Page 86 of The Fifth Heir

“I know that too.”

“Then what are you deciding?” I asked.

Leander’s gaze met mine.

“Whether choosing to leave together constitutes a failure of the Trial.”

The question settled over the chamber.

We had not done what we were brought inside to do. No one reached a Crown Gate. No heir proved himself stronger, faster, or more capable than the others.

I had interfered with the contest until it stopped being one.

“If you want to complete your path, Frost is still sealed,” I said.

“I cannot reach it.”

“Then your decision has already been made for you.”

“No. That decision was made when I turned away from the open gate.”

“Why did you?”

His jaw tightened.

Rafe leaned toward Sebastian. “He hates obvious questions.”

Leander ignored him. “Because leaving through that gate while the rest of you remained in danger would not prove I was fit to rule.”

The Frost torc lit—not because Leander had been forced back from his gate, but because he had chosen to return to us.

Blue traveled across the floor.

All four elemental lines reached the clear rune.

The men had made their choices separately. The four lines held together.

The crystal at my throat tightened.

The sensation was not painful, but it demanded my attention. Heat, cold, wind, and Shadow gathered around the boundary of the center circle without entering it.

The Trial waited at the edge of my rune with four powers held perfectly still.

“They made a choice,” Sebastian said. “Now you have to.”

“About what?”

“The fifth torc opened the gate. It may need to close the Trial.”

“I don’t know how.”

“Neither did we.”

Torren’s red line brightened at the edge of mine. Whatever happened when I answered, he was not pulling away.

I placed both hands around the crystal ring.

The clear surface filled with four colors. They moved toward the front of my throat and met beneath my fingers.