Page 221 of Axis of Fire

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“Training starts at nine tomorrow. Be in the dining hall no later than eight,” Tarven instructed as he stood outside the door to Airis’s quarters.

I lingered in the doorway, feeling the spirits’ stares on my back as they waited to see what would happen next.

“I still haven’t even seen the dining hall,” I admitted. “Where is it, anyway?”

“I’ll come get you in the morning, and we’ll go together,” Stasia said.

“We’ll come get you,” Tarven corrected immediately.

“Oh my God.” Stasia placed a hand over her chest in mock horror.

“I knew you hated spending even a single minute away from me, but Tarven…”

She grinned.

“Not to this extent.”

Tarven rolled his eyes.

“Goodnight, Illariana,” he said with a weary sigh before grabbing the still-grinning Stasia by the elbow and steering her down the corridor.

Shaking my head, I closed the door and stepped farther into the room.

“Well, look at that.”

Aars bared his sharp teeth in a grin.

“You're still alive.”

“You could’ve come with me, you know. You can leave Isthmond whenever you want,” I muttered, dropping into a chair.

“I had more interesting things to do,” Aars replied lazily, hopping onto the bed and folding his front paws behind his head as though he were human.

“Aars visited Mataarus,” Mortz informed me from the chair beside mine.

Luis, meanwhile, was—as always—jumping across Airis’s bed.

“What for?” I asked, turning to Aars.

“To learn more about the ways we can prove your direct connection to the world of the dead.”

“There is a connection,” I said confidently.

I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, revealing the two earrings.

“And what exactly are we supposed to be impressed by?” Aars asked with exaggerated boredom.

“They’re talismans.”

“They reacted to two different energies.”

“Fire and death.”

I gave him a pointed look.

Aars answered with an exaggerated yawn.