
Ireached Kieran’s crumpled form on the stairs. Her knees were pulled up to her chest and her breathing sounded ragged. I crouched next to her and placed a hand on her back, unable to help myself. Her shoulders tensed momentarily before relaxing into my touch. Until she surged forward a moment later, covering her mouth, as if she was going to be sick.
“Fuck, Kieran, I don’t think the final three placements are necessary.”
“This always happens.” She let out a shaky breath and sat up, still looking far too pale for my liking. “I always get sick.”
Before I could try to find words of comfort, I watched in shock as Niz jumped from my shoulder and onto Kieran’s. It caused an adorable, full-fledged smile to take over her face— I don’t think I’d ever seen before, despite years of knowing her. Sitting up fully, she ran a hand over the small black scales on his back before pulling him against her chest, cupped in her hands. His snout pressed against her neck in greeting before he burrowed himself against her completely. I swear the bastard waspurringas she scratched the green scales on his chin. Bewildered by his actions, I didn’t attempt to remove him. It wasrare that Niz even tolerated being in anyone's presence other than mine, and therefore it was unheard of that he would let anyone touch him.
“You are so sweet,” she cooed down to him before raising her eyes to mine. “What’s his name?”
I stared down at her in surprise for a moment, wondering how she knew the wyvern was a ‘he’ to begin with. “Nizuss—but I just call him Niz.”
“Niz.” She nodded like she approved before sighing happily and looking at him with doe eyes full of adoration. “I love that. Will he be part of your trial?”
“Yes.”
“At least that’s something to look forward to,” she admitted softly before bringing her eyes to mine. “You didn’t need to come check on me…but I appreciate it. It's nice to have someone on my side here.”
I was more than on her fucking side—so much so she didn’t even know. Every training session we’d had in the past was probably a grueling memory for her, but it wasn’t without reason.I believed in Kieran.I saw the pressure she faced every single day, and I knew how barbaric and ruthless this kingdom could be. I wasn’t going to allow her to be a casualty.
“You’ve got this,” I promised her, trying to find a delicate balance of supporting her in whatever direction she wanted to go and throwing her over my shoulder to remove her from this toxic bullshit. “But if you still feel sick, we can wait to do the rest of the trials until tomorrow or another day.”
The strands of her golden hair shifted through the air as she shook her head. “No, it doesn’t work like that.” Lifting Niz up, she placed him back on my shoulder before dropping a kiss to his snout that made me entirely too fucking jealous of the wyvern. “I need to get this over with. The sooner I can get away from him the better.”
There was no doubt in my mind that she meant her father. I wanted to get away from the bastard myself. The death glares he hurled my way when I defended his daughter were haunting.
Nodding, I offered my hand. She placed her delicate one within my own and stood, offering me a softer smile, though a little glint entered her eye. “You’re a total softie, Ronan, aren’t you?”
Narrowing my eyes, I restrained myself from saying what I wanted to. Emotionally? Sure. She wasn’t off base. Althoughsoftwas the last thing I felt around her. In fact, her actions usually caused me to be uncomfortably hard, especially during our sparring sessions years ago. There was just something about the wild, untamed energy that entered her eyes when she was challenged that did it for me. Even if she knew she couldn’t win, the woman would come at you tooth and nail.
I wanted to scream at her father for telling her to simplytry.Arguably, I’d never seen someone try so damn hard for so long. We lost contact with each other after I graduated, but I still had my ways to check in on how she was doing at placement tests through the other Beast Tamer specialists.
As she walked toward the next section of trials, I kept my distance, wanting to allow her space to fully focus. If she wanted to continue on with this, I couldn’t stop her.
The fourth trial would test a potential placement as a Divine Weasponsmith and included imbuing magic into an object during the forging process. This was an ability that was innate to the placement, adding both special powers and sometimes souls to certain weapons. A small forge in the corner to the left was prepared and Findore—the specialist for the placement—began the process of preparing the metal for a dagger that’s hilt was already formed. When Kieran was called over to sit next to him, the directions he gave her were straightforward.
“You will need to attempt to imbue this object with magic at the end of its forging process. The weapon will tell you what it requires.” She nodded, offering a small smile to the older man as he instructed her where to focus her attention and energy.
