“Stars,” Cassy breathes.
“We need to get out of here!” I scream.
Seraphina’s gaze flicks to the shifting walls, to the blood soaking into the stone.“We should leave her,” she says. “She’ll only slow us down.”
The words knock the air from my lungs.
Elena flinches but doesn’t move. Doesn’t argue. Just stares at the ground like if she doesn’t look, she won’t have to choose.
“Absolutely not,” I snap. “She’s alive.”
“For how long?” Seraphina counters coolly. “You heard her—‘might’isn’t good enough.” She turns away. “These trials aren’t about courage or honor—they’re meant to cull the weak.”
Rage burns hot and fast in my chest as Seraphina takes off down the path. Elena follows her without a word, leaving us behind.
The King’s words echo in my mind.Three hundred Bloodmoons, granted to prove we were worthy of survival.
Is this the price?
I look down at Vivian—bloodied, breathing, barely alive. Then at Mariel, hands trembling as she holds the bandage in place. At Cassy, pale but still standing. Still here.
I don’t owe these women anything. Not loyalty. Not allegiance. If there is to be only one queen—one savior—I finally understand why Seraphina and Elena would choose to thin the field.
My mother’s voice rises, steady and sure, as if she’s standing beside me again:What we do in life echoes into eternity.
I lift my head.
If survival demands the loss of our compassion, our humanity, then it isn’t survival at all.
I would rather die than become what this cruel world has been trying to make me my whole life.
Mariel and I hook Vivian’s arms over our shoulders. Cassy leads the way, eyes wildly scanning the maze. Vivian stumbles between us, her legs dragging, blood already soaking the strip of cloth.
The tunnel narrows with every step. The walls press close, scratching our shoulders, suffocating us. The ground begins to tilt backward as if the maze is a serpent trying to swallow us whole.
And then, just as the corridor corkscrews, the airchanges. Cold. Metallic. Sharp enough to sting my lungs. The ground twists again, and we fall, sliding down a slope so steep that it feels vertical. My boots scrape against slick stone. Cassy shrieks. I try to brace myself but lose my footing, tumbling down, down, until—
We crash into a chamber.
My breath fogs instantly in the frigid air, and wind steals any last scrap of warmth still huddling against my bones.
But that isn’t the only thing that’s wrong.
There’s a tall fire crackling in the hearth, glowing with golden warmth. Plush cushions and soft rugs line the room, like someone’s quarters carved out of the mountain itself.
Mariel blinks, dazed. Cassy sinks to her knees, teeth chattering. Vivian is barely conscious, her lips blue.
“We… we need to stop. Just for a moment,” Cassy stammers, crawling toward the hearth.
“She’s right.” Mariel lowers Vivian down onto one of the rugs. “We won’t make it if she freezes.”
As they huddle together next to the fire, I sense it. The closer we get, the colder the room feels. I force myself to my feet,pushing past the dizziness, and step toward one of the torches on the wall. I reach out and put my hand into the flame.
It licks my skin. But it doesn’t burn.
My stomach knots. “The flame…” I murmur. “It doesn’t hurt.”
Mariel looks over, teeth chattering. “What are you talking about?”
