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When he tries to wake Doc up, several of the others wake up as well, apart from Raiden, who has only just gone to sleep. Van comes and sits next to me,nudging my shoulder with his as he looks out over the incredible view and the sun rising higher.

It only takes a couple of minutes before the golden ward that has kept us safe all night drops, and I smile as I realize that it must mean that Ransom has fallen asleep.

It’s clear when the ward drops that it’s not the only job that it was doing, and the warmth from outside smacks me in the face. Considering that I noticed last night that it got hotter as the sun went down, rather than cooler, I think Ransom’s shield saved us from sweating buckets last night and not being able to get the rest that we needed to get.

“Are you okay?” Van asks me.

I nod, “Yeah, I’m good. You?”

Van grins, “I’m ready for this trial to be over. I wonder why Mabel didn’t warn us that there could be a task that we would all have to do together.”

“Maybe, there isn’t supposed to be,” I mutter as the wheels in my head begin to turn. “I mean, we passed the task together, and then the other team turned up. This is the last day of trials, so technically, that would make it the Draconians’ team trial. Maybe there was a glitch that meant you guys didn’t go home, or maybe there was another reason why the Choosing decided to put both of the teams together.”

I don’t want to say it out loud, but I’m really hoping that Van is following my thought process.

It takes him a moment, but to be fair, he has only just woken up. I know he is on the same wavelength as I am when his eyes widen slightly and his head tilts to the side curiously.

“You know what, Nene, I bet you’re right,” Van replies carefully. “Although that also suggests that we were right, and that’s a concern.”

I nod in agreement. There isn’t much else that I can do. If I’m right and the Choosing has kept my team here because the Draconian team is actuallytrying to kill me, like we have discussed before, then that means that an entity that is stronger and more powerful than all of us, is in agreement and possibly knows more than we do.

That’s concerning, to say the least.

I am very grateful that I have the guys with me, and that because of that, Kylen is hopefully smart enough not to try anything. Although whatever he was trying to do last night when the voices woke me may beg to differ with that theory. He did get pretty badly beaten by Doc, which I would hope would have put him off from trying anything else. I hope he realizes that the only reason why he isn’t dead is because we all have to finish this trial alive, and I managed to get through to Doc.

The rest of the team quickly join us, and we talk quietly as we wait for Ransom to get enough sleep. My thoughts earlier about the heat have proven to be correct, as it starts to get cooler as the sun rises higher in the sky. Relief fills me. I have no idea how far we have to travel to make it to the portal that will take us home, but I am very glad that we won’t have to do it in the heat.

∞∞∞

We manage to allow Ransom to get around three hours of sleep before Van reluctantly decides that we really can’t let him sleep for much longer, and we need to get going.

He looks at the Draconian team as he gets up to wake Ransom, “You need to wake Kylen, or we’ll leave him here. His leg will be healed by now, there’s no reason for him to be still sleeping.”

Rupert glares but moves over to Kylen to wake him up, while Van moves over to Ransom. As soon as Evander says his name, Ransom wakes and sits up to stretch, running his hand through his hair and gathering himself.

Kylen, on the other hand, has to be repeatedly shouted at and then kicked by Rupert, which I find way too amusing.

“I’m tired,” Kylen grumbles as he turns over, ready to go back to sleep.

“Get the fuck up, you lazy asshole,” River snaps. “You’ve slept all night, not helping to keep watch, and Ransom, who is responsible for making sure that we were safe, has only had three hours' sleep and is up and ready to leave.”

“We’re more than happy to leave you here,” Evander adds. “Trial be fucking damned, you’re lucky you’re fucking alive as it is.”

Kylen turns around, his eyes filling with fire as the handprint on his face looks even worse than it did yesterday. It looks really painful, and if it were on anyone else I would be feeling sorry for them, but it’s on Kylen and after last night, I really couldn’t give a shit, not that I really did in the first place come to think of it.

Everyone, even his own team, ignore him as he starts bitching and whining, at least he’s getting up.

“Alright, let’s head out,” Van says, taking charge. “The instructions said north, and that’s up.”

I’m surprised when no one argues with him, not that there is anything to really argue with. It’s a fact. It really is as simple as that. Hey, that rhymed, I’m a poet and I didn’t know it. I chuckle quietly and earn weird looks from everyone close enough to hear me in the process, which I decide to ignore because explaining what I’m laughing about will just make them give me even more weird looks.

We all start to climb out of the cliff entrance, and I grin as a breeze helps to cool what was left of the balmy night. Only River, Doc, and one of the Draconian team are out there when Griff grunts.

“I think I’ve figured out what I’ve lost,” Griff announces, loudly enough that everyone can hear him.

“What?” Reed asks.

“Wings,” Griff replies. “I just tried to shift, and I can, but my wings don’t appear.”