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I turned to Ransom with a cocky grin and he pursed his lips, shoving past me through the door.

“ Hey ,” I growled, racing after him, but the tide of insults that had sprung to my lips were forgotten at the sight of the chamber we’d entered.

Directly ahead of us on the far side of the long, rectangular room was an iron cage against the wall.

It was filled with snarling creatures the size of dogs but with more reptilian features and oily black fur.

They were hungering for our blood as plain as day, all of them in a frenzy at the sight of us, snapping their large, curved teeth and throwing themselves against the cage bars to try and escape.

I summoned magic to my fingertips, but none came in answer and I glanced down at my hand in alarm.

“We can’t cast here,” Ransom breathed, flexing his fingers as he tried to summon water as well.

The door thumped shut at our backs and I had no doubt that we couldn’t return that way. The hairs on the back of my neck prickled to attention as I took in the challenge at hand, trying to work out what we needed to do.

The stone floor extended in a cross over a sheer drop, the path to the left leading to an iron door while the right led to a rickety ladder which climbed up ten feet, seemingly to nowhere.

Marked on the stone floor were squares, each of them holding a symbol of the zodiac, twelve in total, all in sporadic places on the cross.

I walked cautiously into the chamber, looking up and noticing two high stone platforms jutting from the wall above the iron door, each tucked into the farthest corners.

I craned my neck, glimpsing something bronze up there, but it was difficult to see more within the shadows.

In the centre of the cross was a plinth with a stone tablet resting on its surface.

Ransom walked confidently over to it and I hurried up beside him to read the words on the tablet.

Here awaits your destined trial.

A test of courage, cooperation and skill.

All warriors walk this path, will you join them on their fated road?

Or will your warrior’s journey end here under the stars’ scrutiny?

To open the iron door, both bells must be rung at once.

For your first task, one shall climb, and the other shall forge their trail.

No magic will be cast until the bells are rung.

Begin.

A whoosh of air sounded and my head snapped toward the iron door as an arrow was blasted at me from a crossbow embedded in the wall. I scrambled to duck, already knowing I hadn’t moved fast enough and bracing for the impact from that lethal bolt.

Ransom’s arm shot into the arrow’s path and it cracked in two as it impacted with the scales of his Merrow form.

I glanced up at him as the scales receded along his forearm and his brown eyes met mine.

I opened my mouth to thank him, but the words wouldn’t come out. He’d saved my ass. My fucking life.

He shoved me with brute force toward the ladder on the back wall. “Climb!”

I ran for it, hearing another whoosh of an arrow and a clatter as Ransom deflected that one too. My feet hit the first rung and I clambered quickly to the top, looking around for anything else to cling to, but the walls were smooth.

To my right was a narrow, horizontal slot in the stone but it was too far for me to reach. Above it, was a riddle carved into the stone.

I am as wise as the sea is old.

My armour is gifted by the moon, I’m told.

“Anything up there?” Ransom called as the sound of another arrow whistled through the air and slammed into the back wall with a crack.

I glanced around the floor, spotting the zodiac symbols within their painted squares and my eyes locked on the crab.

“Cancer!” I called.

“What?” Ransom barked, deflecting another arrow. Everywhere he moved the crossbow on the iron door moved to follow him, like it could detect him in the chamber.

“Stand on Cancer,” I cried.

He hurried to do as I said and a wooden platform shot out of the horizontal hole ahead of me. It was a few feet away, the jump awkward as shit for most Fae, but I wasn’t most Fae.

I balanced on the top of the ladder with the grace of my Order form then sprang forward and landed on the platform with a grin. Too easy.

I looked down at Ransom, finding him watching me with Merrow scales covering his exposed skin, but the arrows were no longer firing now that he had stepped onto the right zodiac symbol.

“What’s next?” he called and I looked to a slot in the wall which was a foot higher and sitting right over the chasm between two arms of the cross below.

That chasm looked about as welcoming as the one I’d visited the Reapers’ monster in, and it was likely even more dangerous with no magic to catch me at the bottom. I’d heard of warriors dying in their graduation trials. I would be no exception if I made an error and fell into that pit.

The next riddle glinted at me and I worked to ignore the desperate growling of the beasts in their cage, having the strong feeling that they weren’t going to remain in there indefinitely.

I am the fire in the belly of a king.

Loyalty, passion and courage, I bring.

“Leo,” I called to Ransom.

The arrows fired at him again as he stepped off of the Cancer marking and the platform beneath me lurched back into the slot. I cried out, falling and hooking my fingers into the hole, hanging by one hand and scrabbling to get hold of it with the other.

“Hold on!” Ransom yelled, ducking an arrow so it smashed against the back wall.

I scrambled against the bricks with my boots, gaining a few inches and catching hold of the slot with my other hand. Ransom jumped on the Leo marking and the platform above me to the right slid out of the wall.

I blew out a breath, knocking a few curls out of my eyes as I took in the challenge I was faced with. Falling wasn’t an option, so one way or another, I needed to haul my ass up there.

“You’ve got this, runt. You were always good at wriggling out of danger.” The crossbolt had stopped firing again, though it didn’t seem Ransom was particularly fazed by it either way, thanks to his Order.

“If I didn’t have to cling to the wall for my life, I’d flip you off,” I called, sweat beading on the back of my neck as my muscles strained.

Right. Just yank myself higher, shove my foot in the slot and leap for safety.

Nothing to it.

I focused on my plan, seeing it through in my head then shooting a prayer to Delphinus and dragging myself skyward.

I hauled all of my weight into my arms, bringing my knee up and jamming my foot into the hole. Then, with an almighty amount of effort, I pressed my weight into that leg and leapt for the platform.

I caught it with the very ends of my fingertips, my muscles screaming and my legs wheeling and kicking as I fought to get up.

“You got out of that well we tossed you down, runt, you can get out of this,” Ransom called and the wrath I felt at that memory gave me the determination I needed to pull myself up. I fell in a heap onto the platform, panting and laughing in relief.

“Good. Now get the fuck up and keep going, you useless whelk,” Ransom called.

I pushed to my feet, glaring down at him. “Is that your inspirational quote of the day? It needs some work, pishalé,” I drawled.

“How about you shut your mouth and tell me the next star sign,” he gritted out.

“Seems counterintuitive. I kind of need my mouth open if I’m going to tell you-”

“Do you want us to fail?” he snarled. “Don’t drag me down in the gutter with you. This is my trial.”

“Typical you. The whole world revolves around Ransom Rake, doesn’t it?

Father really convinced you of that. You think you’re the stars’ gift to Fae, but you’ve never experienced a single hard day in this world.

You’ve never proved anything to anyone except that you were born with a head start in life.

” I stepped to the edge of the platform to read the next riddle.

“I’ve proved my worth time and again.”

“You’ve proved you’re Father’s favourite of the season, that’s all,” I scoffed. “He picks one every few years. You were his latest. It doesn’t make you better than the rest of his offspring.”

“Actually it does, Everest,” Ransom said icily. “Because Father explained it to me like this; the more children he bears, the more likely perfection will arise. It’s why he encourages the Weeding.”

I cringed at the ugly name Cascadians gave to the process by which kids were urged to gang up on each other, to kill the weaker ones or beat strength into them. It was meant to make the warrior bloodlines purer.

“Sounds like a good way to eventually get replaced,” I said. “One day, a new kid will come along who he sees more in than you. Then maybe you’ll realise you weren’t that special after all.”

“You’re just jealous,” Ransom said, a mocking lilt to his voice and the sharp pang in my chest told me he had hit the nail on the head.

I wanted to bite back and refuse that label, but somehow, I knew that if I did, I’d give myself away.

Hell, now wasn’t the time for this shit anyway.

I had a trial to succeed at and a destiny to claim.

“I’ll never be replaced,” Ransom muttered beneath his breath, and I glanced down at him, finding a taut line on his brow. He looked vulnerable, something I’d never witnessed in him, but it was gone as quickly as it had appeared.

I am not one, but two.

My wit is sharp and my fears are few.

“Gemini,” I called to Ransom. “Jump at the same time as me. Ready?”

“Ready,” he grunted, angling himself toward the Gemini marking which was three feet away.

“Go!” I cried, leaping blindly, placing all of my faith in my half-brother despite all the reasons I had not to. He jumped too, landing heavily on the Gemini star sign so the crossbolt didn’t fire at all.