Grace had tried to claw it off me during our fight, her honeydew-green eyes burning with a jealousy so sharp it felt fucking insane. They were the only physical difference between us—she could never copy my two-toned eyes, one sapphire, one emerald.
I shoved the memory of her copied face and uncertain fate from my mind and refocused on Bea. The witches moved as one. Fake Blonde drove her dagger toward Bea’s back while the others closed in from the front and side. My friend had a warrior’s heart, but she wasn’t a fighter. They were going to bleed her out right on the tracks.
“Bea!”
I shouted a warning before my dark wind lashed out, hurling the witches aside. In the same motion, the wind tore the dagger from Fake Blonde’s grip, spun it sharply, and buried it in her chest. She would never hurt my friend again.
The remaining witches stared, wide-eyed with shock and terror, before turning to flee.
“Barbie!” Bea cried, running toward me, but the train was already moving, and she was too far away to reach me.
My wind coiled around her, as gentle as I could make it, and swept her off her feet just as the train veered sharply across a web of intersecting tracks.
Bea screamed, but I leaned out, caught her wrist at the last second, and hauled her onto the shuddering roof.
“I gotcha!” I said.
She clutched my arm, her blue hair whipping wildly in the wind.
“Only your magic still works here, Barbie!” she shouted over the roaring mayhem.
“My magic works everywhere.” I smirked.
Below us, the rail maze churned with desperation. America, my old nemesis, misjudged a leap between trains. I winced, already imagining the wet crunch of impact. But before she fell, my dark wind surged, shoving her out of harm’s way.
She stared up at me from the tracks, her face ghost-pale.
“Thank…thank you,” she mouthed, breathless.
You’re welcome, fae chick!Sy yelled, loud enough for only me to hear.
I turned back to the chaos below. A cluster of first-years huddled between the rails, trembling. A cold realization clicked into place: they wouldn’t survive down there.
“Get on the trains!” I shouted, my voice cutting through the roar of metal and panic. “It’s the only way!”
Some scrambled to obey. Others froze.
A few tried to leap toward a passing train, but without magic, they had no chance. No one had power here, except Grace and me. And she wasn’t about to play savior.
I wasn’t leaving them trapped in this death maze, waiting for some faceless asshole to declare the trial over.
My dark wind surged forward, sweeping students off the tracks and lifting them onto the roofs of the other two trains—gentle as harvesting wheat. None landed on mine. I had a feeling my train was heading somewhere different from the rest.
“Hold on to the rails!” I yelled, watching as the candidates scrambled to follow my command.
Even without magic, they were still supernaturals, cutthroat and resilient. They’d make it out alive.
Our train lurched, leaping over three tracks before hurtling straight toward another oncoming locomotive.
Shit. These trains were all murderous.
With a roar, I threw my arms wide. Dark flame erupted from me, slamming into the other empty train and melting it into slag. My heart finally slid from my throat back into my chest.
“Barbie,” Bea shouted over the roaring wind and screeching metal, “I think you just rewrote the rules of the trial.”
No shit.
A reckless idea sparked in my mind.
