Page 87 of The Fifth Heir

I thought about the outer field.

The headmaster and runemasters waiting beyond the gate. My parents watching from the Hall. Camilla seeing her unshifted sister trapped inside a Trial never built for her.

I wanted to leave. Not alone. Not as the accidental fifth participant sent back to the observation platform. I wanted all five of us beyond the mountain.

The clear rune blazed.

Light passed from it into the four elemental lines, moving away from me rather than toward me. Each torc flashed as the light reached its heir.

The sealed path doors unlocked.

They did not open.

The mountain shook hard enough to send all of us to the floor.

I caught myself with both hands. Pain ran through my shoulder, but I stayed inside the center rune.

Stone ground behind me.

The outer Crown Gate split along its central seam.

Morning light entered through the widening gap.

The five torcs dimmed together.

Torren reached me first. He caught my uninjured arm and pulled me upright against him before the floor could shake again. His grip shifted immediately, careful of my shoulder even while stone broke around us.

“Move,” he said.

The Trial began collapsing around us.

Cracks spread from the elemental entrances. Wind escaped through the Storm seal, carrying pieces of stone into the center. Fire burned along the base of Torren’s door. Frost covered the ceiling while Shadow thickened in every corner.

We ran.

Rafe and Sebastian reached the outer threshold first. Leander followed, one hand against the side of the gate as another tremor shook the mountain.

Torren kept hold of my arm as though the Trial might try to claim me again.

The gate started closing.

“Go,” I told him.

“Together,” he said, with no room left for argument.

We crossed the threshold as the stone shut behind us.

The field outside had filled with officials.

Runemasters surrounded the entrance, pressing control stones against the arch. Academy guards stood with their weapons raised, while the medical team waited several yards away.

The headmaster reached us before anyone else.

“Are all five of you alive?”

Rafe looked down at himself. “Parts of me may still be in there.”

The headmaster counted us anyway, his gaze touching each face as though numbers alone could confirm we had all returned.