“Did he just—” Felix stares at the cake like it might vanish.
“Told you he’d come through.” Evie grins. “Oliver always keeps his promises.”
The three of us share the deliciously perfect cake, and for a moment, things don’t seem quite so terrible. But as we’re scraping the last bits of chocolate frosting off the plate, someone clears their throat behind me.
“Jade Harrington?”
I turn to find a guy about Logan’s age. Sandy hair falls across his sharp features, and something in his hazel eyes makes my skin prickle. It’s like being analyzed by a particularly intelligent predator.
“Yes?” I watch him closely, prepared for anything.
“Interesting timing earlier.” His tone is polite enough, but there’s an edge beneath it. “When Logan showed up while Callie was... agitating you.”
“Student mediation is part of the proctor’s job,” Evie says quickly.
“Of course.” His focus stays on me, unnerving in its intensity, and the chandeliers above us brighten slightly. “Just like saving first-years during the Hydra trial is part of the job.”
“Isn’t itliterallythe proctor’s job to keep students safe?” I glare at him, since I’m tired, stressed, and in no mood to be taunted about my humiliating public crush on Logan again. “I don’t understand why everyone’s talking about hissaving my lifeduring the Hydra trial like it’s a bad thing.”
He pauses for a second, toying with something shiny inside his jacket pocket. “It’s not bad because he saved your life. It’s bad because the wards have never failed.Ever.Which makes me wonder…” He doesn’t finish the sentence, instead simply extending a hand. “Anyway, I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Miles Deveraux. Logan’s emberlinked partner.”
Oh.
“Jade.” I force myself to shake his hand, surprised by how cold it is. “Harrington.”
“Yes. We’ve covered that already,” he says slowly, as if he’s speaking to a child, and I realize with a flash of embarrassment that this entire conversation started with him saying my name.
“Nice to meet you,” I lie, yanking my hand out of his before I accidentally shock him. “Did Logan send you over here?”
If he did…whywould Logan send him over here? My heart beats faster at the possibilities, and I glance at the fourth-year section, where Logan looks visibly annoyed by a girl with strawberry blonde hair who’s animatedly speaking to him across the table.
“No,” Miles says, snapping my attention back to him. “I came here of my own accord. I was curious about the first-year who’s caught Logan’s attention so thoroughly.”
He stands there for another beat, his gaze like cold fingers on my spine, before turning suddenly and walking away.
“That was weird,” Felix mutters once he’s gone.
“Everything here is weird.” I drop my fork onto the thoroughly clean plate where the chocolate cake once sat. “I’m starting to think normal doesn’t exist at Blaze Academy.”
“Normal is overrated.” Evie bumps my shoulder with an encouraging smile. “Come on. Let’s head back and figure out our schedules. We need to be ready for whatever tomorrow throws at us.”
JADE
The heat hitsme the moment we step outside Phoenix Hall at dawn to head to our combat assessment, and the first raindrop lands thirty seconds later. A downpour follows instantly. Thick, heavy sheets of hot rain, because normal weather is too much to ask for at a witch-training school.
“What in the fresh hell is this?” I mutter, pulling my training gear away from where it’s already sticking to my skin.
“Welcome to island life,” Lauren says from behind me, somehow managing to look put-together even with rain plastering her hair to her skull. “My sister warned me about this.”
The path from Phoenix Hall leads straight to the base of the volcano, where seven massive circles are carved into the mountainside, rising like a giant’s staircase. Each one is a perfect ring of scorched stone with different challenges inside it, connected by carved steps that switchback up the volcanic slope.
And we’re supposed to train in them.
Or die in them.
I’m betting on the latter.
The lowest circle, which Kieran stands in front of, has to be at least a hundred feet across. The others decrease in size as they climb higher, until the smallest circle at the peak disappears into low-hanging clouds.
