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When the suns continued lowering dangerously close to the flat of the horizon, Alex knew they were nearly out of time. Her heart was thumping as dread bubbled within her. She refused to fail an entire world just because of one lousy riddle.

“You have two minutes remaining, mortals,” Saefii’s voice echoed around the clearing. “I suggest you use them wisely.”

Jordan wasn’t the only one of her friends to utter an expletive, but he was the one who said, “Toss the book here, Alex. There has to be something else useful amongst all those unnecessary pages. Why not just give us a single sheet of paper? What a complete waste. You know, I’ve always said…”

He was rambling, his voice threaded with anxiety. And yet, Alex didn’t hear anything else he said as he continued speaking. Instead, as if being struck by lightning, she physically jolted as she processed his words, and she wasn’t the only one—she could see Bear having the same reaction. As one, they glanced at the book in her hands, then back up to catch each other’s eyes as realisation hit them both at once.

“Do you think—Is it possible…” Alex trailed off, unable to say more as Bear hurried to her side and reached for the golden pages.

“The answer was here all along,” he whispered incredulously, gliding his hand over the cover.

“What are you two going on about?” Declan asked, his voice thick with nerves.

“Your time is up, mortals,” came Saefii’s voice, causing them all to wince. “We will hear your answer now, or you will forfeit the challenge.”

Her breathing shallow, Alex held Bear’s gaze as she quickly ran the riddle through her head one last time. All the lines fit, but it was still so vague. Figurative language was figurative fora reason—it went beyond the literal and entered a realm of allusion often easy to misinterpret. But still, they had to give an answer. So, nodding for him to go ahead, she crossed her fingers and her toes, hoping beyond hope that they were right.

In a croaking voice, Bear said, “A book. The answer is a book.”

Silence surrounded them, each of them holding their breaths. Until—

“Explain.”

One word from Saefii and Alex felt the air rush out of her in awhoosh. She wasn’t sure if it meant they were right or wrong, but she again nodded her encouragement for Bear to go ahead.

“Through death, I am birthed,” he recited. “Books are made of pages that are created by cutting down and therefore killing trees. Birth that comes through death.”

Alex jumped in next. “When I am hurt, I am most loved. The most loved books are read over and over, and because of that, they’re also the ones that sustain the most damage from excessive handling.”

“Stained for a purpose, or none at all,” Bear continued on. “Books have writing—or ink—stained into them either so that people can read what is written for a reason, or simply for meaningless doodling without purpose.”

With her pulse thrumming, Alex finished, “I have neither start nor finish, yet always begin and end. Books have a physical beginning and ending, but there’s never a clear start or finish point to what they contain within—there’s always more that happens before and after what is revealed in the pages.”

Silence surrounded them again, a tense lack of noise that went on for so long that Alex’s palms began to sweat. Just as she was about to call out and see if anyone was still listening, a bright flash of light delivered them back to the stadium.

Unlike the previous day, their arrival was again met with the roaring sound of applause, the Tia Auran audience apparently having moved past their shock of Alex’s draekon bonding. But whether the enthusiastic cheers were because they’d succeeded or because they’d failed, she couldn’t tell, and she cast her eyes up towards Saefii, desperate to hear the outcome.

The empress waited until Tayros had relieved them of their golden cuffs before she slowly rose from her throne. She was even slower still to make her announcement. But finally, she spoke.

“Today you were tested by the Gate of Wisdom, and you responded to the riddle provided. The answer that you gave”— Saefii paused as if to prolong their torture, and Alex seriously contemplated throwing something at her—“is correct.”

And just like that, Alex wilted with relief, releasing a stunned burst of laughter.

“Congratulations, mortals. You have proved yourselves yet again.”

And with another bright flash, they were back in their living quarters.

Looking around, Alex felt and saw her friends’ silent shock. But with a sound of pure jubilation, Bear bounded forward and wrapped his arms around Alex, picking her up to swing her in a wide circle through the air.

“We did it! We actually did it!”

Unable to do anything but laugh again, she held on tight until he let her go. His actions had broken a spell, and suddenly everyone was yelling and hugging as disbelief and congratulations were shared all around.

“Couldn’t have done it without you, mate,” Bear said to Jordan, clapping him on the back.

Jordan’s response was a comical-sounding, “Me?”

Alex nodded and agreed, “You’re the one who pointed outthat the book had to be there for a reason. All along, we’d been holding the answer in our hands.”