The rest of the recruits filed into the room, their boots echoing off stone.
Malcolm strode over to the center, urging us to spread out in front of him. His little ferret peeped from where it stood near his boots, giving its own directions.
Kira entered and leaned against the wall behind him, watching with a sneer on her pretty face. Her red hair fell like a waterfall of blood down her back, and her pale skin glowed in the morning light streaming through the windows. The death adder now rode around her throat, of all places, and lifted its head and flicked its tongue out to taste the air. Kira’s gaze trapped mine from across the room, and her slick smile quirked upward.
Whatever game was being played between her and the king, I suspected I’d been branded as her rival.
“Today, you will enter the Rite of Bonds.” Malcolm’s voice rang out across the hall, and I dragged my attention away from Kira. “Every bonded warrior in this court has walked this path. Your king,your commanders, each person with true power in Syllavar has faced the challenge you’re about to take on.”
His ferret chittered, and Malcolm sent it a sweet smile before his head lifted, his gaze narrowing again on us.
“This isn’t a test,” he said. “And it’s not a game. Some call it a doorway. You either walk through it transformed, or you don’t walk through it at all.” He paused, letting that sink in. “Some of you will not make it through. Accept that now or leave. A ferryman will happily take you to the distant shore, and you can make your way through the world with your limited magic.”
No one moved.
Trew emerged from an archway, taking a position along the wall where he could observe everything. Kira’s weighty focus finally left me, sliding over to him.
When I met his gaze, a spark passed between us, a warning that whatever burned between us could leave scars.
My pulse thundered in my throat.
His eyes darkened as they swept over me in the leather he’d chosen, and his jaw clenched as if he was fighting not to cross the room and put his hands on me.
I suspected he wanted totouchme. Wanted to see if the leather felt as good as it looked hugging my curves. The thought made my knees weaken and my magic flare, responding to the heat building between us like kindling to flame.
His lips curved in that devastating half-smile, a dangerous acknowledgment that neither of us was safe from what burned between us.
Unfortunately, Kira had noticed his attention. She sent a scowl my way.
“The Rite of Bonds will strip away everything you think you know about yourself,” Malcolm said, though I barely heard him over the roar of blood in my ears. “It will test more than your strength, more than your speed. It will show you who you truly are when death is breathing across your skin.”
Trew’s lips curved before smoothing, as if he knew exactly what kind of person I was when cornered. As if he were looking forward to seeing what I could do.
He could think whatever he wanted. My goal was to make it through. I wouldn’t accept anything less. Then I could search this place from top to bottom and find out what happened to Addie.
“Those who prove themselves worthy will then be given the final, and may I say, mostblessedchallenge. You may make it through the trial only to be rejected in the end. Yet those who bond with their other half will never be the same again.”
Lexie rocked on her toes and sent me a grin that held both fear and excitement. Derren, on her other side, squeezed her hand.
They were all in.
What exactly was I getting into here? I’d thought this trial was a simple thing and easily completed. Now I was beginning to suspect the “bond” would not only last a lifetime but imprint itself on my soul.
“The trial begins when you reach Fernwood,” Malcolm said. “A magical world in an alternate realm that’s used only for the Rite of Bonds. Your objective is to survive. How you accomplish that is entirely up to you. I remind you that this is no game. You’ll live, or you won’t.”
His gaze drilled into me. “If you’re not willing to take the risk, I suggest you leave now. No one will stop you.”
Absolutely not. If I died, so be it.
But I’d do all I could to live.
Turning away from me, Malcolm studied a man standing off to my left with his fists clenched at his sides, his face ruddy. “Today, you’re recruits. Make it through the trial and the bonding, and you’ll be warriors. No magic use inside the Rite, by the way. Even paltry abilities are blocked.”
I didn’t know how to use mine anyway.
“Magic clouds judgment,” Malcolm said. “We need to see whoyou are without it, what kind of strength you bring when stripped bare of all power.”
“That’s it?” someone asked behind me. “Live through the Rite and you’ll be called a warrior? No rules, no directions, no… I don’t know. Guidance, maybe?”
