“Do I need to repeat my question?” Ezra put a hand on my shoulder.
“Um, he probably knows,” I answered, trying to understand why Ezra asked. “I mean, he went through my mind. He knows everything.”
My heart fell. I didn’t like thinking about that. It reminded me of the three half-formed tethers carved into my back, and how much had been stolen from me. But I was doing something about it this time. I had a name, Teivel. Once I proved my free will, I was coming for him.
“Be ready to face your past.” Ezra tilted my chin, locked eyes with Hero, and kissed me; hard, fast, claiming. My body lit up, toes curling.
Just as fast, he stepped back and vanished into the shadows.
I licked my lips, loving the taste of him despite the obvious marking of his territory. Me. A rush curled my toes all over again. I was his territory.
“You’re telling me you let me spend the last hour complaining about my family while...” She gestured at me, then behind me, and everywhere. “Girl, spill. Now.”
I took a deep breath. Alex knew all my secrets. My test could be anything, but Ezra was probably right. I needed to be prepared to defend every decision, good or bad, that I’d made in my life.
I expected my world to come crashing down with the realization, but it didn’t. My anxiety didn’t spike. Fear didn’t twist my stomach. Every choice, good or bad, had led me here. Maybe it was the calm before the storm, or maybe this was what confidence felt like.
I found my friend's hands and squeezed. “So, you know the saying distance makes the heart grow fonder? I know what I want now. And I’m going for it.”
Everly whooped, and I prayed Ezra found something else to do while I poured my heart out to my friends.
If the gasps when I entered The Pit, flanked by Everly as well, were dramatic, the outrage midway through my test was deafening.
I couldn’t defend joining this madness. Ezra’s warning about confronting my past?
Bullshit.
The cow across from me mooed. Fine—udderbullshit.
I sat on a throne-like chair at the center of the ring, leaving a stretch of empty elevated space at my front. Smooth gold circled my ankles and wrists, keeping me in place, but not truly restrained. I could pull out of them by sliding my limbs to the inside. Alex designed the chair to maintain close contact with my skin and monitor the energy coming in and out of me.
Did it actually do that?
I had no idea, and I was pretty sure no one else did either.
Above me, a massive chart swirled orange and blue, like some warped lie detector from BT.
“That is a sheep,” the McDonald standing to my left with a scrawl in his hands repeated.
I looked at the cow standing right in front of me. “That is a cow.”
The man’s scowl disappeared into his bushy tangerine beard. His tinfoil hat nearly toppled as he glanced at the chart, which hadn’t budged at my answer.
“What sound does a sheep make?” the McDonald asked.
“Baaa,” I said.
The sound of Everly holding back laughter made me smile.
“What sound does the sheep in front of you make?” he pressed.
I looked at the cow. “Moo.”
“Look at that!” someone shouted. “No control over her mind. Sheep don’t moo.”
Someone laughed.
I just blinked as the cow, which was definitely a cow, was led off the platform to be replaced with a goat. The gray, cloven-hooved creature’s eerie eyes locked on me, and a shiver ran down my spine. I’d never seen a goat in person and was pretty happy never to again after this.
