The realization struck hard- there was only one fast way to retrieve my map. I would have to use my fire as ropes and reverse-hike down the cliff.
It was madness but it was my only way forward.
I shaped a fire rope between my hands, secured it to a sturdy rock, then carefully wrapped it around my hips and legs. Where the rope touched my ribs, it hurt deeply, but I had to endure it. Without giving myself time to think it through, I stepped off the cliff.
My boots scraped against the rocky wall as I slowly fed more fire into the rope, lowering myself foot by foot toward the beach below.
If the fall didn’t kill me, the magic drain might. Sunlight wouldn’t recharge me until dawn. I shoved the thought aside and kept descending until my feet finally sank into sand.
It took nearly thirty minutes to reach the ground.
I scanned the beach. The shoreline was more than fifty feet away, the tide couldn’t have dragged the map out to sea. Leaving the fire ropes anchored above me, I summoned another flame to see better. Even then, the beach remained swallowed by darkness. How was I supposed to find a piece of paper out here?
It felt impossible, like searching for a needle in the night.
I was done. That was it. Sunhearts didn’t see well in the dark. Moonlight didn’t recharge our magic. I had spent most of my stored power just getting down here for nothing. I had been naive to think I’d actually find it.
I sank into the sand, staring at the dark stretch of beach ahead of me. A tear slipped down my cheek, and I didn’t bother to wipe it away. I sat there in silence for what felt like hours.
When I finally checked my clock, I still had eighteen hours left to complete two trials. Not bad if I actually had my map.
I closed my eyes and took a steady breath. Get it together, Thea Solenhart.
When I opened them again, I forced myself to search once more, slowly, deliberately. As my gaze traced the rocks along the cliff wall, I saw it. A scrap of paper was wedged between the stones, about thirty feet away.
The light was dim, barely there. So faint it was a wonder I’d seen it at all. But I had.
I sprinted toward it before the wind could drag it away again and snatched it off the ground.
My fingers shook as I unfolded the map, revealing the mark for the second trial, the magical test.
My chest tightened at the location.
I knew exactly where it was. I could find it almost effortlessly. The problem was the distance.
It was hours away.
I shoved the map back into my pocket and let out a scream, raw and unfiltered.
“The meadow by the courtyard?” I yelled toward the sea. “Really? Solvir, you have to be laughing at me right now.”
I threw my hands up. “If I get there by dawn, it’ll be a miracle.”
The second trial was often tied to something personal to the student. Of course, mine was the meadow the place I retreated to when I needed silence, when I needed to think.
That didn’t make it any less infuriating.
If I didn’t know better, I’d think someone was doing this on purpose—stretching me thin, forcing me to fail by exhaustion alone.
Then a voice cut through the spiral in my mind.
Lorik Draventh’s voice. Calm. Controlled and annoyingly composed. “Breathe. Control the emotion before they control you.”
I exhaled slowly.
Fine. His lectures were finally paying off.
I forced the coiling anger down and turned my focus forward. I had to leave now if I wanted any chance of reaching the second trial and facing the Siren.
