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As she rose carefully on the narrow platform, the rain began coming down in earnest, lashing against her in stinging waves and disappearing into the clouds amassed beneath her.

“This is impossible!” she yelled up into the stormy sky. “I don’t know what to do!” She lowered her head and looked down at her feet, repeating in a choked whisper, “I don’t know what to do.”

There was no way for her to reach the door. No matter which way she looked at it, she couldn’t come up with a solution; she couldn’t figure out how to not fail the task.

Another rumble of thunder, much louder this time, as well as a blazing streak much too close for comfort. Before that streak, Alex had presumed the storm was just for show, certain the Library would keep her protected. But she’dfeltthe energy brush against her skin, the tangible static of warning as the air around her filled with the heavy weight of anticipation. Whatever was happening, she wasn’t safe from it. And worse, with her position on the platform, she was a ready-made lightning conductor.

But… if she made a move, if she took a metaphorical leap of faith and ended up falling, then her lessons with Mr. Mystery Man would be finished before they’d properly begun.

Swiping her sodden hair off her face, Alex knew her chances weren’t good. She squinted against the lightning now streaking all around her, aware that every second she delayed increased the danger. And so, with a shuddering breath, she made her decision. Alive but without Mr. Mystery Man’s help was better than dead and… well, being dead. She wouldn’t be able to save anyone if she was dead.

“I’m sorry,” Alex whispered to no one—and everyone. A crash of thunder drowned out her words, but she didn’t wait around to repeat them. Instead, she stepped off the platform.

Time seemed to slow for a fraction of a moment as Alex began to fall, just long enough for her to see a spear of lightning strike the platform where she’d been standing, causing it to explode in a shower of sparks.

All of this she witnessed in a heartbeat because, before she could so much as gasp, she had fallen too far to see any more.

And she continued to fall.

Lungs frozen in her chest, Alex plummeted down through the darkness, through the clouds and the rain, through the eerie flashes of light against the night’s sky. Until, suddenly, she wasn’t falling anymore.

Between one breath and the next, one blink and another, she found herself lying on the floor of the bright white room again, the cloaked man standing impassively above her.

With water dripping from her body, Alex rose on shaky legs and waited dejectedly for him to say the words.

She didn’t have to wait long.

“You fell.”

Eyes downcast, Alex said, “I did.”

“That means you failed.”

She focused on the liquid pooling at her feet and responded with a quiet, “I know.”

Silence.

And then—

“I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

Alex’s neck snapped back up to stare at his hidden face. “What?”

“I’ll thank you to no longer refer to me as Mr. Mystery Man,” he told her with an offended sniff.

Alex could only stare at him and repeat, “What?”

“Athora is my name. You will remember my requirement and not share it with anyone other than your once-Claimed Meyarin. Is that clear?”

More staring. “I—Wait, didn’t I fail?”

“You said it yourself, Alexandra,” Athora said. “Indeed, you screamed it to the heavens in quite the dramatic pique. It was, as you claimed, an impossible task. One in which you were doomed to fail.”

Alex gaped at him. “Then why—”

“What’s my rule, Alexandra?” he interrupted sharply.

Cringing, she answered, “Don’t question your training.”