AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Meegana squeezed me, her tone sorrowful. “It appears so.”
Disappointment filled me.Why have I been working my backside off if all they care about is how quickly we fly?
The crowd seemed to share my sentiment since surprised murmurs erupted along with a few disgruntled snorts.
“You might be wondering why the test is so simple.” Sir Featherton twirled toward the crowd again. “And that’s because it’snotthat simple.”
He spun toward us and spread his arms wide. “Daughters of the Solis continent, be sure to keep your wits about you. This isn’t a test merely to engage your flying skills. It’s also a test to determine the range of your skills along with your ability to see beyond what meets the eye.”
Leaving us with those cryptic words, he dipped back to face the crowd and grinned wickedly. “May the strongest female win.”
* * *
The four ofus were ushered to the center of the courtyard. I tried to wish Meegana and Beatrice good luck, but the guards positioned us away from each other so quickly that I didn’t get a chance.
The entire time I felt Norivun’s gaze, like a predator prowling against my back. His aura rose more and more, the sheer power of his affinities like a cloud around us. The intensity of his energy completely dwarfed the crowd’s excitement. More than a few citizens drifted farther from the dais, giving the crown prince wary side-eyes before positioning themselves out of his sight.
King Novakin didn’t reprimand his son, though, and the king’s smug look made me wonder if he’d chosen this test intentionally to rile the crown prince because the king knew that the prince had taken an interest in me.
Despite Norivun trying to keep his obsession with me a secret, and despite no one knowing of our secret nights together, anyone with eyes could sense how he watched me.
And with a flag over twenty thousand feet above us hanging in midair by some unknown magical force, the king knew I would surely lose, because the other females would fly as fast as their wings could carry them, but I couldn’t. I didn’t have wings.
None of them had an air element, though. But even an air element couldn’t assist me without wings. Not yet at least.
While Matron Olsander had been teaching me to understand the subtleties of my affinities, I hadn’t mastered how to change air pressures. Once I did, I would be able to create pockets of higher pressure beneath my soles, allowing me to literally walk on air as my affinity lifted me, but I wasn’t there yet. I couldn’t rise higher than a few feet from the ground every time I’d tried, and the king probably knew that too.
Sweat lined my palms in earnest as the possibility of complete humiliation loomed. I cut Matron Olsander an anxious look. Her lips thinned as she stood atop the stairs leading to the castle’s front gates. Eyes burning into me, she subtly made a fist before whipping her hand to the side and spreading her fingers.
My lips parted. She couldn’t mean what I thought she meant...
I shook my head in disbelief as Sir Featherton began to issue orders to the guards, ensuring they kept the excited crowd at bay, but my trainer’s attention held firm. Her lips moved, and I strained to read them through the distance that separated us. On her third attempt, I finally understood.
You can do this.She made the same motion with her hand, and it took everything in me not to gape.
My trainer wanted me to mistphase to the flag.
“But that—” I didn’t realize I’d said anything out loud until the guard at my side gave me a quizzical look.
I clamped my mouth closed. She was crazy. Completely without sense if she thought I could mistphase to the flag while it hovered in midair thousands of feet above the ground. The amount of concentration, skill, utter perfection at mistphasing magic that it would take to pull off such a feat...
You’re mad, I mouthed back at her.
She arched an eyebrow and plopped her hands on her hips.Do you have a better idea?
I scowled. No, I didn’t. Of course, I didn’t. I didn’t have any idea what to do to retrieve the flag because I couldn’t fly.
The sense of my impending doom weighed even more upon my shoulders until I felt Matron Olsander’s firm look.
I glanced her way again to see sheer determination etched upon her face.You. Can. Do. This.
That statement left little room for argument. It was either try or fail.
She was right.
I had to try.
Some of the fluttering in my stomach calmed as the prince’s aura rose even higher. I didn’t dare look at Norivun. I was worried enough as it was, and it would take all of my concentration to attempt what Matron Olsander suggested. If I saw even a hint of worry rolling across his features, it would no doubt break my resolve.
