Thunder rumbled ominously in the distance, and I shivered involuntarily.
“This is as far as I can go,” Kilian said, my vision filled by him. He brushed a hand across my cheek. I leaned in to his touch. “I won’t say goodbye.”
“Don’t.” It was too painful to bear.
“I’ll wait for you here. Don’t be late.” His smile was soft, sad, and I pulled away from the ache in our link. It echoed the sorrow in my heart.
I took a step away from him and it was the most painful thing I had ever done in my life. My chest twinged like it had been carved wide open with each step away from Kilian and toward the sand. But I forced my legs forward, until I stood beside Lana. She reached out to entwine her hand with mine.
We had said our goodbyes earlier in the dorms. The look that passed between us now conveyed only love. Moric slung an arm around me, pressing a kiss to my forehead before doing the same to Lana. He took position beside her, linking his hand with hers.
“Do you remember when we met?” Lana cocked her head toward me.
“Of course. You saved my life,” I said.
She shook her head. “Do you remember what I told you?”
I thought back, sifting through my memories, before whispering, “Lirah and Lana.”
She looked out at the frozen tundra. “Our deaths will be poetic as fuck.” Her words were carried away on a summit breeze.
I hadn’t told them about the trace magic remaining in me. I couldn’t bear to see the sadness in their eyes as they realized my already slim probability of survival had decreased even more.
Instead, I squeezed Lana’s hand, looking over at her and Moric. “Don’t say that. We’ve been training. Just remember what we’ve learned.”
Moric gave a determined nod, Lana a weaker one. I could see hesitation in her eyes. The nerves must have gotten to her. I knew they had continued practicing channeling the excess current while I’d been healing in Greyhaven. I could only pray it was enough to have given them a slight advantage for what we were about to face. I remembered what Kilian had taught me. I knew what I needed to do with whatever magic remained in me. We all just needed to focus, and we would make it through.
“We’re the trio. We’re going to be fine,” I said, as if my sheer will alone would make it true. “We have to be.”
And on that final note, I threw one last look at Kilian over my shoulder as we walked across the boundary line. There was a pulling sensation. A resistance band snapping around my body, tugging me back. It was like being cloaked beneath the weight of magic. A heady, dizzying pressure that pulsed against me. Testing. Probing for weaknesses. Pain lanced through me as the magic forced me to relive some of my darkness memories. Being torn away from a voiceless Umma, Anama’s death, my flesh melting and burning.
And then it was done. The pressure lifted. I had been deemed worthy – strong enough – to enter the Rite.
I cleared the boundary, and it was as if I had stepped through frosted glass. The elven on the other side disappeared completely. The only thing visible was the flat expanse of land before me and the other candidates. From the traumatized looks on their faces, they, too, had undergone a similar experience.
Moric released a shaky breath. “What happens now?”
Rayna strode forward a few steps. “We wait.”
I unclasped hands with Lana, my gaze on one of the rocks a few feet ahead. I walked toward it, toeing it with my boot, until it flipped over. I yelped, jumping back.
Lana came to stand beside me, peering down at what I had thought was a rock. “That’s…”
“A human skull,” I finished, bile rising in my throat.
“Gods above,” she breathed.
“I don’t think the gods are going to help us here,” I said.
Thunder roared, seemingly directly above us. The sound made my teeth clench. Lightning skittered overhead, and I stared up at the night sky. Felt the building current.
“RUN!” I yelled.
We scattered, even though there was nowhere to go. Just endless, snowy mountain and bare bones from candidates past.
Rayna shrieked as lightning struck down a few feet ahead of her, singeing the ground. Snow fizzled and melted, and a strong electric current permeated the air. Everything felt hazy, the pungent scent of scorched rock and chlorine in the air.
Lighting flashed across the sky in lashes of purple, dancing across the summits. I didn’t know if it was me screaming, or if it was Lana or the others. I skidded across the snow, dodging strike after strike and trying to keep my balance. Lightning slashed down in a great surge, and I was knocked backward. From the periphery of my vision, I saw Caleb come to an abrupt halt, as lighting speared through him. The scent of burning flesh seared my nostrils, and I dry heaved, my stomach empty.
