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“It was all my idea.”

His jaw popped. “Of that I have no doubt. This whole wild, reckless scheme reeks of you.”

“You rewarded my teammates for thatscheme,” I reminded him.

“I rewarded them for winning,” he countered. “And for following the roles I assigned them. What role did I assign you?”

“Bait,” I ground out.

“Yes,bait,” he said, the word rolling off his tongue with satisfaction. “And did you fulfill that role? No.”

“I lured the other teams in so my team could drop paint-filled balloons and pellets on them!” I protested.

“And then?”

“And then we ran to the extraction point, just like we were told. Except it was all a lie.Youlied to us.”

“Tread carefully, Miss Winters.”

I drew in a few long, deep breaths, trying to calm myself. “There was never going to be any extraction.”

“No, there was never going to be any extraction,” he agreed. “And the moment you realized that, you went rogue. You concocted a rebellious plan in which you stole a Government vehicle and used it to smash through the gates of the Black Obelisk, damaging both.”

“You rewarded my teammates for that very same plan. So you can’t punish me for it.”

“Of course I can,” he said after a long, drawn-out pause. “Because it wasyouridea. But your greatest mistake of all was when you decided not to stick to your assigned role. You were supposed to be bait, Miss Winters,notan agent of destruction. You obviously failed to understand the point of the assignment.”

“The point of the assignment was to finish the Quest successfully, no matter what went wrong,” I argued. “And, besides, the whole thing was totally unfair to begin with. You lied about the situation, lied that there was going to be an extraction.”

“Situations change,” he said coolly. “Knights are expected to adapt.”

“That’sexactlywhat I did,” I told him. “I adapted. And because of that, we won. But still you berate me for it. Why?”

He made an impatient noise. “I explained why.”

“Because I surpassed my role as bait.”

“Exactly.”

“So, just so we’re clear, you’re punishing me for exceeding expectations?”

The General’s nostrils flared. “Don’t be cute, Miss Winters. It won’t get you anywhere. In fact, it’s the very reason you lost your chance to earn bonus points today.”

Well, it could have been way worse. At least I didn’t lose points.

Like he’d read that thought, the General said, “You should count yourself lucky that I didn’t kick you out of the Apprentice Program for what you did.”

I bottled up the fifty-thousand comebacks dancing on my tongue, yearning to jump out.

“Wise choice,” the General told me. “There might be hope for you yet, Miss Winters.” He said it like he didn’t believe it. Like as far as he was concerned, I was a lost cause. “You may go.” He gave his hand a dismissive flick, like he was batting away a mosquito.

I hurried out of the Hex before he changed his mind and expelled me from the Program on the spot. Eris was waiting on the grassy lawn in front of the Castle gates. The other mentors and Apprentices were nowhere to be seen.

“Hey, are you ok?” she asked me.

“Well, the General didn’t kick me out of the Program.”

“You’re very lucky. He’s not an easy man to please.”