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“Are you calling me a liar?” The voice was muffled through the down but I instantly recognized it as Vrail. She was shouting somewhere close by.

“You told me you’d wake her—”

“I tried, but—” I could tell from the high pitch of Vrail’s voice that her cheeks were crimson with fury.

Gerarda yanked the door open. “And yet she’s still in bed.”

I refused to acknowledge her and hoped the problem would go away.

“You can’t just walk into other people’s burls!” Vrail’s harsh whisper was not nearly as threatening as she wanted it to be.

I heard Gerarda’s soft feet come to a stop. “I thought you said Keera had been training you?”

“She has! Well, she was … it’s been a while since we—I’ve learned a lot from her!” Vrail finished with a stomp of her boot.

My stomach tightened with guilt. I hadn’t given Vrail any reason to defend me. I hadn’t coached her once since I rescued her from the dungeons.

“Then you should know by now that the only rule Keera abides by”—I heard the clang of something metal—“is to break the rules.” I turned just in time to see the flick of Gerarda’s wrist as she poured a water canister over my head.

I sat up in an instant and spat out the water at the back of my throat. I was glad that I had gone to bed in a long tunic that covered my arms even when soaked right through.

“You need to stop doing that!” I wiped the water off my face.

Gerarda raised one brow to a sharp and daring peak before tossing the rest of the vase into my face again.

I snarled at her with my fangs but Gerarda only turned on her heel back at Vrail who was standing, dumbstruck, at the end of the bed. “That is what I meant when I said do whatever needed to bedone. Don’t coddle her.” She turned to me. “You have five minutes to dress and meet us on the bridge.”

I pulled my legs over the edge of the bed and let my feet drop onto the floor. “I have the morning off from training.”

Gerarda crossed her arms, still holding the bronze pot. “From your special magic training, sure. But if we’re headed to the capital we need to trainallour weapons.” She flipped the small Elvish sword that Syrra had given her.

I fell back onto the bed but Gerarda grabbed my hand and pulled me back up. “I have to help Nikolai with the ship this afternoon so this is the only time that works.” Gerarda took a moment to take in the state of my room. She sniffed. Loudly.

“Do you want me to cut off your nose?” I wrapped my fingers around one of my shorter knives. “Remember you don’t heal as easily as me.”

Gerarda smirked. “I promise I’ll make it worth your while,Keera dear.” She waved her hand in a sarcastic but accurate rendition of Nikolai’s dramatic flair.

She practically skipped out of the room. Vrail turned to follow but waved her hands over the room first. “I’ll come over tonight and help with … this.”

I threw my knife at the wall and Vrail squealed her way out of my burl.

I stepped outside in the only clean clothes I had. Gerarda merely nodded her head once before jumping off the bridge to the ground below. She floated along the vine like she’d been doing it for centuries. Curving around the slick rope in lazy circles as the ground grew closer until she finally let go and landed softly on both feet.

I clenched against the smooth vine until my skin ripped, stopping only a few inches from the ground, and collapsed. My chest heaved from the exertion, but Vrail and Gerarda ignored it. They marched through the main grove toward the lake, silently checking every few minutes to ensure I was following them.

“No,” I said when they stopped outside of the training field. Syrra and Riven were waiting at the center of it surrounded by a series of posts sticking out from the ground at different heights. It reminded me of the bridge to the Order. Before Damien’s soldiers had blown it into nothing. I had already been too tired for basic sword work; this was going to kill me before I ever got my wine.

“You need the practice,” Gerarda said, shoving into me as she walked past.

“I haven’t lost my skill in two months.”

Gerarda spun around on the tip of her toes with a boyish grin on her face. “That is alie.”

I scoffed before realizing she was serious. Riven had crossed the field and reached me in time to stop me from pouncing on the little Halfling, but Gerarda shoved his hand down. “Keera doesn’t need to hold your hand to face the truth.”

I straightened my back. “I have bested you as an initiate, as a Shade, and within the Arsenal.” I raised my brow at Gerarda. “You want me to do the same here?”

Gerarda didn’t waver. She looked up at me with narrowed eyes and issued the challenge like it had been her plan all along. “Name the skill.”