“Let’s start simple,” he says, as if anything about either of us could ever be simple. “Do you know why they call it the Void Pit?”
“Because it suppresses magic?”
“Because it creates a void where only your truest self remains. No fire to hide behind, no flames to mask intention. Just raw skill and whatever you carry in your bones. That’s why Kieran loves it—it strips away pretense.” He pauses for a moment, as if he’s seeing something I can’t. “Now, close your eyes.”
“Why?”
“Trust me.”
There it is again. Trust. The thing he keeps asking for while keeping his own secrets locked away deeper than the passages beneath the school.
But the way he says it is final, so I do as asked.
“Now, breathe,” he tells me. “Five seconds in, five seconds out. Feel the electricity, but don’t try to control it. Just observe it.”
I follow his instructions, focusing on my breathing. As I do, the storm remains in my bones, but it’s less violent now. More like a river than a flood.
“Good.” His voice is low and soothing, wrapping around me like smoke. “Now visualize something that can keep it contained. A box, a sphere, whatever works for you.”
I instinctively picture a glass sphere in my chest, silver electricity swirling inside. It pulses with each heartbeat, but the glass holds firm.
“I have it,” I whisper, and something in meclicks,like when you snap the final piece of a puzzle into place.
“Perfect. Now, let’s head up to the Void Pit and try again.”
We reach the edge of the Ember Ring, and the moment we cross the boundary, the pressure of my magic eases. It’s like someone turned off the fire alarm that’s been screaming in my head, leaving me with sweet, blessed silence. Well, not actual silence, since my internal monologue never shuts up, but close enough.
By the time we’re back in the Void Pit, my electricity dies out completely.
Logan immediately returns to neutral trainer mode. “We need to make sure your electricity stays dormant in here,” he says. “Even if you’re angry or frustrated or?—”
“Scared,” I finish, since I already admitted it back in the Ember Ring.
“Exactly.” He moves closer, but nottooclose. Not close enough. “We’ll get you angry, frustrated, scared—whatever it takes—and you’ll learn to keep the electricity locked down, no matter what.”
Thunder rumbles overhead, muffled by the walls of the pit, and I swear I feel an echo of it in my body.
“Okay.” I pull out my dagger, the blade glinting in the moonlight, picturing the pretty glass sphere in my chest and the silver electricity contained in it. “Make me angry.”
The smile that spreads across his face is pure wickedness. “With pleasure.”
JADE
“First match,”Kieran’s voice carries across the morning air two days later. “Nina Aldridge and Sam Reeves. Mirror Vault.”
My stomach clenches as Nina rises from her spot. Sam’s face drains of color, and as he follows her toward the winding path that leads up the mountainside, he looks like he’s walking to his execution. Which, knowing Nina’s competitive streak and precision, might not be far off.
The volcanic stone crunches under our feet as we climb the mountain after them, passing the Ember Ring, then the Smoke Spire.
The Mirror Vault is the third circle, a shiny dome with the entire outer wall designed like one-way glass. From out here, we’ll see everything happening inside the nearly eighty feet wide arena, like we’re watching a twisted reality show. Inside, all they’ll see are infinite mirrors reflecting back at them, creating an endless maze of themselves and their magic.
Nina and Sam disappear inside, and the rest of us press closer to the glass, jostling for the best view. Garrett’s elbow digs into my ribs, but I’m too focused on what’s about to happen to care.
A single flame inside the arena and outside near us allows us to speak to them, and for us to hear everything they’re saying in there. It’s like the world’s most sadistic intercom system.
“Begin,” Kieran calls through the fire.
Sam moves first, throwing a fireball at Nina with more desperation than strategy.
