Cai stood and a whisper, a cold kiss, brushed over my skin. He’d released the sound barrier. “Well, as long as it’s not right now, I’ll deal.”
I wish I had his confidence. My stomach churned as we joined the crowd half-walking, half-stumbling, back to the loop. There were plenty of drawn faces, limps, and mud-splattered clothing. A few sported bandaged limbs and nasty-looking burns. It seemed I’d gotten off easy.
Our pace slowed to a crawl after passing the obstacle course. Ahead were a dozen recruits who’d waited for the announcement rather than go eat. Adrianna and Frazer were among them. Meanwhile, the instructors were grouped up, whispering to one another—of what, I wondered.
Before I could stare too long at a certain long-limbed, broad shouldered fae, I turned my attention to Frazer.
Where did you disappear to? I projected down our thread.
I was around, Frazer shot back.
If you don’t want to tell me, you could just say so.
Silence.
A girl belonging to Cecile’s pack ran over to Cai. “Thank the courts! You made it,” she trilled, her elfin face erupting into a smile.
“Annie.” Cai acknowledged her in a warm voice. “Have you no confidence in me?”
She practically melted on the spot. Gods, I hoped that wasn’t what I looked like with Wilder.
He slung an arm over her shoulders and steered her away, but not before giving us a wink over his shoulder. Liora clucked her tongue. “Why in a witch’s warts did I get stuck with such an insufferable flirt for a brother?”
“Just good luck, I guess.” I linked arms with her.
A whispered hush descended, and our heads turned toward the instructors. They were breaking apart and moving to face us.
“We need a count,” Dimitri said with his typical scowl.
Goldwyn rolled with it, adding, “Thanks for volunteering.”
Dimitri snapped his teeth at her. She answered with a smile. Damn, how did she restrain herself?
Dimitri’s hands locked behind his back as he regarded us. “I want every recruit standing in a line, now!”
Liora and I positioned ourselves on the far left. Dimitri started counting heads. I was peering up the line, trying to riddle out which recruit had failed, when Liora tugged on my jacket. “Someone’s watching you,” she breathed.
I blinked. “Who?”
She gave me a feline smile, satisfied and smug. “Guess.”
Her gaze shifted to rest on the instructors. One look for myself told me she’d meant Wilder. He was staring.
A twitch of his lip and then he was gone, his eyes roaming. I wasn’t sure what to think. Liora must’ve seen my confusion because she whispered, “He’s happy you made it.”
I almost denied it, but this was Liora, not Cai. I’d never told her about my feelings for Wilder, but she’d seen anyway.
“How long?” she whispered. There was no trace of her smirk now, only curious eyes staring up at me.
It was obvious what she meant. With too many earwigging fae around to give a proper answer, I whispered, “A while.”
A nod, as if to say she’d known the whole time.
Dimitri finished counting and walked over to the rest of the mentors, nodding.
Wilder shouted, “Now that we have you all here, we can announce that the second recruit to fail the loop was Dustin Rover.”
My heart slammed into my ribcage. And Wilder’s eyes found mine. “He was caught sabotaging another recruit.” He looked elsewhere and called out, “The next trial begins in three days and will depend upon your ability to work in a team.”
He allowed a few seconds of excited whispers—just enough time for Dimitri to cut in. “But, you won’t be staying in your old packs.” Obviously relishing the shock wave he’d unleashed, he said, “Each mentor will now pick a leader to head up a new group. All except for Wilder. The rules of the first trial mean that since his recruit failed last, he cannot pick a leader. In plain speech, he’ll be left with the ones that don’t get picked. The weaklings. And only five, at that.”
His words hit me like a smattering of stones. Blow after blow. To leave Tysion and Cole behind would be a relief, but Frazer? Adrianna?
Mercifully, Goldwyn interrupted. “To be clear, due to numbers and as a punishment for the recruits we lost, Wilder’s pack and my own are to face the upcoming trials with five members, as opposed to the six on Cecile’s, Dimitri’s, and Mikael’s teams. In three days from now, these new packs will be sent on a quest that begins with us giving you a map. On the back will be written an object that we expect you to retrieve. You’ll have nine days, and you won’t complete the trial until a member of your pack hands the item over to your instructor. If a group fails to retrieve their quest object …”
A pause followed, which Dimitri filled. “The whole pack will be kicked out.”
I stopped breathing. The whole pack.
Goldwyn’s wings rustled in annoyance. “Yes. I think we should move on with choosing the leaders.”
Dimitri snorted derisively.
“One moment.”
Goldwyn’s head whipped to her right. Cecile, like Mikael, rarely spoke, so she was easy to overlook. Especially as she was short and petite, with snowy-white wings and hair that seemed destined to fade into the background. Ghost Cat, indeed. Something told me that made her more—not less—dangerous.
“Shouldn’t we tell them what happens if more than one group fails?”
“Of course, Ceecee.” Goldwyn gave her a warm smile that spoke of a much deeper intimacy. Her eyes swept up and down the line of recruits. “If more than one pack is unsuccessful, you’ll fight it out in the ring. Winner stays, loser goes home.”
Murmurs met this announcement, and a heavy doom settled on my shoulders. My fate felt decided. No one would pick me. I’d be in the reject pack—the one most likely to fail.
Auntie tsked loudly. Don’t count yourself out so soon. Or are you secretly hoping no one picks you?
Why would I do that?
I’m in your head, child. I see the way you look at your instructor.
My cheeks boiled.
“Now, let’s get on with the selection,” Goldwyn said airily. “I’ll be kicking us off. I choose Caiden Verona to be the leader of the White Tigers.”
Cai detached himself from the line and went to stand next to Goldwyn. He caught Liora and I smiling at him and winked in our direction.
“I choose Tysion Kato,” Dimitri declared.
The burly male fae strutted over to his new instructor and something sank in my chest.
“Myla Peron will be the leader of the Ghost Cats,” Cecile said smoothly.
I silently cheered as the first female was chosen. Myla also happened to be one of the nicer fae in Kasi, and easily the most vibrant with braided blue hair and vibrant pink wings.
“I pick Moso Yumi,” Mikael said in his usual deep timbre.
Moso mirrored his instructor in appearance; muscly with ebony skin and black wings.
“Now that we’ve chosen,” Dimitri drawled, “we leave it up to the leaders to pick the first recruit. But we expect that each of you choose wisely because your second will choose the third member of your pack. Just as the third will pick the fourth and so on and so forth. We do it like this so no recruit can turn around and blame us for your poor decision-making—”
“Yes,” Goldwyn snapped, beating her yellow wings in a show of impatience. “Let’s not drag this out. Cai, you can pick first, but remember our pack’s only allowed five recruits, so make it good.”
I glanced sideways at Liora to find her tense, worried. She wasn’t the best of the best, but surely family would mean more— “Li.”
My face split into a grin. He didn’t even bother with her full name. Why would he? Everyone knew who he meant. Dimitri proved this by making a disgusted noise. “No surprises there, then.”
A powerful urge hit me. I really wanted to bite the courts out of that wingless worm.
Liora wasn’t moving, so I gave her a small push at the base of her spine. “Go on.”
She stumbled forward; she looked almost embarrassed. Goldwyn smiled as Liora came to rest by her brother. “Good choice.”
Dimitri stared at Goldwyn in open contempt. “Tysion, I trust you’ll make your decision based on merit rather than familial ties.”