She must feel it too.
But before Cedric could say anything, Kit stood, pulling Elyria to her feet before they dropped their hands and drew apart.
“First things first, though,” said Kit.
“The whole ‘getting out of here’ thing?” Elyria asked.
Kit nodded, then turned to address Thraigg and Nox in addition to Cedric and Elyria. “Anyone have a clue what we’re supposed to do now?”
Nox hummed as they got up and approached the rest of the group. “It is rather curious that we have not received any additional communication from the Arbiter, is it not?”
“Curious? It’s damned baffling,” said Thraigg.
“Precisely,” said Kit. “Where’s our congratulations for surviving another trial? Our ominous instructions on what is to come in the final one?”
“What makes you think only one remains?” asked Cedric.
“Oh, she hasn’t shared her theory with you yet?” Elyria asked.
Cedric shook his head.
“Kit’s convinced that the Arbiter’s proclamation back in Castle Lumin painted a map through the trials for us.”
“Was I wrong?” Kit looked affronted. “The Arbiter told us that the trials would demand strength and power and test our resolve and spirit. Trial of Strength, check. Trial of Spirit, check.”
“Trial of Magic?”
“Power, magic.” Kit glared at her friend. “As I’ve said before,semantics.”
Elyria clucked her tongue. “Which would mean that we have, what, a Trial of Resolve remaining? That doesn’t make any sense to me.”
“Is the trial seeing how long we resolve to wait here like bumbling idiots?” Thraigg grumbled.
“Perhaps the Arbiter’s words are not an exact match for what we’ve come to experience, then,” Cedric said. “But the prophecy still is.”
“The prophecy?” repeated Elyria.
Cedric cleared his throat. “From shadow and fire, champions rise, forged in the Crucible of fate. Strength, spirit, magic, and concord test the trials beyond the Gate.”
Elyria was smirking at him when he finished his recitation, and embarrassment kept him from repeating the final two lines. Nobody else seemed to notice, though.
“So, not the Trial of Resolve, then, but the Trial of Concord?” Kit asked, her brow furrowing over her mismatched eyes.
A chill fell over the chamber, blanketing the group of champions like a shroud. Cedric didn’t understand why. Didn’t understand why Elyria went suddenly stiff, her breath catching, her gaze pinned on a spot somewhere behind Kit’s moonlight-silver head. Didn’t understand the expression of pure, unbridled disbelief on her face.
Not even as a voice—low and male and gentle and one that Cedric had certainly never heard before—cut through the silence like a knife.
“I always knew you were the smart one.”
PART IV
FORGED
42
IMPOSSIBLE REUNION
ELYRIA
