I gasped.
'You saw that?'Kaelric asked, his voice tight, breathing ragged.
'Yes. Just for a second,’Iadmitted.
What had I just seen? A wolfkin murder her own bonded? Much like Kaelric had years ago.
‘Why would she do that?’I blinked, praying for my vision to return, even if for a second.
'Because you carry something that matters. Valkaryn. A different future.'
A different future? It didn’t make sense.
‘We have to go. Now,’he commanded.
‘You’re hurt.’
‘I’m fine.’
I reached out and found his fur again. He nudged my hand, and we moved north, toward the end of the trial and whatever came next.
‘What about the wolfkin? She saved our lives.’
‘She is prepared to sacrifice everything. Just move.’
We walked as one.
Traitor wolf and magicless girl.
Blade and bonded.
Into whatever waited beyond the dark.
We climbed an incline in silence, my boots dragging over uneven stone and gravel. The slope felt steeper now, or maybe I was just that exhausted. My legs burned and my hands ached. My body had given up, stopped bothering to tell me it was tired.
A final gust of air brushed against my cheeks, cooler, clearer. Real.
Then there was light, not magic. Not fire. Just sunlight.
I blinked, my vision flickering back as if the trial’s spell had been tied to the location. I gasped, squinting against the sudden glare.
The exit was a stone archway carved directly into the mountainside. Vines curled around its pillars like fingers. Just beyond it, a platform of smooth stone opened into a narrow terrace that overlooked the training grounds far below. We were somehow high up the mountain, on the dais the house sponsors had been at before.
Kaelric brushed against my hip, still in his wolf form, and nudged me forward with his snout.
The cool air hit my face like a slap. I stumbled onto the terrace just as the first rays of morning sun crestedover the far ridge. Below us, the city of Steel Mountain was beginning to stir. The sound of distant bells chimed, and voices drifted upward.
A small council of robed figures stood at the far edge of the platform, cloaked in layered garments of various colors. They stood motionless, observing. All except one.
Cassian was grinning from ear to ear as he watched us approach.
Magistrate Corvessa stood at their center, her hands folded, expression unreadable.
Kaelric shifted beside me, his body shuddering as fur withdrew and limbs reshaped. He suddenly stood beside me now as a man, shirtless and bloodstained, with a bleeding gash in his shoulder, his expression hard.
Corvessa took one step forward, scowling at us like we were the scum of the earth.
“You emerged from the arena alive. The first trial is complete.” Her voice held so much anger I thought she might start screaming. It carried effortlessly across the space to us.
