Page 24 of Spirit Trials (The Spirit Kingdoms #1)

When I open my eyes, the sun is bright. I blink and take in my surroundings and take stock of my body.

It aches, but the excruciating pain of yesterday is gone.

I stretch and notice my leg is doing better today too.

I slowly sit up and notice for the first time the two sets of eyes staring at me.

I look between the two of them. “What did I miss?” Harper and Kinsley exchange a glance, and I’m suddenly worried. “What?”

Kinsley swallows. “The prince’s wolf was here.” Her words are slow and distinct, and I don’t miss the quiver of fear in her voice.

“Why didn’t you tell us you were in a relationship with the Wolf Prince?” Harper’s words hold a tinge of bitterness or maybe distrust.

“I—” I pause and shake my head. “The prince’s wolf was here?” I can’t wrap my head around what they’re saying. “How do you know?”

“How do we know?” Kinsley repeats.

“Yeah, I mean I’ve never seen his wolf.” I’m trying to work this out in my mind.

Harper stares at me like I’ve lost a few brain cells.

I probably have. “ Because a wolf joined our little party of three last night.” I’m still staring at her.

She rolls her eyes. “It wasn’t a wild wolf, or it would have killed us.

No, this was a wolf that was intelligent.

It licked your hand and your leg before settling next to you.

It didn’t challenge us; it practically ignored us all night. ”

“Are you?” Kinsley asks.

“Am I what?” I ask.

“In a relationship with the prince?”

I shake my head. “No.”

“Why else would it have showed up?” Kinsley presses.

“Listen, I...I’m friends with the prince, yes.

But I’m not in a relationship with him.” I shake my head, trying to clear it and focus on getting to my feet.

It’s painful but not nearly as painful as yesterday.

I wonder if that has anything to do with said wolf.

I look over and see that the two of them are still staring at me, and I hate the distrust in their eyes.

“I’m as shocked as the two of you. I’ve never seen the prince’s wolf.

I didn’t even know he had a corporal wolf until Kinsley told me on the first day. ”

Kinsley cocks her head to the side. “I remember that; yeah, you had no clue what we were talking about.”

“I don’t know why the prince’s wolf was here, but I’ve never even seen it,” I tell them honestly. “But whatever it did, I feel a thousand times better.”

“They can heal,” Harper admits.

“What?” I ask in shock.

She sighs. “The corporal spirit animals can heal. They have healing powers in their saliva.”

I cringe. “It licked me?”

“Yeah. Guess that’s why you didn’t die,” Harper throws out.

“Thanks,” I say dryly.

Kinsley’s eyes are still wide. “You’d better be careful. You can’t have any outside help in these trials.”

I throw my hands up in exasperation. “I didn’t do anything. It’s not like I asked the prince to send his wolf. I didn’t even know he had one!” I throw dirt over the fire. “Let’s get going; we need to make up for lost time from yesterday.”

Harper and Kinsley eye me warily throughout the day, but eventually we settle back into a familiar sort of rhythm. “What day is this even?” I ask.

“Day four,” Kinsley says, and I turn in shock.

“Really?”

“You were out for a while.”

I groan in frustration. We lost so much time.

“ We need to keep our eyes peeled for gold coins. We are sorely lacking in that dep—” I don’t even get the words out of my mouth before I’m grabbed from behind.

Adrenaline shoots through my system, and I throw an elbow back to my captor, earning a grunt. I kick back but can’t make contact.

“Hey!”

Harper and Kinsley run towards me, but the guy throws me down on the ground and has a knife to my throat before I can move.

I hate myself for letting him get the drop on me like that.

I stare up at the guy that made fun of me before we even started the trials.

“Kingslayer,” he says in a low angry voice.

“Where is he?” I blink. “Tell me.” He shoves the knife at my throat, and I stay very still.

“Back off or I’ll slice her throat,” he yells, and I know he’s talking to Kinsley and Harper.

“Where is he?” He shakes his head. “It,” he demands.

“I don’t know what you’re talking—” He grabs my wrist and squeezes. I bite down to keep from crying out in pain. Then he snaps it; I hear the break and I struggle to breathe through the pain.

“Farrah!” Kinsley cries out.

Suddenly he falls forward, trapping me under his heavy body. I don’t move for a moment, too blinded by pain and being crushed. Finally, he’s rolled off of me, and Harper and Kinsley are in my face. “Are you okay?” Kinsley asks breathlessly.

I blow out a breath and wheeze, trying to fight past the pain, against the black dots in my vision. “I hate these games.” My breath is shallow as they help me to my feet. “I need to wrap this,” I manage to get out.

“Farrah, he just snapped your wrist like a twig,” Kinsley says in shock.

Harper elbows her. “She doesn’t need you to remind her.

” She reaches down and pulls a long strip off her trousers.

“We can use this to immobilize it against your body. Ready?” I nod and then try not to scream as she moves my broken wrist and places it gently next to my stomach and then ties the wrap around my stomach to hold my arm in place.

I glance down at the big guy. “What’d you do to him?”

“I used a rock,” Harper says. “We better keep moving. We don’t want to be here when he wakes up.”

“Thank you. He was....”

“Crazy?” Kinsley fills in.

“Out of his mind,” Harper adds.

“Yeah. I don’t have any clue what he was talking about. Do you?” I ask and try to move a few steps.

“Nope, but it’s not like he was bright to begin with,” Harper points out.

“Yeah, but why did he think I had anything to do with whoever he was missing?”

They both shrug. “Maybe he lost that guy that was with him the first day,” Kinsley says. She faces me. “What are you going to do?” Her voice is worried.

“About what?” I focus on just taking another step.

“Your dominant hand is broken. You can’t shoot your bow or use your knife and... What?” She asks suddenly.

I look over at the two of them. Harper is shaking her head. “You have the gift of inspiration. Really, Kinsley.”

“I’m sorry. I’m not trying to make it worse. I just—”

I interrupt before it gets out of hand. “I know. Things aren’t looking too great for me right now, but I’m not giving up,” I say with determination, though my words are a little breathless and I’m pretty sure I’m about to pass out.

“Of course, you’re not. That wasn’t what I meant,” Kinsley adds, sounding distraught.

Desperate to think about anything other than the pain I’m in, I ask, “Any ideas where to look for coins?”

“Yes!” Harper says brightly, and I turn to her hopefully. She scowls. “If I knew where they were, we would have grabbed them already.”

“Harper!” Kinsley elbows her.

“It’s fine. It was a stupid question; I was just trying to get my mind off my hand,” I tell them as we keep walking. It gets quiet after that, and I try to focus on putting one foot in front of the other and not on the pain of my wrist.

“Do you think a lot of competitors have already found their spirit animal?” Kingsley asks after we’ve walked in silence for a while.

Before I can answer, the forest seems to come alive with the sound of an echoing horn.

It goes for an eternally long time. We all stand stock still.

When it finally ends, I turn to the girls.

“What was that?”

“I have no idea,” Kinsley says, turning in a slow circle. I look to Harper, but she just shakes her head.

“There’s a spirit wolf,” Harper mumbles.

I look up and see a spirit wolf running through the forest to our left.

I can’t help but stop and stare. The animal is pure fluid motion.

It’s like he runs on air; his feet barely touch the ground.

A girl runs beside him, having no problem keeping up with him.

She glances over at us, and I tense; but she leaves us in peace and keeps running.

When they’re out of sight, we start forward once again.

Only a few minutes later, we see a second spirit wolf.

This time, we get out of the way, because he’s charging right at us.

A tall guy runs behind it, keeping pace.

We stand and watch until they disappear and then start forward again.

The sun glints off something, and I walk over to a plant.

Carefully checking it first, I bend over and use my good hand to reach out.

I smile wearily when I feel a gold coin.

“Well, this just made our day better,” I say as I walk back to Kinsley and Harper.

“You found another one!” Kinsley yells. “Good job.”

We start walking again, and I do everything in my power to keep my mind off my pain.

My entire body is shaking now, and black dots line my vision.

But I force myself forward, keeping watch for both gold coins and heartshade that could help take away my pain.

We haven’t gone all that far when a spirit jaguar lunges through the air over our heads.

I don’t even have a chance to duck. “Whoa,” Kinsley whispers. “He’s beautiful.”

“She,” a girl corrects, appearing out of nowhere and running after her jaguar. I stare after her.

“I feel like we’re missing something,” I say out loud.

“We’re definitely missing something,” Kinsley echoes.

“Should we follow them?” I ask. I suddenly remember the words of the gryphon. “Oh no.”

Kinsley whirls around. “What?”

“We need to run,” I say, already moving.

“What? Why?” Kinsley asks, even as she follows me.

“The gryphon. Right before he sent us out, he told us to show back up when it’s time, or we’d be eliminated. I bet the horns are the call to bring us back.”

“Why didn’t they just say that?” Harper growls out from behind me.

“It’s another stupid test. Everything is,” I say as I jump over a log and barely keep my legs beneath me when the jar of landing bumps my wrist.

“How long do you think we have?” Kinsley asks.

I don’t answer because I have absolutely no idea.

I don’t know how far away we are. “All I know is that the other competitors and spirit animals were running this way. That’s all I have to go on.

” I hear a sound, and the hair on the back of my neck stands up.

I reach out and shove Kinsley away from me and drop to my knees.

An arrow imbeds itself in the trunk right next to us.

“Run!” I shout. “Spread out, and don’t run in a straight line.

” I find it difficult to run with my arm strapped to my stomach, and I reach out and yank hard on the fabric, ripping it off and letting it drop.

The pain is instant and intense, but it barely registers with the adrenaline coursing through my body.

“Wolf!” Harper shouts. I turn immediately and get out of the path of the wolf racing towards us. We never stop running; we just redirect. None of us say a word as we run. We couldn’t if we tried to; we’re literally running for our lives.

Kinsley cries out, and I spin around. She has a hand over her arm. I run toward her and put my good arm through her good arm. “Keep going.”

We run and run and run. I thought I’d prepared enough with all the running I did in the afternoons, but that was nothing compared to this.

I have no idea how long we run for. At some point, it becomes more of a slow jog; but we keep moving.

What we didn’t take into account was the competitors that wanted to take out those of us still coming behind them.