“I’m sure they will,” he said flatly. I couldn’t tell if he was mocking me or serious.
Across the foyer, the unclaimed recruits were forming up. I scanned for Kiegan, then reminded myself I shouldn’t. He had enough to worry about, hoping a clan would claim him. If Fieran decided against him, I didn’t want to make that worse. Proximity to me might be seen as a weakness. I needed to stay away from him, for his sake.
Still, the thought that he might have made the same calculation and decided to stay away from me hurt.
The other unclaimed all looked so confident, moving with easy grace that probably masked their nerves. They’d trained for this all their lives at the academy I’d never attended.
“I do want advice,” I said suddenly. “Not a list. Just something useful.”
Asrael’s cool eyes studied me. Fieran was easy to read, hard to trust; his face flashed with emotion he didn’t mean half the time. Asrael, on the other hand, gave menothing. His stillness was impossible to interpret.
“Don’t lean too hard on that luck of yours,” he said.
My cheeks warmed. Who else had noticed yesterday’s success was not just my own?
“And definitely don’t lean on pride,” he added. “Run if you need to. From monsters or from your own team.”
“My own team might attack me?”
“Only if they think they can do it outsidehisview.” He didn’t have to name Fieran for me to understand.
That was the advice I actually needed. Kiegan was a powerful opponent, and there were probably some out there itching to humble him today. If Kiegan and I were split up, we’d both have to watch our own backs.
“That’s fine,” I said. “I’ll run if I have to. While the clans judge me.”
“You’ll still be claimed as long as you’re alive. It’s best to stay that way.”
Hard to argue with that logic.
“Anything else?” I asked. The guards were starting to call recruits into final formations. Standing beside Asrael, I felt steadier.
“The healers can fix almost anything, as long as you’ve still got a beating heart.” He tapped the inside of his wrist at his pulse. “Your best chance to keep that heart going is to stay calm. Steady heart, still a chance.”
He was probably just humoring Fieran, but his warmth was calming.
“Thank you, Asrael.”
“Thank me by lasting more than six minutes. I put money on you.”
I smiled uncertainly. I wasn’t sure if he was joking, but that was a very precise number.
The guards called again. He nodded. “Go. You don’t want to almost miss another trial.”
I headed toward the others, only realizing halfway across the hall what he’d said—and what it implied. Did he know that I’d tried to run away from the Dragon Trials? And if so, who else knew? Was Maura smearing that story across the walls?
No time to worry about that now.
“Hurry up, recruit!” one of the guards barked.
I jogged to the guard, who looked me over with open disgust—probably for both my tardinessandmy mortal state.
“There,” he said, pointing toward a group of shifters.
Kiegan wasn’t among them. The group’s faces fell when they saw me heading their way.
Well, I wasn’t thrilled either.
As I reached them, another team moved out. Kiegan was there, towering above the rest. Maybe he wouldn’t be too far away when the trial began.
