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31
Raven
The restof the week flew by in a blur of classes, stolen moments with each of my mates and bouts of nervous pacing at the thoughts of the upcoming trials.
Tomorrow, everything would change.
But tonight, I wasn’t going to let it get to me. Or at least I was trying not to. Makayla was propped on a pile of pillows on her bed and I sat in the squishy hot pink chair next to her bed.
Tonight was about relaxing and trying not to let the impending doom of the trials create too heavy of a fog around us.
So far, it wasn’t working well. We were both wound tight, our conversations always coming back to the trials.
“Your partners aren’t going to let you down, right?” I asked Makayla again. She’d been paired with two wolf shifters, a mage, and a demon. It was an odd group, though I suppose no weirder than my own.
“We’ll be fine,” she said. “Besides, I’m much more worried about you.”
“Me?” I was surprised to hear her say that. I had told her far too many details about the last week. “I’m pretty sure I’m going to be just fine.”
“You’re in a unique situation, for sure,” she said. “Paired with your four mates is good and all, you know they’ll do anything for you but at what risk?”
“I know,” I said. “We discussed that. I’m the weak link in the group.”
She shook her head. “You’re not the weak link. Don’t ever say that. Nothing about you is weak. You’re the bond that holds them all together. You’re also the one the others would do something stupid to protect if they don’t trust you.”
“They trust me,” I said.
“But can they trust you to take care of yourself?” She threw a pillow at me and I caught it. “If I were in your group, I’d worry about myself andknowthat you were fine. You can take care of yourself. If they’re too busy watching what you’re doing because they feel like they have to swoop in and rescue you, they won’t pay attention to what they’re doing.”
“You’re right,” I said. “But I think they get that. I hope.”
“I hope so too,” she said. “There’s nobody in my group that I’m emotionally attached to. We’ll help each other, sure, cause we have a vested interested in passing. Not cause we care if the other survives.”
“Brutal,” I said, tossing the pillow back to her.
“It’s the point of the trials, though.” She pulled the pillow to her chest and held it tight. “To weed out the supernaturals who can’t hack it. That’s why they do it. It’s some kind of left over Spartan thing. But they don’t put us out in the cold as babies. They wait till we’re so-called adults.”
“We’re going to be fine,” I said, not believing my own words. I knew I could count on my mates and I knew we prepared the best we could, but it still seemed overwhelming. I mean, the practice trails had a dragon. How were they going to top that? “What do you think it’ll be like?”
“No idea,” she said. “This is the first time they’ve ever moved it up or done it in groups.”
A knock sounded on the door and Makayla jumped off her bed and raced to the door. I wondered if Remi was here for a booty call. She was still seeing him but still not willing to call it anything other than a casual fling.
“Anyone in the mood for a pizza?” A familiar male voice called.
I turned to see Luka standing in the doorway, a cardboard box in his hands. To my surprise, he was accompanied by Ben, Matt, and Zach.
My brow furrowed. Why were all four of them together? Without me? I wasn’t sure that had ever happened before.
“Pizza?” I asked suspiciously as I walked to the door.
Makayla took it from Luka. “Thanks. But you’re still not invited. Girls only tonight.”
“We’re not trying to intrude,” Matt said. “We just wanted to drop some things off for the two of you.”
“Together?” I asked, a hand on my hip.
“Well, if we’re going to have to work together tomorrow, we have to be civil at least,” Luka said.
