Total pages in book: 214
Estimated words: 195876 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 979(@200wpm)___ 784(@250wpm)___ 653(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 195876 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 979(@200wpm)___ 784(@250wpm)___ 653(@300wpm)
"Bullshit." His eyes search mine, looking for lies. "You pulled energy from the stone. I felt it. Just like you pulled fire from me that first day. You need to be far more cautious. Anybody could’ve seen.”
The revelation hits me like a punch to the gut. He felt it? How? And why does he care if people see?
Before I can respond, his expression shifts, something like reluctant concern flashing across his features. "Malakai has friends among the third-years who help with the trial. They'll likely tell him where everybody enters the lake. That means he'll know where to find you."
I blink, thrown by the warning. "Why tell me this? How do you even know for that matter?"
He turns to leave, but I catch his wrist, the contact sending another surge of warmth into my body. "Why are you helping me?" I press.
His jaw tightens, eyes dropping to where my fingers circle his wrist. "Maybe I'm just saving you for later," he says finally, the words held together by tension and something unspoken. The electricity between us is practically visible, crackling in the air like static.
I don't believe him for a moment, but he pulls free and strides away before I can push him for more.
All I'm left with is the warm memory of where our skin touched. That, and the knowledge that Malakai is probably going to use the trial to hunt me down and kill me. Unfortunately for him, I'm starting to see I'm not nearly as defenseless as he thinks.
And if he wants to come after me when I'm literally surrounded by water? Well… I might actually have a chance to make him regret it. A dangerous smile forms on my face—for once, I don’t feel like prey waiting to be slaughtered. I might finally have teeth of my own.
10
"You look like shit," Mireen observes helpfully as we trudge down to Mirror Lake in the predawn chill. Over my shoulder, I see Confluence Academy's four elemental towers punching through a cloud of mist.
My heart sinks like a stone in deep water. Part of me wonders if this will be my last time seeing the academy—if I'll die out here in these murky depths.
We walk with the other water offerings in our best attempt at "swimwear." Since they don't provide us with anything except uniforms and underwear, most of us have simply stripped down to nearly nothing. Some of the guys have just removed their tops and wear the long white slacks we’re given for bottoms.
Weeks of hard training and being fed well is already shaping us into something new. Muscles ripple where they didn't before and stores of fat have melted away, long since burned for energy or survival.
"I look like shit? Thanks," I mutter, stifling another yawn. After Raith's warning, sleep had been impossible. I'd spent half the night trying to decode more of the unbound book, searching for anything that might help me survive whatever waited in the lake. I'd even foolishly crept out of the room and looked for him at the wall, but I haven't seen him again since that first night. When I finally did lie down to sleep, the nightmares came more vividly than ever before.
Worse, when I did finally drift to sleep, Mireen’s “pets” managed to wake me several times. Her single rat has either multiplied or told friends about easy access to food. Our room is now shared by several chittering, scurrying little rats who sometimes climb my bed to sniff my face in my sleep.
Mireen calls it cute. I call it difficult to sleep through.
The eastern sky is just beginning to lighten as we reach the lakeshore, where Primal Sestra waits with several other instructors and groups of older students in black uniforms, either trimmed in aspirant silver or the silver and gold marking them as legacies. Behind them, the lake stretches like black glass, mist curling across its surface in ghostly patterns.
The remaining first-year water offerings gather in nervous clusters, their breath fogging in the cold air. Malakai and his people cluster together, eyes hard and violent as they look at us. Shirtless, I can see just how terrifyingly racked with muscle and power his body is. He looks like he could punch a hole straight through stone, and I know he’s no slouch when it comes to channeling, either.
A ball of worry and anger forms in my chest at his attention. Half of me wants to lift my middle finger and the other half wants to shrink away in fear.
"Waters," Sestra's voice carries across the shore without effort. "Today you face the element that calls to you. Those who pass will continue their journey toward Confluence Day. Those who fail..." She leaves the sentence unfinished, but we all know what failure means here.
"The trial is simple," she continues. "I have placed elemental echoes at varying depths throughout the lake. Each of you must retrieve at least one echo to pass. There are enough echoes for all of you, but some will be harder to find than others."