The death toll continues to climb throughout the physical trials.
At this point, they no longer announce it over the intercoms. Rather, they just list names on delicate scrolls lined throughout the gloomy stone hallways. Amber flames from the wall candelabras splash warm colors over the names of the dead. The only warmth they’ll ever feel again. This is what they’ve become. A hollow name on a meaningless piece of parchment. These young men and women with big dreams and hopes of achievement are now just a bunch of useless letters.
Death and tribulations hold our hand each day, beckoning us.
Tempting us.
The trials have become increasingly harder with messier ways to die, and the fact that today is the last couldn’t be more welcome. I’m haunted by the things I’ve seen and endured. I feel like I’ve lived countless lives this week alone.
The dull ache in my knee is just starting to subside, but my shoulders still burn like hell from hanging on the rings in thefirst trial. Both of my hands are bandaged from the flesh being torn repeatedly. The treacherous climb up the rocks on trial two didn’t help matters. A swift and brutal kick to the jaw from a falling prospect climbing up those same rocks also didn’t make things easier on me.
I wiggle my jaw back and forth.
It still hurts like a bitch.
It would be unfair to forget the gash across my abdomen that the Alkinean bear gave me during our forge through the Forsaken Forest during trial three. That will be a nice souvenir after this is all said and done. Alkinean bears are four to five times the size of a normal bear, and they are ferocious. Also, funny enough, very territorial.
They feasted that day.
The professors were kind enough to give us friendly advice before leaving us in the dense trees—don’t die.
That’s it.
That was the lifeline they tossed us.
Not all of us listened.
They also forgot to mention the forest dwellers that live and breathe to kill, or the fact that we would have to make it past them to get to the green base. The base was our ticket out of the forest. We found it and succeeded, or we tried until we didn’t.
Conveniently, it was the same color as every damn tree surrounding us.
This place is more than just an academy.
It’s a damn battlefield.
Had it not been for the dagger that Ambrose gave me, I would have been a morsel for the taking. The only reason I wasn’t is sheer luck. I ducked and rolled after the first strike of its paw to my stomach and hid in an abandoned burrow. By some weird stroke of fortune, the burrow was covered in Braxton berries, which I used my dagger to cut open and rub all over myself. If itwasn’t for the sharp blade, I’d never have been able to penetrate the hard outer shell. The smell is so repulsive that it even deters bears from eating you.
I hold my arm up to my nose.
I still stink.
Gravel crunches under my boots as I make my way outside to the courtyard where we’ve been instructed to meet. I’ve barely made it a few steps before a pair of hands falls over my eyes.
“Guess who?” a deep voice whispers softly in my ear.
A defeated sigh escapes before I can rein it back in, and disappointment curdles in my stomach. I thought it was Ambrose. I was hoping it was him.
I press my hands over the back of the ones covering my eyes and pull them away. “Don’t you have anything better to do, Finnley?”
He drops his hands to his sides as I turn to face him. A roguish smile plays across his face, and he looks like he doesn’t, in fact, have anything better to do. Other than pestering me. “You know better than that. Besides, you’re my partner today,” he states before rubbing the top of my head like an annoying brother might.
I push his hands off the top of my head, my braid now thoroughly messed up.
“What are you talking about?” I ask in a cautious tone, patting my hair down and trying to subdue it into submission.
Today is the last trial. I’ve heard the last is the worst, but I don’t know how they can top the previous ones.
“A leprechaun-looking professor just came by telling us to partner up,” he explains, jerking his chin in the direction of the battlement. “So are you ready, partner?” He emphasizes the ‘P’ in partner extra hard.
